Many of us have grown up with seed oils, but the older we got, the more attention we started paying to our health and what we put into our bodies, the more I found that oils and fatty oils are good for our health. The exception to this rule, however, is seed oils.
American Dr Andrew Weil, a medical doctor who specialises in integrative medicine spoke to Jay Shetty on his podcast, On Purpose with Jay Shetty, pointing out that seed oils create carcinogenic products within the human body. A carcinogen is something that can cause you to have cancer.
WATCH what Dr. Weil had to say:
With this in mind, here are some cooking oils to avoid:
Vegetable or seed oil
Many brands go with the term “vegetable oil” to fool us into thinking the oil is healthy, but the truth is most vegetable oils are made from soybean, cotton oil or corn oil which are all heavily refined, and devoid of the nourishing phytochemicals. Vegetable oils tend to be made with genetically modified crops to increase the output and many times they are sprayed with toxic herbicides which have a negative impact on the environment and on our health when consumed.
Grapeseed oil
Grapeseed oil is another highly refined oil that doesn’t offer any unique health benefits. It contains polyunsaturated fatty acids or PUFAs, which include omega-3 and omega-6 fats. Although it may sound like a health benefit, we usually get enough omega-3 and omega-6 fats from whole and processed foods. PUFAs are also less stable and are more prone to degradation when it’s heated.
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Sunflower oil
Similar to vegetable and seed oil, sunflower oils are also highly refined and high in omega-6 PUFAs. High-oleic sunflower oils, which contain ~80% moly-unsaturated fats or MUFAs are more heat-stable and not as prone to heat degradation.
Safflower oil
Safflower oil is also highly refined, much like sunflower oils. Although there are brands that offer high-oleic variations, which might be a better option.
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