Seed oils; why we need to avoid. 

You may or may not have heard about avoiding the consumption of seed oils by why is this? Seed oils not only have a negative impact on our health but the environment as well. Let’s take a closer look at this. 

Seed oils are high in Omega 6.  Unfortunately the American diet tends to have higher quantities of Omega 6 as opposed to Omega 3’s.  What we want is to get more Omega 3’s in our diet.  Omega 3’s have the following health benefits including supporting thyroid health, supporting gut and immune health, enhance sleep, support mood, eye health, heart health, bone health and brain health.  So what is in the Omega 6 that makes it not the best choice of oil for our body. 

Omega 6 oils when heated break down to produce a chemical called HNE (4-hydroxynonenal).  When this chemical is released it increases oxidative stress in the body.   Elevated HNE has correlated with increases in Obesity, Cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Diabetes and Aging.  One example of this is having french fries when you go out to dinner. When these are cooked in seed oils it contains a higher content of linoleic acid which is an Omega 6.  The higher content of linoleic acid feeds into the HNE further increasing levels. Examples of these seed oils include canola, safflower, sunflower, corn and soybean. 

Are you aware of the impacts seed oils have on our environment?  Did you know that these oils particularly canola, soybean, and corn are environmentally destructive in the following ways 

• more land is devoted to growing vegetable oil crops than fruit, veggies, legumes and nuts. 
• 2 of the 3 top drivers of global deforestation are vegetable oil crops 
• Vegetable oils emit greenhouse gases more than other crops 
• vegetable oils account for 20-30% of global crop lands but provide less than .01% of the world’s nutrients 

• So the better oils to consume and that are higher in Omega 3 are the following;  Coconut, Avocado, Sesame and olive oil  Now I want to introduce you to a new oil that I heard from one of my mentors Dr. David Perlmutter.  This is a fermented oil and it comes from zero acre farms.  I recently purchased it and have used in cooking several dishes and love this. 
• When purchasing oils or any type of food consider the source, how environmentally safe it is and the health benefits you will receive. 
• I was recently interviewed on a Podcst “The Art of Healthy Retirement with Nancy Schwartz”  With the work I do on Brain Health please see below and feel free to share with others. 
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_p_P_FaRCxE