Coconut Oil vs. Palm Oil

[brimstoneSalad]

Is extra virgin olive oil our best oil option?

Depends on what you're using it for.

Our best oil option is:
Nuts & seeds + blender = delicious.

Most notably probably hulled hemp seeds, walnuts, and other seeds and nuts with high Omega-3 content.
That works for dressings, sauces, and most baked goods, although it can get expensive if you eat a lot of fat.

If you have to fry something, Olive Oil may be the best bet due to the high monounsaturated fat content (oleic acid) which is more heat stable than polyunsaturated fat.
OR... high oleic sunflower oil, which has been cultivated to increase the percentage of oleic acid, and is competitive with Olive oil (and probably cheaper).
Just make sure it's not regular sunflower oil, that stuff is terrible.
OR... high oleic safflower oil, which like the above has been cultivated to increase oleic acid. But again, watch out for the other varieties which are terrible.
You have to make sure it's a high oleic strain. All olive oil is high oleic afaik. High oleic sunflower and safflower oils have lower saturated fat content than olive oil, so are probably better (if it's really high oleic).

If you're not frying, then canola oil (low erucic acid rapeseed oil) is probably your best bet; just don't get it very hot or expose it to much air (it's better for you than olive oil, but can oxidize at high temperatures).
If you're not cooking at all, and using it as a topping, then refrigerated flax seed oil is good (don't even let it reach room temperature for more than a few minutes before you eat it, it will oxidize rapidly).

It's worth noting:

Some people say to use olive oil if you aren't frying, and to use canola oil if you're frying. They make these recommendations because of the different smoke points, not because of the fatty acid composition. Any highly refined oil will have a high smoke point. Extra virgin olive oil is not very refined, so it has a low smoke point due to other organic materials in the oil. Don't confuse smoke point with "safe to get the oil this hot".
All frying should be done at a low temperature (as low as you have the patience for).

[EquALLity]

I see. It's probably best to just avoid it then.

[brimstoneSalad]

I see. It's probably best to just avoid it then.

Yes, but there's no need to obsess about it if something has a tiny bit in it, of course.
Eating it on rare occasions wouldn't seem to be a big problem, since the evidence on environmental effect isn't quite as damning.

[Jebus]

A work colleague who is a bit of a health guru disagrees with the notion that coconut oil is unhealthful. This is what he wrote me after I showed him the Michael Greger video about coconut oil:

"He references the american dietetic association so he instantly looses credit with me. "to avoid tropical oils, including coconut oil" according to a statement put out by the American Dietetic Association earlier this year. And he does not seem to back his statements up with any real references. The notion that saturated fats are bad I think is an outdated one. It depends on the quality of the fat rather than saturated or not. It just so happens that oils when heated tend to saturate but its not the saturation which is the issue, its the oxidation.

Ive looked at fatty acids for many years and after all those years I go with any oil that is unheated and extracted correctly, including butter has beneficial effects in moderation and I believe the key is the get a balance of all the different variants to get a wide variety of the fatty acids. Another benefit of coconut oil is it contain butyric acid which is critical to encourage healthy bacterial growth in the gut, i.e the micro biome.

Also if you get into the nuts and bolts of it we still don’t understand cholesterol in the body. If you listen to a guy called sam mcqueen who is a detox biochemist he loads the body with fat which in combination with high antioxidant levels allows the body to release toxins safely. He believes elevated cholesterol is critical for many functions and to reduce cholesterol has more harm than good. So having a base of fats in the diet is critical and most people don’t have enough in their diet. I have found by upping the amount of fats in my diet it has regulated my weight and appetite enormously because before it was too carbohydrate based being largely vegetarian. Adding fat to my meals has definitely regulated my sugar levels. If you also look at the biggest cause of chronic disease is inflammation which is primarily regulated by healthy fats. This is why I actually say and have for years that good fats are the biggest nutritional deficiency in the world. Anyway thats my take:)

[garrethdsouza]

A work colleague who is a bit of a health guru disagrees with the notion that coconut oil is unhealthful. This is what he wrote me after I showed him the Michael Greger video about coconut oil:

"He references the american dietetic association so he instantly looses credit with me. "to avoid tropical oils, including coconut oil" according to a statement put out by the American Dietetic Association earlier this year. And he does not seem to back his statements up with any real references. The notion that saturated fats are bad I think is an outdated one. It depends on the quality of the fat rather than saturated or not. It just so happens that oils when heated tend to saturate but its not the saturation which is the issue, its the oxidation.

Ive looked at fatty acids for many years and after all those years I go with any oil that is unheated and extracted correctly, including butter has beneficial effects in moderation and I believe the key is the get a balance of all the different variants to get a wide variety of the fatty acids. Another benefit of coconut oil is it contain butyric acid which is critical to encourage healthy bacterial growth in the gut, i.e the micro biome.

Also if you get into the nuts and bolts of it we still don’t understand cholesterol in the body. If you listen to a guy called sam mcqueen who is a detox biochemist he loads the body with fat which in combination with high antioxidant levels allows the body to release toxins safely. He believes elevated cholesterol is critical for many functions and to reduce cholesterol has more harm than good. So having a base of fats in the diet is critical and most people don’t have enough in their diet. I have found by upping the amount of fats in my diet it has regulated my weight and appetite enormously because before it was too carbohydrate based being largely vegetarian. Adding fat to my meals has definitely regulated my sugar levels. If you also look at the biggest cause of chronic disease is inflammation which is primarily regulated by healthy fats. This is why I actually say and have for years that good fats are the biggest nutritional deficiency in the world. Anyway thats my take:)

There is a lot of empty internet rhetoric which is pseudoscientific in regarding saturated fat. A lot of this is driven by the meat and dairy/paleo folks, since saturated fat is high in animal products but less so in most plant foods with a few exceptions, they resort to spreading misinformation about it to make it look good (despite the converse) and making completely pseudoscientific and anti-science claims about it.

What is referred to as the lipid hypothesis which is completely unanimously accepted science, dietary saturated fat is known to raise serum LDL cholesterol levels and this is causative for cardiovascular disease. Diets wherein saturated fat contribution is replaced with polyunsaturated fats but otherwise not changing the overall % contributed by fats in the diet has much healthier outcomes and this has been shown time and time again (mentioned in the wiki link below).

One method of them spreading misinformation is somehow managing to publish imo nonsense reviews that too in scientific journals or invite clueless authors who are skeptics in other fields to write about the issue though they have no training in the field of nutrition science and somehow this has even occured in otherwise reputable sites liklle sciencebasedmedicine

Plant Positive's excellent channel is devoted to debunking the misinformation spread by such folks and the paleo fad dieters pseudoscientific hogwash and has discussed it thoroughly. See here a debunking of one of the more famous of these suspect reviews:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=a-Tx9dCbv-g

I'd strongly suggest watching that^!

For comprehensive sources, check:
1)https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturat ... ontroversy
In the healthy skepticism group, this is also pretty thorough; it also discusses the inherent biases in some of the reviews that may be inapparent to the uninformed:
2) https://m.facebook.com/groups/140170255 ... 7660622628

The notion that dietary saturated fats are bad is completely accurate and is in no sense outdated. sure some saturated fats aren't bad but those never exist in isolation and are invariably accompanied by the bad ones in a saturated fat source eg coconut oil. It's discussed by gregger.
It's the paleo folks and carnists (aka saturated fat-cholesterol denialists/confusionists) that have been pushing the alternative baseless claim because it totally fits with their agenda.

I've heard lots of vegans complaining about increased blood pressure and serum cholesterol after switching to coconut oil. The fats that are essential fats are omega3 and omeg6 in the right ratio, both are polyunsaturated fats; saturated fats are no way essential. There are studies linking coconut oil to cardiovascular disease shown by both gregger and plant positive. Sure coconut oil contains butyrate but it contains a lot else

Gregger: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZzuPAD0_F8

Plantpositive:https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qGt97ojn5zszs (around 5:00 onwards)

Unsaturated Oils don't saturate when you heat them, you have industrial hydrogenation for that purpose. Unsaturated fats oxidize when you heat them, unless they also have stable polyphenol antioxidants that prevent oxidation as is the case with e.v. olive oil. Lots of health gurus don't know much and buy in to the pseudoscience propaganda and with the amount of misinformation around its difficult to blame them.

[brimstoneSalad]

Garrethdsouza beat me to it. Well said.

This colleague is a nutter, I hope you don't have to work too closely with him?

[Jebus]

Thank you Garrethdsouza. Well put

This colleague is a nutter, I hope you don't have to work too closely with him?

lol. Next week he will be my new boss.

[brimstoneSalad]

lol. Next week he will be my new boss.

Ouch, that sucks. He probably won't even allow you to give people good nutritional advice.
No other options?

[miniboes]

On this topic, I was unable to find peanut butter without palm oil in my supermarkets. The organic one was not hardened and had sugar rather than high fructose corn syrup (small difference, I know.). However, they just introduced a brand that is literally 100% peanut. I am very happy right now.