5. Take Two: The “Good” Fat That Isn’t

5. Take Two: The “Good” Fat That Isn’t

After decades of being called unhealthy due to the “saturated-fat” label, coconut is increasingly regarded as a superior cooking oil (certainly far healthier than seed oils) while the MCT it contains is an appetite-satisfier and an almost-immediate source of ketones, and thus plays a large role in many diet schemes, such as the “Bulletproof”.

By themselves in reasonable amounts, most fats can be beneficial, unless you eat so much that you get fat. Normal intake of saturated fat makes meals physically and emotionally satisfying, and certainly helps avoid excessive consumption of refined starches and sugars, on which there is no doubt as to harmfulness. Olive oil/oleic acid is a MUFA (called Omega-9) that contains anti-inflammatory and gut health qualities; olive oil also contains anti-oxidants and anti-inflammatory polyphenols.

Omega-3 (EPA and DHA) is a PUFA and an “essential fatty acid”, meaning our bodies need it but we can’t make it ourselves and must get it from a dietary source. Good sources are fatty fish like salmon, and canned tuna and sardines. Omega-6 (linoleic acid) is also essential, but most diets already contain too much of it, causing hidden inflammation.

There is considerable disagreement in the medical community over Omega-6. Numerous sources stick with the party line against saturated fats and state that “there is no clinical proof that high Omega-6 intake causes inflammation with adverse cardiac consequences.” (Neither is there any proof that it is beneficial beyond a minimal amount.)

Minority sources (e.g., https://openheart.bmj.com/content/5/2/e000898) believe that excessive Omega-6 borders on poisonous, causing severe oxidative stress. Plantation Bay agrees with the minority view.

Most people’s main dietary source of PUFAs is “seed oils” — cooking oil made by a lengthy industrial process from seeds. These include corn, soy, sunflower, cottonseed, safflower, grapeseed, rice bran, and canola. Canola used to be called rapeseed, which was grown for inedible oils like engine grease. After World War II Canada genetically modified its rapeseed to become edible, and re-branded it “Canadian Oil” or canola.

The industrial processing qualifies all seed oils as “ultra-processed”. Just look at a grain of un-husked rice and figure out what chemical processes must be needed to extract the minute quantity of oil in it. In case you wanted to know, the first step is to dissolve the seeds in hexane, a component in gasoline. Then the entire mix is heated to separate the hexane, leaving raw oil; the oil is then bleached and clarified, and finally deodorized. In contrast, coconut oil and olive oil are simply pressed out of the fruit pulp.

Most seed oils are 70% or more linoleic acid. But linoleic acid is already present in so many other foods (peanuts, eggs, pork, chicken, nuts) that we really wouldn’t need to go out of our way to use seed oils even if Omega-6/linoleic acid were beneficial. In fact, Omega-6 beyond a very low threshold is not beneficial, because it is a precursor to inflammatory chemicals like cytokines. (A “precursor” is an intermediate nutrient which the body uses as raw material to make something else, like proteins and hormones, for good or bad.)

Furthermore, as mentioned in a previous article, more Omega-6 means less Omega-3 is incorporated in our cells, including brain cells, with serious effects on inflammation, brain function, and blood viscosity.

Another problem with PUFAs is precisely that they have many loose chemical ends and are therefore inherently unstable. They can safely be used at home a few times, but every heating (especially if past the smoke point) turns some of it into trans-fat, also creating toxins and free radicals. Unfortunately, in virtually ALL restaurants, whether fast-food or fine dining, seed oils are heated to high temperatures then re-used for a week to two weeks. That’s probably more than “a few times”.

Given that your diet almost certainly already has too much Omega-6, seed oils and the Omega-6 they consist of probably do NOT contribute to your health, and may actually harm it in several ways. However, the Medical Establishment is bending over backward to avoid admitting it has been wrong for 70 years, and is sticking with PUFAs come hell or high water.

Plantation Bay is one of the very few establishments in the world that has consciously eliminated the use of seed oils for frying. We use coconut oil, a highly stable fat that was deliberately badmouthed by the seed oil industry to eliminate its healthiest competitor. For a complete discussion on how the entire world was misled into scorning saturated fat by one faulty, biased, non-scientific study, please read the companion article and video The Swindle of the Century — How Bad Science Became Nutrition Dogma (https://plantationbay.com/satfat).

Practical takeaway: Avoid Omega-6 whether through seed cooking oils or too many peanuts. Natural sources of Omega-3 are salmon, sardines, krill, and some seaweeds. You probably don’t get enough, so consider supplementation. Choose a brand with 1000 mg of DHA, 500 mg EPA, and NO Omega-6.