This also includes Earth Balance, the “natural oil blend” competitor to Smart Balance that sells like hotcakes at your local health food store.
These factory fats are expanding your backside with every spread of the knife on your morning toast whether you realize it or not.
Omega-6 Fat Dangers
The reason is that these vegetable oil bottles and spreads are loaded with omega-6 fats. This fat is also called linoleic acid (PUFAs) and is distinguished from the healthy omega-6 gamma linolenic acid which actually helps you lose weight.
Confused yet?
The rancid omega-6 fats primarily found in the Western diet come from soy, corn, cottonseed, and canola oil (which also contains rancid omega-3 fats) and are a category of polyunsaturated oils found in seeds and grains.
While eating seeds and grains is not a bad thing, concentrating the oils from them is.
The fact is that there isn’t a whole lot of oil in an ear of corn or a soybean, so to make an entire bottle of corn or soybean oil takes violent and heavily industrialized processing.
“Earth” Balance doesn’t sound so earthy after all, does it?
Omega-6 vegetable oils are not generally fats that you could easily produce in the comfort of your own kitchen like the simple and age old process of pressing olives into olive oil (a monounsaturated omega-9 fat) or churning cream into butter.
Here’s where the “fat” part comes in.
While a very small amount of omega-6 fats are necessary for health, when consumed to excess as happens with the Western diet, vegetable oils contribute to overproduction of neuromodulatory lipids called endocannabinoids that are responsible for signaling hunger to the brain.
Guess what these little guys do?
They give you the munchies!
You may notice that the word endocannabinoids is similar to cannabis (weed). Weed is famous for giving people the munchies too so you can consider omega-6 vegetable oils the marijuana of fatty acids.
Now you know why you can’t stop eating a jumbo bag of chips made with corn, soy, or sunflower oil.
Aha!
Is that why it’s so easy to eat an entire box of Archway Frosted Lemon Cookies in the blink of an eye!
What about that organic dressing loaded with omega-6 oils that tops your salad at lunchtime? Could it be the reason behind the urge to overeat on the main course or the snack attack at 3 pm?
Just try to gorge yourself the same way with a box of cookies made with butter, coconut oil or palm oil or wolf down a plateful of french fries that were cooked in beef fat (tallow).
No can do.
You see, whole natural fats like tallow satiate you and keep your blood sugar steady so you stay full and comfortable and eat much less. Omega-6 vegetable oils, on the other hand, cause you to keep on eating and eating and eating until you have perhaps even made a complete glutton of yourself in a major way.
What’s most troubling is that food manufacturers are doubling down on the vegetable oil scam. Instead of switching their products to better fats, they continue to use the most damaging ones, even marketing some of them such as CLA safflower oil as a weight loss aid!
It seems with America’s weight problem now at a crisis level, it’s time for a return to the traditional fats of our ancestors which didn’t contribute to overeating or weight issues.
Isn’t it high time to stop listening to the talking heads on TV and take matters into your own hands? Chuck that tub of Earth Balance in the trash and substitute butter for oils that require a factory to produce them.
Your stomach and your backside will thank you.
Get the Skinny on Vegetable Oils and other Fats
Check out my book Get Your Fats Straight
References
Why Women Need Fat, William Lassek MD
Sarah Pope has been a Health and Nutrition Educator since 2002. Her work is dedicated to helping families effectively incorporate the principles of ancestral diets within the modern household. She is a sought after lecturer around the world for conferences, summits, and podcasts.
Her work has been covered by major media including USA Today, ABC, NBC, and many others.
Real Food Toys For Children
Ok Thanks for clarifying that
Fair enough, so butter is still nutritious even after it’s baked in the oven?
Yes. If it was raw butter, then the enzymes and probiotics are gone, but the beneficial fatty acids are not harmed by the heat. Some types of fatty acids ARE denatured by heating, but not the type in butter.
What would you say is healthier in baking Sarah, butter or coconut oil?
To be honest, I don’t like these kinds of questions and it is not helpful to categorize them that way. They are completely different fats, both are healthy. Use both.
Ah. Thank you for clearing that up for me, Sarah. 🙂 Regards, E
Curious… Why aren’t there any sources cited for this information?
Sources are linked within the body of the article.