What’s the deal with vegetable oil?

Killing you.

Warning: be prepared to clean out your cabinet.

Out of all the conversations I have related to healthy eating, one of the most common subjects is vegetable oil.  Like processed carbs, vegetable oil is an incredibly destructive part of our diet that seems to be completely innocuous.  So here’s the deal.

Today’s rant is a little technical, but it’s potent stuff. There are two main parts.  One involves the unstable chemical structure of vegetable oils, and the other involves omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids.

Lies about “the bad” fat

Saturated fat won't give you heart disease

Eating margarine instead of butter is stupid.

Saturated fat has been railed again and again, mainly for being linked to heart disease.  This fear of saturated fat–found in animal fats, butter and other dairy products, and coconut oil–has no solid research to back it up.  Let’s look at the history of saturated fat use, the garbage research that caused this myth, and the real fat facts.

Making the case for Food Kills: examining the food industry

We are losing the battle for nutrition (Photo from the National Obesity Forum, UK)

Food corporations are screwing us.

We can’t achieve perfect health, and I’m really not recommending you become so scrupulous with your diet that your quality of life is diminished in any way.  People have immune and detoxification systems for a reason; we can handle a lot of the garbage that gets thrown our way.  People live long, fulfilling and often extremely health lives while eating tons of garbage they shouldn’t.

So why should you care?

Let’s talk about insulin and weight gain

Insulin is for everybody

Insulin ain’t just for diabetics.

What’s the deal with insulin?  How does insulin work? Why should I care about my carbohydrate consumption?  How can blood sugar effect my weight gain?

Insulin is a hormone that is produced in your pancreas.  It’s released when there is glucose in your blood, and for my discussion it does two things.

What’s the deal with peanut butter?

Do you have your affairs in order?

Let’s check out peanut butter as a case study.  This discussion will talk about toxins found in peanuts, hidden trans fat in 0% trans fat foods, and healthy and unhealthy oils.

Peanut butter is great.  It’s one of my favorite foods, but it’s a food I will only eat healthy versions of.

This first issue is toxins.  Peanuts are known to be susceptible to aflatoxins, which are produced by various types of fungus in food and are linked to