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That Fried Stuff’ll Kill You! Right?
Written by Wellness Club on December 21, 2015 – 6:45 pm -By Nurse Mark
Everybody knows that all those fried foods are bad for you, right?
Well, not so fast… It turns out that not all fried foods are created equal. Some fried foods are bad for you – really, really bad while others may even be good for you. It turns out that it’s all about how and what they were fried in.
We have talked many times before about the differences in oils, and especially in cooking oils. Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids (PUFAs) are the real culprit here, despite the incessant preaching of the powerful Edible Oils industry.
You see, beginning back in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s, we have been bombarded with slick ads telling us how wonderful and healthy canola oil, corn oil, cottonseed oil and other similar PUFAs were for us. Living longer, having a healthy heart, growing smarter children, smelling better in your kitchen, leading you to spiritual enlightenment, and so on.
Your mom and mine knew no better – they saw the ads on TV and they believed them – after all, it was the same TV that brought the truth by Mike Wallace and Walter Cronkite, right? So began the near-religious belief that Crisco is better than lard, and that margarine is better than butter, and that corn oil or canola oil is so much better than coconut or palm kernel oil for deep frying…
Well, what the edible oil industry failed to mention was that their PUFAs are fragile – even just processing them can damage them, turning them rancid; turning them into trans fatty acids or “trans-fats.”
They also forgot to mention that even if these wonder-oils manage to make it to you relatively undamaged, heating them, as you might when you fry with them, promptly alters their structure – oxidizing them, creating free radicals, toxic lipid peroxides, carcinogens and mutagens. Oxygen and heat cause PUFA oils to form much more of these toxins than what’s found in saturated or monounsaturated oils.
Finally, in all their preachy advertising, these big Edible Oil manufacturers conveniently forget to tell us that besides the rancidity caused by heat and oxygen, PUFAs have another problem: They are inflammatory, because of their high Omega 6 content. That “Heart-Healthy” butter-like spread you just slathered on your whole wheat toast may actually be contributing to the subtle body-wide inflammation that is contributing to the atherosclerosis that your doctor wants to give you drugs for!
Here’s a look at the PUFA content of commonly used cooking oils: (Source: USDA Nutrition Database.)
Looking at this list it is easy to see that the much-reviled “saturated fats’ like butter, beef tallow, and coconut oil contain very little of the potentially toxic PUFAs. Of course they do – they are saturated fats. Because they are “saturated” they are highly heat stable, and not easily damaged or turned rancid.
So, where is all this leading to?
To the conclusion that perhaps deep fried foods need not be unhealthy – if they are cooked carefully, using oils low in PUFAs.
Unfortunately, research published in 2010 shows that the most common commercially used deep frying oil is not healthy coconut, or even the less-expensive but still healthy palm oil, it is corn oil – often blended with soybean or safflower oil.
Worse, restaurants reuse their oil over and over and over – reheating it each day anew, and occasionally filtering out the chunks – but the toxic trans fats cannot be “filtered out” and they just keep building up until the oil becomes so damaged and rancid that it begins to affect food flavors and the restaurants must reluctantly throw it away, fit only for use as “Bio-Diesel” fuel.
Readers, you can do better – much better.
You have the choice when you cook (and yes, frying and deep-frying ARE healthy cooking choices) of using a health-safe cooking oil such as coconut oil or butter or beef tallow. Want to know the secret to the tastiest French fries you have ever encountered? Beef tallow – a chef’s “secret”!
Even if you insist on using corn oil, using it once at relatively low heat and then discarding it can be safe.
Well then, let’s suppose for a moment that I have persuaded you that deep-fried is not necessarily synonymous with poison (if done right) yet you are still worried by all those warnings about the artery-clogging effects of evil saturated fats. (If you really do believe this, please take a few minutes to read our article “Saturated Fats – Another Big Fat Lie”)
Wouldn’t it be great if there were a pill that could mitigate all the ill effects of saturated fats and make it OK to indulge – maybe even good to indulge?
Well, it turns out that such a pill might not be entirely fantasy.
Scientists are researching a substance called alphacyclodextrin, a soluble fiber derived from corn. This novel fiber has shown promise for its ability to preferentially adsorb and bind up both saturated and polyunsaturated fats, while leaving valuable Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids relatively unaffected.
Results of recent research are very positive, with researchers concluding that the substance:
“…has beneficial effects on weight management in obese individuals with type 2 diabetes, and that it preferentially reduces blood levels of saturated and trans fats…”
And
“These results suggest that α-CD [alphacyclodextrin] exerts its beneficial health effects on body weight and blood lipid profile in healthy non-obese individuals, as previously reported in obese individuals with type 2 diabetes.”
Does this sound too good to be true? Possibly – which is why Dr. Myatt has not chosen to make it available to you just yet. She is researching it intensively though, and as soon as she is convinced of the safety and efficacy of the substance, and of her ability to offer you a pure, potent, top-quality product she will consider making it available.
So, stay tuned!
References
learn more about coconut oil: https://www.drmyattswellnessclub.com/CoconutOil.htm
Deep Fry Oils in commercial use; Jahren, A. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, published online Jan. 18, 2010. http://www.pnas.org/content/107/5/2099.full
Alphacyclodextrin research: Comerford KB, The beneficial effects of α-cyclodextrin on blood lipids and weight loss in healthy humans. Obesity, 2011 Jun;19(6):1200-4. doi: 10.1038/oby.2010.280. Epub 2010 Dec 2. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21127475
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