Bleaching – After refinement, oil is heated and mixed with filter aids that serve to absorb any colors and impurities in the oil. These add-ins are removed after they’ve done their job.

Deodorizing – Finally, oil is heated to 480 degrees F. beneath a vacuum. This process produces steam bubbles that remove any remaining free fatty acids and impurities. Once deodorizing is complete, the oil is ready to be packaged and used in your kitchen.

Firstly, vegetables are crushed in order to extract the oil. Then the crushed mixture is heated and combined with hexane which is a chemical that assists to extract the remaining oil. The solids are used for animal feed and hexane is distilled from crude oil which goes through a refining process for eliminating impurities that affect the smell, color, and taste of the oil. The three steps to the refining process are refining, bleaching, and deodorizing.

Understanding How Vegetable Oil Contributes to Health

Your body needs fats to function, but they should be consumed in moderation. Small amounts are sufficient. Foods that are high in saturated and trans fats may progress health conditions like autoimmune diseases, cancer, and heart disease. These fats also lead to insulin resistance, and potentially diabetes.

Consider your entire diet – The oil contains nine calories per gram, while proteins and carbohydrates have four calories per gram. Even healthier oils like avocado and olive oil are still fats. Your fat intake should represent no more than 25%-35% of your calories each day. Also, keep in mind that foods processed to be lower in fat often have added sugar and salt for flavor. These may not be ideal swaps.

Choose nutrient-dense oils – There’s no doubt that certain oils can contribute positively to your health. Olive oil may lower LDL bad cholesterol while also raising HDL good cholesterol levels. Olive oil also has other great nutrients like beta carotene and vitamins A, E, D, and K.

Think about how you cook with oil – If you tend to use oil for deep-frying, your food absorbs more oil. Instead, try sautéing with a lesser amount of oil. Over time, the high heat from frying also promotes free radicals that may increase your risk for skin cancer.

Vegetable Oil Side Effects and Detriments

1. Triggers Many Chronic Diseases

Chronic inflammation is a major factor in the typical North American diet, especially because of its continued growth in popularity. Vegetable oils are the most imported oils worldwide, at just over 150 million metric tons per year.

Many studies show that a diet with too much vegetable oil and an elevated level of omega-6 fatty acids increased your risk of heart disease, obesity, arthritis, inflammatory bowel, and cardiovascular disease. Many issues stem from the polyunsaturated fatty acids found in most plant-based oils, which are also similar to hydrogenated vegetable shortening. Vegetable oil is an unhealthy substitute for butter, and if consumed too much and too often it can cause very harmful problems down the line due to all of the omega-6 fats.

A list of common diseases caused by ingesting vegetable oil include:

• Age-related macular degeneration

• Higher rates of miscarriages

• Increased DNA oxidation

• Retinal pigment epithelial degeneration

• Premature rupture of cell membranes

Now we get into the core of the negative effects when consuming vegetable oil. First is the quality and source.

2. Its Healthy Fats Are Toxic and Rancid

The quality of the mixed oils which make up the vegetable oil is full of toxins. From the multiple bleaching processes to the extreme heats exerted on the product, the finished product becomes mostly oxidized and rancid from all of the processing.

When producing vegetable oil, it gets exposed to high pressures, chemical agents, light, and air. Which is what causes vegetable oils to go bad and develop free radicals. These vegetable oils have a long history of promoting heart disease and cancerous results in clinical testings.

The chemicals used to produce vegetable oil have been shown to produce potential cancer-causing compounds in the body, and have also been linked to liver and kidney damage, heart disease, immune problems, infertility, and high levels of cholesterol. The canola oil treatment process, which is also the base of all vegetable cooking oil and sprays as well, have had their beneficial fat compositions destroyed by all of the harsh chemicals, high levels of heat, and oxidation.

The biggest cause for concern with oxidated vegetable oil is that it rids your body of any antioxidants, these are used to neutralize oxidation that you get from eating and natural oxidative stress happening to your body over time.

Our body produces oxidative damage (metabolites) during our regular metabolic processes. Some metabolic processes include:

• Repair and function of the brain and internal organs

• Repair, maintenance, growth, and functioning of skeletal muscles

• Joint and bone mass preservation

On top of that, in a reserved animal study, rats were fed a diet high in polyunsaturated and omega-6 fatty acids coming from vegetable oil.

Additionally, these harmful fats inhibited their ability to learn especially under conditions of stress, created toxic waste in the liver, compromised the integrity of the immune system, and depressed the mental and physical growth of infants.

The increased levels of erucic acid and uric acid in the bloodstream cause abnormal fatty acid levels in the fatty liver tissues, this effect has been linked to mental decline and accelerated aging. Excess consumption of PUFAs is associated with an increased rate of cancer, liver complications, heart-related diseases, and weight gain.

3. Polyunsaturated Fats Oxidize Easily

What makes omega-6 fats oxidize easily is the number of double bond chains in their chemical makeup, the more double bonds the more sensitive the oil.

They have 2 or more carbon to carbon double bonds, these bonds deteriorate very easily when exposed to air, heat, and light. Saturated fats have 0 double bonds while all monounsaturated fats have at least 1. The dangerous part of having a diet high in PUFAs is that they get stored in your cells for energy. The more your cells accumulate the more prone you’ll be to oxidative stressors. Oxidative stress causes pre-mature aging, neurological damage, increased stress, diabetes, inflammation, heart disease, arthritis, neurodegenerative diseases, and cancer.

4. Vegetable Oil Is High in Trans Fats

Vegetable oils are all high in trans fats, regardless of the nutrition label marker. After going through the different refining phases the product becomes spoiled and is treated to remove any traces of toxicity through deodorizing, bleaching, and mixing different oils.

This makes it so over time, the oil begins to form harmful agents within itself and this causes the development of trans fats. A research paper has revealed that the average amount found sits between 0.55% and 4.3% of the total volume.

5. Increased Risk of Cardiovascular and Heart Disease

It’s widely suggested that you consume legumes or plant-based vegetable oils to help reduce your risk of heart disease because of its low levels of saturated fatty acids. The issue evolves when your diet is full of omega-6s since it can cause inflammation in your heart cavity and all of your other organs.

The research done on the effects of these fats on lowering your bad cholesterol levels is not conclusive, and with all of the adverse detriments stacked against it, it’s best to avoid it altogether. Omega-3s are much more important and effective at controlling your risk of heart disease. In every case scenario, vegetable oil should be avoided at all costs.

The few positive health effects that are left in finished vegetable oil products are not worth taking a risk on the plethora of negative side effects. All of the harmful side effects are caused by consuming a rancid and hydrogenated cooking product, similar to canola oil.

Here’s the list of side effects of vegetable oil:

1. Triggers Many Chronic Diseases
2. Its Healthy Fats Are Toxic and Rancid
3. Polyunsaturated Fats Oxidize Easily
4. Vegetable Oil Is High in Trans Fats
5. Increased Risk of Cardiovascular and Heart Disease

Regardless of any minor healthy fats, many studies conclude that consuming vegetable oil exposes you to an increased risk of cancer, kidney, liver, heart disease and other issues. It’s not a healthy choice for home cooking or otherwise.

Because it’s so high in trans fat, saturated fat, and omega-6 fats it will lead to increased oxidative stress and DNA damage over time, which is a major indicator that vegetable oil should be strictly avoided.

You should think twice before using any to cook your food with and instead, you can use coconut oil for deep frying and cooking in higher temperatures as well as olive oil when looking to pan-fry over a stove.