Say No to Oil and Yes to Health

Thu, 05/02/2013 - 8:55am -- Katherine Lawrence
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If someone asked you why oil is not good for you, would you have a good answer beyond the obvious connections to weight gain? Let's discuss the many other health implications of oil in our diet.

Oil is simply 100% fat, so before we can really understand oil, we have to explore this topic of fat. Most nutrition experts - like Dr. Barnard, Dr. McDougall and Dr. Campbell - recommend that we eat no more than 10% of our calories from fat and consume no oils. But don't worry, this is more than enough because humans only need about six percent of their calories from fat for basic brain and bodily activity. This is easily achieved by eating a whole foods plant-based diet that averages 8 - 10% fat. If you desire more fat, simply include more nuts, seeds and avocados. 

When fat is consumed as part of a "whole food" that means it also contains the perfect amount of protein, fiber and other nutrients that help slow down the digestion of its fat. However, this is not true when we consume oils. Oils are extracted fat from a whole food and are devoid of these important nutrients, providing no support mechanisms for digesting it.

You're probably wondering whether just a little bit of oil is OK so let's take a look at the numbers. If we're eating a 2,000 calorie diet we would want about 200 calories (10%) from fat. One gram of fat is equal to nine calories. If we divide 200 calories by 9, we'll find that equals about 22 grams of fat per day. So, how does oil fit in here? One tablespoon of oil (oil of any kind) is 18 grams of fat! So with just one tablespoon, you've reached almost your daily limit of fat. This is why even a small amount of oil can wreck an otherwise healthy diet. As Dr. McDougall, M.D., says, "The fat you eat is the fat you wear."

In addition to causing weight gain, here are some additional reasons to consider removing oils from your diet completely:

Protect Your Heart
Dr. Esselstyn, M.D., world-renown for reversing heart disease, likens eating oil to adding gasoline to a fire: any amount will contribute to deterioration of the cardiovascular system. Oils, which contain saturated fats, can stimulate production of cholesterol and contribute to heart disease.

Prevent and Reverse Diabetes
Dr. Barnard, M.D., a pioneer in the field of reversing type 2 diabetes with diet, has discovered a powerful link between oil/fat consumption, insulin and blood sugar. Excess fat in our cells blocks insulin's signaling process, which prevents sugar from entering the cell and results in higher blood sugar rates. Eliminating oils is one of his primary recommendations for preventing and reversing diabetes.

Protection of Male Sexual Organs
Prior studies have shown that impotence is often an early sign of blocked arteries. A new study further supports erectile dysfunction as a warning sign for heart disease.

Boost Your Immune System - Prevent Cancer
A low-fat diet will help keep the immune system strong. When it comes to the functioning of your immune system, total fat is what matters - regardless of whether or not it's a 'good' or 'bad' fat. We need our immune system functioning at full capacity to fight off infections and cancer. Oils have been demonstrated to suppress many natural microbe killing mechanisms.

So by now, you're probably wondering how we can avoid eating oil in our daily lives? The primary means from which we get oils is eating out at restaurants, eating processed foods and using oils when cooking. These three scenarios are easily resolved when cooking at home with Saladmaster cookware. Its 316Ti construction allows for the sautéing of vegetables without any oil or water - so there is no need to load fat into an otherwise healthy meal! Additionally, the ease of cooking with the Saladmaster Healthy Cooking System makes it effortless to prepare delicious and healthy meals at home. This cooking system has proven to reduce cooking times and increase nutrient retention over other cooking methods.

If you want the health benefits of eating olive oil, then just eat an olive - I prefer mine sautéed in the Saladmaster 5 Qt./4.7 L Gourmet Wok with kale, tomatoes and garlic.

What is your favorite vegetable or plant-based recipe to cook in Saladmaster? Share your thoughts by commenting below!


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Comments

Submitted by Cathy Vogt on

Dark leafy greens are my favorite to cook in Saladmaster.  Swiss chard, collard greens and kale are so fresh and vibrant tasting when cooked in Saladmaster without any oil or added fat.  Adding in other layers of flavor is easy by pairing your basic greens with onions, garlic, seasonal vegetables, herbs and seasonings.  Add in a few tablespoons of toasted almond slivers or walnuts for extra crunch and satisfying balance of flavors.

Submitted by Saladmaster on

Thank you for your comment, Cathy! We are glad to hear that you are loving your dark leafy greens prepared in Saladmaster! Greens are such an important staple in a healthy diet and with Saladmaster you can ensure you are preserving the essential natural nutrients throughout the cooking process. If you're looking for other recipes using greens, such as kale, check out the following recipes and let us know what you think.

Penne with Kale, Tomatoes and Olives
Maitake Mushroom Stir-Fry
Cannellini Beans with Kale 

Submitted by James Chandler on

Michael R. Eades, M.D.  “The lipid hypothesis of heart disease is, as Dickens wrote of Scrooge’s partner, Jacob Marley, dead as a doornail, yet, like Marley’s ghost, it continues to haunt us. Why? Because the idea that cholesterol causes heart disease–the lipid hypothesis–has been so frequently repeated for so many years that doctors have forgotten that it is only a hypothesis, not a fact.” And this list goes on and on as you search the internet.

More recent studies have shown factual proof that consumption of Sugar leads to identical problems that alcohol leads to (minus the buzz).  Fructose is in fact the culprit that should be avoided at all costs.  Table sugar is one half sucrose and one half fructose and our problem starts with this contagious sweet product.  We all need sucrose but we should avoid the poison fructose.  The sooner we realize that fructose is a dangerous poison the better off we all are.  And our problems are magnified by high fructose corn sugar.  Many people are getting smart about the later high fructose corn sugar, but there is hardly anything on our supermarket shelves that does not have sugar on its label.  Manufactures have got a lot smarter and routinely use 26 different ways to label sugar.  But in the end sugar is sugar and the calorie of sugar is not the same calorie as any other carbohydrate calorie.

The most recent studies came from trying to understand why we have such a high increase in obese children.  We now have a generation that most likely will not outlive their parents and this situation has gone global.

The fear of fat has pushed us to processed foods that are high in carbohydrate and low in fat all based on a hypothesis that was never proven factual.  But no one likes high carbohydrate low fiber so our industry has laced our food with high levels of sugar and salt.  And there are several industries that focus only on smell and taste using artificial products.

Saladmaster should be focused on getting the consumer to move away from dangerous processed foods and back to home cooking where we control what we eat.  The fat issue is dead so stop focusing customers on a dead issue and prove to them the benefits of eating healthy homemade foods.

Submitted by James Chandler on

The reason I bought Saladmaster is not because of the befuncked fat causes weight gain use LFHC.

The food giants jumped on the bandwagon but high fiber has a very short shelf life.  So the removed as much fiber as possible. And what was left was something unpalatable so they simply added sugar and then high fructose corn syrup.  And in the last couple years many baby doctors got worried about the high amount of obese 6 month old babies they were seeing.  Their research came to the conclusion that most weight gain centralizes around the poison fructose.

No organ in our body except our liver can metabolize fructose and the byproducts from the liver are all byproducts of when a poison is given to the liver.  And sadly table sugar is half sucrose which we all need to sustain life and the other half is fructose.

Fructose in fruit is health because we are given the poison and an antidote in the same package…namely lots of fiber.

That said Saladmaster to me is a much faster way of cooking a health meal (lots of hard to cook fiber) in the shortest amount of time.

I feel Saladmaster is loosing many possible customers when they push low fat and at the same time introduce sugar into the coleslaw that they make during their presentation.  Those who know that the fat issue is dead, and those who know what sugar does will not buy your product if you can’t keep up with what the newest studies are.  Search “Fat Chance” on YouTube and take the time to watch the video…it may change the way you look at things.

And it greatly helps if the ones showing the product are slim.  But if they are not eating right it shows as they are standing in front of us.

Saladmaster has great potentials. I will use it to loose weight and many people will ask me how I lost all that weight and then I can expose the sugar issue and tell them I use Saladmaster so that I can eat health high fiber meals fast because most people no longer have the time to cook long meals...that is Saladmaster advantage and you need to focus on what works