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Cooking with vegetable oils releases toxic cancer-causing chemicals, say experts.

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Beefy

Member
Cooking with vegetable oils releases toxic chemicals linked to cancer and other diseases, according to leading scientists, who are now recommending food be fried in olive oil, coconut oil, butter or even lard.

The results of a series of experiments threaten to turn on its head official advice that oils rich in polyunsaturated fats – such as corn oil and sunflower oil – are better for the health than the saturated fats in animal products.

Scientists found that heating up vegetable oils led to the release of high concentrations of chemicals called aldehydes, which have been linked to illnesses including cancer, heart disease and dementia.

Martin Grootveld, a professor of bioanalytical chemistry and chemical pathology, said that his research showed “a typical meal of fish and chips”, fried in vegetable oil, contained as much as 100 to 200 times more toxic aldehydes than the safe daily limit set by the World Health Organisation.

In contrast, heating up butter, olive oil and lard in tests produced much lower levels of aldehydes. Coconut oil produced the lowest levels of the harmful chemicals.

Concerns over toxic chemicals in heated oils are backed up by separate research from a University of Oxford professor, who claims that the fatty acids in vegetable oils are contributing to other health problems.

Professor John Stein, Oxford’s emeritus professor of neuroscience, said that partly as a result of corn and sunflower oils, “the human brain is changing in a way that is as serious as climate change threatens to be”.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/hea...xic-cancer-causing-chemicals-say-experts.html

Cover me in oil if old.
 

akira28

Member
Bring back the lard.

McDonald's, open the vaults and unleash your beef tallow. I know you've been stockpiling for this day.
 

grandjedi6

Master of the Google Search
Well frying anything is oil is already bad for your health so why not throw cancer in as well?
 

Fury451

Banned
So, what I need is for someone to compile a list of all the things that won't kill me as quickly, because I seriously can't keep up anymore. Plus I can't even tell what's true and what's pseudo BS science.

I thought some vegetable oils were preferred to olive due to the smoke point difference.
 

_woLf

Member
Aside from deep frying, I cook almost exclusively with olive oil, so this doesn't effect me much...

Now when they say THAT causes cancer, I'm gonna be upset.
 

entremet

Member
So, what I need is for someone to compile a list of all the things that won't kill me as quickly, because I seriously can't keep up anymore.

I thought some vegetable oils were preferred to olive due to the smoke point difference.

That's for high heat cooking.

There are gentler cooking methods--braising, pan roasting, and boiling/simmering.
 

akira28

Member
So, what I need is for someone to compile a list of all the things that won't kill me as quickly, because I seriously can't keep up anymore.

I thought some vegetable oils were preferred to olive due to the smoke point difference.

that's for cooking practicality, not health reasons. Olive oil has a pretty low smoke point temperature, so it's not the best to get a hard fry going. More like a gentle soft fry that takes extra long. But hey, if its cancer, I may be willing to wait. Or just use duck fat, yo.
 

DJ_Lae

Member
I recall hearing something about this a few years back - add that to the notion that butter isn't as bad for you as everyone was saying and it's yet another bit of food info that's more confusing than anything else.

Having said that, I like frying in avocado oil, which is low in polyunsaturated fat, and lard because lard is awesome.
 
Cooking with vegetable oils releases toxic chemicals linked to cancer and other diseases, according to leading scientists, who are now recommending food be fried in olive oil, coconut oil, butter or even lard.

The results of a series of experiments threaten to turn on its head official advice that oils rich in polyunsaturated fats – such as corn oil and sunflower oil – are better for the health than the saturated fats in animal products.

Scientists found that heating up vegetable oils led to the release of high concentrations of chemicals called aldehydes, which have been linked to illnesses including cancer, heart disease and dementia.

Martin Grootveld, a professor of bioanalytical chemistry and chemical pathology, said that his research showed “a typical meal of fish and chips”, fried in vegetable oil, contained as much as 100 to 200 times more toxic aldehydes than the safe daily limit set by the World Health Organisation.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/hea...xic-cancer-causing-chemicals-say-experts.html

Cover me in oil if old.

I thought Olive oil was a veg oil?
 

grumble

Member
Yeah not heating polyunsaturated fat is something that has been known for a while. It isn't heat stable, and it has a limited shelf life. Also why you should keep vegetable oil in the fridge, otherwise it goes rancid.

Polyunsaturated fat is for salad dressings and such, not heating. A near-pure unsaturated fat like avocado though is fine for cooking.
 

Zukuu

Banned
What about rapeseed oil? That's the thing I always use (cuz it's the cheapest and I don't use oil much).
 
Apologize for the sass, but we've known for a long time that vegetable oils are terrible due to high omega 6 content. If you follow the research you should have been avoiding them already in favor of butter, coconut oil, olive oil, lard, and possibly red palm oil if you are OK with its environmental impact,

The only way this news impacts me is that restaurants always use these bad oils due to their cheapness.
 

PJV3

Member
I'm gonna stick to sucking my underpants, I have yet to see a link to cancer being mentioned for it.
 

DJ_Lae

Member
My family stopped using vegetable oil many years ago.

Canola oil has replaced it.

Canola oil is vegetable oil, though, as far as marketing goes, its use as a filler, and the breakdown of the fat types. It's high in polyunsaturated fat too.

It also tastes/smells vaguely fishy when heated, but maybe that's just me.
 

entremet

Member
What about rapeseed oil? That's the thing I always use (cuz it's the cheapest and I don't use oil much).

That's canola oil. It was renamed canola oil due to the problematic nomenclature.

It wasn't part of the study that I noticed.

I personally try to avoid vegetable oils due to excess Omega 6. But the evidence has been mounting against them.

Evolutionarily it makes sense. Plants developed elaborate defense mechanism to prevent their seeds from being digested by animals. Putting them through industrial processes to make them oils, doesn't seem to have reduced their toxicity completely.
 
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