Think twice before eating your next French fry or potato chip.

I really do hate to be a Debbie Downer. And I love both fries and potato chips. But if they are fried in vegetable oil, it really would be better for your health to avoid. 

Vegetable oils come from canola, soy, corn, sunflower, safflower, rice, grapeseed, and cottonseed; and are found in most processed foods, and all most all junk foods. Even more disheartening is that most restaurants use a lot of vegetable oils because they are cheaper. So, vegetable oils are difficult to avoid, but it is something that really needs to be considered if you are concerned about your health.

Naomi Whittel, author of the book Glow 15 goes so far as stating that eating vegetable oils may be more harmful than smoking cigarettes daily.

I will just go into a few reasons why.

Dr. Cate Shanahan in her book, Deep Nutrition calls vegetable oils, "Public Enemy #1". Shanahan implicates vegetable oils with the development of diabetes, citing a study that showed that just a "2% increase in trans fat consumption correlated with a 40% increase in insulin resistance and diabetes".

She goes on to say that because the unnatural fats disturb the metabolism so much, the body is "deeply committed to converting as many calories as it can into fat". So weight gain becomes an increasing problem with eating vegetable oils.

And did you know that vegetable oils can cause heartburn, fatty liver, exacerbate and possibly cause ulcerative colitis, and other intestinal problems like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and make you more susceptible to other autoimmune conditions? They do this by causing inflammation, altering your microbial flora, and causing oxidative reactions that damage the intestinal lining (Shanahan, 2017).

Vegetable oils can also cause migraines and other brain problems like mini strokes and may lead to Alzheimer's. Dr.Shanahan maintains that some migraines may be caused by reduced brain electrical activity from inadequate blood flow to the brain as a result of blood vessel damage caused by eating inflammatory, blood vessel damaging vegetable oils. 

In addition, these bad oils can accelerate aging, lead to heart attacks, exacerbate eczema, damage the immune system, cause birth defects, and much more.

Food made with vegetable oils can be super tasty. But is it worth it? More and more I am being convinced that it is not.

So, what is the alternative? Butter, coconut oil, bacon fat, extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), avocado oil, peanut oil, macadamia oil, walnut oil, ghee, sesame oil, and palm oil. Yep, plenty to choose from.  The biggest problem may be is that you will have to cook and eat at home more. So, it can be a huge adjustment learning how to make healthier, easy, delicious meals in your own kitchen. 

You may be asking if I eat seed oils. I try not to.

On my 1st 100-Day Experiment, I only ate consumed seed oils on 27 of the 100 days, and I counted it even if I only ate 3 crackers with a seed oil ingredient.

And now for the last 40 days since the beginning of my 2nd 100 days, I have not eaten anything with a seed oil, mostly due to sticking to the carnivore diet, which pretty much excludes seed oils.

If you are interested in avoiding vegetable oils, but thinking you might die attempting it, I may be able to help you through the fries and chips phase. Contact me for a free 20-minute consultation to see if we would be a good fit working together.

Curiosity Corner ~
Does several and a few mean the same thing?

So I checked with Google AI and Merriam Webster. This is what I found out:

• A few = A comparatively small, indefinite number.

• Several = More than 2 but not many, suggesting though a larger number than “a few”.

• A couple = (Let’s throw this into the mix) Can mean 2 or an indefinite number of things or people. Like “last night I had a couple of people over for dinner”. Or “I saw that movie a couple of years ago”.

However, I asked my mom how many a few or several is when I was about nine years old, and she told me confidently that both meant between 3 and 7. So, I am going to stick with that.

Just keeping it real,

~Vanessa
www.vanessamarsden.com
Instagram @wellnessadventure_RN

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Here again are the 8 pillars that your basic health rests on:

1. Eating quality, nutritious, life-giving food and avoiding life-sucking food.

2. Activity that builds muscle, stretches various parts of the body, and oxygenates your organs & tissues.

3. Quality sleep with adequate quantities, with periodic times of rest and relaxation.

4. Stress management, and reduction when possible.

5. Avoiding toxins - cleaning products, skincare products, smoking, too much alcohol, unnecessary pharmaceuticals, fried foods, excessive social media.

6. Nurturing your emotional, psychological, and spiritual health.

7. Enjoy the outdoors - get fresh air, sunlight, be exposed to various microbiomes.

8. Stimulate your brain by learning, solving puzzles, trying new things, going to new places.