We’ve had it pretty easy up to now with getting into the habit of drinking lots and lots of water and changing to food-based vitamin capsules. This is about the point that I really begin feeling good. The headaches are gone, and my brain is all plumped up with being properly hydrated. I’m digesting nicely and I’ve mapped out the quickest route to the… er… facilities… from any point in the house. My skin starts to settle and the vitamins are doing their job.
This week is going to require a little more work. Get your family to help you and it will be lots more fun. We’re going to be going through the cupboards this week and getting rid of some of the “nasties”.
First to go - shortening. Shortening is horrifying. Partially hydrogenated and hydrogenated oils cause a whole host of health problems including:
- Elevated cholesterol
- Heart attack
- Hormonal imbalance - inhibiting the body’s ability to heal
- Depression
- Cancer
In one interview I saw with Dr. Saxion, she said that TFAs can also adhere to your organs and are almost impossible to get rid of once they are there. Think of little bits of plastic floating through your bloodstream and sticking to your arteries, the insides of your lungs, liver, heart, kidneys, brain. That picture alone is what sent us straight to the kitchen next morning to start throwing out anything containing such toxins.
You can find these oils lurking in cookies, cakes, crackers, chips, salad dressings, and spreads (including margarine). Read your labels carefully. Also, Dr. Weil recommends getting rid of and avoiding anything made with cottonseed oil as the saturation is too high and studies show that this oil contains naturally occuring toxins. Cottonseed oil is used in blends with other oils and labeled “Vegetable Oil”. Cottonseed has the insidious ability to block the hormones needed by all organs to do their jobs, breaks down blood proteins preventing proper assimilation of nutrients in the gut, trips the immune system modifying the body’s disease susceptibility, and enhances the toxicity of other fats.
Now that you’ve got those into the bin, Go through your cupboards and toss out all the liquid oils. They are probably rancid and you won’t even know it. Oils MUST be kept refrigerated. If you walk into a really good natural foods store, you wil notice that the oils are in a refrigerated case. Rancid oils are oxydized and are a leading source of free-radicals in our diet. Free radicals are the nasty little fellows that have been blamed for cancer, Alzheimers, diabetes, and liver disease. Unfortunately, smell is not a good indication of an oil’s freshness, nor is taste. Play it safe and toss it out.
Now that your cupboards are bare, you’ll need to get to the shop and pick up new fats for your cooking. In place of margarine and shortening, use organic butter (from organically raised, preferably grass-fed cows or goats), coconut oil, or palm oil. I don’t recommend lard at all since pork in general can be very harmful to the body. I’ll go into that more as we progress. Palm oil is naturally full of antioxidants and high in Vitamin E, which plays a role in immune function, DNA repair, and metabolism. Coconut oil has been linked with increased metabolism (a friend of mine went off of thyroid replacement as a result of 1 tsp. per day of coconut oil), improvements in diabetes, anti-viral, anti-microbial properties, and one study from Nigeria indicated that coconut oil can reduce colonies of Candida.
In place of your liquid fats, get olive oil and canola oil. Make certain you are getting your oils at a health food store that refrigerates the oils. Avoid corn and soy oils. Corn oil is high in polyunsaturates and becomes toxic at high temperatures (cite: Stephen Acuff). Soybean oil can interfere with hormones, especially those of fertility and thyroid function (Dr. Mercola). In and of themselves, they may not be too horrible in small amounts, but our American diet has been inundated by both oils (and othe rproducts from these two plants) since WWII because they are cheap and easy to grow. Combine that with the sharp rise in chemicals used to produce both crops in the same time period and you begin to see that at least two generations of Americans have a toxic build-up and don’t even know it. Many naturopathic health professionals, and now many ‘conventional’ health professionals, are looking harder at these factors to determine what their roles may be in the rise of all sorts of diseases and disorders from cancers to ADHD and more.
So pull out the bins and fill them up with those nasty old fats! Get to the store and enjoy looking around at all the beautiful organic veggies and fruits on offer while you pick out your new fats for cooking. Check out the recipe card rack and see if you can’t find something delicious to try tonight. And don’t forget to put those lovely new fats into the fridge when you get home!
NOTE:: Once you’ve started eating fresh fats and more wholesome choices, you’ll be able to taste products containing hydrogenated and rancid oils. The taste difference becomes dramatic after a few weeks of change.
