If saturated fat is the most unhealthy part of cooking oils, then why don't we remove it?
I noticed that almost all types of cooking oil (vegetable oil, olive oil, peanut oil, etc) contain some saturated fat. Since saturated fat is known to be a contributor to heart disease, then could you simply remove the saturated fats from the oil to make it healthier?
Pretty sure this is how we ended up with Olestra; the oil substitute that gave people leaky anuses.
That's the problem with most substances with no caloric value, the body can't absorb it and tries to get rid of it by inducing the shits. Your colon is like: "Wtf is this dude eating mud?".
This is why those sugar-free gummy bears give people epic diarrhea, they are almost completely sugar replacements. The brain and nose/mouth love it, but the intestines can't do anything with it and want to get rid of it ASAP.
I'm not sure there is a way to fix this, which is kinda sad because I really want to lose weight, but also stress eat sweets.
Reverse chirality sugar may be a way forward, but nobody has figured out how to make it cheap in large quantities.
No, Olestra was a totally new compound that replaces fats. All I am suggesting is to separate the saturated fats and use the remaining oil.
We tried that in the 90s, it went poorly: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans_fat#History
I am not suggesting we add any additives, only to remove an existing fat from the mixture that makes up cooking oils.
It seems like the removing saturated fats part worked fine. They just messed it up by replacing them with trans fats which were even worse.
Saturated fat is good for you. Trans fats are the bad ones, those are unsaturated fats OR saturated fats that just become radicals. The cholesterol you get from eating is nearly nothing compared to the cholesterol your body makes out of sugar you overconsume.
My cholesterol has gone down to normal since I switched to an oil-less sugar-reduced diet. I use butter for veggies and lard for meats. Also, I only use whole-fat variants of diary.
It is generally recognized that high saturated fat consumption contributes to increases in LDL cholesterol. Trans fats are worse of course, but saturated fats in foods like hamburgers or ice cream are still a problem.
Interesting article on this: https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/5-studies-on-saturated-fat
The 7 Countries Study, upon which the hypothesis that saturated fat causes heart disease was based, has been proven to be highly flawed and misleading. Ancel Keys intentionally left out the data from many countries that contradicted his claims. During the last 20 years many studies have come out showing there's no correlation between saturated fat and heart disease, and pretty weak association between high LDL and heart disease. Obesity, insulin resistance and systemic inflamation are much higher predictors. And there's a lot of information to suggest seed oils - canola and soy bean oils especially - are quite harmful.
I'll chime in what comes to mind, since people don't really talk about the technicality here. I'm not sure how much is common knowledge and how much is more specific information but just some thoughts.
One of the first things that you should keep in mind is that "saturated fat" is not a very specific description. It is a colloquial term for saturated fatty acids. In (cooking) oil, these are predominantly found in a form called triglycerides. This is a glycerine backbone with three fatty acids that are connected via a covalent bond. So it is a molecule, not some loose attachment. (There are free fatty acids, but they are usually removed in raffination, since they are bad for quality. There is even a specific value that measures the content of these free fatty acids in oil, the higher, the worse the quality.) A triglyceride therefore looks somewhat like '-,-' with the vertical lines being the acids and the - being the backbone. Depending on the acids, the molecule takes .ore or less funky stereo shapes.
There are many different saturated fatty acids, monounsaturated, polyunsaturated fatty acids. They come in different lengths with the "unsaturation" at different places. If you take a specific oil - i.e. peanut oil - and look up its content you will find percentage ranges of different fatty acid or triglyceride contents. Because every batch of every oil is a new mixture with different contents of fatty acids and also, and especially, different triglycerides. A lot of it is stochastic, but there is some logic in that. For example, the middle position tends to be an unsaturated fatty acid, the outer ones saturated. Or sat-unsat-unsat, if you really go for it. Yes, there are triglycerides containing only saturated fatty acids. (MCT are actually quite popular for different reasons.) But mostly it is a mix. I'm not even sure if there are triple polyunsaturated fatty acid triglycerides, I think these are rare in natural oils.
Now, to remove all the saturated fatty acids, you would have to do harsh chemical treatment on all the triglycerides and actually split the molecule. You can do this, among other methods, by making soap, or making fatty acid methyl esters. Then you can remove all the saturated fatty acids. And then you can use the others to rebuild the bond with the glycerine. (You can, in theory, also make specific combinations of fatty acids in triglycerides. But we are talking about lab grade stuff here.)
Most people who want a healthy oil would not want this kind of harsh chemical treatment of their oil (think virgin olive oil). But apart from that: a triglyceride made solely of (poly)unsaturated fatty acids, let alone an oil made of these, would be not very stable or usable. Apart from maybe unfreezing small amounts and then using it in a salad you would hardly have any use for it. I also cannot, for the love of God, imagine the taste. The type of fatty acid and its position in the molecule largely determines the physical behavior of oils and are not just contributing, but basically creating quality aspects such as mouth feel, lightness, melting point or crystallization. Your best bet would be to make a supplement with that, not to use it as an actual ingredient in food.
Finally, this perfectly answers the question I had. Thank you!
To summarize:
Trans fat is the bad one and is even banned in many countries including the USA. It is formed as a byproduct when making many processed and fast foods.
You should get less than 2% of your fat calories from trans fat - preferably you should avoid them at all costs.
Saturated fat isn't as bad as trans but it's still not beneficial, the jury may still be out on exactly how bad it is, but it's not healthy so it should be limited.
You should get less than 10% of your fat calories from saturated fat
Unsaturated fat is healthy, it's good for you and it's required in our diet as our bodies need it and can't make our own.
According to this article, It is generally recognized that high saturated fat intake is associated with heart disease.
I think the cost/benefit ratio is the main issue. Splitting oils to remove the saturated fat is not a simple process, especially when the easier answer is “use an oil naturally lower in saturated fats” like rapeseed (canola).
You don't think they could market it as a healthier oil and sell at a higher price?
Eh I think they’re two different markets. If you prioritize health over taste, go for the cheaper, natural rapeseed. If you’re prioritising taste over health, most people are not going to be bothered by the sat fat, and would prefer an unadulterated flavour.
I believe you have to distil the oil, so it’s definitely going to be heated. You can be sure that the processing required to remove the sat fat is going to change the flavour and texture, while also somehow making it worse for you than either.
I think the point is those oils already exist and are cheaper than refining other oils.
We probably could, but I think it would be a lot of effort for a relatively small gain. If you're concerned about saturated fat intake, the most effective thing to do would be to cut back on meat and dairy products, since those are much more potent sources.
I'm no dietician, but I can't imagine cooking oil makes up a significant portion of saturated fat intake for most people, when you consider the popularity of dairy in all its forms in western cuisine.
no thanks, I prefer unrefined oils
If you want to live a perfectly healthy life, your food will be a paste or shake devoid of all enjoyment.
Life is finite and food that is enjoyable will never lead to a healthy life. I'll take the bacon over the misery of a life that ends in a bullet.
People who think like this, miss two important points in my opinion:
But for me personally it is worth it. I would much rather eat some backed veggies with a glass of milk and tasty fruits for a dessert in the evening, than go to a dirty cramped place and eat shitty cardboard-like dog food that they serve at McDs
I will add to this that WORST case if you just eliminated fast food and Soda / fruit drinks you'd almost automatically be eating healthy.
I don't eat like a rabbit, but just not indulging in the bottom tier garbage keeps me heathy while still enjoying my food.
I will agree with OP that there is a threshold where you try to eliminate every single bad thing where it just becomes exhausting and hinders enjoyment of life. But that's way down the line.
Start without McDonald's and Coke and see where life takes you.
Well said. Quality over quantity I always say.
Lobbyists
That could be true for meat and dairy industries but I fail to see how removing saturated fat would be a threat to Big Vegetable Oil.