Podcast Episode 29 – What’s the deal with oils?

[00:00:00] Shonda: Okay. So hey, what's the deal with oils and added fats?
[00:00:05] (Podcast introduction with music)
[00:01:05] Patryce: Wow. I'm glad we're talking about oils and fats, because I don't think we realize how important it is to eat the healthy oils and fats versus just consuming, whatever.
[00:01:20]Shonda: So, yeah, we all know that butter contains a high amount of calories and saturated fat, but did you know that most vegetable oils do also?
[00:01:31] Patryce: Wow. No.
[00:01:33] Shonda: Yeah. I mean the only thing that it doesn't contain that butter contains is cholesterol.
[00:01:37] Patryce: Okay. Yeah, that makes sense.
[00:01:39] Shonda: So that's a little step in the right direction, but there's really no reason to add oils to your diet. And we'll talk about that a little bit later. As far as flavor goes, because I have a lot of recipes that I use that are just as flavorful without added oils.
[00:02:00] Some of those are posted on the website, but we'll get to those a little later. I think the biggest thing about oils are well, In addition to adding just extra calories and extra fat to your diet, which, if you're trying to lose weight, you don't want those things.
[00:02:22] And without knowing it, you've added so many calories to your food that you weren't aware of. One tablespoon of oil is a hundred to 125 calories.
[00:02:36] Wow.
[00:02:37] You can eat a whole sweet potato for a hundred calories . Oils do not contain fiber, so they do not fill you up so you can consume them and consume them and consume them without realizing that you've gone overboard.
[00:02:51] Patryce: That's a good point. I'm thinking now about the days of the popcorn at the movie theater, then how it's great to get popcorn, but a lot of times just that pumping of that butter on top of it.
[00:03:06] Shonda: Yeah. Yeah. Just extra calories.
[00:03:10] But another thing, and I know many people don't think about this and it's just not something that, is highly known is that most oils contain excess Omega 6, and that's the fat that causes inflammation.
[00:03:31] Patryce: Wow. I did not make that connection.
[00:03:33]Shonda: And these are the top offenders that are in processed foods. Like, you know, chips and packaged foods, Baked goods, crackers, all these things.
[00:03:43] Patryce: The sweets...yeah. The buns/muffins ...
[00:03:46] Shonda: They're inexpensive and they also act as a preservative. So, but these are like corn oil, soybean oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, peanut oil, cotton seed oil, Sesame oil. These are used in a lot of those packaged foods and they have an excess of a mega six.
[00:04:11] Patryce: Which causes inflammation.
[00:04:14] Shonda: Think about it arthritis. That's just a natural trigger to think about, but you know, they're blocking your arteries. They're causing inflammation in those too.
[00:04:24] Patryce: Well, it's important to understand that, uh, these oils because of the Omega 6 content can equate to more inflammation in our body and you listed some practical things we want to avoid. We don't want to have arthritis. We don't want to have discomfort and pain.
[00:04:43]Shonda: When you buy those packaged foods, turn them over and look at the added ingredients, there's usually nine times out of 10 or even 9.9, there is an oil in that food. So added on top of that, you know, these are saturated fats and what they do in the body is they raise your LDL cholesterol, which is the bad cholesterol.
[00:05:12] Yeah. They immediately raise your blood triglyceride levels after meals. Hmm.
[00:05:20] So when we're cooking these oils there is more oxidation. It's an oxidized oil and that in our body is toxic. Okay. Yeah. So just like, um, if you leave an oil on your countertop too long, and I say it becomes rancid. Yeah. It's become oxidized. Ah, and that's not good for your body. So in the same way, cooking it at high temperatures causes oxidation of the fats that's in that food. So that's why we don't want to, you know, eat the oils that have been raised to these high temperatures.
[00:06:04]But in all reducing or eliminating oils is what I try to do. I mean, every now and then I use a little oil say, in the air fryer but I do not use oil in saut├®ing or cooking or salad dressings and things like that where they're just totally not necessary because there are options that are great options without it.
[00:06:27] You know, saut├®ing in water. I still get caramelized onions, saut├®ing in water. So, you know, you think that the oil is needed, but it's really not .
[00:06:40] Patryce: Great point and great tip about the onions.
[00:06:44] Shonda: Yeah. They always add flavor don't they?
[00:06:47]So we just thought that we'd talk about this a little bit, because there are benefits in reducing and eliminating oils. It results in taking in less calories, less saturated fat, those two things automatically create a lower body mass (lower your weight), right?
[00:07:10] Patryce: Should lend itself to a healthier heart.
[00:07:13] Shonda: Yeah. Yeah. And the lower LDL.
[00:07:17] Patryce: True.
[00:07:18] Shonda: Right. Lower blood pressure
[00:07:21] Patryce: That's important. The blood pressure.
[00:07:24] Shonda: Yeah. And I know blood pressure rises when you are in pain. So, I wonder if inflammation, you know, your body knows it's in pain and your blood pressure is higher. That's just a thought.
[00:07:36] Patryce: That's an interesting thought. And I'm glad you mentioned it though, because anything we can do to raise awareness about what might be triggering high blood pressure. I just wanted to sit there for a moment because so many people seem to be affected by high blood pressure. So many.
[00:07:55] Shonda: I know. I know there are many young people. I knew someone as young as in his teens that had high blood pressure.
[00:08:06] Patryce: No, I have not. Twenties, I did. I've heard of that. But see and I'm sure, uh, diet is something we need to look at as well as other healthy habits.
[00:08:17] But yeah. So this is another reason why to be intentional about our use or limiting our use even of, of oils.
[00:08:28] Shonda: Yeah, exactly. And one other thing to consider is, in addition to how it affects your blood pressure, is how oils affect your blood glucose level. Oils is a major contributor, and added fats, to diabetes.
[00:08:47] Wow. I don't know how many people know about that. Yeah, because they think they can't eat a baked potato or a whole grain rice or something like that. And it's not really the baked potato or the whole grain rice, or whole grain, pasta. Those are all things that are good, that will lower your glucose level because of the fiber. But the problem is that most people add butter, sour cream, cheese. Yeah. Yeah, you're adding all that fat on top. And I've heard many doctors explain it this way, that with all the extra fat circulating in the blood system, it prevents the glucose from getting into the cells.
[00:09:34] Patryce: Interesting. Wow. That's another reason to be mindful of what we're putting into our bodies, specifically having to do with the oils. Wow. Great points.
[00:09:46] Shonda: So if you're eating oils and salad dressings and sautes and potato chips and cookies and crackers and things, more calories are being consumed than one realizes. But guess what? You don't have to give up these foods. There are better ways to prepare those foods. For instance, like replacing the oils with apple sauce, you know? Yeah. Bananas and different things like that, that still will give it the moisture, but not the oil and the fat.
[00:10:22] Patryce: And that's a very good point. Yeah. So I think my sister, uh, mixes her pancakes for her children, primarily with bananas and one time she was out of bananas and made pancakes from avocado.
[00:10:38]Shonda: Yeah. So yeah, avocados, let's talk about good, healthy ways of getting fat. And when we look at the whole food plant-based categories, these come with added nutrients, added fiber they're just not empty calories. Nuts seeds, things like that they also have many, many more nutrients in them in addition to being a healthy, fat.
[00:11:07] Patryce: Well, that's all great information. Can we pause here though?
[00:11:11] And, and I'm just thinking about many people who may be listening, like myself. I used to be a salad dressing junkie, basically back in college. Um, I had some dressing with a little salad at times. But for example, just practically speaking, can you just quickly, what is a salad dressing you might whip up?
[00:11:34] Shonda: Okay. So one of my favorites is my cashew cilantro dressing, which contains whole cashews that are soaked, put them in a blender along with any seasonings that you like. But I like to put a lot of cilantro in there. You could use a fresh garlic or garlic powder, powdered onion, you know, your salt, your pepper, lemon juice, or really lime juice in this recipe and either water or a plant-based milk and just blend it up. And it's smooth and creamy and tasty
[00:12:15] Patryce: , Alternative to ranch, which used to be one of my favorite dressings way back when. Well, that sounds like a good one.
[00:12:22] You just shared. And then also you mentioned earlier about the example of the baked potato, because again, I'm thinking about practical information. And so many people eat the baked potato or even the rice and you put a pat of butter on there. Um, other things you can do, for example, for the big potato, top it with maybe hummus.
[00:12:42] Shonda: Yeah. And make sure that hummus is oil free. Just had to add that in there.
[00:12:48] Patryce: Yes. You can make it yourself with those garbanzo beans for sure and tahini.
[00:12:55] Shonda: Yeah a baked potato tastes great with an avocado. I'm telling you add an avocado, or some avocado in place of butter, you know, add that pat of avocado in place of butter.
[00:13:09] Patryce: Great alternative too, yeah. I just wanted to throw out some great practical examples. And I think that those are some good ones.
[00:13:17] Shonda: Oh yeah. Those are good things. And then we top our potatoes with broccoli still, you can do broccoli and a nutritional yeast, and an avocado.
[00:13:29] Or even one of the salad dressings. You can make a cashew cream sauce to go on top of that. There are many options. I know, and I know it takes a little bit of work or a little bit of forethought, you know, a little bit of planning, but it is just so well worth it.
[00:13:47] Patryce: It is worth it. I would not go back to my salad dressing junkie days ever.
[00:13:54] Shonda: Yeah, I know many people do make salads with the intention of making a healthy meal, but just not realizing that that salad dressing makes it a little less healthy with, with all that. And they're just great alternatives.
[00:14:14] So, yeah. We talked about saut├®ing in water instead of oil, eating oil-free salad dressings, and sauces, eliminating fried foods and chips and crackers and things that are made that way. There are other ways to make those things. I'll put some links in the show notes.
[00:14:31] Patryce: And then it just like so many things we've learned, it's about being more intentional.
[00:14:38] Shonda: Yeah. And just taking one step at a time.
[00:14:43] Patryce: Shonda you're so right , to encourage everyone listening and I'm encouraged that we can do this one step at a time. So just start by doing something differently and just being intentional about what we are doing and to be intentional about reading labels when we're buying things.
[00:15:04] So until next time be encouraged to just take one step at a time towards living a healthier lifestyle. To be aware of what kinds of oils we're consuming and just learning new ways to be intentional about better selection of oils and how to sometimes not even use oils, but still eat a nutritious and delicious meal.