Are You in Need of an Oil Change?

Over the last century or so we have been in the midst of a coup d'etat by the vegetable oil companies of our food system.

A coup d'état (English: /ˌkuːdeɪˈtɑː/, French: [ku deta]; plural: coups d'état), or coup, putsch or overthrow, is the sudden unconstitutional deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either civil or military. A coup d'état succeeds when the usurpers establish their legitimacy if the attacked government fails to thwart them, by allowing their (strategic, tactical, political) consolidation and then receiving the deposed government's surrender; or the acquiescence of the populace and the non-participant military forces.

Foods our ancestors have eaten since the beginning, even thrived on for generations have been pushed aside to make way for new, technologically advanced "food".  One of the BIGGEST changes that has taken place during this time is the types of oil/fat we consume. Butter, lard, tallow, coconut oil and other traditional fats have become the victums of the coup d'etat by highly refined, purified, and even chemically altered vegetable oils. We too are the victums.


If you traveled the world and ate in rural China they would serve you food made with lard, if you went to Thailand everything would be cooked in coconut oil, in India they use ghee and coconut oil and if you decided to visit the Hunza in northern Pakistan they would serve you food with butter and goat fat. Oh and when you ended your trip in Italy and Greece you can bet you will be eating olive oil.

Oils have been an important part of the human diet for generations. The most common being the ones easiest to obtain - butter, coconut oil, animal fats, palm oil and olive oil.

Vegetable oils that we eat today began as industrial oils. One of the drawbacks of polyunsaturated oils is that they become rancid (oxidize) quickly but this was advantageous for industrial use. You see when oils oxidize they harden and a thin layer could become an impervious shell - voila'! Paint! Varnish! Paint Thinner! Lacquer! Linoleum! Yum! Before WWII soybean and other polyunsaturated oils were used almost exclusively for industrial purposes.

What happened? Well someone came up with a cheaper way to make  paint and the seed oil industry was losing $$. Farmers were experimenting on ways to make their animals fatter on less expensive feed. By increasing the fat content of the feed the animals would gain more weight and bring bigger profits with lesser expense. Brilliant, right? WRONG.

What went wrong? Well, the farmers discovered that corn and soybean oil not only added more calories but also had an antithyroid effect and they were developing tumors and had other degenerative health problems. Diseased cattle do not sell well so they stopped using vegetable oils.

Once again the seed oil industry was loosing $$. Some unbelievable marketing then turned what the cattle industry had turned down into FOOD FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION. Luckily for them it was just about the time saturated fats began to get a bad rap. They were able to market this "food" as being heart healthy.

The problem we now all face is that what the oils did to the cattle is now happening to us - we are becoming increasingly fatter and more unhealthy. Thousands of years of eating saturated fats have had no harmful effects, but as soon as we replaced them with polyunsaturated vegetable oils waistlines have gotten fatter, cancer diabetes and other degenerative diseases have shot through the roof.


Look at your labels, do you use margarine, shortening and vegetable oils in your cooking? It is everywhere! If farm animals became fat and developed horrible diseases eating this stuff do you really want to be putting it in your body??

Time for an oil change don't you think?
 (source)


This post is my contribution to Two for Tuesdays Blog Hop! Come join the fun and link up! Don't know what a Blog Hop is? Look here to find out!

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I am also linking this to Breastfeeding Moms Unite's Vegetarian Foodie Fridays
and Food Renegade's Fight Back Friday