This is one of the most common questions I get: why don’t you recommend oil, even olive oil?
I can understand feeling frustration when you try to remove something from your diet, it happened to me too in the past, but we must examine the issue of consuming oils objectively.
To start with, the simple answer: Oil is 100% fat with no protein or carbohydrate, and very tiny amount of other nutrients. Look at the label at the back of any bottle of oil to confirm this.
The print screen below from the nutrition data website shows the properties of 100g of olive oil.
The next question generally is: But don’t we need some fat in our diet?
Yes, we do. Fat is an important nutrient that serves a wide variety of functions in our health, but refined oils are stripped of the fibre, protein, carbohydrates, and ten thousand other chemicals originally found in the plants from which they were derived; leaving an unbalanced fractional product that is simply not healthy.
Refined oils are not food. At best, they can be used as medications, causing some desirable effects; at worst, they are serious toxins that cause illness.
In contrast, whole-food fats eaten moderately in the form of seeds, avocados, fresh nuts, or young coconut flesh, provide a more complete nutrition and are not automatically detrimental to our health.
Refined oils (including coconut, flax, olive, hemp, almond, borage, etc.) are essentially empty calories, calories without nutrition.
Oils represent one of the most concentrated sources of calories available. One tablespoon of olive oil, for instance, contains 120 calories of 100% pure fat.
By contrast, one medium banana provides you with 105 calories, with only 4% of its calories from fat, which is similar to most fruits, with the exception of a few “fatty fruits”, notably the avocado and olives.
The idea that olive oil can be somehow “heart healthy” as some studies suggests is a myth and research in this field needs to be properly understood.
Studies made on the Mediterranean diet have only shown that consuming olive oil lowers LDL cholesterol when it replaces animal fats, like butter and cheese.
But adding olive or other vegetable oils to an otherwise healthy diet only increases LDL levels.
If you are concerned about Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids, ALL whole foods contain them to a certain degree, and in the perfect omega 3/6 ratio.
Only plants can synthesize omega-3 and omega-6 fats.
We, like all animals, must get these essential fats directly, by eating plants, or indirectly, by eating animals that ate the plants and stored these essential fats in their tissues.
Fish, for instance, store the omega-3 fats made by algae although fish cannot synthesize this kind of fat.
Now, does this mean you can never have a splash of olive oil? If you’re an active person that burns a lot of calories, a bit of olive oil in your salads probably won’t hurt you. But it’s better leave it out altogether.
Try giving up oil and you’ll notice that you will feel less heavy.
If you crave something fatty, try eating nuts, seeds, avocado, or some fresh, young coconut meat that will make you feel better without compromising your health.
I believe It’s OK to crave some fat from time to time, but its NEVER OK to “love” fat.
You can love avocados or other fatty foods by all means, but loving fat means you probably have a fat addiction, which is not too different from loving heroin or cocaine.
Fats shut off emotions. We tend to handle emotional pain by eating fatty, hard-to digest “comfort foods” that numb our feelings.
The solution to this problem lies in trying to understand your sentiments aside from food.
How to Transition to an Oil-Free Diet
By eating a low fat, raw diet where most of your calories come from fruit, you eliminate the need to cook or otherwise add oil to your diet, except as an option for salad dressings.
For such a case, it’s better to resort to using wholefood sources of fat, such as avocado, seeds, and nuts instead.
On top of avoiding gaining extra weight, the benefits of eliminating oil from the diet are myriad, and you will feel many of them immediately.
You’ll have more energy and you may notice that your mood improves too, since eating more whole carbohydrates means an increase in serotonin production.
Your assimilation of foods may also improve as a consequence of not consuming oil, as oil makes digestion sluggish.
In my experience, an oil-free, fruit based, low fat, raw diet is the only diet where I can eat as much food as I want, without worrying about quantities, and yet, stay at my ideal weight.
Eating out is a major stumbling block when trying to quit oil as, more often than not, restaurant food is loaded with added oil and extra salt, that isn’t necessary in line with healthy eating.
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29 Responses
This article made an overlooked good point about oils
Thanks
Awesome article. Just what I needed to read to get me back on track. Thank-you.
I was told unrefined coconut oil and ghee butter was very healthy.
It’s a good point about oils. However, I favor a whole, raw foods, balanced diet. With plenty of vegetables and greens!
Fruit-based, long term, not so good. If you look at the statistics, people who eat a fruit-based raw foods diet have much higher than normal amounts of tooth decay. Common to lose their teeth at an early age!
Thanks for your comment. That’s not true about tooth decay. It’s actually the opposite. Cooked and processed foods are worse for your teeth.
I had a friend who was doing raw and fruitarian and his teeth eventually became dislodged from his gums. He switched to a vegan diet to heal the problem.
Could you comment on coconut oil being used to turn around Alzheimers?
I would also like a comment made on this, and possibly some referencing to research articles would be good too.
Love this article!
Thanks Ariel
Monounsaturated acid fats are proved to reduce LDL (bad cholesterol) and total cholesterol, and it raises HDL (good cholesterol). These are the healthy fats that you can find in avocados (65%) and olive oil (up to 83% of its content). That´s the reason why olive oil is not empty calories. Including olive oil in your diet have a positive impact on cardiovascular health. It is also proven to reduce insulin resistance (prevent diabetes) and lower blood pressure among other advantages. All the fats and oils are high on calories (all of them provide 9 Kcal/g). Still, I recommended to include olive oil in the diet in moderation. Even better if it is extra virgin olive oil, which is healthier (because it has other natural components, and it is not refined) and has a great taste.
No, this is that misunderstanding of the research that the author of this article was talking about. Olive oil is just better than animal fats but it’s still doing some damage to our health.
This is not based on one single study. You can find plenty of evidence that backs what I’m saying. What do you mean when you say it does damage to our health?
True
In your opinion! https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19858733
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29141571
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29511019 I doubt you will post anything that goes against your “research”
Agree! more cancer has gone into remission using cold pressed flaxseed oil than any other modality!
Juan, Show where people around the world got their olive oil from that has no olive trees, I live in a countruy that has not one. How did we survive for thousands of years without olive oil. we only got it when modern transportation became avaliable.
I didn’t say you can not survive without consuming olive oil. I just said that it is healthy included in a balanced diet.
google “no oil” by dr. essylestien.
I just did, and that’s what I read. A paragraph with 5 lines with not a single reference nor further explanation. He seems to assume that people eat oils or fats on their own, which is absurd. Oils and fats are used to cook other ingredients and make them tastier and more appealing to eat. It also gives you more options to make your diet varied and less boring.
http://www.dresselstyn.com/site/why-does-the-diet-eliminate-oil-entirely/
This is amazing! Comparing fat addiction to cocaine when sugar from fruits is far more biologically similar. Gotta get that sweet dopamine from somewhere, and it ain’t from olive oil. Please keep up the articles, they are meant to be comical right? Or did I get the wrong idea?
Yes I think you did get the wrong idea since the sugar in fruit is also accompanied by fiber which contributes to decreases the sugar absorbion rate, with great impact in blood sugar levels, so it’s not the same as eating plain sugar
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29141571
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5436092/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26148926
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5745680/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3824958/
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/320352.php
https://thesternmethod.com/budwig-diet/
So what can I use in the pan when cooking ?
I use water or veg broth.
you can even fry without oil. look up the topic on you tube. all you need not stick pan , medium heat and cover. after it burn little add water and it will be soft and looked fried. i do it with all kind of vegetables , mushrooms with good
result.
Learn to observe your body. There are too many health coaches and too many of them say too many different things. Don’t get paranoid about what other people say about the nutrition and diets.
Load of rubbish !!!
from my reserches on google scholar raw vegan food is the only vegan « diet » that can cause heath problem on a long term do you have peer reviewed studies that says something else?? or a studies on this fat thingd?
( oh and avocados is an ecological disaster, is part of the problem not of the solution imo)
ty
Wow so many misinformed. Key word “refined” pure cold pressed unrefined oil Not olive, what say ye
And raw food vegans are the most unhealthy
I just peed my pants from laughing
Raw food is 1000’s of yrs old
Fire is new
Soooooooo your point
Do your research ppl
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