Summary
When you and AllHat say “vegetable oil”, do you mean " oils made from vegetables" or the sort of genetic vegetable oil blend?
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We have made spaghetti and the chicken & smashed potatoes! Today we picked up sausages, chicken satay skewers and some diced steak so I need to pull out the slow cooker to make beef stew tomorrow. I also need to check use-by date on the tofu, maybe that is tomorrow’s lunch.
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Do you have any cooking technique advice for your olive oil system? I’d wanna try it, but I feel like I’d burn everything? My stove doesn’t have much nuance between “gently warm to room temp” and “everything is charred,” so that could be relevant.
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Oil
Both?
So about twenty years ago I remember food science would list out which oils were better and worse for you but that if you used any of them incorrectly you’d die. Hyperbole, but lots of scare tactics.
More recently the information that I’m seeing about diet and health is looking at population studies in groups that use little to no cooking oil or animal products AND at groups using therapeutic interventions that use absolutely no oil or animals. And then I’m also looking at information in diet patterns before the disease develops or when it presents.
My interpretation of the huge meta reading is that:
we have proof that for a lot of diseases, removing oil from the diet is a piece of a therapeutic intervention
For many of these diseases we can pinpoint higher intakes of certain fats and oils: trans fats, generic vegetable oils, soybean oil, corn oils as increasing risk of of diseases
Same oil list above is associated with increased oxidative stress and increased inflammation
Some fats and oils don’t seem to be associated with the increased risks, I.e. olive oil.
Coconut oil doesn’t seem to be associated with the same risks as other vegetable oils but is saturated fat which has other risks, plus I don’t like how it tastes in most things. It is probably healthier for higher heat cooking than olive oil. Canola and sunflower seed oils are also better at a higher heat/deep frying than olive oil but are associated with increased inflammation
A lot of these anti oil people suggest not using any cooking oil and water sautéing. However I don’t currently feel that my little family is high risk for allll the diseases yet. And hopefully by minimizing the oil we stay low risk without going full orthorexic or giving up all food out of the house. The current immediate heartburn is a powerful motivator on a daily basis, and also the pain hangovers I’ve gotten make me feel that this or the right thing to do for my body for now.
The fact that I am growing small people makes me very wary about fully giving things up. But reducing and not making a big deal about it seems fine to me.
@Bernadette I dip my little brush into my jar of oil and brush it on the pan right before I add the ingredients. Usually the first thing in my pan is onions or another vegetable. As they release water they continue to not stick, but if it looks a little dicey I dribble some water in as they are releasing water.
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Summary
I have been trying to do this a lot more over the past few years, making things from scratch to have less ingredients, and especially making all salad dressing (except when I splurge on primal kitchen dressing which is so good but $$$). I don’t know where I stand on the “all oil is bad unless it’s avocado or olive oil” but I’m of the mindset that if it doesn’t hurt me to remove it from my diet, then I am willing to make the swap…I personally don’t taste avocado oil, so that swap didn’t bother me. I tend to use olive oil in my dressings/most cooking, and avocado oil in baking (or coconut if that favor will vibe with what I’m making). I grew up in a house where everything was made from scratch for the most part, and we barely had any oils to speak of (my mom baked with applesauce for the most part) so I think I might be more used to this than some people.
It is hard though with processed/pre-made foods! Mayo made from avocado oil is so much more expensive, and I’m not at a place in my life where I care to make it from scratch. Almost every cracker you can buy has seed oil in it, and the ones that don’t are SO expensive. So I make exceptions here and there, my favorite almond flour crackers have sunflower oil and it is what it is…I eat them once or twice a week and it’s probably fine.
It is kind of wild how once you start reading labels in some favorite pre-made condiments and processed foods just how many ingredients there are, and like…completely unnecessary things! I think it’s good to be mindful of that the majority of the time but then also have times where it’s like…yeah I don’t care I just really want this dill pickle ranch salad kit today haha.
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Grocery shopping after work today. One of the stores here has avocadoes for 25 cents this week - so I am going to load up. I have been eating avocadoes like whoa lately. Can you freeze guac, or will it be disgusting?
Meal plan
- burrito bowls and/or actual burritos
- mango avocado tofu bowls, if I can find cheap mangoes. If not, then perhaps honey sriracha tofu.
- vegan etouffee?
- roasted balsamic veg pasta
- vegan dirty rice
Chickpea salad
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you can freeze guac, I recommend in ziplocs and flattened out. I’ve also seen avocado halves lightly brushed with lemon juice and then frozen on cookie sheets with a silpat or parchment paper and then stored in freezer bags for smoothies.
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That’s why I use avocado oil! It has a much higher smoke point, you can’t really use olive oil at super high heats.
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When you say super high heat, I tend to use it on medium/medium high (as much as that’s possible on my stove top): could that be the issue?
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Thanks @Elle ! More discussion of specific food ingredients/nutrition/diet/eating plans
This is great info, thank you! That’s fascinating that it decreased your pain. I wonder if it’s the oil itself or the high fat content? I think my first plan of attack will be to switch all my vegetable oil to avocado oil and see if that makes a difference for me culinarily. I am concerned about canola oil, mainly, but I already use olive oil and sesame oil and avocado oil and like those a lot. I don’t use jarred tomato sauce/pasta sauce but I do use canned crushed tomatoes to make my own- it’s ok but not ideal. My idea for that is to maybe do a real big girl cookin’ day and go out to Amish country for like, a pallet of tomatoes, and cook them down and can them. IDK though, I think the hardest part would be estimating, because I go through a prolific amount of tomatoes. I’m not sure I really have enough space to store a year’s worth!
Anecdotally, I have heard of people decreasing pain with really diametrically opposed diets (high fat + low carb AND lower fat + higher carb) and also with various supplements, like curamin (did nada for me but I tried). I’m personally also really interested in the impact of ethnicity on what fuels us well. I’ve tried a lot of different “diets” (not to lose weight but just to see how I feel on them) because of other claims so I’m not averse to self-experimentation (get your mind out of the gutter!). Haha.
One thing I’ve found to be pretty consistent is that I feel best with higher fat and moderate carbs and for added ease my husband is the exact opposite. I’ve always wondered if there’s some genetic component to that because we don’t have any heritage directly in common AFAIK. The most extreme diet I ever did was raw vegan and I don’t know if I’ve ever spent so much money on raw nuts in my life, haha, it was intense. I felt pretty good but I had to eat basically all day long to get enough calories and I still lost a lot of weight, it was crazy. At one point someone rolled up to my desk for help with something and I was just eating a 3 lb. sack of broccoli and they were like, “r u ok?”
Standard vegetarian I was on for a long time, and I thought I felt good until I actually started eating meat and felt wayyyyy better and had some longterm health issues disappear. I did vegan for a bit too, and that was fine taste-wise (as in, I enjoy all kinds of foods) but I really didn’t feel great and I actually noticed my pain go way up in a way I didn’t experience with vegetarian. I think it was the absence of butter and cheese, which I rely on pretty heavily. Paleo was fabulous for me- I just missed rice and beans, but other than that it was pretty awesome for me personally. My body doesn’t do super well on tofu, tempeh, or seitan, but I like the taste of all three- DH on the other hand loves them and feels great eating them. He can also eat wayyyyyyy more carbs than me in general- I buy a loaf of bread a week that’s just for him!
I’m curious if you’ve read anything about ethnicity and diet? I know it’s a kind of, tiptoe-y topic because you don’t want to get into gross generalities but I’ve always wondered if that’s a component because…we did evolve in slightly different conditions, right?
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Yep, it could be! Usually over like 330 F and olive oil will start to smoke a bit. Olive oil really isn’t made for heavy duty cooking so much as dressing and light sautéing or baking- more like sesame oil (which is even more delicate in terms of flavor destruction IMO- I use it almost exclusively for dressing. Some olive oils are resistant to higher heats but it’s usually because they are less pure.
Also if anyone is interested in the super shady world of olive oil I recommend the book Extra Virginity as it gives a great historical overview of the food as well as interesting insights into what is packaged as “olive oil” today.
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Interesting! Will have to experiment.
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Yeah that’s the only way really, especially because stoves can be so different in terms of what “medium” is.
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Summary
This is interesting because my husband and I ARE ethnically quite similar and we both do best on the same kind of macro allocation (higher fat, lower or moderate carbs depending). We’re both predominantly Irish, then English and Scandinavian for me, German for him. Aka lots of the same Genetic Soup there, historically.
My GI health is substantially better the more I avoid the most refined vegetable oils.
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Gosh yes not to mention the frequency of olive oil adulteration. Decent odds you’re not cooking with very much olive oil at all in the US 
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Oil
This isn’t something I think about all the time, but a couple years ago this chart came across my radar:
I resent the use of the designator “healthy” but it does actually relate to nutritional content (omega 3s and MUFAs/Omega 9) pretty well.
After looking into related materials (eg Omega-3-6-9 Fatty Acids: A Complete Overview) I ended up switching to (refined) sunflower or safflower for cooking and baking, and sticking with olive for dressings. Avocado was just too expensive for me to justify, but I figured a step up from Canola was good.
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@Bracken_Joy
That’s really interesting! I mean it sort of makes sense, right? IDK, maybe it’s all coincidence, haha, but it’s something I’ve wondered.
@galliver
Thank you! This is very helpful. Although I love me some saturated fat, haha!
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Summary
Most of what I’ve read about ethnicity and diet either focuses on something small like milk digestion, or just says something about how OBVIOUSLY we evolved differently in different regions but then what? And also that data wouldn’t be the most helpful for me because of how mixed I am!
Like you and your husboo I thrive on a different diet which makes complete sense - like he is only 2 generations of fuckery away from his ancestral diet and so he knows what it is and does super well on high meat and dairy and fat. I need a shit ton of plants. And so we try and let our kid figure out his own needs which seem really high animal to me! At two he eats more animals than I ever have! Because my meat eating house growing up was lower meat.
The biggest thing I see that’s consistent is that most humans do best on more whole foods than not, and often on either loads of plants and lower fat or loads of animals and higher fats. And that the philosophy of the two groups mean that they rarely like to admit it. I listen to Ranjan Chaterjee a lot because he invites guests from both sides and agrees with both and advocates figuring things out for your own body.
There’s also interesting stuff about gut micro biome and what we do best with.
Hahahaha I’m sure we’ve all said so much sketchy stuff that Michael and Aubrey from maintenance phase would shred us.
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Haha, totally
That makes sense! I’ve read about lactose intolerance related to ethnicity as well as super high or exclusive animal product diets but not much else. It’ll be interesting to see what your kiddo likes, diet wise. I’ve never heard of Zanjan Chaterjee, will look up!
LOL, yes. They are very establishment tho so it’s ok and to be expected, and they’re funny and seem cool so freebie.
Yeah, I definitely agree with that. I think processed foods are probably not ideal for most people at most times.
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Grocery shopping at the other chain here resulted in a bill that was, off the top of my head, $30-$40 cheaper than we’ve been ending up. $140 and change. I think for roughly the same amount of food? Though, thinking about it more, Boyfriend didn’t buy any shrimp and I am not sure how much meat he got.
Didn’t hurt that the vegan sausage wouldn’t ring up. I told the guy I thought it was $5.99 but he charged me $3. OK then!
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