Damaged/Altered (Toxic) Fats and Oils

Much of our dietary unsaturated fat is toxic by being processed

If the temperature of a fat or oil is increased beyond its melting point enough to cause smoking, the molecular structure of the oil will change and a number of toxic molecular isomers will be produced in the oil.   These remaining even after the oil cools down and/or resolidifies.

-   The temperatures where this damage occurs is about half the temperatures reached in the refining and hydrogenation processes of fats and oils.   These processes destroy all of the nutritional value of our fats and oils for the sake of an extremely long shelf life.    Some of these are in virtually unspoilable, “forever” foods. (Think Twinkies®);

-   Most people are now aware of the presence of trans fats, but general use of this term refers to a slew of altered/toxic fats, NONE OF WHICH OCCUR IN NATURE.   These include cross-linked fatty acids, oxidized fatty acids, double-bond shifted fatty acids, fat-derived polymers, fat oxidation products, and others. Trans fats are only one form of malformed fats. 

Damaged fats are mostly found in processed or heated polyunsaturated and even predominately monounsaturated oils (E.g. corn, soybean, canola, sunflower, safflower, peanut, sesame and olive oil ):

•  Refined, high-temperature extracted, antioxidant-poor, vegetable seed oils (with potentially inflammatory high Omega-6 content, if not consumed in balance with Omega-3  fat) and in processed foods containing these oils.   Typical grocery store oils in clear plastic bottles contain 0.5 to 1.0% damaged, extremely toxic molecules (although this seems like a small percentage, according to calculations by fat expert Dr. Udo Erasmus, author of "Fats that kill, fats that heal", this is more than enough to have harmful health consequences).

•  Hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated unsaturated oils and products containing them.   E.g. margarine, shortening (e.g. Crisco)

•  Fryer oils and foods fried in them.   Especially when oil is reused;

Oxygen /Light /Heat exposure oxidizes unsaturated oils (i.e. makes them rancid)

Of these three, light is the most damaging, causing rancidity 1000 times more rapidly than oxygen. Consuming damaged oils uses up the body's fat-soluble, free-radical protecting, antioxidant supplies (E.g. vitamins A, D, E and K).

Oxygen / peroxidation.    Oil is damaged when oxygen combines with the weak carbon bonds of its unsaturated fatty acids, causing them to break apart into fragments, called lipid PEROXIDES, which produce free radicals. A created free radical, with its unpaired electron, starts a chain reaction which can propagate hundreds of thousands more free radicals and possible broken double carbon bonds, ultimately causing the oil to become rancid.

Light.   Light can increase peroxidation rate by up to 1000 times.

Heat.    Trans fatty acids (tFAs) and other altered, unatural fatty acids start to form when heated over 320°F. At 392°F they form substantially, and at 428°F they form exponentially. Unsaturated fatty acids become mutagenic (i.e. can damage our genes) when heated above 320°F.  Typically grocery-store, solvent-extracted  polyunsaturated oils typically use a temperature of 464 - 482° F in the steam distillation /deodorization stage of processing, which forms trans fatty acids from unsaturated oils at about 1% or less per hour.