Tag: safflower oil

Seed Oil Invasion

My virulent response to sunflower oil in food has me noticing a seed oil invasion when I shop. It could be that seed oils have always been present to this extent and I failed to notice. It could also be that they are contained in more foods now than ever before.

Vibrant sunflower field with a single hand reaching skyward amongst blooms under a clear sky

Seed oils are plant based which can make them sound healthy. To make things additionally confusing, they are sometimes found in minimally processed foods that are labeled as healthy alternatives to ultra processed foods.

And who thinks of bread, bagels, and granola as ultra processed food? Not most of us. And yet many brands are chock full of seed oils.

Are seed oils good for you? https://health.clevelandclinic.org/seed-oils-are-they-actually-toxic

In theory, they could be acceptable. But most often they are bleached, refined, and heated to help with taste and shelf-life. Such processing eliminates the potential health benefits and leaves oils with high levels of omega-6 fatty acids. While the body needs some omega-6s, this is problematic.

If you have too much omega-6 in your system, it upsets the ratio of omega-6s to omega-3s and causes inflammation. The ideal ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 is 2:1 or 1:1. For most Americans, the actual ratio is a staggering 10:1 and sometimes 20:1. And people keep asking if inflammation is to diet. With these numbers, it seems like the question answers itself.

The numbers also suggest seed oils are a big problem for lots of people besides me. If you have recurring abdominal cramping, bloating, gas, constipation, and diarrhea and can’t identify the source, you may want to see how much seed oil you are ingesting.

I know I’ve written about label reading ad nauseum, but I’m about to do it again.

The only way to know whether a packaged food contains seed oil is to read the label. I know it’s time consuming and not fun, but label reading can save you a lot of painful symptoms when you have food intolerance or allergies. And it can help you reduce the possibility of inflammation.

What you’re looking for are things like canola, cottonseed, grapeseed, sesame, soybean, sunflower, and safflower oil. Many characterize corn oil, rice bran oil, and peanut oil as seed oils, but peanut oil has fewer omega-6 fatty acids than others on this list.

Even though seed oils are pervasive, you will still have options to explore. Coconut, palm, and avocado oils are not considered seed oils. Neither is olive oil.

But before you start a journey to eliminate seed oils from your diet, be prepared – especially if you love chips and fries. It can be hard to locate chips that are fried in olive or avocado oil. And you may have to order something besides fries with your burger or risk a tummy ache.

I wish my favorite almond crackers hadn’t been invaded by seed oil. I feel the same about my favorite packaged popcorn. Even the doughnuts I used to order for my sister’s visits have been invaded. Again, the reality may be this has always been true and I’m just now noticing.

Or it could be we’re under siege from seed oils!

And/Or Sunflower Oil

Four little words – and/or sunflower oil. Does it really matter whether a cracker, cereal bar, or chip contains avocado, canola, corn, palm, safflower, soybean, or sunflower oil?

It does to me. That little and/or business has frustrated and mystified my search for foods that cause adverse reactions. If not for a particular accidental order of events, I’d still be wondering why potato chips sometimes make me ill and sometimes don’t.

I thought I couldn’t tolerate corn, popcorn, potatoes, almonds, cashews, and some gluten-free oats. I puzzled over the reason crackers with essentially identical ingredients caused very different responses and why a particular brand might bother me sometimes and not others. I eliminated foods right, left, and upside down only to continue having symptoms.

I mostly chocked intermittent reactions up to excessive burden. In other words, I’d probably eaten too many slightly irritating things at the same time which created an excessive burden on my system causing a reaction. That was my allergist’s go-to explanation when he was unable to explain an allergic response.

That explanation lives in the back of my mind. But should it? Or is there always a direct line that can be traced if we can just isolate a problem ingredient or combo?

I don’t know the answer. And given labeling standards plus the way in which elimination diets are often practiced, it’s going to be hard to get to something definitive. That is unfortunate because for health, comfort, and quality of life, individuals NEED TO KNOW the specific things that are problematic and what foods, drugs, supplements, etc. contain those things.

In that sense, and/or doesn’t cut it. Which is it? What is it? Is it in this food or not? I need to know…definitively.

Of course I understand I can only know what’s in a food if I make it. I’ve written those words countless times. But on occasion I must navigate restaurant food, parties, and events.

It’s difficult for hosts and considerate friends to keep up with a lengthy list of everchanging things they can’t feed me. And a list that frequently changes back and forth starts to look suspect, lending a certain credence to the skeptical who believe dietary restrictions are made up.

This lands as another frustration on top of the frustration of feeling bad while doing your best to avoid problematic foods. Could the food industry make things easier? Of course. But it would eat into their profit and give them less flexibility. Given ingredient shortages, supply chain difficulties, and inflation, it’s doubtful that fighting for more specific labeling standards would be a winning option at this moment.

The best you can do is write it down. Make a list of suspect foods. Compare and contrast over and over and over again until you find the commonality. This can lead you to problem ingredients. Starting with words like and/or and eliminating ingredients on either side of the phrase can help save a lot of time, especially when you’re experiencing intermittent reactions.

And since I began this post with oil, remember that vegetable oil is a very wide category and analyze accordingly. I hope you arrive at the answer more quickly than I did!

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