Why “Heart-Healthy” Oils May Be Hurting Your Metabolism

For decades we have been locked in a battle against fat. First in the food, now in the body. For years the fat in food was vilified as a root cause of heart disease, but today we know better. Now we understand that sugar and processed carbs are the root cause of inflammation, which causes heart disease. But not all fat in food is good.

In fact, from the low-fat diet trends of the '90s (which was a disaster) to the high-fat ketogenic diets of today, there has been a lot of conflicting information out there about how much fat to include in your diet and what is right for your body and for weight loss. Let’s be clear: fats have a place in every healthy, balanced diet. They are essential for giving your body energy, absorbing certain nutrients, protecting your organs, and helping your body regulate temperature. Fats also add delicious flavor and texture to food and help to slow down hunger, which contributes to the feeling of satiety (being full). But that does not really address the question of what is good and what is bad, and how much is enough.

So, let’s start with the basic understanding that there are two types of fat, sort of; that’s good for our discussion. The main types of fats in foods are unsaturated fats and saturated fats, and each type has different characteristics and different effects on your health.

Unsaturated fats include monounsaturated fats (MUFAs) and polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs). These types of fats are liquid at room temperature and are found in many plant-based and fish-based foods. Naturally occurring unsaturated fats can improve blood cholesterol levels, which can decrease your risk of heart disease.

Examples of monounsaturated fats include certain oils (olive, peanut, sesame, safflower), avocados, peanut butter, and many nuts and seeds. Examples of polyunsaturated fats include soybeans and tofu, corn, sunflower seeds and oil, ground flaxseed, fatty fish, and walnuts.

Polyunsaturated fats are divided into two primary categories, both of which are essential for brain function, cell growth, and overall wellness. These are the Omega-3 Fatty Acids: known for reducing inflammation, lowering triglycerides, and supporting heart health. We find them in fatty fish (salmon, sardines, mackerel, trout), chia seeds, flaxseeds, and walnuts. Then there’s the Omega-6 Fatty Acids: essential for brain function and muscle growth, but beneficial only in moderation.

But these are naturally occurring fats. What about the vegetable oils you find for cooking?

The oils that most Americans use for cooking are not the same as the unsaturated oils found in nature. Unlike naturally occurring fats, they are proinflammatory because they are higher in omega-6 fats and low in the anti-inflammatory omega-3 fats. About 96% of all vegetable oils sold in the US come from soybean oil, followed by corn oil, canola oil (made from rapeseed), and cottonseed oil.

The manufactured vegetable oils are extremely bad for your health, and they are fiercely protected by the food industry. Nonetheless, seed oils undergo heavy processing because the seeds themselves yield very little natural oil. Manufacturers must use industrial petroleum-based chemical solvents (hexane), high-heat deodorization, and chemical bleaching in order to get them to their “consumable” status.

The term consumable I am, of course, using loosely. That’s because the actual process of making these oils is shocking. First, the seeds are crushed and soaked in hexane in order to dissolve and extract most of the oil. Then chemicals, such as sodium hydroxide, are added to remove the gums and impurities. What you are left with is a foul-smelling oil, which must be subjected to extreme heat to mask the odor. You are left with an off-colored oil that must be bleached to achieve a uniform color. This whole process kills off the good omega-3 fats and, in return, increases the trans fat content.

Still think they are ok to use? Well, here are a few additional problems. Seed oils may cause insulin resistance, and one study found they are linked to diabetes. Studies also occasionally detect trace levels of hexane residue in oils; these are neurotoxins. Obviously, the high heat used to make the oils will increase the oxidative damage to the oil. This increases the free radical damage and may be especially damaging to your mitochondria. Then, the excessive omega-6 to omega-3 ratio is going to increase inflammation, which will significantly increase the risk of disease.

The crazy thing is that the American Heart Association recommends canola oils and soybean oils over saturated fats! So, that would mean that the AHA does not have your best interest at heart (pun intended), not even close. They even take money from pharmaceutical companies, hmmm.

Let’s take it one step further. Did you know that KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell fundraise for the AHA? Burger King and Popeyes, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, and General Mills also fundraise for the AHA, the very same companies that produce “food” that increases the risk of heart disease.

The fact is that gaining weight is not an isolated event, and many of the companies supplying bad inflammatory foods are actively involved in donating money to organizations that tell us to choose cooking oils over saturated fat, and that’s just bad advice.

On a side note, Big Pharma wants you to take their GLP-1 drugs, so they suggest that your body fat is genetic, you can’t fight it without taking drugs, oh, and if your kids are overweight, let them be on the drugs too. But while these low-dwelling marketers want you to believe you have no control over your body, you do.

In fact, you have a lot of control over your body and your weight. You have as much control over your weight as you do over what you eat, how you sleep, whether to exercise or not, or how active you want to be in your lifestyle.

A better body begins with a better decision.

Weight gain is influenced by multiple lifestyle and biological factors, including limited genetics, poor food choices, low physical activity, insufficient sleep, hormonal dysregulation, and chronic inflammation. These drivers increase fat mass and alter normal metabolic regulation. Some people add chronic stress to this list, but it’s not necessarily stress that causes increases in cortisol levels; it’s inflammation, and that’s caused by chronically elevated blood sugar levels, and that is caused by lifestyle, especially processed carbohydrates, sugar, and seed oils.

The fact is, if you can control your blood sugar, you can control your weight and your health.

We can trace weight gain back to our diet because that’s where the elevated blood sugar levels begin. We eat something sugary or processed, it breaks down very quickly into glucose and is then absorbed into the bloodstream, where it elevates blood sugar levels and triggers the pancreas to release insulin in order to control those levels. Over time, the body needs more insulin to lower those sugar levels and, if the diet does not change, we can become insulin sensitive, leading to insulin resistance.

I should once again mention that seed oils are linked to insulin resistance and metabolic disease too. Turns out the Energy Model of Insulin Resistance hypothesizes that any oil that is refined, bleached, and deodorized (called RBD oil) promotes cellular oxidative stress and inflammation. This, in turn, forces cells to change their fueling strategy in order to reduce and manage that oxidative stress. While hypothetical, it is believed that this is accomplished by increasing aerobic glycolysis to minimize fat oxidation, which in itself is an issue. This process has been observed in both cancerous and insulin-resistant cells and is also known as the Warburg Effect. While beneficial to individual cells, at the whole-organism level, it disrupts intravascular glucose homeostasis, ultimately elevating insulin and counter-regulatory hormones simultaneously. These hormones oppose the insulin signal, leading to the diagnosis of insulin resistance.

In short, RBD oils may be an independent risk factor for insulin resistance, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer, so avoid them.

Sugar and processed carbs are the main culprit of inflammation, however. As the sugar in the blood increases and the body produces insulin, it forces the muscles to take up blood sugars. That only takes us so far because the muscle we have can only absorb so much. Since the majority of individuals in this category are also in poor physical condition, they possess less muscle; this leads to the need to switch the process sooner and stimulate the adipocytes (fat cells) to absorb more fat.

We call a fat cell an adipocyte, or just adipose tissue as a systemic collective. But as adipose tissue expands, it becomes a biologically active endocrine organ. It actually releases several kinds of hormones, which in turn begin to release pro-inflammatory signals. Fat cells and immune cells within adipose tissue produce inflammatory cytokines such as IL-1, IL-6, IL-17, and TNF-α, along with systemic markers like C-reactive protein (CRP), creating a state of chronic low-grade inflammation. This is not necessarily a prediabetic checkbox, but eventually, an increasing CRP score will lead to disease. To be clear, if that marker is above a 6, metabolic damage to the mitochondria has already begun.

Sadly, we can maintain this inflammation with a diet filled with white flour products, seed oils, and sugars, collectively called processed foods. Statistically, about 70% of food purchased in grocery stores every year is processed, leading to more inflammation. Clearly stated, the average American diet is over 70% processed foods, and that drives the majority of disease.

This persistent inflammation is called chronic inflammation. It interferes with normal insulin signaling and fat metabolism. It promotes yet more insulin resistance and eventually vascular dysfunction and disease.

Remember, fat accumulation increases inflammation, as do sugar, seed oils, and processed foods. Add toxic environmental factors into the mix, and now you have massive free radical damage over time that overwhelms the body and your health. Over time, these changes increase the risk of type 2 diabetes and atherosclerosis, key components of cardiometabolic disease. But they do more than that; they also slowly damage the mitochondria. Remember, your mitochondria produce the materials that all cells need to provide energy for your body; they fuel life.

If that were all we had to deal with, it would be bad enough. But, like most things, it’s not that simple. These inflammatory mediators also affect liver function. This eventually forces excess fat and inflammation into the liver, reducing that organ’s ability to fight off infection, toxicities, and about 500 additional functions. That means your liver begins to fail at cleansing the blood, processing nutrients, and producing essential chemicals to maintain normal function. It also means that the digestion of fats is affected as well as the inability to properly store vitamins A, D, E, K, and B-12, as well as many minerals, including iron.

The take-home point here is that inflammation leads to increased pain and less mobility. Being less mobile increases the risk of obesity, which increases inflammation even more. This cycle eventually leads to disease, more pain, more obesity, and yet more inflammation.

So, how much fat is enough? The healthiest way of calculating your best diet is simply to reduce your intake of processed carbohydrates and sugar. To do that, you will need to increase your protein and fat; it’s that simple. Choose whole foods, but avoid farmed fish and grain-fed animals.