Cooking Without Oil on a Plant Based Diet

When you look behind the curtain of food manufactures, you realize all the lies we’ve been told. One of the biggest is about how healthy oil is for our heart health. Not so fast.

In reality, this is yet another example of manufacturers investing millions to convince us about something that is a complete lie.

Any type of oil is nothing but empty calories that clogs are arteries. Yet, many people like using oil to cook with, pour on their salads and dip bread in.

You can find plenty of articles, blog posts and videos to support using oil… especially olive and coconut. Yet, when you turn to the experts in the whole food, plant based movement, you’d be hard pressed to find any of the leaders touting the benefits of oils.

100% Fat in Our System

Think about it. Oil is 100% fat. It’s high in calories and has no redeeming value. According to a post on Dr. Joel Fuhrman’s site, “Olive oil is not a whole food—it is a fattening, low-nutrient, processed food, consisting of 100% fat. One tablespoon of olive oil has 120 calories, as do all oils. One-quarter cup has 500 calories. Healthy salads are definitely a way of life for people who want to lose weight or improve health, but many of the benefits of a salad are lost when the calorie count is increased ten-fold with oil.” Full article, https://www.drfuhrman.com/library/eat-to-live-blog/84/olive-oil-is-not-a-health-food

Coconut oil is no different. According to Dr. Fuhrman, author of Eat to Live, “All tropical oils (palm and coconut) are highly saturated fats. Like butter, cheese, and meat, tropical oils raise LDL cholesterol and clog arteries with plaque, increasing your risk of a heart attack.”

Heart Healthy Eating

The fact is, oil constricts the blood flow by 32% after a meal, injures the endothelial cells (the cells that line the interior walls of blood vessels) and triggers plaque build-up (atherosclerosis). What this simply means is, it’s bad for your heart.

Yet, so many people still believe it’s okay to use oil. As the number of heart attacks and heart diseases increase, there are those who are willing to buck the system and do all they can to not only increase their own heart health, but also to educate others on the dangers of continuing on the path we are on with the Standard American Diet – yes, the SAD diet.

Unfortunately, the primary solution takes profits out of the very people who are touting the benefits of meat, poultry, oils, fish and dairy which means they will fight tooth and nail to keep us in the dark. The solution to their lies is a whole food, plant based lifestyle.

With this in mind, those who are raising awareness are often considered on the fringe of society. Yet, the tides are turning. One of the fastest growing industries is the plant based industry. Notably, a Nielsen Homescan survey last year found that 39% of Americans are actively trying to eat more plant-based foods.

No Oil, No Problem

The healthiest diet of all is a diet void of anything with animal products as well as no added salts, oils or processed sugars.

“But how will I be able to cook without oil?” many people wonder. The blog post How to Cook Without Oil answers this very question.

The bottom line is this; we have been fed a load of bull. It’s up to each one of us to determine what the truth is. Fad diets, crash diets, diets that don’t offer any long term benefit need to be avoided in favor of those that make sense. Do the research and you will likely find that a common sense eating protocol is not only the healthiest way to go, but the most humane.