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Vegan Foods for Life
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No oils, NO OILS

The famous cry by Dr Caldwell Esseltyn is "No Oils, NO OILS." I thought I might do a brief posting on why this is so important, what it actually means etc.

What he actually means is not "no oils" per se, because that is patently impossible. All plant foods contain oils naturally. So just by consuming a carrot you are necessarily getting some oil into your diet, albeit a very small amount. The cry is more about no refined oils, no added oils to cooking etc.

When I grew up, like everyone I would put butter or margerine on my toast. Toast simply would not be toast without one of these two or similar. (Actually as a child it was more the dripping that was put onto bread, possibly covered with a sprinkling of sugar - but that's another story!)

And then to cooking. Cooking always started with oil in the frying pan or whatever other pan I was using. Onions were sweated in this oil. And then later in the cooking process more fats would be added. As a vegetarian this might be in the form of cheese, more lately coconut milk or cream has become popular. In some cases it might be dribbles of truffle oil or other expensive aromatic oil. And of course for animal flesh eaters they would be adding lamb or the carcass of another fish or animal which is usually around 25% fat.

So what is the difference between fat and oil. Literally nothing is the simple answer. Fat is solid oil at room temperature. This achieved with what are commonly called saturated fats, perhaps hydrogenated and trans-fats. So fats tend to be worse than oils from a health perspective. But that does not mean oils are healthy. Why not?

Epitheleals: These are microscopic things at the end of your DNA strands. If you are younger than aged 30 then your body readily regenerates your epithelials. So any damaged ones are replaced. However after the age of 30 your body has less ability to regenerate these. And as you grow older less and less regeneration goes on. But what damages them. It's the oils. Research has shown it is oils that damage your epithelials. So as you damage then by consuming more oils then eventually your body runs short of epitheleals.

But what do epitheals do? These define your longevity. When you look at someone who looks old, you can bet your bottom dollar they are depleting their stocks of their epitheleals. But epitheleals are more about adding healthy years to your life.

The great news is on a no oils diet epitheleals have been shown to regenerate! This is why older people on a whole foods plant based no oils diet have skin that glows.

Arachodonic acid & Omega-3: This is a story of omega-3 vs omega-6. There is a thing called the arachodonic acid pathway. As you consume oils, espcially animal oils, but any oil high in omega 6 then you block the bodies abiilty to generate EPA/DHA from AHA acid.

Anyone who consumes significant amounts of Omega-6 oils will have very poor conversion. On the other hand magic happens when you reduce oil (refined oils and fats) down to negligible amounts. Instead of very poor conversion rates you get excellent conversion- like 80%. This only happens when you stop cooking with oil.

Have you heard of the omega-3 to omega-6 ratio? For many people on the standard american diet that can be as high as 20 to 1. Your goal, your lifelong goal should be to get that to around 2 to 1. This is the ratio paleo man would have had. This ration is the ratio that truly supports human health.

IGF1: Animal fats are associated with high IGF1 (insulin growth factor 1). These have been shown to promote the growth of cancer cells. This is why cancer is associated with eating meat. On the other hand strawberries, for example have been shown to kill off cancer cells.

Athersclerosis: Do I need to go over this one again? Why is it autopsies of children aged 3 who have consumed dairy and meat are showing plaque in their arteries. A crime of the first order by society - in my opinion - is to bring up children with the basics for heart attacks, strokes, dimentia and of course high blood pressure.

Insulinic resistance: many people on hflc diets pride themselves on not being diabetic. They talk about the standard measures of diabetes. However I take the view that they simply don't know if they are diabetic because they avoid anything that raises their sugar levels. The body naturally can take in fruits for example that cause the glycemic index to rise. This is normal. What is also normal is for that sugar level to drop say an hour later. If the sugar level doesn't drop then your body has insulinic resistance, and that's a bad thing. That can become dangerous. So what causes this? You guessed it, fats and oils.

What is iR? It is the inability of the body to move sugar from the blood stream into your muscles etc. Fats and pills block this process.

Have I missed anything? Do you want research citations?

4 Replies

Thanks for the detailed info. Have been on WFPBNO for nearly three years and have not read this before. Must remark dripping with sugar on! dripping with oxo cube mixed in OK though!

1 like

Thank you for the detailed interesting information. Are we looking at coconut/avocado oils being ok?

Also, unfortunately I have a meat eater in the house and I know for sure, never mind what research is carried out, that he'll always love his meat whereas I don't eat meat but do use Olive and coconut oils.

Thank you.


I have some avocado occasionally. Coconut oil I avoid - I see any potential benefits as sales marketing hype on the back of weak science.


Thank you and that's very helpful. I know what you mean by hype on coconut oil. Although I do use it I do wonder if it's as good for us as they make it out to be. I think the best things to eat are those you make yourself i.e. if you extracted oil from a plant/fruit you would not it's not gone through any other process.


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