1. I was told that "vegetable oils" are worse for blood glucose than sugar. Is this true?
Nothing is worse for blood glucose than sugar, so whoever told you this is either a dummy or they are being hyperbolic. Hyperbolic claims are great for getting attention but will end up killing your argument because people will either tune you out as being insane or you will only be followed by the insane. So the person who said this to you can save all that drama for something else as drama is not going to help you. True information is.
Fats do not affect blood glucose directly. They affect people with metabolic syndrome, over time, as they make them fatter and this further interferes with insulin function. The fatter you are, the more insulin you will produce by default. The more insulin you produce, the more difficult to control blood glucose regulation. If you already have metabolic syndrome, then you are already having difficulties with blood glucose regulation so the last thing you need is to get fatter.
For some reason, people have come up with the term "healthy fats". We hear it all the time, but no one knows what that means. Sometimes it means "plant based fats" or "organic fats" or "expeller-pressed fats" or "non-hydrogenated fats".... who knows. It depends on who you ask and what they are trying to sell you. But let's talk "vegetable oils". These are the oils considered to be "unhealthy". Vegetable oils are really seed oils as oils are not extracted from vegetables. These oils are also commonly referred to as "industrial" or "processed" oils. Common vegetable oils are:
- Canola, Corn, Cottonseed, Grapeseed, Rapeseed, Soybean, Safflower, “Vegetable”, Margarine, Shortening and any butter or spread labeled as "plant based" and/or "vegan". Sunflower oil is often not included in this list of "toxic" oils, for whatever reason, but it is also a seed oil.
When seed oils come up, people like to throw words around like "inflammation", cancer, instability, oxidation, smoke points, etc. But to make matters simple, the only thing you have to remember about seed oils is that they interfere in lipolysis (the breakdown of fats). These oils are not recognized by the body and so they tend to be stored more easily than animal fats and not as readily burned. This means you will be walking around with a fat mass that will stay right where it is. In order to have a healthy fat mass, that produces and responds to leptin expression, it has to be made from the right materials.
No one knows the exact mechanism behind why this occurs. This has also been seen in corn fed, farmed animal meat. The fat in that meat, which is basically corn derived, tends to increase liver fat progressing metabolic syndrome further. The same does not occur with grass fed meat of the same fat ratio. So, there is something in seed oils that interferes with the liver's processing of fats. Of course, there is still a question on how carbs in the diet, alongside the seed oils, contribute to this effect.
Aside from that, when the body has an excess of ALA Omega 3 fats, it tends to use them in place of EPA/DHA Omega 3. This substitution can cause health problems as some tissues specifically require EPA/DHA Omega 3 fats, like your eyes for example. This can lead to macular degeneration over time. Some people are genetically more susceptible to this than others. Furthermore, there are also negative health consequences related to Omega 6 to Omega 3 fatty acid ratios and the excess of polyunsaturated fatty acids in the diet, which consumption of plant based oils contribute to.
But what about other plant based oils that are not from seeds like almond, walnut, peanut, olive and coconut? Nut, legume and fruit oils are not associated with pathology. These are mostly monounsaturated rather than polyunsaturated fats but be leery of them anyway as they tend to also be stored more easily, in the subcutaneous, than animal based fats. People with metabolic syndrome are more at risk for this. Coconut oil does not appear to carry this same risk but it poses negative cardiovascular effects for people who have certain genetic LDL abnormalities.
The take away to all of this is to remember that plant based oils, of any kind, are a modern concoction. We never added fats to our food for 90% of our life on earth. We cooked over an open fire and we simply ate the fat that came with protein. It was 100% animal based. If you look at hunter/gatherers of today, you will see the same thing. No added fats of any kind, particularly oils since oils are a processed food, no matter how benign they are marketed to be. They are never benign for obesity, a modern condition.
So it's best to use natural, traditional, mostly animal based fats. Modern, highly processed plant based oils are not good building blocks for your body. Worse, they appear to be a building block that is reluctant to change and usage, making your fat mass static and not going anywhere.
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