Monthly Boost November 2006

Well I hope not only does this month find you in great health but ready for my follow up on the ‘fat phobia’ saga. After the response I received to October’s Monthly Boost, I am looking forward to what you may have to say about this month’s e-letter. Now, I would like to take you back a few steps to what happens to the vegetable oils before you even get the bottle to your kitchen. ..here goes…

Once the oil is processed from the various vegetables or vegetable seeds, such as sunflower, corn, canola (rapeseed), safflower, it is then put into containers. Now these containers vary from country to country, region to region, brand to brand. What one wants to avoid is not only purchasing such oils in plastic bottles but also avoiding polyunsaturated oils that are then transported in vehicles (namely trucks/lorries) that have no air conditioning or basic temperature control.

So just imagine, the real life scenario…these oils are processed (not always using stainless steel instruments, hence increasing metal toxicity such as aluminium), then put into toxic plastic containers or ‘metal’ type containers (that again are usually not stainless steel) but then to add insult to injury they are transported across to their destinations (such as from the West coast to the East Coast, or from the South of France to England) in uncontrolled temperature environments.

So by the time these oils are stocked on the super-market shelf ready to be sold to the average ‘shopper’ they have already been effectively heated at least once….WHICH (going back to October’s Monthly Boost) means you are actually purchasing an already ‘toxic fat’ product known as hydrogenated fat. Then, dare I say, some of us go ahead and use it for cooking, heating it even further and creating even more health damaging toxic fats…catch my drift? I could really go on and ‘lap it up’ (as they say here), and mention that these polyunsaturated oils are NOT only then stored at room temperature under bright lights but they can sit on these shelves for months on end and all this just further oxidises these oils, creating more and more toxic fats!

These toxic fats are known to increase the risk of various diseases including cancer, heart disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, diabetes,..to be frank the list is endless. There is no wonder that New York restaurants are now going hydrogenated fat free! Go NYC!

So what about the plastic bottles they are sold in?...some of these plastic bottles contain toxic chemicals themselves (as if the rancid oils is not enough) such as phthalates (which can mimic hormones and are potentially dangerous to anyone let alone children) which leach into the oils, other toxins can include bisphenol-A, (which can also mimic the effects of a hormone known as oestradiol) again increasing the incidence of cancer and other hormone related imbalances (e.g. early puberty, disruptive hormonal cycles, hyperactivity, increased fat formation…).

So what to do now? …As I always say it is not all doom and gloom, basically:

• Do not cook using polyunsaturated oils
• Purchase polyunsaturated oils in glass bottles (preferably dark)
• Avoid plastic and this includes the ‘nasty plastic’ baby bottles (which to my horror are then put in the micro-wave to heat up the ‘formula milk’…have we lost the plot) and try and purchase food that is not packaged in plastic
• Try and purchase fresh organic food whenever possible
• Get acquainted with butter and coconut oil again
• To eliminate the toxins that reside in your body already get your self to a nutritionist/naturopath and start some effective detox and cleansing programme along with the Metabolic Typing Diet

And of course, if it was not around a 1000 years ago then question it and you probably will end up avoiding it!

To great health!

Khush Mark