Oils such as canola and sunflower oil are chemically processed, prone to oxidation, inflammatory, nutrient depleting, pro-aging, and hormone disrupting substances, that are not suitable for human consumption. To this list please add: grapeseed oil, peanut oil, sesame oil*, safflower oil, soybean oil, and corn oil.
Dear Company X, please stop adding toxic oils to your food products.
Examples include:
Meredith Dairy – I’m sorry to break it to you, but their “Goat Cheese with extra virgin olive oil, fresh herbs and garlic” also contains canola oil.
Sanitarium – did you know Up & Go contains both sunflower and canola oil, amongst many other horrendous ingredients (skim milk powder, cane sugar, wheat maltodextrin, soy protein, hi-maize™ starch, corn syrup solids….). This is not food.
Kraft – the first ingredient in their mayonnaise is soybean oil. This is a double-edged sword as soy is also estrogenic, thyroid disrupting, and often, genetically modified. Read more here.
Black Swan Dips, Yumi’s Dips and most store-bought dips.
Smith’s – yes, even store-bought plain potato chips contain canola or sunflower oil. This unfortunately also applies to many “healthy” or “vegie” chips that even your health food store sells. As always, please read the label.
Please avoid consuming any of these oils. Check your labels but most importantly remember this: food comes off a tree, from an animal, or out of the ground. There are exceptions to every rule, but as always, the answer comes back to real food.
If you have other examples you’d like us to include, please comment below. Together we can stop companies essentially destroying our health with these toxic ingredients.
For more information, I highly recommend Toxic Oil by David Gillespie.
*Please note: good quality sesame oil is fine to use for cold uses like salad dressing, but the context here is chemically processed heat treated oils commonly used in food manufacturing. Avoid these.
i couldnt agree more! so difficult to even find a supermarket hummus without sunflower or canola oil… why can’t companies just use extra virgin olive oil, it’s not even an expensive oil, goes to show how MUCH quality is compromised over profit.
Like your article but wondering what oils we should be using – do you have info on this too?
Yes, this should help Kim: https://thenaturalnutritionist.com.au/fats-the-truth/
Tuna is my bug bear! So many companies have “Tuna in Olive Oil”, however Canola or Sunflower oil are AHEAD of Olive Oil in the ingredients. Woolworths Select is the only “supermarket” brand that I’ve found that uses only olive oil (and the tuna is also pole and line caught). And although I know we shouldn’t be relying on canned foods, having a few tins of tuna on hand can be good emergency ‘go to’ option.
It would be great if you cited some actual scientific evidence to prove exactly how these products are damaging in the way you have described.