Dark Calories: How Vegetable Oils Destroy Our Health and How We Can Get It Back by Cate ShanahanMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book presents scientific research supporting the link between vegetable oil and poor health. The author describes how the oils are made, the levels of toxicity, and how they can cause inflammation and disease. You will learn how to identify and avoid vegetable oils, what to use instead, and how to eat healthy and delicious foods without them.
There are three parts. Part one, The Science that Medicine Overlooks, dives into the poison in your pantry, the buffet of chronic disease, the unseen metabolic problem, and fat bodies, starving brains. Part two, Dark History, explores the truth about cholesterol, Ancel Keys and the American Heart Association, the sicker you get the richer they grow, and the reason for hope. Part three, Taking Back Our Health, presents how to ditch vegetable oils for good, eating to heal, and a two-week challenge.
4 Pillars of a Human Diet
1. Eat fresh food from healthy soil, raw or gently cooked
2. Preserve and enhance foods using fermentation and sprouting
3. Extract nutrients that support healthy connective tissue by boiling animal bones, skin, and joint material
4. Use every part of the animal, including the organs and the fat (p. xiii)
Hateful Eight Seed Oils to Avoid
· Corn oil
· Canola oil
· Cottonseed oil
· Soy oil
· Sunflower oil
· Safflower oil
· Grapeseed oil
· Rice bran oil
· *Avoid “vegetable oil,” a general term used for any of the above eight oils.
Each chapter begins with a “In this chapter, you will learn” section that highlights the key concepts. This is very helpful. While she indicates the “hateful eight” oils to avoid, she also provides the “delightful dozen” cooking fats to include. If people knew what processes these seed oils went through to become edible, they would be less likely to consume them. Dr. Shanahan does a good job explaining these complex concepts.
The most practical chapter is the two-week challenge with meal planning tips and simple meal ideas. The end of the book has numerous resources to support your health journey.
This is not a quick and easy read. Many scientific studies are presented and discussed, and the details can be overwhelming.
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