Is Your Olive Oil Really Olive Oil?

Hey everyone, welcome to my weekly house call, your chance to ask me your questions and this week's question is, I get so confused with all those choices of oils and different kinds of fats. I watched a 60 Minutes episode on which they showed a bunch of olive oil that was imported from Italy that's really not olive oil. And then the other day I went to the supermarket to pick up coconut oil and it said palm oil on the back. I don't even know what that means. Can you help me figure this out? Well, unfortunately, this is a big problem when it comes to choosing oils. Quality is the most important thing. But have no fear, there are lots of great resources out there, including my new book, Eat Fat, Get Thin, to help you navigate the world of fats. For now, let's go through two of my favorite fats, how to choose the best quality ones of those. Well, in his book, Losing Virginity, Tom Mueller takes us through the sublime and scandalous world of olive oil and discusses how resellers and lower priced low grade oils are filled with artificial coloring. They put green dye in to create extra virgin olive oil. And most American derived olive oils often contain soybean, rapeseed or canola oil and other oils. One particular study demonstrated that a good amount of this, about 69% of the olive oil that's imported and labeled, quote, extra virgin, failed to meet the standards in an expert smell and taste test which is the standard for this type of labeling. This is just outrageous. So it's important to do your research and pick the right oils. Quality becomes crucial here. Olive oil is one of the few kinds of oils that's still consumed pretty much unprocessed by most Americans. Many of the oils purchased, however, are refined. Now when olives are pressed, this is an effective way to preserve the many nutrients, including the polyphenols that are well known for their ability to protect olive oil from high heat and from toxic damage. Ideally look for the unfiltered extra virgin olive oil. These elements also create a cloudiness and are also effective as antioxidants and also buffer acids and therefore allow for protection against free radicals or oxidative damage. Also choose olive oils that are in a dark colored bottle as the packaging is going to aid to protect oil from going rancid from the light which oxidizes it. You also want to be certain that olive oil is stored in a cool area and it doesn't come into direct contact with light or heat. If you actually leave olive oil on the counter, if it's dark green, it will turn light green or even yellow if you leave it there long enough because of the damage that the light does to the oil. Recent studies compare extra virgin olive oil anti-inflammatory power from pressing in the first olives in the production versus the anti-inflammatory power of later pressings. Well, they found that the extra virgin olive oil lowered inflammation, whereas the non-extra virgin olive oils could not lower inflammation. Also be careful, pure quote, pure olive oil can be confusing and it's a misleading phrase that's sometimes used to confuse people. Oftentimes it signifies a mix of unrefined and refined virgin olive oils. You also might find cold pressed, quote unquote, which means manufacturers use very little heat mechanically processing olives to get the oil. That's good. So cold pressed extra virgin olive oil provides the strongest possible nutrient value because of the small use of heating coupled with the oil's first pressings high phytonutrient content. Also stay away from the extra light olive oil. You might think it's good for you because it's light, but again fats are not bad. They're good for you. Low fat or light foods are highly refined and processed. Now there's something else that's important to know about oils. Heat and other factors cause oxidation and problems. So put your olive oil in a dark, cool place. It's sealed up tight. Keep it out of direct sunlight or a heat source near the stove. Olive oil should also be used within a couple of months to ensure the maximum health benefits. Research shows the quality and the health benefits decline after a couple of months even when stored properly. So be very savvy buying olive oils. Next, let's talk about coconut oil. When it comes to coconut oil, you want to look for organic, virgin, cold-pressed, unrefined coconut oil that's never deodorized or bleached. Coconut oil is great for baking and it's great for medium-high heat cooking as it is very stable. So you can cook with it, you can add it to meals when cooking meat, sauces, veggies to smoothies, stir in hot beverages like tea or coffee, add it to soups, mix it with nut butter, or just eat it right out of the jar by the spoonful, which I do sometimes, especially before a workout. Now, palm oil is a vegetable oil. It's pulled from the oil of palm trees fruit. Now, most of the world's palm oil comes from Malaysia and Indonesia, about 85% as a matter of fact. But it's what we call conflict palm oil. It destroys environments like rain forests. They use child labor. It's really bad. So you want to stay away from most palm oil. but virgin, unrefined red palm oil is kind of a reddish color. There's a great brand, Nutiva. It looks red and it's naturally red. It comes loaded with vitamins and antioxidants. The highly processed refined palm oil, you don't want to eat that. It loses its red color as well as its taste and the health benefits. So red palm palm oil is okay. Refined palm oil, not so much. Red palm oil or palm fruit is extremely nutritious. Palm kernel oil, or crude oil, which is seriously processed and is used as ingredients in processed and packaged foods in many American products is not good. You see clearing large areas of land for palm oil plantations and vast deforestation in countries like India and Malaysia has become a major problem. This has severely disrupted ecosystems. It brings many animal species extremely close to extinction like the elephants, rhinos, tigers, and orangutans. In some instances, people have enforced off their land, they've destroyed their livelihood, and we've decreased clean water in those areas and fertile soil by using these palm trees. All around the globe, rainforest destruction has contributed to climate change as trees are cut down and burned and methane and other greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere. Now over 85% of the palm oil in processed foods in the US comes from plantations in Malaysia and Indonesia where these practices are really common. So don't have any of that. Palm oil is known by a great number of different names such as palmitate, glycerol stearate and palm kernel oil which you don't want. Most of the US palm oil which is contained in a great deal of the food supply and processed food is what we call conflict palm oil which involves deforestation, disruption of ecosystems and even violations of human rights where they get kids. to actually grow the stuff. Only buy products with sustainable palm oil. Look for the certified sustainable palm oil label, that CSPO label. These products can be recognized as sustainable and carry the CSPO trademark. Buying products with this trademark ensures that the palm oil in that product comes from sustainable sources and that those people who make that stuff care about the social and environmental concerns of conflict palm oil. Now when it comes to oils, always choose organic, choose unrefined, cold pressed or expeller pressed oils. Be sure to contact the company directly to ensure the product is truly cold pressed. Organic production prohibits GMOs, which is very important. It also prohibits the use of hexanes for extraction in oils, which are quite toxic. So you can avoid these by going organic. Refined oils generally have a more neutral flavor than the unrefined varieties, but they're better for you, the unrefined kinds. So be sure that the manufacturer is not using hexanes or other solvents that are toxic in the refining process. Again, store the oils in a dark, clear bottle in a cool, dark place, away from the light and from the heat, such as your cabinets or even in the fridge in airtight containers. Do not store oils on the kitchen counters or next to the stove. Always close the lid tight and put it away after you're done with it since oxygen makes it go rancid, which is not good. You don't want rancid oil. Oils go bad over about a span of a few months or years depending on the type of oil, so choose a smaller container if you don't use the oil often. Now I put a list of my favorite brands of olive oil and coconut oil together and I've included their uses and their smoking points and it's all in a blog that's attached to this video, so be sure to check it out. And if you like this video, share it with your friends and family on Twitter and Facebook, and submit your questions to DrHyman.com, and maybe next week I'll make a house call to you.