3 reasons vegetable oil can be dangerous to your health & bull; hello healthy

Pamor vegetable oil, aka cooking oil, has long been known to be bad for health. Cooking oil is easily oxidized when exposed to high heat. When it enters the body, oil residues will form free radicals and harmful compounds that eat away at your health from within. But apparently, the dangers of cooking oil don't stop there. Check out the details below.

Why can vegetable oil be harmful to the body?

Whether or not vegetable oil is healthy for health depends on the type and amount of fat contained in it. Some types of cooking oil have a very high saturated fat content, even more than the saturated fat source in red meat.

Here are some reasons why vegetable oil can harm your health.

Vegetable oils contain large amounts of omega-6

Vegetable oils are the largest source of linoleic acid compared to other types of food. Linoleic acid is a type of omega-6 fatty acid which, when consumed in excessive amounts, can increase the risk of various health problems.

Omega-3 and omega-6 both produce eicosanoids, but they are different in nature. The eicosanoids produced by omega-6s trigger inflammation, while those produced by omega-3s fight inflammation.

Ironically, today's modern diet tends to lead people to eat too much omega-6, but very little omega-3 intake. Thus, the anti-inflammatory properties of omega-3s are not strong enough to counter the inflammatory properties of omega-6.

Increased inflammation can increase risk factors for some serious diseases, such as heart disease, arthritis, depression, and even cancer. The inflammation caused by omega-6s may also damage the DNA structure. Linoleic acid can accumulate in body fat cells, cell membranes, until it is absorbed into breast milk. Increases in omega-6 in breast milk have been linked to asthma and eczema in children.

Apart from vegetable oil, omega-6 is also contained in processed seed oils such as soybean oil, sunflower oil, corn oil, and canola oil, which have been classified as healthy oils.

Vegetable oil contains trans fats

Trans fats are formed when liquid oil turns into solid fat at room temperature. This process is called partial hydrogenation which aims to prevent the oil from turning rancid quickly. But it is this process that makes trans fats much more dangerous than saturated fats.

Saturated fats and trans fats can both cause the arteries (the main blood vessels to supply blood to the heart) to become blocked. If the arteries become blocked, the risk of various types of heart disease can increase, whether it's a heart attack or even a stroke.

The difference is, trans fats increase bad cholesterol and lower good cholesterol. Saturated fat does not cause a decrease in the good HDL cholesterol which is beneficial for heart health. Trans fats are also associated with an increased risk of cancer, diabetes and obesity.

If you want to reduce the health risks of trans fats, cutting back on packaged and fast foods is not enough. You also need to reduce the use of vegetable oil for frying, or even as a salad dressing. A study found that soybean oil and canola oil contain about 0.56-4.2% toxic trans fats.

Vegetable oil that is heated is dangerous if inhaled

Consumption of vegetable oil is closely related to an increased risk of heart disease and cancer. This is because when the oil is heated to a high temperature it reacts to the oxygen from around it, which then forms aldehyde compounds and lipid peroxides. Taking aldehydes and lipid peroxides, even in small amounts, has been linked to an increased risk of heart disease and cancer.

When inhaled by the lungs, the vapors from aldehydes and lipid peroxides can increase the risk of lung cancer even if you are only around in the kitchen when cooking uses oil.