Vegetable oils, naturally rich in fatty acids and vitamins, play an important role in our diet.
The first cold pressed oils contain a concentrate of benefits. They contain vitamins A and E, polyphenols, which act as powerful antioxidants in the same way as vitamin E, phytosterols whose structure is close to cholesterol and which prevent the formation of “bad” cholesterol as well as other substances. valuable such as fatty acids. These virgin oils are important and valuable sources for our health, unlike refined oils which are purely chemical products.
Refining vegetable oils alters virgin oils dangerously. This industrial process converts them into an artificial product without any interest and harmful to health. Refined vegetable oil is the source of many pathologies that are so prevalent today.
THE REFINING OF VEGETABLE OILS IS A HIGHLY CHEMICAL PROCESS
Industrial oil mills obtain maximum efficiency by heating oil products widely, between 180 ° C and 240 ° C. The use of organic solvents allows maximum extraction efficiency to be obtained with heat. Oilseed products and cakes are subjected to the action of solvents from the distillation of petroleum. The most widely used is hexane.
REFINING MODIFIES THEIR COMPOSITION IN FATTY ACIDS
The extraction is followed by the actual refining. Refining is required after extraction with solvents, or if the oilseed products come from intensive cultivation methods with a high concentration of pesticides.
Refining results in a stable oil by modification of fatty acids, therefore easy to preserve. Here again, refining involves a whole series of very complex physical and especially chemical operations, including the coloring of the oil obtained. These operations repeatedly use physical processes with heating – between 100 and 200 ° C – and a quantity of chemical reagents.
However, heating a fatty substance changes its chemical composition. Thus, the oil obtained is very different from that of the original fatty substance contained in the plant. This is especially the case with unsaturated fatty acids.
Unsaturated fatty acids are unstable and, when heated, quickly saturate into stable bodies. They become biologically inactive, but very harmful fatty acids:
by hydrogen fixation, the most frequent case (hydrogenated oil), or
by oxygen uptake with the formation of peroxides, also called “free radicals”. Free radicals promote cellular aging and have pathological potential, especially carcinogenic.
An oil obtained at a temperature not exceeding 50 ° C, including the additional heating due to pressing, is considered to be “first cold pressing”. Such an oil is a living food providing the essential unsaturated fatty acids (omega 3 or vitamins F).
PRODUCTS CONCERNED BY THE REFINING OF VEGETABLE OILS
All products that contain industrial chemical oils are concerned by refined oils, in unitary presentation or in mixture, as well as their derivatives:
All commercial oils that are not displayed as “cold pressed” and “virgin, extra virgin”;
Margarines and all products that may contain them: industrial croissants, industrial pastries, industrial pastries and cakes, etc. ;
chocolate bars ;
breakfast cereals;
industrial sauces;
mayonnaise;
light products;
prepared meals: pizzas, lasagna, etc. ;
prepared doughs: puff pastry, cake dough, shortcrust pastry, etc. ;
all fried foods: French fries, donuts etc.
THE ADVERSE EFFECTS OF THIS INDUSTRIAL PROCESS
Refined oils have become devitalized, dead foods, devoid of the factors necessary for the proper functioning of our organism, the renewal of our tissues and our cognitive functions. It is imperative to exclude all these industrial chemical oils, in unitary presentation or in mixture, as well as their derivatives, from our daily diet.
All of these refined oils promote excess “bad” cholesterol, and therefore cardiovascular disease, whereas the fatty acids they contain initially can be considered good cholesterol regulators.
In addition, in their natural state, fatty acids are of the “cis” form and are beneficial for health. When heated or refined, they are of the “trans” form and are shown to be dangerous to health. They are very different in biochemical properties and become harmful.