Did you know your diet can make your physical pain worse?
In our fast-paced American lives, ‘convenient’ foods, coming in colorful, alluring packing, are most peoples’ first choice when reaching for something to eat. They are readily available, require little to no prep and allow us to keep up with our over-scheduled lives without pausing for a break for meals. The art of home-cooked meals is quickly becoming a fleeting thought of the past.
Processed foods cause an inflammatory response in the body. Most processed foods contain industrial seed and vegetable oils such as canola, grapeseed, soybean, corn, sunflower, and safflower oils. Industrial seed oils were first introduced into the Westernized diet when it was discovered that cottonseed oil could be chemically altered via a process called “hydrogenation” to turn it into a solid cooking fat that resembled lard. It was a byproduct of soap making and quickly replaced pork lard due to the lucrative business opportunity.
Below are a 5 reasons why industrial seed oils should be avoided:
- Eating industrial seed oils raises our omega-6-to-omega-3 fatty acid ratios, with significant consequences for our health.
- Industrial seed oils are unstable and oxidize easily.
- They contain harmful additives.
- They’re derived from genetically modified crops.
- When industrial seed oils are repeatedly heated, even more toxic byproducts are created.
Before purchasing processed, packaged foods, you can check the label for industrial seed oils and avoid purchasing those foods. Healthy oils that will not create an inflammatory process in your body include:
- Olive oil
- Coconut oil
- Ghee
- Tallow/Lard
- Grassfed butter
A few companies that use healthy oils in their food products are Siete Foods, Primal Kitchen, Epic, 4505, Thrive Market, and Simple Mills. Of course this is not an exhaustive list, but this is a great start if you are new to choosing healthy fats over industrial seed oils. The practitioners at Moore Chiropractic in Olympia, WA are readily available to discuss diet and nutrition with you. We believe health starts on the inside out and are happy to help you make healthy lifestyle choices.