The Worst Fats to Eat When You’re Keto (or any time)

March 8, 2017 By Leanne Vogel April 22, 2022

The oils you should never eat. Oils that cause inflammation, digestive conditions, and more. Smoke points, omega 6 to 3 ratios and why I choose not to consume vegan spreads. Ever.

Many of us, myself included, have been duped by the food and “nutrition” industry to eat oils and fats that are not good for us.

I used to think grapeseed oil was a healthy oil for baking. This is wrong.

I used to think that canola oil, regardless of the way it was processed, was REALLY bad.

I used to think that sesame oil added healthy flavor to dishes, I couldn’t have been farther from the truth.

There was a time where vegan spreads were the only fat I consumed.

And don’t even get me started on “healthy omega oils”.

I spent two solid weeks digging into the research behind common oils – they’re polyunsaturated content, processing methods, omega ratios, and more, and have rated each and every common oil to decode marketing gimmicks and uncover the truth.

Watch part 1 of this series on the BEST keto-safe oils.

If you’re struggling with inflammation, unhealthy oils could be the culprit. Signs of inflammation include but are not limited to aches, pains, fatigue, weight imbalances, itchy skin, red skin, autoimmune conditions, multiple food allergies/sensitivities, multiple infections, high blood glucose, digestive issues (gas, diarrhea, bloating, or constipation), acne, eczema, psoriasis, puffy eyes or face, gum disease, brain fog, anxiousness, erectile dysfunction, and more.

For video transcript PDF, scroll down.

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Highlights…

• The impact that the polyunsaturated fat content of an oil has on it’s inflammatory factors
• The importance of oil processing in finding an oil that benefits your body
• The omega-6 to omega-3 ratios of common oils
• Classification of oils on their processing methods, ingredients, and inflammatory factors

Resources…

• Pre-order my paperback book, The Keto Diet
• Join me on the US and Canada book tour, RSVP to join me on tour
• Watch part 1 of this keto video series, The Best Keto Fats
• Get weekly keto meal plans with Balanced Keto
• Get the mini guide for today’s video
• Subscribe to my YouTube Channel
• Products: It’s best to look for “cold pressed” and “centrifuge extracted”. Be cautious of “expeller pressed” because too much heat may have been added in processing which will affect the stability of the oil… refined canola oil, hemp seed oil, walnut oil, unrefined canola oil, flaxseed oil
• If you’re still not sure how any kind of canola oil could ever be safe to consume, here’s an excerpt from the Practical Oil Guide in my paperback, The Keto Diet that should help make sense of it all:

I know what many of you are thinking: Wait, what? Did she just put canola oil on the list of safe cooking oils? No way is this woman sane.

I know. It blew me away, too. But with the right selection, canola oil is safer than many other oils out there. The omega-6 to omega-3 ratio of canola oil is on point—the distribution of SFAs to MUFAs and PUFAs is fabulous, and you can source cold- pressed versions, no problem. So the standard checks are in place.

So why did canola oil get a bad reputation? It’s generally assumed that all canola oil is refined, solvent-extracted, and processed to the nth degree. In addition, there’s a ton of genetically modified canola oil on the market today—about 90 percent of the world’s canola crop is genetically modified.

But let’s say we could get a non-GMO, organic, cold-pressed, and unrefined or chemical-free/low- heat-refined canola oil, which we can. What then? Keeping in mind what makes a good cooking oil (see page 135), let’s take a look at how canola stacks up to other oils.

Both flaxseed oil and hemp seed oil are touted as health-promoting oils for the very components that canola oil contains, and in many cases canola oil does it better. The PUFA content of unrefined canola oil is 32 percent, hemp seed oil is 80 percent, and flaxseed oil is 66 percent. From this information, we can draw the conclusion that canola oil is naturally more stable than hemp or flax. I’ll put that in the “win” column. Looking now to the omega-6 to omega-3 ratio, canola sits at 2:1, hemp seed at 3:1, and flaxseed at 4:1. We know that the closer the ratio is to 1:1, the better off we’ll be. Again, “win” column.

I’d say canola oil is doing pretty well for itself. But let’s dig a little deeper into its past to understand what went wrong and how we can find a good source of the stuff.

Canola was bred from rapeseed, which thirty years ago contained elevated levels of erucic acid, a monounsaturated omega-9 fatty acid considered harmful to humans. Canola has been bred over the years to have less erucic acid; today’s canola oil contains less than 2 percent. (Note that breeding plant varieties for certain qualities is very different from genetically modifying it—the former has been done for thousands of years, while genetic modification is a very recent development.)

Yes, a lot of canola oil is produced from genetically modified rapeseed. But there are non- GMO brands out there. A representative from the Non-GMO Project writes:

If a product has our Non-GMO Project Verified seal, you can be sure that it was produced using industry best standards for GMO avoidance.

We offer non-GMO verification for canola oil produced from rapeseed that has not been genetically modified. Natural cross-breeding techniques that have been used by farmers for thousands of years are not considered genetic engineering under our Standard.

Is the ultra-refined, heat-processed, chemically extracted, genetically modified canola oil bad? You bet it is. Do I plan on drowning myself in non-GMO, organic, cold-pressed, unrefined, or chemical-free/ low-heat refined canola oil? No. Just like I don’t plan to do the same with hemp seed, walnut, and flaxseed oils anytime soon because of their PUFA content.

But I won’t go around shaming canola oil anymore. If you look for the same markers of quality used to evaluate any high-PUFA oil, it’s just as good.

To get your hands on the ENTIRE Practical Oil Guide, check out The Keto Diet.

Which of these nasty oils have you been using thinking they were okay? Let’s chat about it in the comments (and don’t worry… you can just swap it out with the healthier oils and life will be good).

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