<story><title>40 year old study could have reshaped American diet, was never fully published</title><url>https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/04/12/this-study-40-years-ago-could-have-reshaped-the-american-diet-but-it-was-never-fully-published/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>seizethecheese</author><text>Thanks for the insightful comment. What would be a good substitute oil for cooking?</text></item><item><author>jrapdx3</author><text>The subject of the article says as much about the politics of science as it is a comment on the science itself.  To the extent the findings have been ignored, or perhaps even shunned, is not at all unique.  Many important advances in medicine had a notoriously difficult time being accepted, as an example, the idea that bacterial infection was the cause of stomach ulcers had been around for decades before gaining traction.&lt;p&gt;I think the substance of the science discussed revolves around the composition of dietary fat.  As the article notes, the recommendation for increasing the proportion of &amp;quot;polyunsaturated&amp;quot; oils is likely a major factor.  Indeed, common vegetable oils contain a high proportion of linoleic acid, the &amp;quot;base&amp;quot; omega-6 dietary source.  It has been shown in numerous studies that the omega-6 (N-6) to omega-3 (N-3) ratio is important since these essential fats are linked to immune system functioning.&lt;p&gt;N-6 fatty acids are associated with pro-inflammatory factors, N-3 primarily leads to anti-inflammatory products.  In the archaic&amp;#x2F;traditional diet, N-6 and N-3 were present in roughly equal proportion, but with marked increase in vegetable oil consumption, N-6 to N-3 becomes &amp;quot;imbalanced&amp;quot;, e.g., 10:1.&lt;p&gt;Inflammatory processes are well-known to play a role in cardiovascular disease, so it&amp;#x27;s not hard to see how increased N-6 fatty acid intake is a contributor.  However this info has not been a secret in the fields of obesity and metabolic disease treatment and research, where the impact of dietary fat intake has been discussed and published for more than 20 years.&lt;p&gt;Since the mid-90&amp;#x27;s I&amp;#x27;ve recommended sharply reducing polyunsaturated vegetable oil intake as part of &amp;quot;lifestyle&amp;quot; changes supporting optimum health, particularly for patients with predisposition to metabolic disease.  FWIW I&amp;#x27;ve followed my own advice for at least as long, the results have impressed my internist who jokes that I&amp;#x27;ve become quite an uninteresting case.&lt;p&gt;(Don&amp;#x27;t have references at hand.  If anyone wants I&amp;#x27;ll post them.)&lt;p&gt;Edit: grammar!</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>maxerickson</author><text>Canola oil was bred to have a 1:1 ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3. It&amp;#x27;s low in saturated fat too.&lt;p&gt;For all the good things people say about the fat composition of olive oil, canola oil is probably better. It also has a more neutral taste. It&amp;#x27;s all refined though, and a GMO, things which some people don&amp;#x27;t like.</text></comment>
<story><title>40 year old study could have reshaped American diet, was never fully published</title><url>https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/04/12/this-study-40-years-ago-could-have-reshaped-the-american-diet-but-it-was-never-fully-published/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>seizethecheese</author><text>Thanks for the insightful comment. What would be a good substitute oil for cooking?</text></item><item><author>jrapdx3</author><text>The subject of the article says as much about the politics of science as it is a comment on the science itself.  To the extent the findings have been ignored, or perhaps even shunned, is not at all unique.  Many important advances in medicine had a notoriously difficult time being accepted, as an example, the idea that bacterial infection was the cause of stomach ulcers had been around for decades before gaining traction.&lt;p&gt;I think the substance of the science discussed revolves around the composition of dietary fat.  As the article notes, the recommendation for increasing the proportion of &amp;quot;polyunsaturated&amp;quot; oils is likely a major factor.  Indeed, common vegetable oils contain a high proportion of linoleic acid, the &amp;quot;base&amp;quot; omega-6 dietary source.  It has been shown in numerous studies that the omega-6 (N-6) to omega-3 (N-3) ratio is important since these essential fats are linked to immune system functioning.&lt;p&gt;N-6 fatty acids are associated with pro-inflammatory factors, N-3 primarily leads to anti-inflammatory products.  In the archaic&amp;#x2F;traditional diet, N-6 and N-3 were present in roughly equal proportion, but with marked increase in vegetable oil consumption, N-6 to N-3 becomes &amp;quot;imbalanced&amp;quot;, e.g., 10:1.&lt;p&gt;Inflammatory processes are well-known to play a role in cardiovascular disease, so it&amp;#x27;s not hard to see how increased N-6 fatty acid intake is a contributor.  However this info has not been a secret in the fields of obesity and metabolic disease treatment and research, where the impact of dietary fat intake has been discussed and published for more than 20 years.&lt;p&gt;Since the mid-90&amp;#x27;s I&amp;#x27;ve recommended sharply reducing polyunsaturated vegetable oil intake as part of &amp;quot;lifestyle&amp;quot; changes supporting optimum health, particularly for patients with predisposition to metabolic disease.  FWIW I&amp;#x27;ve followed my own advice for at least as long, the results have impressed my internist who jokes that I&amp;#x27;ve become quite an uninteresting case.&lt;p&gt;(Don&amp;#x27;t have references at hand.  If anyone wants I&amp;#x27;ll post them.)&lt;p&gt;Edit: grammar!</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>eveningcoffee</author><text>I am not a dietary scientist, but we are using either coconut fat or grape see oil for cooking.&lt;p&gt;The main reason is that these are supposed to produce less cancerogenic compounds after high temperature treatment* and they also do not leave any strong specific taste.&lt;p&gt;Both do not contain significant amount of omega-3 fatty acids, but the cooking oil probably also should not be your main source of fatty acids anyway (usually we wipe the products clean after cooking).&lt;p&gt;Perhaps somebody else could give better insight into it.&lt;p&gt;* I actually have not researched this deeply, but these oils do have relatively high smoke point &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Smoke_point&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Smoke_point&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>