Fri, May-10-02, 11:53
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Forum Founder
Posts: 37,420
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Plan: LC, GF
Stats: 241/190/140
BF:
Progress: 50%
Location: Eastern ON, Canada
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From Ask Dr. Sears ... (a pediatrician/ family medicine specialist, not Barry Sears of The Zone  )
Quote:
Most oils come from the seeds of plants, which are crushed and pressed to remove the oil. Heat can damage oils and alter the fatty acids, creating harmful substances, so the best oils are produced with minimal heat. This is called cold pressing. However, when you see the term "cold-pressed" on a label, don't assume that the oil in the bottle was not heated during manufacturing. "Cold-pressed" is a little fib that appeals to consumers who are savvy enough to equate heating with damage to oils. The problem is that the term has no chemical, legal, or technological definition, and it means something different to a manufacturer than it does to the consumer. To a manufacturer, cold-pressed simply means that no external heat was applied during the pressing of the oil, yet the press itself, which comes in contact with the oil, may become quite hot anyway and damage the oil. A more informative label would state the temperature at which the oil was processed, which ideally should be below 110 degrees. The words "omegaflow process" on a label means that the oil has been protected from reaching high temperatures during processing.
Most of the oils you'll find in the supermarket have not only been extracted with heat or solvents, but have also been refined with potentially toxic substances. These processes improve shelf life and make oil cheap to produce, but they take the product further away from its natural state and leave chemical residues behind. If the label does not boast that the oil is "unrefined," you can assume that it has been through some kind of chemical process that makes it worse for your health.
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In Fats That Heal Fats That Kill, Udo Erasmus devotes a whole chapter to the mythology of "cold-pressed" (chapter 27, pp 141 - 144). Many health food stores carry "cold-pressed" oils which may indeed have been pressed without heat, but then they're refined afterwards -- deodorized and/or filtered under pressure to remove the sediment and residue, and make the oil nice and pretty and clear ... More attractive to buyers.
Doreen
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