June 2016
“One very basic difference between our way of looking at vegetable oils and the industrial oil technician's viewpoint should be understood. When he sees dark color, it represents the presence of ‘impurities’ — material that prevents the oil from being light colored, odorless, and bland in taste. From our viewpoint, those “impurities’ look desirable. The things which impart color, odor, and flavor are Nutrients. It is both tragic and ironic that the removal of nutrients should be equated with ‘purity’. Tragic, because if those nutrients were present they would contribute to people's health. Ironic because establishing the desired ‘purity’ really results in producing poor quality food.”
‘The History of Vegetable Oil’ — Paul Hawken & Fred Rohe, Mother Earth News.
Another factor in the marketing of this synthetic ‘purity’ was the vastly extended shelf life of nutrient depleted cooking oils. Suddenly, freshness was no longer a burden for cooking oil manufacturers. Later, they added a little toxic preservative (that no longer must be listed as an ingredient) and the shelf life became almost indefinite.
For millennia oil extraction from seed, nuts, grain, legumes, vegetables, etc., collectively called ‘oilseed’, used methods that resulted in delicious, importantly nutritious, and unadulterated cooking oils; precious commodities that were greatly appreciated and sought after.
In the late 1800s through the 1900s, and it continues today, as corporate profit motive mushroomed, justification for nonsensical, damaging, and toxic methods of food production secretly became morally acceptable and deemed ethical in bureaucratic schemes that promoted the synthetic knowledge necessary to market them. These included techniques of extracting and refining vegetable oils using petrochemical solvents to achieve yields up to 89% greater than those of more food-appropriate crushing and pressing. One result of this was that all the good quality producers were put out of business, while huge, highly profit motivated corporations replaced them. The continuing, ever increasing degradation of food quality and subsequent degeneration of personal and societal health accelerated, giving rise to the health care industry we have today that completely ignores the causes and effects of the degradation and adulteration of our food.
Reasonable scale production is most likely to produce the best results as it foregoes heavy-handed systems that require deceitful marketing. Extracting cooking oil beyond what is reasonable with toxic methods, solely to increase profit, necessitates fraudulent marketing.
Nutrients, Color, and Flavor
Cooking oils are essential and used for all types of meals in many ways. An oil's character should heighten pleasure and nutrition when it is used. Creating bland, colorless, odorless, inordinately extended shelf life cooking oils requires destroying value and then hiding this in order to sell them. Commercial cooking oil is heavily refined, stripped of most nutrients, and has little to very negative culinary value.
Knowing is Essential
Knowing what are ‘good’ and ‘bad’ fats allows intelligent choices for cooking and salad oil. Avoiding highly refined, chemically extracted and washed commercial oils is essential to well-being. Refined vegetable oil, designed for indefinite shelf life and the cheapest possible cost, does not begin to compare to good quality unrefined oil and does not reflect its oilseed source. Denatured commercial vegetable oil is unnatural, yet marketed as refined, falsely implying that it is better. Once you experience good unrefined oil and compare it to a commercial counterpart, you will know that unrefined natural oils are more delicious and sensory appealing than refined and adulterated imitations. Unrefined vegetable oils make food more satisfying, better tasting, and much healthier.
Buyer Beware
Simply choosing an ‘unrefined’ vegetable oil is not a guarantee of purity or freedom from genetically modified organisms (GMOs). There is no regulation for labeling non-GMO food. The USDA/OTA organic system of rules is laced with loopholes. Chemical solvents can be used as ‘allowable’ press aids in extraction and purifying. Processing aids are not considered part of the refining process, so these oils can legally be labeled as unrefined. The best guarantee of purity is to know where your oils and oilseed have come from, and to choose trusted unrefined and organic vegetable oils such as EDEN Oils that are free of chemical solvents and GMOs.
EDEN unrefined vegetable oils attend to the pleasure and necessity of fat in our diets. They provide essential fatty acids and contain antioxidants that naturally protect them and nurture us. More appropriate low-heat expeller and cold pressing protects phytonutrients, character, flavor, and sought-after value. Cold pressed EDEN Extra Virgin Olive Oil was Rodale's Prevention Magazine ‘All Around Best Buy,’ scoring highest in flavor and protective nutrients of the twenty-two brands studied. It was rated ‘Best in Flavor’ with “zesty, buttery, assertive taste.” Cold pressing preserves valuable components, leaving the oil with distinctive character and all of its inherent value and benefits. Expeller pressed EDEN Sesame, Toasted Sesame, Hot Pepper Sesame, and high oleic Safflower Oil come from high quality seed and are simply lightly filtered. In EDEN vegetable oils, the aroma, rich golden color, and flavor of the oilseed remains distinctly evident. This is sensory assurance that maximum nutrients and healthful properties are retained.
EDEN vegetable oils are an essential part of a healthy, balanced, varied, and pleasurable diet. Light and flavorful, they contribute delicious flavor and palatability to sautés, stir-fries, sauces, gravies, and baked goods, and are a preferred choice for salad dressings, spreads, and dips.
Amber Glass Continues Protecting
Ambient light photooxidation (light damage) is systemic in food stores where fluorescent lighting, in particular, degrades food quality. EDEN unrefined vegetable oils are bottled in efficacious dark amber glass to guard against flavor and nutrient damage by light. Amber glass costs a bit more, but it best protects the food.
Light absorption of glass - Brown absorbs most, and protects better than blue or green. We use brown glass bottles to prevent light-induced damage to nutrients, flavors, and color. This maintains purity.
