April 2011
Unrefined vegetable oils are more beneficial, nutritious, flavorful, wholesome, ethical, unadulterated, and commonsensical. Refined vegetable oils, designed for an indefinite shelf-life and cheapest cost, do not hold a candle to what they were originally. Ironically, denatured commercial vegetable oil is exactly that, unnatural, yet marketed as refined, falsely implying that it is better.
The aroma, flavor, nutrients, and health benefits of vegetable oils are preserved in natural, unrefined versions, while these attributes are destroyed in commercial extraction and refining. Additionally, industrially produced vegetable oils become adulterated with substances that have no business being in our food.
Unrefined vegetable oils are expeller or cold pressed from seed or meal not using high heat or hexane extraction. Cold pressing preserves valuable components, leaving the oil with distinctive character and all its inherent value and benefits.
In EDEN unrefined olive, sesame, toasted sesame, safflower, and soybean oils, the bouquet, color, and flavor of the source of the oil remains distinctly evident. This is sensory assurance that maximum nutrients and natural efficacies are still contained in them.
The truth frequently is not pretty; nevertheless, we offer the following: Commercial or refined vegetable oils are made by crushing seed to extract oil generating high temperatures under great pressure. The crushed seed meal is treated with toxic hexane or other petroleum solvents to gain further extraction. The oil is again heated well beyond the smoke point to drive off most of the solvents. This stuff cannot taste or smell very good at this point, so they treat the oil with caustic soda (sodium hydroxide) to reduce acidity and remove burnt free fatty acids and proteins. This also destroys beneficial antioxidants like the natural preservative vitamin E which is replaced with synthetic preservatives. Next, the oil is heated again, centrifuged, bleached, and sulfuric or hydrochloric acid treated to ‘wash’ it, then micro-filtered removing everything except fat, including color. Deodorizing and de-foaming chemicals and high temperature steam further destroy nutrients. The end product is shelf-stable with a high smoke point, but severely depleted nutritional content except fat, and, at best, dubious value.
Purity Takes Work
Simply choosing any unrefined oil is not a guarantee of purity or freedom from contamination with genetically modified organisms (GMOs). There is no requirement to label genetically engineered food, and no regulation of any kind for labeling Non-GMO foods. Also, chemical solvents may be used as processing aids in extraction, but because they are not considered to be part of the refining process, these oils can legally be labeled as unrefined. The best guarantee of purity is to know where your oils and oil seed have come from, and to choose unrefined and organic vegetable oils that you can confirm are unadulterated. If in trying to educate yourself about which food to choose, you find folks not eager to answer your questions, you had probably better look somewhere else for what you are seeking. Anyone that has gone through the work necessary to make sure they have avoided contamination of their foods will be eager and grateful to help you discover every detail about the food they offer. EDEN brand unrefined and organic vegetable oils are free of chemical solvents and genetically modified organisms.
Discerning the Difference
We make wiser choices after learning the difference between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ fats. Avoiding commercial, industrial fats and oils is essential to well-being. As we begin to choose unrefined, flavorful, healthy fats like EDEN vegetable oils, a realm of delicious opportunity opens and the foods we prepare nourish and taste better.
EDEN unrefined vegetable oils satisfy a necessary part of a healthy, pleasurable diet. Each contains antioxidant essential fatty acids that naturally protect them and us. 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, while costing less than other extra virgin olive oils. It was rated Best in flavor with “zesty, buttery, assertive taste.” Expeller pressed EDEN Sesame, Toasted Sesame, Hot Pepper Sesame, high oleic Safflower, and Soybean Oil come from the highest quality seed and are simply lightly filtered. Low heat pressing protects the phytonutrients, character, flavor, and sought-after value. All are 
pareve.
Amber Glass Protected
EDEN unrefined vegetable oils are bottled in efficacious dark amber glass to protect flavor and nutrients from damage by light. Light causes chemical change that leads to discoloration and off-flavor. Photo-oxidation (light damage) is systemic in food stores where fluorescent lighting, in particular, reduces food quality. Amber glass is difficult to get and more costly, but it best protects food as studies confirm. EDEN unrefined vegetable oils are nitrogen sealed. Nitrogen removes oxygen from the unfilled portion of the bottles and replaces it with inert, food-grade nitrogen, further preserving nutrients, flavor, color, and bouquet.
