Double Bonds. But not like the picture, unfortunately.
Because it turns out that when it comes to molecules, 'double bonds' are not good news at all. ‘Dark Calories’ is a book written by an American doctor called Catherine Shanahan. I read it recently, and it’s left me reeling. I bought it because I while sort of knew that seed oils were bad juju, I didn’t really know quite how bad. Or why. Dr Shanahan explains both. Bear with me while I try not to mangle the science. At a molecular level, seed oils – like all polyunsaturated fats – have two or more double bonds. These double bonds make the molecule dramatically more susceptible to oxidation than saturated fats or monounsaturated fats. And the resultant oxidation is, for Shanahan, at the root of all chronic disease. Because of that, she says, they’re worse than tobacco. If you’re interested in peeling this especially rotten onion, I’d obviously recommend the book. But Shanahan is by no means alone. The briefest of Google or YouTube searches will point you in the direction of all sorts of other folk saying exactly the same thing.
Problem is, seed oils - also referred to by the particularly cynical moniker 'vegetable oils' - are in almost everything these days*. Processed foods of all sorts are positively teeming with them, and most fast food is fried in ‘em. The job, then, is to use other fats. And that's what pasture fed organic beef dripping and organic pork lard are for 😋 Turns out that our great grandparents – and every single human who ever lived before them – were bang on the money.
