I’ve been cruising the interwebs looking for a good graphic for atoms or chemical compounds or something of the sort, and I came across an article written a couple years ago by a wellness specialist named Vreni Gurd. Yes, really.

In her 2006 article at Trusted.MD, she points out what should be obvious, if only we had the information: polyunsaturated fats are bad. Vegetable oils, for the most part, are bad. Saturated fats, meanwhile, are good. Not to be confused with trans fats, which are as bad as ever. Polyunsaturated margarine is bad? Butter is good? Quoi? I know- not obvious yet. Continue…

It’s high school chemistry that gets you there: polyunsaturated means extra electrons looking to partner up with other molecules. Oxygen is a couple electrons short. Add heat (as in cooking) and you get oxidized oil, which is a geek way of saying rancid:

“The kicker is that most of the vegetable oils on the market are heated in the processing in order to get the oil out of the seed. (Can you imagine how difficult it would be to squeeze oil out of a grape seed?) Therefore they are already rancid on the store shelves. They are then bleached so they look nice, and deodorized so they don’t smell bad and the consumer will not know the oil is rancid.”

Wow. And you thought maraschino cherries were creepy.

She says most arterial plaque (read: heart disease) is made up of unsaturated fats. The body can’t get rid of them nearly as efficiently. Saturated fats, meanwhile, are nice & stable, and the body is already designed to ship them off if we don’t need them (within reason).

She makes another very telling point:

“The first heart attack on record happened in 1921, just as the vegetable oil industry was picking up steam, and sugar and white flour were becoming more plentiful.”

Whereas:

“Animal fats, whole raw milk, eggs and butter had been consumed and prized for their healthfulness for thousands of years…”

Makes sense to me. Food: the less processed the better. Bring on the bison and butter.