Once you start adding chemistry, things can get weird fast. For example, a particular class of antibiotics may be behind the boost in diabetes in the US: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24947193
Seed oils are usually solvent extracted, which makes me wonder, how thoroughly are they scrubbed of solvent, what stuff in the solvent is absorbed into the oil (also an effective solvent for various things), etc
Glyphosate for dessication is kind of horrifying, I’m surprised I didn’t know about it, but this explains a lot.
Solving the ‘how do I get uncontaminated food’ problem is an enduring challenge that is likely to get worse. I’m looking forward to a warehouse or homestead scale bioreactor produced protein (solein can probably be done at this scale), synthetic omega 3s are unfortunately not yet available for a bunch of reasons, but cautious optimism on that front: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2023.1280296/full is reasonable (though synthetic versions will likely be solvent extracted, so we’re back to the earlier problem!)
I tend to think that composition of the diet in terms of macros, nutrients, etc probably is far less of a driver of health than presence or absence of pollution.
Seed oils are usually solvent extracted, which makes me wonder, how thoroughly are they scrubbed of solvent, what stuff in the solvent is absorbed into the oil (also an effective solvent for various things), etc
I looked into this briefly at least for canola oil. There, the typical solvent is hexane. And some hexane does indeed appear to make it into the canola oil that we eat. But hexane apparently has very low toxicity, and—more importantly—the hexane that we get from all food sources apparently makes up less than 2% of our total hexane intake! https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/2015/04/13/ask-the-expert-concerns-about-canola-oil/ Mostly we get hexane from gasoline fumes, so if hexane is a problem, it’s very hard to see how to pin the blame on canola oil.
I’m not just talking about the hexane (which isn’t usually standardized enough to generalize about), I’m talking about any weird crap on the seed, in the hopper, in the hexane, or accumulated in the process machinery. Hexane dissolves stuff, oil dissolves stuff, and the steam used to crash the hexane out of the oil also dissolves stuff, and by the way, the whole process is high temp and pressure.
There’s a ton of batch to batch variability and opportunity to introduce chemistry you wouldn’t want in your body which just isn’t present with “I squeezed some olives between two giant rocks”
By your logic, extra virgin olive oil is a waste, just use the olive pomace oil, it’s the same stuff, and the solvent extraction vs mechanical pressing just doesn’t matter.
Strong upvoted. I learned a lot. Seriously interested in what you think is relatively safe and not extremely expensive or difficult to acquire. Some candidates I thought of but im not exactly well informed: -- Grass fed beef —oysters/muscles —some whole grains? which? -- fruit —vegetables you somehow know arent contaminated by anti-pest chemicals?
Unfortunately, I haven’t found a solution that scales, and I don’t think there is one.
I suspect that a clean environment is incompatible with most technological infrastructure. Microplastics, oilfield brines, combustion products, industrial/agricultural/mining waste, etc all accumulate in the environment and concentrate on the way up the food chain. Even a strip mall generates a ton of pollution in the nearby water table.
I’ve given up on ‘pure’ and just try to have a clear understanding of how I’m poisoning myself. The most depressing thing about this is that I’ve been to absolutely beautiful farms, with happy animals...and in my due diligence discovered that the reason it was affordable to homestead there is because the textile plant closed in the 70s, so all the jobs left...but the PFOAs stuck around.
So… I try to know what’s going into my body, avoid poison where possible, and do my best to get whatever garbage is accumulating out.
That being said, I think the stuff that has done the most damage to my body are medical products. Read those labels carefully!
Once you start adding chemistry, things can get weird fast. For example, a particular class of antibiotics may be behind the boost in diabetes in the US: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24947193
Seed oils are usually solvent extracted, which makes me wonder, how thoroughly are they scrubbed of solvent, what stuff in the solvent is absorbed into the oil (also an effective solvent for various things), etc
Glyphosate for dessication is kind of horrifying, I’m surprised I didn’t know about it, but this explains a lot.
Basically all fish in the USA should only be eaten once a year due to PFAS contamination, and unfortunately trophic magnification seems to be a thing for those chemicals: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0048969723019216
Solving the ‘how do I get uncontaminated food’ problem is an enduring challenge that is likely to get worse. I’m looking forward to a warehouse or homestead scale bioreactor produced protein (solein can probably be done at this scale), synthetic omega 3s are unfortunately not yet available for a bunch of reasons, but cautious optimism on that front: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2023.1280296/full is reasonable (though synthetic versions will likely be solvent extracted, so we’re back to the earlier problem!)
I tend to think that composition of the diet in terms of macros, nutrients, etc probably is far less of a driver of health than presence or absence of pollution.
I looked into this briefly at least for canola oil. There, the typical solvent is hexane. And some hexane does indeed appear to make it into the canola oil that we eat. But hexane apparently has very low toxicity, and—more importantly—the hexane that we get from all food sources apparently makes up less than 2% of our total hexane intake! https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/2015/04/13/ask-the-expert-concerns-about-canola-oil/ Mostly we get hexane from gasoline fumes, so if hexane is a problem, it’s very hard to see how to pin the blame on canola oil.
https://www.mdpi.com/2304-8158/11/21/3412 more recent source on hexane tox.
I’m not just talking about the hexane (which isn’t usually standardized enough to generalize about), I’m talking about any weird crap on the seed, in the hopper, in the hexane, or accumulated in the process machinery. Hexane dissolves stuff, oil dissolves stuff, and the steam used to crash the hexane out of the oil also dissolves stuff, and by the way, the whole process is high temp and pressure.
There’s a ton of batch to batch variability and opportunity to introduce chemistry you wouldn’t want in your body which just isn’t present with “I squeezed some olives between two giant rocks”
By your logic, extra virgin olive oil is a waste, just use the olive pomace oil, it’s the same stuff, and the solvent extraction vs mechanical pressing just doesn’t matter.
Strong upvoted. I learned a lot. Seriously interested in what you think is relatively safe and not extremely expensive or difficult to acquire. Some candidates I thought of but im not exactly well informed:
-- Grass fed beef
—oysters/muscles
—some whole grains? which?
-- fruit
—vegetables you somehow know arent contaminated by anti-pest chemicals?
I really need some guidance here.
Unfortunately, I haven’t found a solution that scales, and I don’t think there is one.
I suspect that a clean environment is incompatible with most technological infrastructure. Microplastics, oilfield brines, combustion products, industrial/agricultural/mining waste, etc all accumulate in the environment and concentrate on the way up the food chain. Even a strip mall generates a ton of pollution in the nearby water table.
I’ve given up on ‘pure’ and just try to have a clear understanding of how I’m poisoning myself. The most depressing thing about this is that I’ve been to absolutely beautiful farms, with happy animals...and in my due diligence discovered that the reason it was affordable to homestead there is because the textile plant closed in the 70s, so all the jobs left...but the PFOAs stuck around.
So… I try to know what’s going into my body, avoid poison where possible, and do my best to get whatever garbage is accumulating out.
That being said, I think the stuff that has done the most damage to my body are medical products. Read those labels carefully!