I love snacks. I don’t love oil. When Mr. MVF + I first embarked on our oil-free journey we were hard core oil-free. We spent hours in the grocery stores and searching the internet for what to use to replace the beloved oil in everything from snacks to our favorite recipes. It has been two years + I thought it was time for a little update. If you are trying to decide if oil-free is right for you, you are in the right place!
Tara’s Tuesday Tips:
Is Oil-Free Right for You?
Over the last few years, recipe by recipe, I tested + removed the oils from our go-to meals, desserts, and snacks. I first published an article about out our oil-free journey in 2020. Since then, we have made a solid landing on our plant-based life.
We found this wonderful thing that everyone seems to be searching for … balance. We realized that life without oil in our food on planet earth might be too restrictive (and maybe not taste so good). No one has enough time on this planet to live all day every day by restrictive food rules eating food that just doesn’t taste that good. Some guardrails are good to keep our health in check, our runs fueled, and our bodies ready + able to carry us through all of our adventures happy + disease-free. So where does that land our oil-free journey now? Wondering if an oil-free way of life is right for you? Then these tips are for you!
Where We Are Now With Eating Oil-Free
The balance of our oil-free life landed in such a way that we do not use oil in our salads or dressings, we replace spoons of oil when tempering spices with short sprays of avocado oil, and we do all of our roasting + air-frying + sautéing without oil at all. It’s amazing how a high-quality pan + a little salt + water or broth can change a girl’s life from pour-on-the-oil to no-need-for-oil.
As far as store-bought snacks, we enjoy crackers/chips/snacks that are responsibly made without palm, sunflower, safflower, canola, or coconut oils. We will occasionally enjoy chips cooked in avocado or olive oil. If we are eating out, we recognize that restaurants use a variety of oils and simply enjoy our time out, eating good food in the company of good people without worrying about oil or calories or fat. Balance. Keep searching, I promise you it is there. Allow me now to help you find out if oil-free is right for you (or mostly oil-free like me).
The Reasons I Choose to Minimize My Oil Intake
These are MY reasons, sharing them to help you decide for yourself …
- I choose to prioritize whole foods. Oils are not whole foods, they are the liquified fat extracted out of what was once a whole food.
- Oils are very low in micronutrients + nutritional value. I aim for the highest nutritional + micronutrient content in the foods that most often make it to my plate.
- Calorie density is super important + just as equally misunderstood. Oil is extremely calorie dense. Simply put: vegetables 100 calories per pound, fruit 300 calories per pound, oils 4000 calories per pound. The more calorically dense a food is, the less room it takes up in your stomach + the more you need to eat to feel full. If I were to eat more oil, I would be crowding out other nutritionally valuable foods I need (and want) to eat.
- After lots + lots of experimentation, I have figured out kitchen hacks that allow my food to still taste good even without being drowned in oil.
- Oil-free is not an ethical issue for me. I am not an all or nothing kind of girl except when it comes to eating animals (I will absolutely not eat anything that has lost its life). So, I am not willing to say no oil ever. I am willing to say that I do my best to minimize the oils I consume by seeking out oil-free home cooking hacks, store-bought snacks that are prepared in healthier oils, and restaurants that are more health conscious with regards to oils.
Helping You Decide if Oil-Free is Right For You
Now that you are updated on the MVF oil-free journey, I hope that helps in your decision with regards to oil! My reasons are my reasons but rest assured, they are science-based! With years of experience with diagnosing, treating, and preventing illnesses for my patients + my family, I love the science-nerd stuff! I’m not here to sell you a magic pill or spray or program. I am certainly here to help you find balance of enjoying good food without restriction while keeping the guardrails on to allow you to live your life disease-free.
Oils + Inflammation
A few weeks ago I authored an article all about inflammation. Check it out here: The Vegetarian’s Guide to Anti-Inflammatory Foods. Pay special attention to this if you suffer with pain, insomnia, intestinal issues, skin irritation, or difficulty losing weight. The link between oil + inflammation warrants a discussion if you are deciding to cut your oil intake down or suffer with any of these symptoms.
Seed oils are very high in linoleic acid (a polyunsaturated omega-6 fatty acid). When they are heated, they release free radicals. Free radicals floating around in our bodies can alter our other cells and contribute to cancers + other diseases.
Pro-inflammatory oils include partially hydrogenated oils, sunflower, safflower, corn, and soybean oils. Regularly consuming these oils has been shown in studies to raise C-reactive protein + interleukin-6 which are the markers of inflammation.
Clearly this is not good! Think fried foods, fatty foods, processed + oily packaged snacks, pastries, and meals. These all have been shown to spike inflammatory markers as soon as one hour after eating these things!
Heart Disease + Oil
As I progress on my plant-based journey, I continue to learn + grow. In the world we live in today, we can find an article to support whatever we want to believe to be true. TikTok has a video for just about anything you want to search. Eating a high fat, carnivorous diet will be supported by an influencer with no scientific background + no clinical experience but wow do they make you believe what they are spewing. Be careful. I am not saying this so that you will listen to me, I am saying this because real science, real research, real data support the fact that heart disease + saturated fat intake are linked.
The news + media love to make the case that there is something magical about olive oil. As though we should be adding it even if we didn’t before for cardio protection. To clear things up: yes, if you replace other fats (butter, shortening, mayonnaise, animal fats) with olive oil, you will indeed be making a healthier choice and lowering your risk of heart disease. However, these olive oil headlines are quoting research that did not look at replacing the olive oil with other oils or with no oil at all. That research ONLY looked at replacing butter or shortening with olive oil. Of course it is better!
What we do know from years of research is that lowering our intake of saturated fat will lower our risk of heart disease. No surprise there. I go into more detail here: Five Minute Tips For A Healthy Heart, How To Eat For Heart Health, or How to Lower Your Cholesterol.
Calorie Density + Oil
I like to eat + I like foods that taste good, but I wholeheartedly believe that paying attention to calorie density is one of the ways I easily manage my weight. The very detailed article I wrote about calorie density can be found right here: Calorie Density 101: How to Lose Weight Eating More Food. I feel VERY strongly about the need to understand calorie density to maintain a healthy weight.
This was mentioned above, but here you go again because I just love talking about it: oil is extremely calorie dense. Simply put: vegetables 100 calories per pound, fruit 300 calories per pound, oils 4000 calories per pound. No, you aren’t eating a pound of any of this at a time, but it is just for visualization. The more calorically dense a food is, the less room it takes up in your stomach + the more you need to eat to feel full. If I were to eat more oil, I would be crowding out other nutritionally valuable foods I need (and want) to eat. Food for thought!
Curious about oil-free cooking?
Start here: Guide to Oil-Free Cooking, Oil-Free Salad Dressings, How To Choose A Cooking Oil.
Food For Thought
Old ways won’t open new doors. Change is difficult, very difficult. Small changes eventually add up to big results. So, start small. You don’t have to finish reading this and commit to taking oil out of everything. However, if you have finished reading this and realize it’s time to reset something in your life, you have come to the right place!
One small change might ignite another small change and before you know it your old ways are changing, and you are on your way to letting food be your medicine. Consider giving up just one or two of your snacks made with seed oils. Try reading the labels and looking for avocado oil chips, use spray instead of drizzling oil, and browse around here on MVF, most of my recipes are oil-free! That, my friends, is how you ignite change without being restrictive or hungry or your food being disgusting. Fuel your life so that you can live pain-free + disease-free! As always, reach out to me with any questions: tara@myvegetarianfamily.com 💚
All the best,
Tara 💚
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