If Your Oil Is Smoking You're Creating Trans Fat

I have a friend who follows the "mediterranean diet" and she cooks absolutely everything in olive oil. She has type 2 diabetes and she has been trying to lower her blood sugar naturally but so far she hasn't been able to do so. She has lowered her HgA1c to 7.8 from more than 9 (she's still on medication) but can't seem to get it to drop down into the normal range. I've been trying to convince her how much more healthy coconut oil is for diabetics would be for her but she's stubborn :)

I was at her house today for lunch and she was cooking some slices of tomatoes in olive oil to add to pasta dish. We were gabbing and I almost didn't notice but I looked down at one point and saw puffs of smoke emanating out of the skillet!

Alarmed I shouted, "Your olive oil is smoking... you've got your heat too high!"

"Oh yeah, I do that to get that roasted flavor," she quickly replied.

The conversation that ensued has prompted to me to write this important post.

When you smoke your oil, you create trans fat!

And... as I've written about many times before, trans fat causes diabetes. And... eating trans fat will prevent you from being able to cure your diabetes!

It doesn't matter how healthy your oil is. You can have the highest quality cold pressed extra virgin olive oil and you will completely defeat the purpose of using a healthy oil if you heat it to the point it smokes! When you see your oil smoke, you have created TRANS FAT which causes diabetes and many other health issues including heart disease and cancer. Trans fat is one of the worst things you can put into your body. If your oil smokes, I suggest you throw it out and start over!

In fact, olive oil, like many/most other oils can not be heated very much before it smokes - only the lightest heating on your lowest setting is safe. I used to use olive oil for cooking much more than I do now because I do enjoy the flavor it gives certain foods and it is one of the healthier oils to use. However, I do so very sparingly now that I know how easy it is to create trans fat when you heat olive oil (I still use it quite a lot in salads). I do enjoy sauteed spinach and other greens in olive oil but when I cook this, I literally use the very lowest setting on my stove and even then I keep removing the skillet from the burner to prevent over-heating the oil and creating the toxic trans fat.

Yes, trans fat is toxic! It is literally like eating poison. You should avoid it like the plague! This is especially true for my fellow diabetics!

Unfortunately, most oils can't be heated at all or not much. The perfect example of this is "canola oil" which is actually a variety of rapeseed oil. Canola oil contains a high percentage of omega-3 which is extraordinarily sensitive to heat. Applying almost any amount of heat to canola oil will create trans fat. This is why canola oil causes diabetes, even the canola oil sold as "healthy" and "expeller pressed." Even though expeller pressed canola oil is processed at lower temperatures than other canola oil, it is still heated high enough to create substantial amounts of trans fat. This is why it is important for everyone, especially diabetics, to completely avoid canola oil - avoid ALL canola oil, regardless of how healthy the marketing gurus make it out to be - they are WRONG - and they probably work (directly or indirectly) for the company selling you the oil. It may not be labeled as containing trans fat but several research studies have demonstrated that it does. This is also why we really need to convince Trader Joe's to stop allowing canola oil in their private label foods AND we need to convince Whole Foods to stop using canola oil in their private labels and on their foods they prepare on site. We all need to band together on this one! We also need to demand that the USDA require labeling of trans fat on food labels and independent random testing of companies claiming zero trans fat on their products.

Smoking oils creating trans fat is just one detail that is almost always left out of most guides to curing diabetes. And... look how incredibly crucial this detail is! If you don't eliminate trans fat from your diet you won't be able to cure your diabetes. This is a perfect example of why I have been harping and harping on people getting this information. First, watch the video and then explore what they offer. It is imperative to curing your diabetes that you have the right information - ALL the information, not just some of it. If you are truly serious about reversing your diabetes, you can NOT depend on just surfing around the net, hoping to pick up enough clues here and there. You really need one comprehensive source of information. To me, there is nothing more important to your life if you are a diabetic than curing it - because everything else is affecting by it - I can do SO MANY more things now and feel so much better after curing my diabetes. So, please stop smoking your oils (and if you cook with olive oil, do so only at extremely low temperatures - and don't buy anything with canola) and check out that information.