Seed oils can be making you ill – here’s why

 

Seed oils are vegetable oils extracted from seeds and are found throughout the modern food supply. Common examples include soybean, sunflower, safflower, corn, canola, cottonseed, grapeseed and rice bran oils. They are widely used in packaged foods, baked goods, salad dressings, sauces, fried foods and fast food because they are inexpensive, versatile and generally have a neutral flavour.

But seed oils can make you very ill because they are toxic. Seed oils contain polyunsaturated fats, particularly linoleic acid which can cause inflammation and oxidation.

Which seed oils should you avoid?

The short answer is all of them. Better to not buy them and not cook with them. Also to stop eating ultra processed foods that are known to contain them. Start reading labels and let go of the deep-fried foods, those high in kilojoules and carbohydrates, salt and sugar. Your take away food is most likely cooked in repeated oils that in itself will promote oxidation and the formation of toxic products.

How do seed oils affect your body?

Linoleic acid is a precursor for oxidative stress. Polyunsaturated fats contain chemically vulnerable double bonds, which undergo oxidation under certain conditions. Oxidized lipids can produce reactive compounds that interact with cells and tissues. So, when you consume linoleic acid in this denatured world it can add to your inflammation or mitochondrial damage which probably already exists in your body. Saturated fats on the other hand are metabolised differently and therefore in many cases make the healthier choice.

One of the biggest concerns with seed oils is their high concentration of linoleic acid, an Omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acid. Linoleic acid can become incorporated into cell membranes throughout the body, including the membranes surrounding mitochondria.

Linoleic acid has a very long half-life in the body, meaning that replacing it with other fatty acids can take considerable time. This is one reason why reducing ongoing exposure to seed oils is important.

Seed oils are also extensively processed. Industrial production can involve high temperatures, chemical extraction, bleaching, and deodorisation. Processing and subsequent storage or heating can contribute to oxidation and the formation of undesirable lipid compounds.

Another concern is that polyunsaturated fats are particularly vulnerable to oxidation when exposed to heat, light, and oxygen. Oxidized fats can generate lipid peroxides and free radicals, which may contribute to oxidative stress and cellular damage. Repeatedly heating cooking oils can further increase oxidation.

Seed oils are also heavily concentrated in omega-6 fatty acids. A diet dominated by seed oils and ultra-processed foods can contribute to an excessive intake of Omega-6 fats while providing insufficient Omega-3 fats. Maintaining a healthy balance between these fatty acids is important for regulating inflammatory processes in the body which is why you should never take an Omega 3 supplement on its own but in a combination of 3,6 and 9.

Seed oils and mitochondrial health

Mitochondria are often called the powerhouses of our cells because they produce ATP, the energy required for cellular function. The inner mitochondrial membrane contains a phospholipid called cardiolipin. If cardiolipin has an abundance of linoleic acid then oxidative stress can increase and the mitochondria become highly oxidised and disrupt cellular energy production. This can affect autophagy, protein transport, mitochondrial dynamics, and mitophagy which is the removal and recycling of damaged mitochondria.

When mitochondrial function is compromised, cellular energy production can suffer. This may contribute to problems such as fatigue, brain fog, poor metabolic function, sleep disturbances, and increased oxidative stress. Seed oils can also force your body into sugar-burning mode, damage mitochondria and speed up aging.

How to detox seed oils from your body

There is no easy solution for removing seed oils from your body because fatty acids can become incorporated into cell membranes meaning replacing them requires time. The goal is to stop adding more problematic fats while supporting healthy cellular and metabolic function.

1.   Eat a natural food diet

The first step is to eliminate seed oils from your diet. Avoid processed foods containing soybean, corn, sunflower, safflower, cottonseed, grapeseed, canola, and rice bran oils. This means eliminating chips, crackers, fried foods, frozen meals, cookies, muffins, cakes, margarine, packaged sauces, processed snacks, microwave popcorn, instant noodles, fast food, and other over processed foods.

Instead, focus on nutrient rich whole foods. Choose quality animal products such as grass-fed or pasture raised animal products, wild caught seafood, eggs, Greek yogurt, vegetables, herbs, spices, low-glycaemic fruits, avocados, olives, extra-virgin olive oil, coconut oil, butter, and ghee. Also drink filtered water free from contaminants.

Be sure to eliminate canola, soybean, peanut, corn. Safflower, grapeseed, margarine, cottonseed oil and hydrogenated oils. Replace these with good old butter, tallow, ghee, coconut milk or oil, avocado oil, olive or fish oil and eggs. Those are all natural fats that your body uses more easily.

2.   Intermittent fasting

Intermittent fasting can support autophagy, the body's natural cellular recycling process. Autophagy helps the body identify and recycle damaged cellular components.

Begin by gradually increasing the overnight fasting period from dinner to breakfast. If your last meal is 8pm then to achieve metabolic health and cellular repair start with a 12-hour overnight fast and have breakfast after 8am. Then you can gradually increase the fasting window as appropriate to a 16 hour fast. Remember to check with your doctor or naturopath before you start especially if there are already health concerns such as diabetes etc. Fasting may be inappropriate for some people with some conditions.

3.   Exercise

Regular movement is another important component of supporting metabolic health and cellular renewal. Walking, resistance training, cardiovascular exercise, stretching, and other forms of physical activity can support circulation, mitochondrial function, and autophagy.

Combining strength training with cardiovascular exercise provides a comprehensive approach to maintaining metabolic and cellular health.

4.   Sleep

Sleep is essential for tissue repair, cellular renewal, metabolic regulation, and overall recovery. Aim for approximately seven hours each night. Support your circadian rhythm by getting natural light during the day and reducing bright artificial light and close down all screens 2 hours before you sleep. Create a calm nighttime environment and maintain a consistent sleep schedule.

5.   Saunas

Heat therapy and sauna use can stimulate heat-shock proteins and cellular stress-response pathways. These processes can support cellular maintenance and autophagy. Saunas also facilitate detoxification, improve blood glucose levels, increase growth hormone, reduce inflammation and improve circulation. Infrared saunas are amazing and if you haven’t tried it yet, please do. It would be good to make it part of your regular wellness routine. Remember again to check with your doctor or naturopath if this is safe for you depending on other health issues you may have.

6.   Cold exposure

Have you ever had a warm shower and then just turned on the cold for a second? Instantly your energy field will respond and your body also. Cold showers and cold plunges can stimulate responses that can influence mitochondrial activity and cellular recycling. Start with brief periods of cool and gradually increase the duration.

The most effective strategy though is to stop consuming seed oils regularly and replace ultra-processed foods with nutritious whole food alternatives. Include all of the above in your wellness routine and within months you will begin to see some results. Remember your body needs time to detox from any artificial poisons so give it a bit of time.

Here at www.stressfreehealthmanagement.com we specialise in finding what is right for you as part of your wellness plan. Our combined naturopathy, nutrition, counselling, energy and spiritual healing, meditation and other services all make one big bundle to get you healthy and keep you healthy. These are all included in your session. Perhaps it’s time you brought some great positive change into your life! Give us a call today to find out how we can help YOU!

Why You Should Not Drink Coffee at Night

Coffee is a daily ritual for millions of people around the world. In fact, caffeine is the most widely consumed psychoactive drug on the planet. While that morning cup can feel essential, drinking coffee too late in the day can seriously interfere with your sleep and throw off your body’s natural rhythm.

Scientists have long been fascinated by coffee and its effects on the brain. One major reason is its

impact on the body’s internal clock, known as the circadian rhythm. This clock regulates biological patterns such as when we feel alert and when we feel sleepy. When caffeine enters the picture at the wrong time, that clock can be disrupted.

One study followed 12 participants and found that “caffeine consumed 0, 3, and 6 hours before bedtime diminished sleep quality.” Using sleep monitors, researchers measured total sleep time and sleep efficiency, which is the percentage of time spent asleep while in bed. The study showed that caffeine consumed even six hours before bedtime had significant negative effects on sleep.

Another research study found that drinking a double espresso just three hours before bedtime delayed the production of melatonin which is the hormone that helps signal to your body that it’s time to sleep. It delayed it by about 40 minutes. This delay makes it much harder to fall asleep, even if you feel tired.

What Happens When You Drink Coffee Too Late?

In order to understand why nighttime coffee causes such problems, it helps to look at what’s happening inside your body.

Your body is made up of trillions of cells, and each one has its own circadian rhythm. Think of these rhythms like part of a tiny machine. Throughout the day, they work together to keep you alert. When evening approaches and the sun goes down, those parts begin to slow, preparing your body for rest.

Now imagine you’re out to dinner with friends in the evening and decide to order a coffee. While you’re enjoying the conversation, caffeine is quietly entering your system and as the coffee spreads through your body, it reaches each cell and wakes it back up. The parts of the machine that were slowing down suddenly speed up again. For the next few hours, your body behaves as if it’s still daytime so you are alert, energized, and focused.

Later that night, you get home, climb into bed, and expect to fall asleep but your cells aren’t ready. Even if you do manage to sleep, it’s unlikely to be deep or restoring sleep. Instead of waking up refreshed, you could feel groggy, unfocused, and tired the next morning.

The Caffeine Cycle

This is how many people fall into a cycle of poor sleep because caffeine disrupted your sleep the night before, so you wake up exhausted. So, to cope, you drink more coffee the next day. That extra caffeine can push your intake later into the afternoon or evening, once again interfering with sleep. Over time, this cycle can lead to chronic fatigue, reduced concentration, and an increasing dependence on caffeine just to get through the day.

it’s not that coffee is bad. If you have it earlier in the day, it can improve alertness, mood, and productivity. It’s all in the timing. If you want better sleep and more natural energy during the day, consider stopping caffeine intake in the afternoon or early evening. This gives your body time to wind down allowing your internal clock to function properly. Sometimes, the best way to feel more awake tomorrow is to skip that cup of coffee tonight.

Morning sunshine is good for your sleep

Sleep is something that we all need for physical, mental and emotional health. The problem is that not all of us can get that essential amount of quality sleep we need. If you are one of those people who have trouble sleeping you may need to give yourself a sleep reboot.  

What you may not realise is that the key to getting a good night’s sleep starts first thing in the morning. Basically, what you do during the day will help determine weather you fall asleep fast, or toss and turn all night. This is when getting outside within your first hour of waking can lead to a better day and ultimately better sleep as well.

Morning sunlight and your health

Morning sunlight not only sets you up for a better day, by boosting your wellbeing and your mood it sets you up for better sleep. It is also good for producing vitamin D. This is vital for many aspects of your health. Sunlight is also crucial for regulating your body’s normal functions such as your hormone levels and your metabolism. Getting some sunshine in the morning can also improve your productivity.

Hormones: cortisol, melatonin and serotonin

The reason sunlight is important for your health is because when you get some early sun it wakes up your nervous system and the chemical reactions needed to reinforces your natural body clock which then produces cortisol, melatonin, and serotonin.

Serotonin

This hormone is responsible for regulating moods, appetite, memory and sleep. If you expose your body, face and eyes to sunlight, it will increase the production of serotonin in your body and reduce Seasonal Affective Disorder as well as anxiety and depression. Serotonin helps our sleep as it is a precursor to melatonin.

Melatonin

Morning sunlight will boost the amount of raw material needed to make the sleep hormone melatonin which is a central part of your body’s sleep-wake cycle. The morning sunlight exposure will help your serotonin cycles stay aligned with day and night cycles. It will peak mid-afternoon and will drop off after dark. This is what makes you feel tired. When these hormones are not working properly it can result in a bad night’s sleep.

Cortisol

This is your stress hormone and works opposite to melatonin. If your melatonin is high, your cortisol should be low and vice versa. The problem with these being out of balance is that your sleep gets affected. Cortisol in the morning is important as when the cortisol rises early on waking it has a greater positive benefits. This serves to lower your blood pressure and improving mental health while helping you feel alert.

What to do

If you sleep in a dark room there isn’t enough light to trigger the correct timing of the cortisol and melatonin rhythms. At day break there’s a particular contrast between yellows and blues, this triggers the activation of cortisol and it’s important to have cortisol firing during the day so that it doesn’t keep you awake at night. So if you have trouble sleeping, toss and turn take a look at your serotonin, melatonin and cortisol levels. Discuss it with your naturopath and let them help you get into a good sleep rhythm with herbs, Bach and shell essence remedies, aromatherapy oils, meditation and a few lifestyle changes. Soon your rhythms will be working as they should and you will be healthier on all levels.

Coping with Anxiety

Your brain is split into sections, the part at the front known as the frontal lobe is the part of your brain that is in charge of the thinking part where you plan for the future, your judgment, your decision-making skills, your attention span, and your inhibitions. It’s basically responsible for your normal moods.

Your brain is also in charge of protecting you when there is potential danger. This part is called the Amygdala. This response is what we know as the flight or fight response. When you suffer with anxiety it is like the Amygdala is constantly turned on. Being anxious can make you feel hazy and affect your focus and also makes it seem as though everything is stressing you out and everyone is irritating you. Once you get this far it can be hard to pull yourself out of it.

Ways to help you cope

Exercise is a good way to distress as it elevates your heart rate which can act like a mild dose of Prozac in the body. Exercise releases endorphins which make you feel good. It also helps to boost the serotonin production in your body. Memories, happy ones, can also boost the serotonin levels in your body. Focusing on a happy memory when you are starting to feel overly stressed and anxious can help to trick the mind and help you cope. If this doesn’t work try writing the happy memory down. It may take a few goes but eventually your brain will automatically associate the happy memory with your triggers and will help you through the struggle. Writing can be a good way to help get those negative thoughts out and happy thoughts into your mind. 

Sleep is important, not just for coping with anxiety but for your brain function overall. Your brain uses sleep as a period for recovery and without it your stress will remain high. Ensure you are getting adequate sleep as you feel refreshed and ready to start your new day. Also carrying a small object with you can be a great way to help distract your mind when you are feeling stressed and anxious. When you are feeling stressed take it out and hold it, start to think about the colour, size, shape and even weight of the object, to everyone else you’re just fiddling but to you it is distracting your mind.

Music can help distract you also. Focusing on the lyrics or the beat can help calm the mind and also help to boost serotonin. Inflammation may also add to your anxiousness as it is not good for your body. It’s a good idea to avoid foods that cause inflammation. Check with your naturopath for a test to find out what can affect you.

Unfortunately, there is no quick fix to combat anxiety. It’s going to take time to train your brain so that it realises that the fears you have aren’t as bad as you think, that you can face them and conquer them if you work at it. We can help so give us a call and have a chat.

Sleep better - naturally

Sleep may be one of the things affected in these hard time of shutdown and constantly hearing about Corona virus on the news. The whole world is in a bit of turmoil. Is it any wonder your sleep patterns are disrupted? However it is important to get a good, restful night’s sleep to function properly next day. Lack of sleep will affect your focus and concentration and eventually your health. If you are someone that struggles to get to sleep, stay asleep or are restless at night there are many things you can do to help yourself.

Turn off what would keep you awake

Firstly blue light that comes from our TV, computers, phones and tablets causes sleep issues as it can reduce the melatonin production, which is the hormone that promotes deep sleep. So these things make it hard to fall asleep. Turning off these devices at least two hours before bed can help you to get a more restful night’s sleep. If you find that this is just not practical as you are overloaded with work you can try using some essential oils that will help to relax your mind and body.

Things to remember when using oils

Remember all oils should be mixed in a carrier oil if applied to the skin but if you are using a burner you put them in water. Also no carrier oil is needed for diffusers. Less is always best in the burner so just a drop or two is enough. Similar for a bath – 3 to 4 drops of each oil you want to use (depending on the size of the bath).

What oils do I use

Sandalwood is one that can help. By placing a drop under your nose and on your forehead between your eyebrows, where your 6th energy centre is (chakra) it corresponds with your psychological skills and mental abilities. So use it to help you relax. Also the pleasant smell of some of these oils helps as it’s something pampering before you go to bed.

Some other oils that can be helpful include Lavender which is a well-known calming oil and you can put a drop under your nose, on your big toes, or a drop on either side of the pillow (this is good for the elderly or children). If you have a diffuser a few drops is good to let it fill the room and the droplets in the air will help you to relax. Cedarwood is another good oil you can use with Lavender. You can rub both these oils on you if they are blended with a carrier oil and you only need a little.

Valerian is one of the major sleep assistance oils but it must be applied just before bed because if you put it on too early it may lose affect. RutaVaLA is a combination oil. It consists of Ruta, Valerian and lavender, it is a stronger blend than using the oils on their own. Roman Chamomile is a great oil for both adults and children as it is gentle.

If you have a diffuser you can set it to also use ‘Awaken’ oil just before you need to wake up or you can add it to your sleep oil but in smaller quantities to ensure you not only have a great night’s sleep but also wake up feeling refreshed and relaxed. However, when using awaken you should be careful as it is photosensitive meaning it must be in a carrier oil and you can be affected if you go out in the sun after applying it. Obviously if it’s in a burner once again you don’t need a carrier oil. Keep it away from the face.

So next time you are having trouble sleeping make sure you have a supply of these oils which you can obtain from myself or on the net if you know what you are buying. Always make sure your oils are pure and high grade as the cheap ones have chemicals in them and your body is simply becoming toxic if you use those. It’s good to have a few different oils as you feel differently on different days. If you use the same oil the effects may be less on a day you feel differently. Alternatively call me and I can make a special oil just for you, mixed according to sleep issues you have, and post it out to you. 

Why women need more sleep than men

Women need more sleep than men during the night due to the complexity of their brain. Studies have shown that women generally need an extra 20 minutes sleep every night so their brain can do all the extra processing that a women’s brain needs to do.

Although 20 minutes may not seem like a lot of extra sleep it impacts the brain in a very positive way. A women’s brain is structured in a way that they are able to juggle a few tasks at a time where as the male brain can struggle with this, however we are not saying that all men cannot multi task or that all women can, this is just the findings of a study on the average brain.

One of the most important reasons we all need sleep is to repair the brain and give it time to recover and sort through all the thoughts, memories and issues from the day just gone. This is why women tend to need more sleep because multi-tasking tends to use more of the brain, which in turn requires the brain longer time to repair. A man who does a lot of decision making and thinking at work through the day may also need to sleep longer than the average man.

If you happen to be a poor sleeper and a woman than you may find that you struggle with your emotions and experience greater psychological distress such as hostility, depression, and anger which can cause you restlessness but these same findings were not found in men who slept poorly.

Usually we need around 6 to 8 ours sleep a night for the brain to complete its restoration process however you, as an individual, may find you need a little more to keep you feeling fresh and relaxed. Regardless of whether you are male or female if you are having trouble sleeping you can try setting yourself a routine just as we would for a young child so that the body and mind know that it is sleep time now and start to help you wind down from the day. Also, meditation and yoga can be helpful for relaxation and helping give your body that nudge it needs to fall asleep quicker. Try some aromatherapy oils, some natural sleep supplements in the short term only or simply a cup of chamomile tea may do the trick.

So, if you are finding that you are not getting enough sleep it could be simply because your brain has not had enough time to restore itself. When you are having troubles getting to sleep try the above-mentioned relaxation strategies and see if they help or you could talk to your health care practitioner who could recommend a natural melatonin tablet to help get your sleep pattern back on track.