{"id":25264,"date":"2015-06-04T15:02:20","date_gmt":"2015-06-04T19:02:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nomeatathlete.com\/?p=25264"},"modified":"2021-01-30T18:12:08","modified_gmt":"2021-01-30T23:12:08","slug":"oil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nomeatathlete.com\/oil\/","title":{"rendered":"Why I’ve Finally Stopped Eating Oil"},"content":{"rendered":"

There was a time when going vegetarian<\/a> seemed extreme. Impossible.<\/p>\n

Where will\u00a0I get protein?<\/em><\/p>\n

Forget protein, where will I even get the calories?<\/em><\/p>\n

Then I did it, and it turned out not to be so hard.<\/p>\n

Going vegan<\/a>, though … that was different. Too extreme. I could never do it.<\/p>\n

How will I eat out at a restaurant? What will I tell my friends? Where are the calories going to come from now?<\/em><\/p>\n

And as you know, that turned out<\/a> just fine too.<\/p>\n

But for the past few years, there’s been another “should I or shouldn’t I” conversation in my head — and this time, it’s been about oil. Olive oil, grapeseed oil, coconut oil.<\/p>\n

I know it’s not a whole food … but it’s not <\/em>that processed.<\/em><\/p>\n

All the vegan doctors say it’s bad, but they mean for overweight people. Not for me,\u00a0I’m an ultrarunner!<\/em><\/p>\n

And, one more time: Where will I get the calories?<\/em><\/p>\n

Keepin’ it Real<\/h3>\n

I don’t expect this to be a popular blog post. It’s easier to make a made-up “chocolate helps you lose weight<\/a>” story go viral than a “how I removed the last possible tasty thing from my food” angle. (That’s actually not the case, but I used to think it was.)<\/p>\n

In fact, last time I wrote about giving up oil<\/a> for a few weeks, I got emails from several people calling me irresponsible for suggesting that “heart healthy” oils might actually not be so good for us!<\/p>\n

But I’m okay with that. People tell me one of the reasons they read my blog is because I’m transparent — so no sense trying to hide what for me is a sensible next step towards maximum health and energy through food.<\/p>\n

Why Oil Doesn’t Fit<\/h3>\n

When it comes to healthy eating — leaving ethics completely out of it — here’s what I believe:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Whole foods are good; partial and processed foods are not.<\/li>\n
  2. Too many calories are bad — our health problems are largely the result of chronic overnutrition.<\/li>\n
  3. A simple formula for health, as best there is one, comes from Dr. Joel Fuhrman: “health equals nutrients divided by calories” (H = N\/C). In other words, the more (micro)nutrients you can get in the fewest number of calories, while still eating whole foods (per #1, above), the healthier you’ll be.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    (Notice that there’s no explicit exclusion of animal products there, by the way. But although “whole,” animal products are calorically dense and, compared to plants, they typically score pitifully on the H = N\/C scale.)<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    So let’s look at how oil fits in with this philosophy:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Oil is not a whole food (it’s the fatty part of what was a whole food).<\/li>\n
    2. Oil is extremely dense in calories: while vegetables typically have around 100 calories per pound and fruits 300 calories per pound, oil has 4,000 calories per pound.<\/li>\n
    3. Even with all those calories, oil contains little in the way of micronutrition. Valuable omega-3 fatty acids, sometimes, but virtually nothing else.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Once I understood this (about a year ago), I was done with oil.<\/p>\n

      Except, I wasn’t. Because oil makes food taste really, really good.<\/p>\n

      How the Change Finally Happened<\/h3>\n

      Like the previous changes, this one started slowly. A big drizzle of oil a few times around the pan to start cooking a meal became a tablespoon. Before too long, that became a teaspoon or two.<\/p>\n

      But I just couldn’t go all the way.<\/p>\n

      What finally pushed me over the edge was the vegan Holistic Holiday at Sea<\/a> cruise that my wife and I went on in March.<\/p>\n

      There, I listened to doctor after doctor (Barnard, Greger, Campbell, Esselstyn) talk about the “whole food, plant-based diet<\/a>.” And when they say whole food, they mean no oil.<\/p>\n

      Then Chef AJ’s talk was where I first saw the caloric density<\/a> comparison. Here’s a more detailed listing:<\/p>\n

      Vegetables – 100 calories per pound<\/p>\n

      Fruits – 300 calories per pound<\/p>\n

      Unrefined complex carbohydrates, potatoes, whole grains, legumes – 400-600 calories per pound<\/p>\n

      Avocados – 750 calories per pound<\/p>\n

      Refined complex carbohydrates\u00a0– 1,200 calories per pound<\/p>\n

      Sugar\u00a0– 1,800 calories per pound<\/p>\n

      Chocolate – 2,500 calories per pound<\/p>\n

      Nuts and seeds – 2,800 calories per pound<\/p>\n

      Oil – 4,000 calories per pound<\/p>\n

      \"8020<\/a><\/p>\n

      For people aiming to lose weight, this is huge. The more calorically dense a food is, the less room it takes up in your stomach for a given number of calories, so the more calories you’ll need to eat before you feel full. And yes, I understand that nobody in their right mind eats a pound of oil, but for me, the point was simply that this demonstrated how poorly oil fits in with foods that truly are whole — it’s almost 50% more calorically dense than nuts and the seeds, the next closest foods on the list!<\/p>\n

      But perhaps more than the information, it was the menu on the ship that changed my tune. Even if you didn’t choose the oil-free menu (we didn’t), many of the dishes were in fact oil-free. Salad dressings, black bean soup, lasagna … even some desserts! And while I’m not going to say “Oil-free food tastes every bit as good as food that’s loaded with it!”, I can say that it doesn’t taste all that different.<\/p>\n

      This was crucial for me.<\/em> I’ve loved the actual act of cooking for close to 10 years now. But with each new limitation on my diet, I’ve loved it less and less. This is different from many other vegans’ experience, I know. And that’s wonderful, but if I’m honest, this is how it has been for me.<\/p>\n

      So the thought of giving up oil, too, was difficult. I just couldn’t bear to start cooking a meal by sauteing lovely, fragrant onions and garlic … in water.<\/p>\n

      But on the cruise, I ate a lot of oil-free food. And if I hadn’t have known, I wouldn’t have noticed.<\/p>\n

      That<\/em> was what I needed. Proof that oil-free food could taste good. And I got it.<\/p>\n

      A few other factors have helped, in making the change, and making it stick. To avoid making this post too long, I’ll just list them briefly:<\/p>\n