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.
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.