Guest Information
Gil Carvalho MD, PhD
Gil Carvalho, MD PhD is a medical doctor, research scientist, science communicator. Dr. Carvalho trained as a medical doctor in the University of Lisbon, in his native Portugal, and later obtained a PhD in Biology from Caltech (California Institute of Technology). He has published peer-reviewed medical research spanning the fields of genetics, molecular biology, nutrition, behaviour, aging and neuroscience.
In this episode we discuss:
- Dairy: is it over-emphasized in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans?
- Dairy tolerance
- Critical importance of substitution effects
- Differences between difference types of dairy on health
- Claims by some WFPB advocates that olive oil can negatively impact endothethial function
- Seed oils: is there any basis to the claims that are harmful to health?
- Distinguishing between acute and chronic effects
- Gil's work with Antonio Damasio on feelings
Links & Resources
- Click here to join the email list to receive our weekly Sigma Synopsis emails
- Twitter: @NutritionMadeS3
- Nutrition Made Simple YouTube Channel
- Sigma Statement: Impact of Dairy on Disease Risk & Health
- A Plant Based Diet Reverses Heart Disease: True or False?
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Comments
The majority of vegetable seed oil are heated up to fry food with , they are polyunsaturated fats that are affected by heat, when heat is applied to them they are changed into transfats and they act as poison to the body . Can they be good for you , olive oil is a fruit oil.
Hi Steve,
Thanks for the comment. Unfortunately, what you have stated is incorrect. I suspect you have been the victim to misinformation from people who push this strange “seed oils = poison” rhetoric.
There is no evidence that veg/seed oil consumption in the human diet causes problems. In fact, increased PUFA intake (when replacing SFA) consistently shows health benefit.
Check out our podcast on “Diet & Inflammation” for a full discussion of this.
Danny, the key phrase in what you said –and you said it parenthetically, as if it were a minor afterthought (or a whisper)– is ***when replacing SFA***. So sure, if you replace a REALLY bad oil with a LESS bad oil you will see health benefit, just as if you stab yourself in the leg 1 time you’re likely to do better than if you stab yourself 20 times. But that doesn’t quite equate to “stabbing yourself less is healthy”. It’s less deadly –and less deadly can be called a health benefit– but that doesn’t make it “healthy”.
Hi Al,
Correct, considering the what foods/nutrients are being substituted when we increase/decrease the amount of another food/nutrient is crucial. In addition, total levels make a difference too.
However, for those claiming that consuming olive oil in any reasonable amount is damaging to health, the onus is on them to produce evidence for such a claim. And I think for anyone trying to be objective and non-biased in their assessment, then when looking at the evidence as a whole, EVOO imparts health benefit and indeed can be considered to be health-promoting, in the context of a beneficial dietary pattern.
So I think if one wants to claim it damages health, then they need to move away from hypothesized mechanisms and look at actual outcome data in humans. It’s notable that claims of olive oil being harmful to health almost universally come from those who strongly promote a low-fat, whole-food, plant-based diet. Such a dietary pattern can indeed be healthy. But sometimes some can portray it to superior to other healthy dietary patterns. Something that is just not an evidence-based conclusion.
So while I understand your analogy, and know it applies in some cases, I don’t feel it applies here to olive oil.