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cotton seed oil
I was trying to figure out why people seemed to come out with extra VA issues around the time of Weston Price, (1930's) and I found that crisco replaced lard during that time. I was trying to figure out what could be so bad about that switch and found this:
Cottonseed oil must be refined to remove gossypol. This naturally occurring toxin gives the oil its yellow color and protects the plant from insects.
Gossypol is a natural phenol derived from the cotton plant. Gossypol is a phenolic aldehyde that permeates cells and acts as an inhibitor for several dehydrogenase enzymes. It is a yellow pigment.
Of course my mind wondered if cotton seed oil is still carrying some toxin even after refining, enough to cause trouble over time.
https://www.hindawi.com/journals/tswj/2014/231635/
"Cottonseed meal is a by-product of cotton that is used for animal feeding because it is rich in oil and proteins. However, gossypol toxicity limits cottonseed use in animal feed. High concentrations of free gossypol may be responsible for acute clinical signs of gossypol poisoning which include respiratory distress, impaired body weight gain, anorexia, weakness, apathy, and death after several days. However, the most common toxic effects is the impairment of male and female reproduction. Another important toxic effect of gossypol is its interference with immune function, reducing an animal’s resistance to infections and impairing the efficiency of vaccines. Preventive procedures to limit gossypol toxicity involve treatment of the cottonseed product to reduce the concentration of free gossypol with the most common treatment being exposure to heat. However, free gossypol can be released from the bound form during digestion. Agronomic selection has produced cotton varieties devoid of glands producing gossypol, but these varieties are not normally grown because they are less productive and are more vulnerable to attacks by insects."
And so they use cotton seed meal in agriculture? But "not too much"? Oh, great.
When I just checked, my organic layer pellets (chicken feed) didn't have cotton seed products in it. My lunch potato chips did.
https://eorganic.org/node/8112
"With each 100 pounds of fiber produced, cotton plants (Gossypium) produce about 155 pounds of cottonseed (National Cottonseed Products Association). Less than 5% of the cottonseed produced is saved for next year's crop. Whole cottonseed meal can be fed to ruminant animals (e.g. cattle, goats, and sheep). Oil can also be extracted from cottonseed. Before World War II, cottonseed oil was the major vegetable oil produced in the United States. Cottonseed meal is a byproduct of oil extraction that can be used in animal agriculture."
https://efsa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.2903/j.efsa.2009.908
"SCIENTIFIC OPINION Gossypol as undesirable substance in animal feed 1Scientific Opinion of the Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain"
"Gossypol is a yellow compound produced by the cotton plant that confers resistance to pests. Gossypol exists in two enantiomeric forms, (+) and (-), and is experimentally often used as a racemate, (±)-gossypol, or complexed with acetic acid. (±)-Gossypol is found in cottonseed and cottonseed products in two forms: free gossypol, which is readily extractable with solvents, and bound gossypol. The latter form represents mostly covalent adducts of gossypol to proteins, from which free gossypol can be (partially) liberated by heating with acids. Cottonseeds are by-products of cotton fibre production, and are rich in oil and proteins and are therefore used for cottonseed oil production and as a feed supplement."
This seems to say there are forms of gossypol that are harder to refine away, and even mentions THE FOOD CHAIN.
Is anyone here eating cottonseed oil? I hope not, as even the refined stuff is very high in polyunsaturated fats. Ray Peat thinks these fats cause hypothyroidism and they also slow the alcohol and aldehyde dehydrogenase enzymes. Saturated fats like coconut oil, cocoa butter, beef fat, and butter aren't great either since many people report flare-ups when eating these foods. For example I start breaking out with eczema if I eat coconut oil or cocoa butter. Fats that are mostly mono-unsaturated are probably safest, like refined olive oil, refined avocado oil, or macadamia oil.
It might be good also to avoid fatty cuts of meat since this gossypol material might be stored in an animals fat if those animals have been exposed to cottonseed oil in their food.
Also, this bring up another point. I recently was researching magnesium stereate which is added to a lot of supplements as a filler or binder. We have the problem that magnesium stereate breaks down into stearic acid in the body, which is known to cause Vitamin A related flare-ups. This is the main fatty acid found in beef fat and cocoa butter, which for me causes my eczema to get worse. But then I also read that magnesium stereate can be derived from cottonseed oil. If so, this is even more reason to avoid supplements that contain magnesium stereate as it can be contaminated with gossypol.
Hi Vinero, thanks for reading and commenting on my post. The whole thing has me wondering how hard it might be to actually refine foods.
Just because the crisco is coming out white, maybe it doesn't mean that all of the yellow gossypol is gone.
People say that VA lurks in casein, for instance. So that just skimming the fat off of milk might not really get rid of all the VA.
For me, I think my worst exposure to cottonseed oil is potato chips. We know we shouldn't eat them. 🙂 I think the urge for them might display an urge for salt that we probably should give in to in other ways.
Regarding the magnesium stearate, I guess I have sort of decided that animal fats are more inflammatory than they should be when they are on my skin. I wonder if it is because these fats are infiltrated with pigments (or who knows what) that wouldn't be there in a trad livestock diet. Strangely enough, I've gone over to putting bad old vaseline on my hand cracks when they get bad. Although I'm trying to keep even that to a minimum. It works good.
I wonder about your reacting to eating certain oils-- could it just be that you are reacting to eating more fats in general? I began to wonder recently if VA toxicity often results in lowered ability to handle fats, perhaps because of an unhappy biliary system. My initial observation is that my skin might be a bit less troubled as I lower fats a bit. Fats are sure hard to figure out.