Not all Vegetable Oils are Created Equal

A wide variety of edible oils are available to us in daily life, which can all be derived from two sources: vegetable oil and animal fat.

 Animal fat contains more saturated fatty acids and cholesterol. Excessive intake of animal fat increases the risk of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Vegetable oil contains more unsaturated fatty acids and no cholesterol, which is healthier and has more nutritional value than animal fat, and thus is more widely accepted by the public. Now, let us explore the rich world of vegetable oil.

 It is well known that vegetable oil is extracted from the fruits, seeds, or germs of plants in nature. According to the different properties of oil plants, vegetable oils can be divided into either herbal vegetable oil or woody vegetable oil categories.

【Herbaceous vs. woody plants】

One major difference between herbaceous plants and woody plants is the softness of the plant stems. The base stem of herbaceous plants is soft and not woody; it is juicier and contains less lignin. The woody plant base is more developed, the stem contains more lignin giving it a harder texture.

• According to the length of individual life cycles, herbaceous plants can be divided into either annual (plants live, reproduce, and die in one growing season), biennial (vegetative growth in the first year and die after flowering and bearing fruits in second year), or perennial (the underground parts of the plants live for years and re-grow every year). Peanut oil, corn oil, soybean oil, rapeseed oil, and sunflower seed oil are herbaceous vegetable oils.

• Woody plants are perennial. According to plant height and branching pattern, woody plants can be divided into arbor (tall, branching points are higher), shrub (shorter, trunk is not obvious and branched at base), and semi-shrub (only stem base ligninized, upper parts are herbaceous). Camellia oil, olive oil, palm oil, and coconut oil are four major woody vegetable oils.

【The advantages of woody vegetable oil】

• Environmentally green

Herbaceous plants have short life cycle and can be rapidly produced in mass cultivation, which may have potential risks from applying pesticides and chemical growth regulators. However, perennial woody plants are naturally more resistant to diseases and pests, and therefore need less fertilizer and pesticides. Especially in ideal ecological environments, they would naturally grow well without fertilization and pesticides, which makes them truly organic.

From the perspective of genetically modified organisms (GMO), more herbaceous plants are bred to be transgenic crops. Woody plants are much more difficult to be modified by genetic engineering methods and have less chance to produce GMO (grafted at most). Whether GMO is safe or harmful to the human body is still controversial and will take further research to draw accurate conclusions. At present, it is a safer choice to use woody vegetable oil that is produced from non-transgenic woody plants.

• High nutritional value

Woody vegetable oils are better herbal vegetable oils not only in oil quality but also in nutritional structure and other values.

• Most of woody vegetable oils contain a large amount of unsaturated fatty acids required by the human body, which is 5-15% higher than herbal vegetable oil. Insufficient unsaturated fatty acids levels in body can cause nutritional imbalance, physical decline, and a variety of other diseases if you only consume herbal vegetable oil without other supplements. Woody vegetable oils such as camellia oil and oliver oil help human body effectively absorb necessary unsaturated fatty acids and improve disease resistance.
• There are two kinds of unsaturated fatty acids: monounsaturated fatty acids and polyunsaturated fatty acids. The oleic acid in monounsaturated acids can regulate blood lipids, lower cholesterol, and reduce heart diseases and stroke risk. The linoleic acid and linolenic acids in polyunsaturated fatty acids have a similar function, which cannot be synthesized in the body and need to be obtained from the foods. Having edible woody vegetable oil is the ideal way for people to ingest and supplement linoleic acid and linolenic acid.

*** Tips: Whether saturated fatty acids are required for the human body is currently controversial in the field of research. Even if required by the human body, animal fat or fat from dairy products in everyday diet have been able to meet daily requirements. Additional intake of saturated fatty acids from the oil by eating three meals a day would be excessive, leading to atherosclerosis, triggering stroke or cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.

Y axes represents the percentage

• Rare valuable resource

The price of woody vegetable oil is higher than herbal vegetable oil because of the longer growth cycle of woody oil plants, limited yield, and rarity. For example, camellia trees only start to bear fruits 5-7 years after planting and can only reach a harvestable amount in about 15-years. The fruits go through a period of 13 months to ripen so that the camellia oil extracted from seeds is limited, and only enough for a small number of consumer groups.

Resource scarcity, high quality and nutritional value make the woody vegetable oil to be at the top of the edible oil family and become a representative of high-end edible oil.

【Camellia oil- the best of the woody vegetable oils】

Which one is the best among the four major woody vegetable oils? You can get the answer from comparing the nutrient contents in the following table:

*** This table shows averages of the fatty acid content in different woody vegetable oils, which was calculated from a range of variable sources (not shown here).

• The percentage of monounsaturated fatty acids in the camellia oil is the highest (above 80%), even higher than that in olive oil (70%), which is universally recognized as a healthy oil. The percentage of saturated fatty acids in camellia oil is the lowest, only 10%. Consuming camellia oil will not increase a risk suffering from cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, and can be helpful for weight loss.

Camellia oil also contains polyphenols which is a scientifically proven bio-active substance that has anti-cancer and lipid-lowering effects that is not found in olive oil.

• The content of linoleic acid and linolenic acid in camellia oil is close to the Omega Meal Standard’s recommended ratio of 4:1, which is helpful in preventing disease. Camellia oil is also rich in squalene, saponins, vitamin A, B, D, E, and other valuable trace elements. These are all beneficial substances regulate the health of the human body. The antioxidant effect of squalene and vitamin E is prominent and can help to slow down the aging of human organs and skin.

The nutritional structure of camellia oil is the best among edible oils. 

The camellia oil is a highly functional vegetable oil that is truly natural, healthy, and high quality.

ShanCha camellia oil is extracted from fruits of camellia trees growing in the wild, pollution-free Dabie Mountains. The raw material is naturally organic, no pesticide or fertilizer is applied and the extraction is physically cold-processed without chemical additions. The ShanCha camellia oil is the only Chinese camellia oil that is certified by both Chinese and American organic certification organizations. Particularly, ShanCha camellia oil contains 10% more unsaturated fatty acids compared with some camellia oil produced in other places. Squalene content in the ShanCha camellia oil is higher compared with other camellia oils as well.

Whether it is the quality of production or

nutritional value

ShanCha camellia oil is better than other

vegetable oils. It is worth having!

“Cold Pressed” – The Healthiest Method

【Edible Oil Extraction Methods】

There are basically two methods to extract edible oil from raw materials, which include pressing and leaching.

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A

Pressing

Pressing involves physical extraction by mechanically squeezing oil out of the raw materials. This method originates from traditional oil production practices and has since been industrialized. There are two ways of pressing, which include hot and cold pressing techniques.

Hot pressing 
is used to squeeze crude oil by pressing at high temperatures, which produces crude oil with a higher yield.Crude oil with a darker color and high acidic value has to be precipitated and refined at a temperature as high as 260-310°F (around 130-150°C) for dephosphorization, decolorization, and deacidification, which strips the oil of much of its nutrients.

Cold pressing
is a method of mechanical extraction at room temperature (or lower than 140°F, 60°C), which produces oil that can be consumed after precipitation and filtration without refining.

Cold pressed oil retains its natural flavor, color, bioactive substances, nutrients, and can be stored for a longer time without the use of additives.

The oil extraction rate of the cold pressed method is only half of the hot pressed method. Hence, cold pressed oil is more expensive than hot pressed oil.

B

 Leaching

Leaching is a method to extract oil using a solvent that meets food standards by way of refining the crude oil by degreasing, degumming, dehydration, bleaching, deodorization, and de-acidification.This method produces refined oil with higher oil yield at a lower cost that brings more profit; however, refined oil may contain residual chemical substances such as trace hexane or may be contaminated with trace amounts of highly toxic aflatoxin B1 even when using the most advanced chemical leaching oil equipment.

The leaching process is used widely to extract edible oils such as rapeseed oil, soybean oil, corn oil, and sunflower seed oil. Experts have pointed out that oils produced from the leaching process are safe to consume as long as correct operating procedures are adhered to, however, there is still controversy regarding health implications of the byproducts and carcinogens produced in the refining process.

【The Best Method to Extract Camellia Oil】

Camellia oil is produced from the seeds of camellia trees and the quality of the oil is determined by the production method. It is the best to use the physical pressing method to extract camellia oil at the lowest temperature possible in order to retain all nutrients and maximize its health benefits.

To begin the process, camellia fruits must first be dried to expose the seeds inside. When dried, the seeds separate from the shells naturally in a dry room equipped with modern processing techniques to minimize the risk of mold from wet and warm climate or rain. The chosen seeds are then picked and grinded at cool temperatures. The whole process is done at low temperatures between 140-260°F (around 60-130°C) to retain all nutritional value and properties of the oil. This process ensures the quality of oil as its smoke point exceeds 446°F (230°C).

The health benefits of camellia oil are attributed to the presence of unsaturated fatty acids, squalene, Vitamin A, D, and E, as well as other trace elements. It also contains tea polyphenols and camellia glycosides that are not found in olive oil. Ingredients in camellia oil have been proven to improve blood lipid profile, which helps prevent heart disease, cancer, and inflammation. Camellia oil also balances blood sugar levels and helps eliminate toxins stored in the body. It can be used as an excellent skin protectant to fight bacteria, cure fungal or bacterial skin infections, relieve burns, and accelerate the healing process.

The various health benefits of camellia oil exist only when the camellia seeds are cold pressed. In some production facilities, camellia seeds are processed at temperatures as high as 520°F (around 270°C) to increase yield, which degrades all natural antioxidants such as squalene, tea polyphenols, and camellia glycosides. When the leaching process is used to increase the production rate, the product is known as ‘refined camellia oil’. In addition to stripping the natural nutrients present in the oil, the refining process also creates a final product that oxidizes easily. The oxidation factor makes the oil more likely to break down and promote the presence of free radicals in the body, which can ultimately lead to cancer.  

It is very important to understand the way that cooking oils are processed. Cold pressed, expeller pressed, leached and refined are different processes used to extract oil. Cold and expeller pressing are the best methods of extraction for retaining all nutrients without using additives, whereas the refining process is utilized to maximize oil yield, but lowers nutritional value and produces residual chemicals and toxins that are harmful to the consumer’s health.

ShanCha Inc. hand-picks camellia seeds from natural,wild camellia trees and produces organic camellia oil by exclusively using the cold pressed method at low temperatures around 140°F (60°C) in a controlled environment equipped with modern processing equipment.ShanCha® camellia oil is the healthiest and best edible oil in the world.

Fatty Acids and cooking oils

Sugar, fat, and protein are the three major nutritional elements the human body needs to function. Fat intake comes mostly from oil and the most essential nutrition in oil is fatty acids. There are three major types of fatty acids: saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated. The term ‘polyunsaturated’ refers to several different types of fatty acids including omega 3, omega 6 and omega 9. Every kind of fatty acid has specific functions and the body cannot do without them; balance is key.

Saturated fats are one of the three major types of fatty acids and the most controversial. From a scientific standpoint, SFAs (saturated fatty acids) are fat molecules that are very stable and not easily oxidized due to the lack of unsaturated ions in the compound. There is an absence of carbon-carbon double bonds and they are saturated with hydrogen molecules. More research is needed to gain insight on their function but we do know that they are essential for a balanced diet.

What is certain is that saturated fats are most abundant in red meat, eggs, dairy, and fried foods. Fish and seafood contain some saturated fats but not to the extent of the foods mentioned above. Saturated fats are rarely found in plant foods, however, coconut and palm oil are a few exceptions. The American Heart Association recommends to limit the consumption of saturated fats to 7% of the total daily caloric intake. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendation is in the same ballpark as they suggest less than 10%.

Studies have shown that an excessive intake of SFAs results in high cholesterol, hypertriacylglycerolemia (high levels of triglycerides), and heightened levels of LDL-C; all of which can cause cardiovascular disease. Arteries harden and become narrow due to the buildup of cholesterol and fatty deposits. On the flip side, insufficient consumption of SFAs causes arteries to become fragile and make it possible for breakage and internal bleeding. This could place you in a life threatening condition and also have a negative impact on your mental health.

Monounsaturated fats, or MUFAs, are another type of fatty acids that are known as ‘good fats.’ Unlike saturated fats, MUFAs have one unsaturated carbon bond (aka double bond). MUFAs are found in many oils such as olive oil, peanut oil, and sesame oil as well as avocados, nuts and other plants and vegetables. At room temperature, oils that contain MUFAs remain in a liquid state and turn solid when chilled. They are known to be a healthy alternative to trans fats and refined polyunsaturated fats that are found in processed foods.

It is a common misperception of the general public that to lower the bad cholesterol (LDLs), you must cut out all types of fatty acids; the solution is quite the contrary. MUFAs are of great benefit to your health as they can help reduce LDLs, which lowers the risk of heart disease and stroke. They also lower blood sugar, which can be very beneficial to diabetics; especially those with type 2 diabetes as the blood sugar peak is lowered after meals. Furthermore, studies have shown that reducing SFAs and cholesterol intake while taking in more MUFAs can reduce the fats in your blood and get blood pressure under control.

As stated before, polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs) refer to many kinds of fatty acids including omega 3, omega 6 and omega 9. There are three types of omega 3 fatty acids which include alpha linoleic acid (ALA), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). Since polyunsaturated fats are not produced by the human body, they must be taken in from food sources.

Omega 3 fatty acids come from different foods. ALA acid comes from plant oils whereas EPA and DHA acids are commonly found in marine oils. Omega 3 fatty acids are important for normal metabolism. Your body takes in ALA, converts it to EPA and then finally DHA. This ability of conversion becomes impaired in aging. Omega 3 fatty acids can prevent cardiovascular disease and lower hypertriacylglycerolemia in your blood. It also helps to lower markers of inflammation in the blood, which leads to a better cardiovascular profile and reduce symptoms of eczema.

Omega 6 fatty acids come from vegetables oils and are another essential fatty acid. Some of its health benefits are balancing hormones, reducing menstrual cramps, and promoting growth and cell repair. It soothes skin allergies and rashes as well as help raise the good cholesterol levels and reduce LDLs. An excess of omega 6 fatty acid, however, can be detrimental as it can cause inflammation. A balance of Omega 3 and 6 is vital. Unfortunately, most Americans consume an alarmingly higher amount of omega 6 than omega 3 fatty acids.        

Omega-9 fatty acids are a family of unsaturated fatty acids. Their antioxidant properties made them the safest and healthiest consumable fatty acids. Omega−9 fatty acids have two forms that are important to us: oleic acid and eruric acid.

Oleic acid is a main component of camellia oil, olive oil, macadamia oil and other monounsaturated fats. Erucic acid is found in rapeseed, wallflower seed and mustard seed. Rapeseed with high erucic acid content is grown for commercial use in paintings and coatings as a drying oil.

Studies prove that fatty acids can raise the level of HDL-C and prevent the conversion of LDL-C to lipid peroxidation, reduce the existence of free radicals; in effect, lowering the risk of cardiovascular disease and preventing cancer cells from forming.