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!