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In last week’s blog titled “Why Are Avo and Chips Bad For Your Brain Health” I talked about the health dangers of the commercial oil tortilla chips are fried in. I got sent a few questions about the safest choice of oil. So today’s newsletter I want to take a deeper dive into the true problem. Amid growing concern for natural, organic and chemical-free products concerned consumers are raising questions about the prevalence of hexane extraction throughout our modern food chain. Hexane is used to extract oil from sunflower, safflower, canola, soybean and cotton seed to get the oil out of the seed. The seeds are crushed and bathed in a bath of hexane solvent. Then the hexane is vaporized to wash out the remaining hexane and then recycled on to the next batch of seeds. The EPA says a little hexane solvent won’t hurt us. But I won’t even beat around the bush: Hexane has no place in our food chain. It’s a petroleum product, also used as a degreaser in the printing industry, as a base in paint thinners and glues, as well as rubber cement and spray adhesive. I don’t even know how they dreamed up using it in seed oil extraction. But that’s what happens when your food is made in a science lab, not in a kitchen. WHAT ABOUT ORGANIC OILS? Although in the United States, organic food processing is prohibited by federal law from using neurotoxic and polluting petrochemicals like hexane, we do not recommend pre-made food products that contain seed oil on the daily. Seed oils in particular are very fragile and should be stored in dark bottles in the fridge. Travel in hot trucks and a long shelf life in the grocery store creates rancid oils. Rancid oil creates inflammation. Inflammation is linked to all food related diseases. IN DEFENSE OF THE MUCH LOVED TORTILLA CHIP Now I just want to stop here and say, I am not bashing Mexican tortilla chips. What I am doing is exposing what happens when a much loved cultural food is manipulated by the Western Food System. The original tortilla chips are widely credited to restaurant owner Rebecca Webb Carranza. She invented them back in the mid-1940’s Los Angeles. She simply cut a batch of misshapen tortillas into triangles, fried them in a hot skillet of oil, sold them for 10 cents a bag, and the rest is history….. THE BEST FOOD ON PLANET EARTH So to put a cap on it, what I’m trying to say is, what I’m always trying to say is: Modern eating has taken away the luxury of just mindlessly shopping and eating. I know sometimes it can seem like a pain to investigate everything you eat to keep yourself and your family safe but I believe it’s worth the effort. Want to know more about how to eat the best food on planet Earth? Sign up for our Fall 2025 Food As Medicine Training HERE. HOW ABOUT POPCORN? Popcorn is a very old food, with evidence of it being consumed in the Americas dating back thousands of years. Archeologists have found fossilized popcorn kernels in New Mexico dating back 5,600 years. I know this does not help when you have a snack attack for chips. And crunchy foods do calm the nervous system. But how about fresh popcorn? You have to take the time to make it but it goes pretty fast. Then you can top it with Vegan MiYoko’s Plant Milk Butter and a little sea salt. From there the toppings can get creative and wild. Or you can buy it pre-made. “Lesser Evil” brand popcorn. It’s made with Himalayan Sea Salt and processed with organic extra virgin coconut oil (not a seed oil). When I lived on our farm in Tennessee years ago winter nights came on early in the hollow. It would be wet and rainy outside for months. We would pop our own homegrown popcorn on the wood cookstove and top it with garlic powder, yellow yeast and nama shoyu. Yum! I have been working out a recipe of mellow white miso and red miso powder for popcorn topping. I will share it when I tighten it up. I make my popcorn with Spectrum Organic Sunflower Oil that is expeller pressed and then stored in the fridge. “Everyone has been made for some particular work and the desire for that work has been put in every heart”. If this speaks to you, Check Out Everything Our Fall Training Has To Offer You HERE. #hexane #seedoil #organic #inflammation #tortilla #popcorn #miso #himalyanseasalt
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