I'm not too sure where the notion that oils are essential for health an good for us came from. I mean, they work wonders when you rub them into your hair or use them as a base for a body scrub or something... but eating them?? Now to me it just sounds weird. Why would it be essential to eat a liquified, refined fat source? Vegetable or animal GREASE? Well, we don't. And we actually shouldn't.
My core reason for avoiding oils in my diet almost 100% of the time is because of my acne. But there's actually a lot more to oil consumption than just a risk of developing or maintaining skin issues. Oil is a refined, concentrated fat. It is 100% of calories from fat. There's no fibre (for healthy digestion), no carbohydrate (for immediate energy), no water (for hydration and digestion), and very few nutrients other than, well, FAT.
Oils are extremely difficult to digest as the human body thrives on a high fibre, high water, plant based diet. Oil clogs your arteries, is heavy on the stomach and is EXTREMELY calorie dense: so you won't lose weight on it and you certainly won't protect yourself from heart disease with it.
Speaking of weight loss, without the fibre, oils do not give you the same satiation. And you consume a higher amount of calories for a lot less food (in volume). This is why people can become overweight and obese so easily on fatty, greasy foods compared to brown rice, potatoes (without oil) and other low fat, high carb plant wholefoods. Ever noticed how you can eat a whole packet of potato chips and still feel like you could go for more... yet you probably couldn't see yourself eating 10 apples? And the potato chips are going to pack the weight on a lot faster than apples! Let's not forget that fat calories are almost always stored directly into adipose tissue.
So you'll BE leaner and STAY leaner without oils in your diet.
The initial reason I chose to cut out oils, as I mentioned, was because of my really severe cystic acne. By cutting out all added fats, I was able to take control of my acne where the only few spots I had at the time of the photo on the right were from light cheating here and there when I went out to vegan restaurants and order a low oil (not no oil) option. LET ME SAY THIS: It is your choice whether you choose to continue eating fats and oils when you're trying to get rid of your acne. But it WILL COME BACK if you go back to eating oils. Lately I've been eating out a fair bit to get some content for this website, doing reviews etc, and my skin has been a bit worse than normal. Definitely nothing like the photo above, but worse than it has been. But I've accepted that the cause was eating out more than usual and I'm okay with it. But just a little bit of a warning was in order :P
Everything I eat at home or elsewhere is always 100% oil free and I never touch nuts or avocado, even at a restaurant.
*SPOILERS OOOOH*
So even now with my super clean plant based diet when I do eat oil I notice straight away. The other day for a blog post (coming Thursday!) I was eating dumplings at Gong De LinVegetarian and it was the first time I'd purposely had oil in abou 4 months and I felt the grease on my lips in this weird, unfamiliar way. It wasn't overly oiled, and they were steamed, not fried... but they just felt SO GREASY. I kinda felt a bit muggy and sick compared to when I just have a meal at home and my face was SUPER OILY the next day and of course my skin broke out again. Neck, back, chest and face. Nothing too crazy, but I'm still healing the cysts that came about from it. Loved the food, but of course this is why I warn against experimenting with 'just a little bit' of oil or whatever it may be that's causing something nasty. Your body won't care if YOU think it's 'just a little bit', just like your lungs don't care if you say you only smoke 'one a day'. It's still gonna be shitty at you. Rightfully so~!
So I don't even see foods like fried chips or super greasy things as food anymore. I could never bring myself to eat fried foods again. Now I seek healthy fresh clean low fat foods (cbf with commas, sorry) that I can eat in abundance without feeling muggy or sick or breaking out. It's so empowering and I love how I feel about my food now.
A note on putting oil ON your face:
One thing I didn't realise at the time about oils and acne was not only should you avoid dietary fat, but it's also not ideal to be lathering it directly onto your face. For a while I was doing oil cleansing where I was literally massaging coconut oil into my skin to 'cleanse' it without water. It was the biggest skincare mistake I ever made and may have contributed to my ruined acne covered skin I had suffered with. In an article by Dr McDougall, he says you should avoid all cosmetics and face products that contain oil as it is highly comodegenic (blocks pores) resulting in acne. So now none of my makeup or face cleansers contain any oil and I don't use a moisturiser as my skin never seems to need it, plus I'm no longer using harsh cleansers that strip the skin. Crazy that my skin isn't dry and flaky given that I don't eat any 'essential healthy fats'... Don't believe propoganda!
When you get a little creative, it's actually really easy to make amazing food without any oil and it'll be super super healthy for you! You don't need greasy food with refined fat in it that can actually be pretty toxic to the body because it's just not a natural food.
Below are some really great videos that explain not only why oil isn't such a great thing to put in your body, and also how to get started oil free x