John Malki
Oil
If you were to ask me what I think is the SINGLE biggest toxic factor out there, what would I say? Based on all my research, analysis, and experience, I am coming to believe it is OIL, particularly the processed seed oils. It's a pervasive additive to zillions of food products. It's the best example of woefully mistaken and misguided FDA approval. It's a toxic industrial lubricant, NOT HUMAN FOOD. It wreaks havoc in the body in numerous ways, causing or exacerbating virtually EVERY chronic disease, and of course it's the most relevant culprit in obesity by far. Because oil is such a pervasive additive, and so commonly combined with other unhealthy additives or junk foods, if you avoid/eliminate oil from your diet, you will not only have avoided this toxic poison, but you will also concurrently avoid a host of other unhealthy things coupled with it, such that you will have automatically accomplished a huge proportion of the goal of achieving a healthy diet, just by eliminating this one factor (and you'll lose unwanted weight effortlessly). Do an experimental grocery shopping trip, avoiding anything with oil in the ingredient list, and you'll probably find your shopping cart will have mostly produce, and virtually zero processed or packaged foods. Unfortunately, and unnecessarily, this poison is EVERYWHERE. And that pervasiveness, and the popular and professional ignorance of its toxicity, explain our modern epidemic of chronic diseases.
By the way, there is an easy, visual way to evaluate unhealthiness in general, and oil pervasiveness in particular: being overweight. If you are on a truly healthy diet (which would necessarily limit oil), you will be trim, without even trying to be. Often people tell me they are utilizing a healthy diet, but their thickness says NOPE. Cut the oil, and your health will improve, and your weight will drop EFFORTLESSLY and CONSPICUOUSLY. See my Weight Loss page for the full explanation. If you are not trim, it's not because you eat too much or exercise too little, it's because you consume OIL, SIMPLE AS THAT. If you are not trim, you are not healthy, and being overweight is a concurrent symptom of other chronic conditions, all related to diet, which is primarily unhealthy because of OIL. (However, the opposite is not automatically true; being trim is not automatically the result of healthiness, you still must employ a junk-free, oil-free diet to be healthy.)
Many diet concepts, even if ultimately incorrect or inadvisable, may still have at least some logic to them. For example, considering human history, it is logical to assume that meat is a natural variety of human food (even if not the most healthy). But by contrast, no logic exists in support of highly processed oils. It's worth repeating that it is NOT HUMAN FOOD by any definition, and has NO precedent in history. The only reason it exists is because it's so "practical" and profitable, and more importantly, government regulations have incompetently, erroneously, misguidedly, and even corruptly, approved it as "safe," and your doctor happens to be woefully ignorant about it. But it is not safe, it is TOXIC CRAP, responsible for, or exacerbating, an endless list of maladies. If you are inclined towards apathy, and considering making only ONE improvement to your diet, make it the elimination of oil.