Sacred Oil--By Kal Sellers, M.H.
The use of oils has long been used for health and healing. Dr. Christopher used castor oil, wheat germ oil and olive oil as his three oil massage for scar tissue and for part of his incurables program. Every kind of oil, from essential oils to fish oils to coconut and palm oils to olive oil, has been used in ritual and healing from at least as early as 4000 years ago.
Of all of oils the world over, nothing has had a richer, more beloved history than olive oil. This oil has been demonstrated by modern science repetitively to be the most stable of oils, showing an inexplicable resistance to breakdown and oxidation that exceeds even the saturated oils from the plant kingdom.
This resistance to oxidation and breakdown is the absolute foundation of healthy oil consumption. Chemically or physically altered oils (such as hydrogenated oils) are at the total other end of the spectrum, being highly destructive to any creature that consumes them as they embed in artery walls, clog the liver and distort all oil-dependent processes in the body.
Between these are many oils of varying stability. Some, like pine nut oils, are so unstable that they almost immediately go rancid when the nut is shelled!
Most oils that are liquid at room temperature, but which are not essential oils, are unstable. They tend to oxidize/go rancid somewhere between immediately and shortly, unless very cold temperatures are maintained from before the time of pressing on until the moment of consumption. Generally, these oils are avoided unless one has very good reason for needing some potent extract of a seed, instead of the whole seed itself.
An example of such a need might be the use of evening primrose oil or borage oil for inhibiting inflammatory immune response in someone medically needing such an action. Another example might be the use of wheat germ oil for healing scars or encouraging fertility in men and women on Dr. Christopher’s fertility program.
For regular consumption, however, most natural healers are careful about recommending such unstable oils because of their certain damage to the body. Damaged oils become super-free radicals which greatly reduce the operation of anti-oxidants in the blood. The result of this is a very long discussion about anti-oxidants which will have to wait for another day.
As we approach the stable end of the oil continuum, we find one oil which is stable enough to make an argument for, and another oil which is totally stable. The first is canola oil. Canola oil is not stable at room temperature, so if it is used, it must be extracted very conscientiously and then never allowed to warm to room temperature before use. Realistically, this has too many opportunities for damage and at the author’s household, we do not use it.
The second is olive oil. Olive oil is so stable that it rivals, if not exceeds, animal fat. Even the fully saturated coconut and palm oils are not as stable as olive oil (though saturation = resistance to oxidation and rancidity), though they are stable at room temperature and when heated.
Not that any oil should be put in a deep fat fryer—no oil is stable like that, not even animal fat—but olive oil will handle sautéing without breakdown and can sit out at room temperature for a year before it goes bad (should not be placed in direct sunlight).
The reasons for olive oil’s stability are twofold:
First, olive oil is mono-unsaturated. This makes it easy to break down, but very stable since there is only one location per molecule for oxidation to occur (“mono” means “one”). This site is also used by humans to break down the molecule.
Second, olive oil has a unique physical configuration that is not fully understood. It is only known that that one site of potential oxidation is highly resistant to such oxidation until time causes a breakdown in the oil after about one year.
These two reasons make olive oil king over stability. It is the only choice for regular consumption. Empirical observation has shown that olive oil actually improves liver function, improves the body’s use of fats, lowers LDL’s (which equates to improved fat metabolism) and has minimal, if any negative impact on the absorption of glucose (the sugar you actually use) into body cells—a major problem with high oil consumption and diabetes.
So it follows that if we are going to consume olive oil, we should be enjoying the very best kind! Olive oil is not just oil. It is loaded with other nutrients, medicines and complex chemistry that our bodies understand and use for health. When we are going to use olive oil, we go for the best we can find.