Not all fats and oils are created equal. In their headlong rush to incorporate essential fatty acids into their diets, many health-conscious consumers lose sight of these distinctions. Safflower oil, like many other fats and oils, has both advantages and drawbacks. You should weigh all the facts before deciding whether this particular oil is suitable for you and your specific health needs. And, you should talk to a health professional for further advice.
Free Radicals
Safflower oil is one of several widely used polyunsaturated fatty acids, each of which has two or more double bonds, according to Mary G. Enig and Sally Fallon, authors of "Eat Fat, Lose Fat." In chemistry, a double bond is a covalent bond in which two electron pairs are shared between two atoms. Safflower oil itself has two double bonds and is a linoleic acid, or omega-6 fatty acid. Because polyunsaturated fatty acids have bends or turns at the sites of double bonds, they do not pack together readily, staying in liquid form even when refrigerated. Enig and Fallon point out that such oils are highly reactive, forming free radicals when they are subjected to heat or oxygen, such as occurs during processing, extraction and cooking. Free radicals, in turn, have been implicated as causative factors in a variety of illnesses and disorders, including heart disease and cancer. To avoid the threat posed by free radicals, Enig and Fallon recommend that consumers strictly limit their use of industrially processed polyunsaturated oils, including safflower, corn, soy and sunflower oils.
Adult-Onset Diabetes
Although there is an important nutritional role for both omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, excessive consumption of the latter has been associated with an increase in adult-onset diabetes, according to Fred Ottoboni and M. Alice Ottoboni, authors of "The Modern Nutritional Diseases." Since safflower oil is high in omega-6 content, use caution in the amounts of this oil that you include in your diet. The Ottobonis report that a sharp increase in cases of adult-onset diabetes has been linked to fundamental changes in the Indian diet. Polyunsaturated vegetable oils, including safflower oil, have largely replaced traditional dietary fats, such as ghee and coconut oil, in the diets of most Indians.
Increased Cancer Risk
In an online overview of health risks associated with polyunsaturated vegetable oils, including safflower oil, Barry Groves, Ph.D., cites a Swedish study that showed a "positive association" between breast cancer and polyunsaturated fats. That study tracked the health histories of roughly 61,500 Swedish women between the ages of 40 and 76 over the course of more than four years. In results published in a 1998 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, the researchers found that women consuming high levels of polyunsaturated fat had a higher risk of breast cancer than those whose diets were high in monounsaturated and saturated fats.
References
- "Eat Fat, Lose Fat"; Mary G. Enig and Sally Fallon; 2004
- "The Modern Nutritional Diseases"; Fred Ottoboni and M. Alice Ottoboni; 2002
- Second Opinions: Polyunsaturated Oils Increase Cancer Risk
- Archives of Internal Medicine; A Prospective Study of Association of Monounsaturated Fat and Other Types of Fat With Risk of Breast Cancer; Alicja Wolk et al.; January 12, 1998
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