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Why no oil?

 When following a Whole Food, Plant-Based diet you eat foods that are as delivered by nature with little or no processing.  For example, you'd choose an apple over apple juice and an orange over orange juice.  That way, you get more micronutrients, fiber and minerals etc.  Cooking vegetables is perfectly fine. Sautéing with water is easy with a bit of practice. Cleanup is easy too with no greasy crockery, pots or pans.

Oils are a highly processed food.  They are not whole foods. Typically, they have been refined, bleached, deodorized and then sometimes blended with other oils.  Oils are 100% fat with 9 calories per gram. A single tablespoon of oil will have approximately 125 calories!  Just four tablespoons coming from processed foods, from frying, from salad dressings etc. in a day would add 500 calories! That's 500 calories with just about zero nutrients and no fiber. Empty calories.

Healthy fats, in their whole form, are not avoided. Walnuts, almonds, flax seeds, chia seeds and hemp hearts etc. are part of a healthy Whole Food, Plant-Based diet.  If you're trying to reverse heart disease then be very cautious with your fat intake and follow the advice of your plant-based doctor.

Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn, author of the bestselling book Prevent And Reverse Heart Disease, explains why oil should be avoided in this editorial: Is Oil Healthy? (dresselstyn.com)

A quote from his website:

Why does the diet eliminate oil entirely?
NO OIL! Not even olive oil, which goes against a lot of other advice out there about so-called good fats. The reality is that oils are extremely low in terms of nutritive value. They contain no fiber, no minerals and are 100% fat calories. Both the mono unsaturated and saturated fat contained in oils is harmful to the endothelium, the innermost lining of the artery, and that injury is the gateway to vascular disease. It doesn’t matter whether it’s olive oil, corn oil, coconut oil, canola oil, or any other kind. Avoid ALL oil.

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