The lucrative story of cotton seed oil

Looking back over the last 40 years, it’s hard to understand how we could have been so gullible. We believed that fat, and more specifically saturated fat (found primarily in animal foods), was thought to increase cholesterol and cause heart disease. Instead, we should switch to ‘heart healthy’ vegetable oils, like cottonseed, corn, safflower and soy oils. But recent evidence suggests this was a Faustian bargain. The industrially processed seed oils were much, much worse. It was all a terrible mistake that began with Crisco.
Cotton plantations for fabric were cultivated in the United States as early as 1736. Prior to this, it was largely an ornamental plant. At first, most cotton was home-spun into garments, but the success of the crop meant that some could be exported to England. From a modest 600 pounds of cotton in 1784, it grew to over 200,000 by 1790. The invention of the cotton-gin by Eli Whitney in 1793 led to a staggering 40,000,000 pounds of cotton production.
Meanwhile, in the 1820’s and 1830’s increased demand for oil used in cooking and lighting from a rising population and decreased supply of whale oil meant that prices rose steeply. Enterprising entrepreneurs tried to crush the worthless cotton seeds to extract the oil, but it was not until the 1850s that the technology matured to the point that commercial production could commence. But in 1859, something happened that would transform the modern world. Colonel Drake struck oil in Pennsylvania in 1859 introducing a massive supply fossil fuels to the modern world. Before long, the demand for cottonseed oil for lighting had completely evaporated and cottonseeds went back to being classified as toxic waste.
From fabric to food
It made pastry flakier. It could be used for frying. It could be used in baking. Was it healthy? Nobody knew. Since this new-fangled semi-solid fat resembled food, and the decision was made to market this as food. They called this revolutionary new product Crisco, which stood for crystallized cottonseed oil.
Crisco was skillfully marketed as a cheaper alternative to lard. In 1911, Proctor & Gamble launched a brilliant campaign to put Crisco into every American household. They produced a recipe book, all of which use Crisco, of course, and gave it away for free. This was unheard of, at the time. Advertisements of that era also proclaimed that Crisco was easier to digest, cheaper and healthier due to its plant origins. That cottonseeds were essentially garbage was not mentioned. Over the next 3 decades, Crisco and other cottonseed oils dominated the kitchens of America, displacing lard.
By the 1950s, cottonseed oil itself was getting expensive and Crisco once again turned to a cheaper alternative, soybean oil. The soybean itself took an improbable route to the American kitchen. Originally from Asia, soybeans were introduced to North America in 1765, having been domesticated in China as far back as 7000 BC. Soybeans are approximately 18% oil and 38% protein, making it ideal as food for livestock or for industrial purposes (paint, engine lubricants).
Since Americans ate almost no tofu prior to World War II, little or no soybeans made it into the American diet. Things began to change during the Great Depression, when large areas of the United States were stricken by severe drought – the Dust Bowl. Soybeans could help regenerate the soil through their ability to fix nitrogen. It turns out that the great American Plains were ideal for growing soybeans, so they quickly became the second most lucrative crop, just behind corn.
Animal fat versus vegetable oil
Meanwhile, in 1924, the American Heart Association was formed. As Nina Teicholz reports in her book, The Big Fat Surprise, it was not the powerful behemoth it is today, but just a collection of heart specialists meeting occasionally to discuss professional matters. In 1948, this sleepy group of cardiologists were transformed by a $1.5 million donation from Proctor & Gamble, (maker of hydrogenated trans-fat laden Crisco). The war to replace animal fats with vegetable oils was on.
By the 1960s and 1970s, led by Ancel Keys, the new dietary villain was saturated fats, the type found more frequently in animal foods like meat and dairy. The American Heart Association (AHA) wrote the world’s first official recommendations in 1961 recommending that we “reduce intake of total fat, saturated fat and cholesterol. Increase intake of polyunsaturated fat”. In other words, avoid animal fat and eat ‘heart-healthy’ vegetable oils, high in polyunsaturated fats, like Crisco. This advice carried forward to the influential 1977 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
In 1994, the CSPI struck fear into movie-goers hearts with a brilliant scare campaign. Movie popcorn at that time popped in coconut oil, which was largely saturated fats. The CSPI declared that a medium sized bag of movie popcorn had more ‘artery clogging fat than a bacon-and eggs breakfast, a Big Mac and fries for lunch, and a steak dinner with all the trimmings – combined!” Movie popcorn sales plunged, and theatres raced to replace their coconut oil with partially hydrogenated vegetable oils. Yes, trans-fats. Before that, the war to rid the American public of beef tallow, the secret ingredient of McDonald’s French fries, resulted in the switch to, you guessed it, partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.
The consequence of the vegetable oils
But the story was not yet done. By the 1990s, these trans fats that the AHA and the CSPI told us were supposed to be so healthy for us were implicated as major risk factors for heart disease. New studies now indicated that trans-fats just about doubled the risk of heart disease for every 2% increase in trans-fat calories (Ref: Hu, FB et al. Dietary fat intake and the risk of coronary heart disease in women. N Engl J Med. 337(21):1491-1499). By some estimates, trans-fats were responsible for 100,000 deaths (Ref: Trans Fatty Acids and Coronary Heart Disease. Nutrition in Clinical Practice 2006:21(5);505-512. Zaloga GP et al). The very ‘heart-healthy’ foods the AHA recommended we eat could actually be increasing our risk for heart attacks. The irony. The irony. By November 2013, the US Food and Drug Administration removed partially hydrogenated oils from the list of human foods ‘Generally Recognized as Safe’. Yes, the AHA had been telling us to eat poison for decades.
Let’s face the facts – we ate vegetable oils because they were CHEAP, not because they were healthy.
You can read more about vegetable oil and the war on saturated fat in Nina Teicholzs book: The Big Fat Surprise
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I guess one of the things ( of many ) that worries me the most is the use of Haxane in the refining process ...a chemical that if you were to sniff directly from the bottle would kill you instantly ...much like glysophate which carries warnings not to inhale directly and not to resuscitate directly somebody who has and is unconscious as a result of the glysophate inhalation ...
Would you really want to have any of these foods or eat food products with either of these products used in their processing ? Not me ...
Ric
Cold pressed extraction is the best process for healthy seed oils. I would like to thank the author for the History of CRISCO! Alarming indeed how natural foods were demonized to advance Industrialy processed phoods.
My pet peeve with Vegans re: Dairy products, simply a conversion of grass and water to foods consumed from the beginning of time by self propelled ruminants! All without refrigeration until the last century.
Muchas gracias por compartir este artículo.
MSE @DeMetabolismo
When you look at the grocery aisles, it seems so normal to have partially hydrogenated in all our processed foods, like crackers, pop tarts, frozen fries, frozen waffles and pancakes, ice-cream, soup mixes, even breads. Things that are supposed to make our lives easier. Yet it is deadly and makes our lives shorter. This is scary. Who makes the food laws???!! We are at the mercy of these food traders!
I stopped buying flavored yoghourts and never eat sugar. I buy natural yoghurt and stock up on a variety of honey and add it to yoghurt.
Did Americans have heart disease before Crisco invention?