When you see partially hydrogenated cottonseed oil on a food label, think beyond trans fat! This super cheap oil is one of the most toxic ingredients in processed food today, let me count a few ways:
#1 Cotton is not a food! These cottonseeds are a left over by product of producing cotton fiber. Common sense will tell you, it’s not a food, we probably shouldn’t be eating it.
#2 Cotton is one of the most toxic crops. While only three percent of the world’s farming acreage is cotton, these crops are sprayed with up to 25 percent of the world’s pesticides and herbicides, including some of the most toxic. Therefore cottonseed oil has an extremely high level of pesticide residue. Pesticides that are not approved for food are sprayed on cotton crops, because once again, cotton is not a food (see #1)
#3 Cottonseed oil is extremely high in pro-inflammatory omega 6 fatty acids. The ratio of omega 6:omega 3 in cottonseed oil is around 259:1. If you are supplementing with fish oil or flax oil to increase your anti-inflammatory omega 3 levels, and you ingest even a little bit of cottonseed oil, you’re gonna need gallons of omega 3 to balance that out!
#4 GMOs Genetically engineered (GE) cotton is another problem. Playing on concerns about pesticides, Monsanto has pushed GE cottonseeds onto the market in more than a half-dozen countries as the “green alternative” for cotton growers. In terms of human health hazards, herbicide-resistant GE cotton plants–and their oil and seed derivatives–contain foreign proteins, bacteria, viral promoters, and antibiotic resistant genes–food ingredients that humans have never eaten before. These GE plants and their derivatives are unlabeled and untested for hazards to human health and the environment. These cotton plants are gene-spliced so that the cotton plant emits its own pesticide, or else the plant is genetically engineered to be able to survive mega-doses of powerful pesticides.
All in all, when I see cottonseed oil as an ingredient on a packaged food product, I quickly come to the conclusion that this edible foodlike substance is hazardous to my and my family’s health. Sadly, Girl Scout Cookies are loaded with this hazardous, toxic ingredient.
While you’re at it, make sure the cotton clothing you buy is organic. Wear it, don’t eat it!
