Is Cottonseed Oil Healthy or Harmful for Your Diet?

[23 concerned]

http://www.mcdonalds.ca/pdfs/IngredientFactsEN.pdf

I was curious about what McDonald’s was putting in their food items today because in the past I couldn’t find any web pages containing information pertaining to a breakdown of exactly what was in their menu items other than nutritional information such as amounts of various nutrients, calories etc… I had been told at one of the restaurants that cottonseed oil was in the fryer and breads and in other menu items but this was not verified for me in writing. Articles on the web declared that cottonseed was in many menu items so I avoided going to McDonald's for a very long time.

I pulled up the document there is a link to at the top of this post, and found that McDonald’s no longer uses cottonseed oil in their fryer. I read that they used to use an artery clogging mix of beef tallow/cottonseed oil in their deep fat fryers but this has changed.

This menu is a very complete 14 pages long.
My printed copy is dated:

As of March 12, 2009

.

There are still a few menu items that contain cottonseed oil but the number of items containing this oil has dramatically decreased.

It’s been a long time since I visited McDonald’s. There are still hydrogenated oils, and a lot of preservatives in their foods, but this is true of where ever you go unless you prepare ‘fresh’ food at home, and even then, when you cook at home, many pre-prepared ingredients you may use, contain mold inhibitors, preservatives, etc… .

The good news here is that McDonald’s has removed the cottonseed oil out of many of their menu items that previously had contained cottonseed oil in them, like the French fries.

Big improvement!

23 concerned
.

.

 

[23 concerned]

In peer-review you need to declare conflict of interest.

Thank you Monique.

23 concerned
.

 

[23 concerned]

Following are cited PubMed documents concerning the bleaching of cottonseed oil, as well as other edible oils, to render edible oils to a light color that is preferred by consumers. With cottonseed oil the deep color of the crude, unrefined oil is due to the presence of a toxin called gossypol. I haven’t found documented, peer reviewed proof, that bleaching out the color of gossypol renders it non-toxic.

Comparison of Respiration, Free Fatty acid Formation, and Changes In The Spectrum Of The Seed Oil During The Storage Of Cottonseed

Lillian Kyame And A. M. Altschul

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/pagerender.fcgi?artid=437306&pageindex=1

Following is an excerpt from this lengthy document from PubMed;

…As yet too little is known concerning the chemistry and biochemistry of cottonseed pigments to permit one to draw any significant conclusions from the above mentioned data. Inasmuch as Skellysolve F does not rupture the pigment glands, the observed changes in light absorption may be due…

...yet too little is known concerning the chemistry and biochemistry …

Following PubMed, peer reviewed articles on bleaching food, edible oils including cottonseed oil..

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/989152

1: Nahrung. 1976;20(2):117-24.
Cottonseed colour fixed pigments. Part I. Selectivity of hexane isomers.
El-Nockrashy AS, Zaher FA, Osman F.
The selectivity of hexane isomers towards cottonseed pigments and colour fixed pigments was illustrated by using spectrophotometric analysis of crude, refined and bleached oils, and by refinability and bleachability criteria. Crude cottonseed oil contains besides the alkali-refinable gossypol and gossypurpurin, several colour fixed pigments. Anhydrogossypol, gossyfulvin, anthocyanins and carotenoids seem to be responsible for the colour-fixation of the oil. Only carotenoids are eliminated by bleaching. Selectivities of hexane isomers towards colour fixed pigments are in the following order: isohexane less than n-hexane less than cyclohexane less than benzene less than methylcyclopentane.
PMID: 989152 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

...Only carotenoids are eliminated by bleaching ...

Carotenoids are found throughout nature and provide the color in vegetables, microorganisms, and in the tissues of some animals. Carotenoids act as biological antioxidants and from what has been learned already, carotenoids are important for maintaing good health in all animals by protecting cells within tissues from danage from free radicals. Add to this, bleaching edible oils eliminates carotenoids from the oil, this pretains to all edible oils, not just cottonseed oil.. No where can I find a peer reviewed reference that states that bleaching removes toxins from edible oils, and this includes cottonseed oil. So if you thought that bleaching cottonseed oil made it non-toxic you should rethink this idea until further research is done to prove it one way or the other.


The orange color of the vegetable, carrot, comes from the orange colored carotenoids within the carrot’s structure, and the biological term carotenoid, was coined from the English word for the bright orange vegetable, carrot.


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1173937

1: Nahrung. 1975;19(7):525-36.
The sterol hydrocarbons in edible oils.
Niewiadomski H.
Since 1957 we have published the results of our research on the transformation of sterols in vegetable oils due the industrial treatment. During bleaching sterol hydrocarbons are formed which are partly removed due the deodorising. Hardening transforms them partly into other steroids. Thus the sterol hydrocarbons are also present in margarine. We have found that the content of those compounds amounted to a quantity of 0.023%. The apolar steroids are highly sensitive to the conditions of autoxidation. All margarines and edible oils contain not only steroid hydrocarbons but also the products of their oxidation and hydrogenation.
PMID: 1173937 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Deodorising edible oils is done by means of low pressure and high heat in corrosive proof equipment.
Apolar refers to having no polarity, the substance is anionic, in chemistry and physics the substance has no dipole. In the case of the above abstract from PubMed, steroids refers to male/female hormones formed within edible oils after bleaching with further formation of steroids forming after the oil hardens, this refers to all oils, not just cottonseed oil.

23 concerned
.

 

[23 concerned]

Chickens are domesticated birds, and are the only animals that have feathers. They are relatively small in physical size as compared to, for instance, a cow or a hog. Egg layers can live from 5 to 11 years. Producers/farmers are reluctant to feed their chicken flocks cottonseed feed because of the very real fear of gossypol poisoning of both eggs, and of the birds themselves, leading to the death of these animals.

It has been shown to be near to impossible to regulate the level of gossypol within cottonseeds themselves therefore the cake, flour, oil and animal feed/foodstuffs all have varying degrees of gossypol.

Bleaching removes carotenoids, which are generally thought of as the ‘good stuff’ in any vegetable, oil, seed, meat, etc… See the post before this one to read the peer reviewed material on bleaching edible oils including cottonseed oil. Nowhere can I find a peer-reviewed article that states that bleaching cottonseed oil removes the toxic properties of gossypol. It is not stated that removing the color removes the toxicity.

Low levels of cottonseed feed fed to animals like cows, deer and elephants, have the gossypol rendered non-toxic in the first stomach because these are ruminants that have two stomachs. As far as I can ascertain most of us humans don’t have two stomachs but sometimes I wonder about this. The way some people eat you might think that they have two stomachs!
Other animals such as swine, dogs, horses etc… do not have two stomachs so there is no first stomach to render the toxin gossypol, non-toxic. Please refer to the post from peer reviewed PubMed I put up concerning how the cow, which is a ruminant, had it’s milk with gossypol in it, rendered non-toxic from the cows first stomach. This milk with non-specific, non-toxic properties from gossypol is keeping a cancer patient in remission. Vitamin D is also credited for this remission.

Here’s the PubMed reviewed article on broilers, which as you know are chickens.

1: Poult Sci. 2005 Sep;84(9):1376-82. Links
Relative toxicity of gossypol enantiomers in broilers.
Lordelo MM, Davis AJ, Calhoun MC, Dowd MK, Dale NM.
Department of Poultry Science, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602-2772, USA.
Use of cottonseed meal in poultry diets has been avoided in large part because of fear of gossypol toxicity. Gossypol exists naturally as a mixture of 2 enantiomers that exhibit different biological activities. Two experiments were conducted to determine the relative toxicity of gossypol enantiomers on broilers. In the first experiment, 3-d-old broilers were fed a standard diet containing 0, 100, 200, 300, or 400 mg of gossypol from gossypol acetic acid per kilogram of diet from 3 to 42 d of age. This form of gossypol contains both enantiomers in an equimolar ratio. Each dietary treatment consisted of 6 replicate pens of 4 birds. In the second experiment, 3-d-old broilers were divided into 15 pens of 4 birds each and fed a standard diet supplemented with either no gossypol or one of the gossypol enantiomers at 200 or 400 mg/kg of diet from 3 to 21 d of age. In both experiments, feed intake and BW gain were measured. In addition, several organ and tissue samples were collected at 21 d (experiments 1 and 2) and 42 d (experiment 1) of age and analyzed for gossypol. In experiment 1, feed consumption and BW gain were reduced (P < 0.05) at 21 and 42 d for the birds fed the highest level of gossypol. The concentration of gossypol in the heart, kidney, and plasma were equivalent at 21 and 42 d of age. In experiment 2, total feed consumption was reduced only in birds consuming (-)-gossypol, but BW gains were lower for birds fed either enantiomer. However, (-)-gossypol was more detrimental to growth than (+)-gossypol. The liver had the highest tissue concentration of both enantiomers, and accumulation of (+)-gossypol was higher than (-)-gossypol in all tissues examined. No racemization of the enantiomers was apparent in the tissues analyzed. Our results indicated that both gossypol enantiomers were toxic to broilers but that (-)-gossypol was more harmful to efficient broiler production than (+)-gossypol.
PMID: 16206558 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/...nel.Pubmed_DefaultReportPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum

23 concerned
.

 

[Woody101]

"Chickens are domesticated birds, and are the only animals that have feathers. They are relatively small in physical size as compared to, for instance, a cow or a hog. Egg layers can live from 5 to 11 years. "

Did I miss something here or are the turkeys, ducks and geese running around naked?

Since I am going to die eventually anyway I have decided I might just as well be sick when it happens. I would hate to waste a perfectly good body by dying healthy. Therefore, I intend to eat all the "forbidden" stuff I can and enjoy it as much as possible. With any luck I will be walking across the street eating a Double bacon, cheese Whopper and slurping up greasy fries cooked in pure lard when I get hit by a bus.

 

[Monique]

You have not provided any sources that mention the levels of glossypol in cottonseed oil for human consumption, nor have you provided sources that tell us how cottonseed oil is refined before it enters the human food chain. This thread is going severely off-topic.

Here is a reference that shows that cottonseed oil is refined (thus removing free glossypol) before it enters the food chain.

Preparation of an edible cottonseed protein concentrate and evaluation of its functional properties.

Cottonseed could be used as a source of dietary protein for human food production. The cottonseed component, gossypol, is toxic, however, which has limited the potential of cottonseed in human food production. Free gossypol was removed from glanded cottonseed using a two-stage solvent extraction method utilizing aqueous and anhydrous acetone. A cottonseed protein concentrate with a low level of free gossypol and a protein content of 72.2% was obtained . The cottonseed protein concentrate had good organoleptic characteristics, and had functional properties allowing its use as a food additive.

 

[Monique]

Or here an http://www.foodsafety.gov/~rdb/bnfm074.html".

In a submission dated June 29, 2000, Monsanto Company submitted to FDA a summary of the safety and nutritional assessment they have conducted on the new bioengineered insect-protected Bollgard II cotton line 15985.

..

Cotton, Gossypium hirsutum L., is grown worldwide primarily as a source of fiber in the textile manufacturing. Cottonseed is a by-product of fiber production. Cottonseed contains natural toxicants, gossypol and cyclopropenoid fatty acids. Cottonseed is processed into four major products: oil, meal, hulls, and linters. Cottonseed oil and to a lesser extent processed linters are routinely used in human food and have a long history of safe use. Cottonseed, cottonseed meal, and hulls are used in animal feed.

Cottonseed oil intended for human consumption is highly purified. The purification process substantially reduces the content of cyclopropenoid fatty acids. The refined cottonseed oil is used as frying oil, salad and cooking oil, and in various foods including mayonnaise, salad dressing, shortening, and margarine. Linters are also highly processed to obtain pure cellulose for use in food, for example, in casings for bologna, sausages, and frankfurters, and in products such as ice cream and salad dressings.

..

Monsanto also measured the levels of cyclopropenoid fatty acids (CPFAs), gossypol, and aflatoxins. As noted earlier (section 5.1), CPFAs and gossypol occur naturally in cottonseed. Aflatoxins are mycotoxins produced by certain species of the fungus Aspergillus that may infect cotton, mainly Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus. According to the literature cited by Monsanto, cottonseed is one of the commodities most commonly contaminated by aflatoxins.

..

Monsanto pooled [purified] cottonseed samples collected by line across eight field sites, thereby creating one composite sample for each line. Each composite sample was processed into oil and analyzed for the following parameters: fatty acid composition, vitamin E content, gossypol content, and cyclopropenoid fatty acid content.

..

Gossypol was not detected in any of the [purified] oil samples at the detection limit of 0.005 percent. The levels of cyclopropenoid fatty acids (sterculic, dihydrosterculic, and malvalic) in oil from the 15985 line were similar to those in the oil from the parental line and were within the range determined for oil derived from commercial varieties.

 

[Monique]

And here a Code of Federal Regulation that states that levels of gossypol in cottonseed products intended for human production should not exceed 450 ppm. There is a clear regulation of the substance.

http://law.justia.com/us/cfr/title21/21-3.0.1.1.3.9.1.59.html

This case is closed.