Cottonseed Oil: Health Freakout

If I told you that an ingredient in many of your favorite foods was cottonseed oil, you'd probably be pretty happy. After all, it's not pork grease or anything. In fact, it sounds kind of nurturing and earthy, like something you'd find in Whole Foods organic barley crisps.

Well, sorry, guess again.

Cottonseed oil comes, not surprisingly, from the cotton plant. The FDA doesn't classify cotton as a food, so farmers can slather the crop with pesticides. That's a wee bit disturbing if you wear cotton tee shirts, but it's downright scary if you eat foods that contain cottonseed oil. Which you do, if you've ever had

Yes, even Poptarts :(

While cottonseed oil does have its benefits -- increases vitamin e intake, no trans fat, can be used to deep fry a ton of hamburgers before you have to replace it -- the stuff that goes into it is really, really awful. Cotton pesticides make up 10% of the world's pesticide use and 25% of insecticide use. The crops are just bombarded with tons of nasty chemicals, including:

Fun stuff. Long story short, stay away from fried foods, store-bought baked goods and snacks. Watch out for cottonseed oil in bottled salad dressings and sugary cereals. And don't be fooled by a healthy name.