Grape Seed Oil

Grape Seed oil is extracted from grape seeds after being pressed for wine.  One ton of grapes are needed to make one 8 ounce bottle of Grapeseed oil.  Cold-pressed Grape Seed oils are rare and hard to find because the seeds are very hard and difficult to press without heat and solvents.  One exception is the Salute Santé brand,[1] which is pressed at temperatures that never exceed the outdoor temperature at the time it is pressed (around 100°F).  This unique and high quality brand is packaged in UV protective dark glass bottles or stainless steel, not the usual plastic, penny-pinching bottles that allow UV light into the oil so that it quickly degrades.  The Salute Santé brand of Grape Seed oil wins this authors award for best tasting of all edible oils.

Grape Seed oil has been used for centuries in Europe where, in 1569, Emperor Maximilian II of Italy granted a monopoly for the pressing of Grape Seed oil.  In those days, the grape seeds were placed in giant vats, mixed with water, and covered.  During the following winter, they were pounded every few days until they finally yielded a mash.  This mash was then gently heated to separate the oil from the water much in the same way that traditional hand-pressed coconut oil is made today. 

Growth patterns in the grape plant exhibit interesting Yin-Yang properties that help explain the health functions of Grape Seed oil.  Grape is a fast-growing climbing vine that uses other structures (stakes or trees) to support its rapid ascending growth.  Rapid growth and climbing high are examples of extreme Yang functions.  Wild grape will grow as high as the surrounding trees that hold it up.  This extreme Yang in the grape plant needs extreme Yin for balance and can be found in the seed, the most condensed (Yin) part of the plant.  This extreme Yin takes the form of highly potent AOs in the grape seed and in Grape Seed oil.  In fact, grape seed extract is one of the most potent forms of AOs found in nature.  These AOs give Grape Seed oil further Yin attributes such as the ability resist heat as well as to lower LDL and increase HDL.

Grape Seed oil is very high in Vitamin E, a probable factor in its especially high resistance to heat.  This quality potentially makes it as good for baking and sautéing as it is for salad dressing. 

Table 20: Smoke Points of Unsaturated Oils

As one of the fat-soluble vitamins, Vitamin E is dependent upon FAs for its circulation throughout the body.  Only plants can synthesize Vitamin E; animals can not make it.  Whatever small quantities of Vitamin E animal food might contain is only due to the animals eating it from plants. 

The chemical name for Vitamin E is “tocopherol,” which combines the Greek words “ol” (meaning “alcohol”) with “phero” (“to bring forth”) and “tos” meaning “childbirth.”  Accordingly, Vitamin E was first used as an essential nutrient for the normal development of the fetus.  Now it is used for female reproductive problems and for male impotence.  There are five kinds of tocopherols.  They are named according to the first four letters of the Greek alphabet—alpha, beta, gamma, delta—and simply represent four different chemical variations of Vitamin E.  The third tocopherol, gamma-tocopherol, is the most potent form for preventing breast cancer.[2]

High dietary levels of Vitamin E are known to protect against abnormal blood clotting, heart attacks, strokes, and cancer,[3] which arise from the abnormal oxidation of cholesterol and fatty acids.[i]  This type of fatty degeneration from oxidized cholesterol and FAs can also be observed externally in the brown spots seen on the exposed skin of the elderly.[ii]  The Helsinki and Framingham Heart Studies claim that using Grape Seed oil reduced the risk of cardiac events by 41 to 55 percent!  According to the Journal of Arteriosclerosis (1990; 10:5), Grape Seed oil added to the diet also created a 13-14 percent increase in HDL in only two weeks. 

Vitamin E is a potent AO that prevents the oxidation of LDL cholesterol by free radicals.[4]  Vitamin E is also a natural preservative in polyunsaturated vegetable oils and keeps them from going rancid on the shelf as well as in our bodies.[iii]  Other kinds of AOs are also readily available from the grape plant.  For example, the red pigments in grapes and wines, called bioflavonoids, are also excellent AOs known for their ability to protect the liver and arteries.[iv]  An even stronger AO (30-50 times more powerful than Vitamin E) and contained in large amounts in the Salute Santé brand of Grape Seed oil) is called proanthocyinidins (OPC).  These three strong AOs present in Grape Seed oil account for much of its ability to heal those diseases associated with oxidation and free radical damage and also account for its heat-resistant capacity.

Grape Seed oil is one of the richest natural sources of Vitamin E, especially among the edible oils.  Other oils rich in Vitamin E include Wheat Germ oil (223mg), Grape Seed oil (100mg), Sunflower Seed oil (54mg), Hazelnut oil (47mg), and Rice Bran oil (32mg).  Two of these, Sunflower Seed oil and Rice Bran oil, are also well known for their heat-resistant qualities.  Since MUFAs are also heat-resistant, oils that are higher in Vitamin E content often have a lesser proportion of MUFAs.

Grape Seed oil is, therefore, a very good choice for rehabilitating a body ravaged by free radical damage and also for general Vitamin E depletion.  Both of these conditions are rampant in the general population, twenty to forty percent of which is Vitamin E deficient.  There are several reasons for this deficiency.  Eighty-six percent of Vitamin E is lost through typical food processing![v]  Much of it is also used up in frying and deep-frying where it helps protect polyunsaturated oils.[5][vi]  The refining process of vegetable oils also removes Vitamin E altogether and replaces it with BHT, an artificial preservative[vii] associated with an increased risk for cancer.  Cancer rates go up by themselves when Vitamin E is removed from polyunsaturated oils.[viii]  This rate only increases more when these artificial preservatives are added.  Also, the form of Vitamin E predominant in the SAD (gamma-tocopherol) does not get to the body as easily as alpha-tocopherol, which is preferentially loaded onto the LDL for circulation. 

Grape Seed oil is also known to raise HDL and lower LDL in humans.  Raising HDL levels is also correlated with the reversal of both hypertension and impotence.  These results are more likely due to the high AO content in Grape Seed oil than its high, unrefined Omega 6 content (72-76 percent), although both can raise HDL levels in people used to eating refined, hydrogenated, or partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.[6]  The Vitamin E forms part of the plasma lipoprotein carrier vehicles necessary for transporting cholesterol from the liver to the body.[ix]  In fact, increased cancer from cholesterol-lowering drugs may result in part from the suppression of Vitamin E distribution through these carrier vehicles.  Vitamin E delivery to the cells decreases in direct proportion to the decrease in carrier vehicles for cholesterol as occurs through artificial cholesterol lowering with drugs.[x] 

Conversely, as the Vitamin E and other AOs increase through the addition of Grape Seed oil in the diet, the LDL and HDL protein carrier vehicles pick up cholesterol more easily.  Once these AOs reach the Peripheral Tissues (PTs) of the body, they are then able to displace the oxidized cholesterol found there into the bloodstream where HDL can pick up the cholesterol so that HDL is increased and the cholesterol can be returned to the liver.  In the following table, we can see the Vitamin E quotient in edible oils measured in mg per 100g of sample.  While Grape Seed oil is one of the better oils for cooking, it should be used raw when using it to reverse free radical damage in the arteries, skin, and elsewhere.  Do waste the wonderful AOs in Grape Seed oil when you are trying to heal disease and only use it for cooking once your health is firmly established.  Because the Omega 6 level of Grape Seed is so high (72-76%), an additional source of Omega 3 such as Fish oil, Flaxseed oil (4:1), or Chia Seeds (3:1) should be taken in compensation.