Tuesday Tip: Are Seed oils bad? 🛢️
Apparently seed oils are the latest food to demonise. Rapeseed/canola, sunflower, sesame oil etc are apparently toxic, inflammatory and the worst thing you can eat. But does the evidence actually support this?
Some of the fear has a fairly logical origin. For decades, partially hydrogenated oils containing trans fats were widely used in margarines, processed foods and commercial frying. Trans fats genuinely are harmful, particularly for cardiovascular health. However at some point hydrogenated oils = bad morphed into seed oils = bad, but they’re not the same thing.
In addition lots of ‘junk’ foods such as chips, doughnuts, fried fast food, crisps, biscuits and other ultra-processed foods also contain seed oils. People who eat a lot of junk food may have poorer health , junk food often contains seed oils so it must be the seed oils that are bad. In reality these foods are just energy-dense combinations of refined flour, sugar and fat that’s very easy to overeat.
The major scientific warnings against seed oils come from studies tracking commercial fryer oil that has been heated for hours or days at a time (which causes it to breakdown producing potentially toxic by products) . Critics online took these findings and misapplied them to ordinary home cooking. In reality, using fresh seed oil at home for standard cooking, baking, or light frying produces negligible breakdown products and is entirely safe. Regularly eating deep-fried takeaway food is rather different from using some rapeseed oil to cook your stir fry .
There’s also the myth that omega-6 causes inflammation. Human research doesn’t support this; normal consumption of linoleic acid, the main omega-6 in many seed oils, doesn’t increase inflammatory markers. In fact, when unsaturated vegetable oils replace saturated fats, LDL cholesterol generally drops which helps cardiovascular health.
So don’t panic over a teaspoon of seed oil in your dinner or as an ingredient in the food you enjoy. As usual, the boring stuff matters far more: overall diet, fibre, fruit and veg, protein, calorie balance, exercise and sleep.
Happy Tuesday 🤗
Xx
