Wait, why do we hate seed oils again?

Not human food:

There was virtually no way for a human to consume large quantities of polyunsaturated fat ever since the dawn of man.

Animals generally do not produce omega 6 polyunsaturated fats, so they are only obtainable via nuts and seeds which are impossible to eat in massive quantities without an oil refinery.

Any naturally occurring unsaturated fat will contain a host of complex antioxidant molecules to help keep them stable. Seed oils are stripped of these and stored in plastic bottles left to degrade and go rancid.

In the 1950’s, human body fat was 4-8% PUFA, today it is generally 20% due to seed oils.

Prone to oxidation:

4-Hydroxynonenal (4-HNE), formaldehyde, acrolein, and a host of other nasty chemicals are spit out when omega 6 PUFA’s are heated to even modest temperatures.

Science agrees 4-HNE is dangerous, and that omega 6 fats produce it, but they can’t seem to agree that seed oils are dangerous for some strange reason.

This is to the extent that they can even boost rates of lung cancer by 80% among those who use them at home. Here is a great deep-dive review on the subject, with a lengthy title:

Evidence-Based Challenges to the Continued Recommendation and Use of Peroxidatively-Susceptible Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid-Rich Culinary Oils for High-Temperature Frying Practises: Experimental Revelations Focused on Toxic Aldehydic Lipid Oxidation Products

Don’t trigger satiety and slow our metabolism:

Saturated fats are key to signaling satiety to our mitochondria, see Nature. Polyunsaturated fats essentially make it past the goalie, and do not send the signal to your cells to stop craving glucose.

Additionally and sinisterly, it appears that accumulated PUFA in our tissue slows our metabolism significantly. An paper in Nature Metabolism this April found that we burn 200 less calories at rest than we did in 1980, and our body temps are much lower today. In mice, a diet high in seed oils trigger these changes, further testing is needed in humans.

Total daily energy expenditure has declined over the past three decades due to declining basal expenditure, not reduced activity expenditure

The author breaks down his paper on twitter here.

In conclusion:

New research is constantly emerging about the dangers of seed oils. Weeks ago the University of California linked soybean oil to IBD.

Modern medicine and federal agencies take decades to change their dogma, but anyone paying attention to modern nutrition science knows these fats are harmful.

Educating yourself will help you share the message and bring credibility to the movement.

Dine fearlessly 🫡

-Seed Oil Scout