Is your doctor competent enough to get the dietician to incorporate these into the diet protocol at the hospital and your take home diet protocol ? NO? So, your doctor failed at that task! What are YOU going to do about that incompetence? Let it pass? Or pay it forward and get someone competent in the hospital for the next stroke survivor?
Scientists just debunked every myth about seed oils—here's what they found
They combed through 500 studies, and the science suggests seed oils are a healthy pantry staple.
Reviewed by Dietitian Jessica Ball, M.S., RD
Key Points
- Research shows seed oils are safe and may reduce heart disease risk when replacing saturated fats.
- Claims linking seed oils to inflammation lack evidence; linoleic acid doesn’t increase inflammatory markers.
- Cooking with seed oils in moderation is healthy; focus on whole foods and limit ultra-processed snacks.
If you’ve been scrolling wellness content lately, you’ve probably seen someone telling you to throw out your canola oil. Seed oils (including canola, corn, cottonseed, grapeseed, peanut, rice bran, safflower, sesame, soybean and sunflower) have become one of the internet’s most talked-about nutrition targets.
Seed oil critics argue that they drive inflammation, damage your heart and turn toxic when heated. A recently published review in Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition examined the human evidence behind those claims and found it largely doesn't hold up. Let’s break down what the researchers found.
How Was the Review Conducted?
This was a scoping narrative review, meaning the researchers gathered and interpreted a broad range of existing human research rather than conducting a new experiment.
The team of researchers reviewed studies on seed oils and linoleic acid across multiple health outcomes: cardiovascular disease, inflammation, LDL (or “bad”) cholesterol oxidation, cancer, liver fat, body weight, type 2 diabetes and oil processing. The researchers examined randomized controlled trials, prospective cohort studies, biomarker studies and Mendelian randomization analyses.
What Did the Review Find?
Inflammation
The findings were reassuring across the board. One of the more common claims about seed oils is that their linoleic acid content drives inflammation in the body—but researchers say the data doesn’t support that.
“The claim largely stems from the idea that the omega-6 fatty acid, linoleic acid, in seed oils may convert into a potentially inflammatory fat called arachidonic acid,” the review lead author Matthew Nagra, ND, explains. “However, when researchers actually feed people seed oils and measure what happens, almost none of that conversion occurs and inflammatory markers don't increase."
A 2012 systematic review of 15 randomized controlled trials found virtually no evidence that adding linoleic acid to the diet increases inflammatory markers in healthy adults. A follow-up meta-analysis of 30 randomized trials found no significant changes in 11 different inflammatory markers, including C-reactive protein, when linoleic acid intake increased.
The Omega-6-to-Omega-3 Ratio
You might have heard people claim that our modern diets contain too much omega-6 relative to omega-3 fats (and that seed oils are largely to blame). The review pushes back on this framing, noting that this ratio isn’t a very reliable measure of diet quality.
The better move is to focus on eating more omega-3-rich foods like fatty fish, walnuts and flaxseed, rather than cutting out omega-6-rich fats such as canola or soybean oil.
Heart Health
For cardiovascular health, the findings consistently supported replacing saturated fats with polyunsaturated fats (the type found in seed oils) to reduce cardiovascular risk. One American Heart Association analysis of trials that swapped saturated fat for polyunsaturated fat found a 29% lower risk of coronary heart disease. Longer-term population studies have also linked higher linoleic acid intake with lower rates of death from heart disease and all causes.
Heating and Processing
The review also tackled concerns about heating oils and oil processing. Repeatedly overheating any oil at very high temperatures can degrade it, but this isn’t something most home cooks need to worry about.
Many people also flag safety concerns with hexane, which is a solvent sometimes used during oil extraction. The review notes how residual hexane levels in commercially available oils are well below conservative regulatory limits. In fact, one cited calculation estimated you would need to consume about 4,900 grams of seed oil daily (about 22 cups) to exceed a conservative daily exposure limit.
Other Findings
When it comes to body weight, seed oils don’t appear to increase hunger, reduce energy expenditure or cause weight gain compared to other fats.
On liver health, the review actually found the opposite of what many seed oil critics claim: Replacing saturated fats with linoleic-acid-rich oils may help reduce liver fat, rather than promote it. Finally, for type 2 diabetes, controlled feeding studies generally show neutral to beneficial effects of polyunsaturated fats (found in seed oils) on glucose and insulin markers.
How Does This Apply to Real Life?
If you’ve been worried about seed oils, the evidence here is largely reassuring. Unless you have an allergy, there’s no strong reason to completely avoid cooking with canola, soybean or other common seed oils. “Seed oils can be part of a healthy diet, with the highest quality research suggesting they may reduce heart disease risk compared to saturated fat sources like butter or beef tallow,” Nagra says.
Saturated fats don’t need to be entirely off-limits, but making oils rich in unsaturated fats your go-to cooking fat can be a beneficial move for your health. Here are a few ways to put that into practice:
- Use canola or a neutral vegetable oil instead of butter when sautéing vegetables.
- Make a homemade vinaigrette with a plant-based oil instead of using a creamy dressing higher in saturated fat.
- If a recipe calls for a neutral oil in baking, sunflower, canola or soybean oil works well.
- Keep enjoying olive oil and avocado oil, as they remain heart-healthy choices too.
It’s also worth noting that chips, packaged desserts, fast-food fries and many ultra-processed snacks may use seed oils, but their health effects aren’t determined by the oil alone. Those foods can often be high in refined carbohydrates, sodium, added sugars and calories while being low in fiber, protein and micronutrients. The review points out how the potential downsides of low-nutrient packaged foods shouldn’t automatically be attributed to the seed oils they contain.
Our Expert Take
The current body of research suggests seed oils aren’t the health threat they’ve been made out to be online. From inflammation to heart health, the human evidence consistently points to seed oils being safe and, in many cases, beneficial for our health. That said, this isn’t a green light for every food that contains seed oils. Fried foods and ultra-processed snacks are still worth limiting for reasons beyond the oil itself. Try to build your plate around vegetables, fruits, lean proteins, whole grains, legumes and nuts—and feel confident cooking with seed oils in moderation.
Read the original article on EatingWell
Inflammation
The findings were reassuring across the board. One of the more common claims about seed oils is that their linoleic acid content drives inflammation in the body—but researchers say the data doesn’t support that.
“The claim largely stems from the idea that the omega-6 fatty acid, linoleic acid, in seed oils may convert into a potentially inflammatory fat called arachidonic acid,” the review lead author Matthew Nagra, ND, explains. “However, when researchers actually feed people seed oils and measure what happens, almost none of that conversion occurs and inflammatory markers don't increase."
A 2012 systematic review of 15 randomized controlled trials found virtually no evidence that adding linoleic acid to the diet increases inflammatory markers in healthy adults. A follow-up meta-analysis of 30 randomized trials found no significant changes in 11 different inflammatory markers, including C-reactive protein, when linoleic acid intake increased.
The Omega-6-to-Omega-3 Ratio
You might have heard people claim that our modern diets contain too much omega-6 relative to omega-3 fats (and that seed oils are largely to blame). The review pushes back on this framing, noting that this ratio isn’t a very reliable measure of diet quality.
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