The Case Against Seed Oils
The Case Against Seed Oils
Refined vegetable oils, now under scrutiny, may pose health risks, indicating the need for balanced consumption.
In the past 100 years, refined vegetable oils (commonly referred to as seed oils) have quietly taken up a genuinely astonishing proportion of everything we eat.
To be clear, we are not talking about natural cold-pressed seed oils from sources like flax, pumpkin seed, or black cumin, but rather those heavily processed cooking oils from soybean, corn, sunflower, safflower, and canola. Once hailed for their versatility and apparent health benefits, these saturated fat replacements have recently been met with increasing scrutiny that won't go away and, in fact, seems to only get more insistent.
Despite the politicized aura around the discussion of seed oils, it's critical to understand that this isn't just a right-wing talking point or a podcast conspiracy theory; it's a genuine public health issue that is far from settled.
Instead, in its best incarnations, the anti-seed oil position comes from a swell of medical opinions that draw their ammo from the best science in existence. While pundits on both sides support their views with scientific literature, there is no doubt that objective evidence exists to suggest that these oils may not be as benign as once thought and may indeed be harmful to the body.
A Monumental Change in Dietary Habits
The journey of industrial seed oils from the periphery to the centre of our diet is a tale of technological advancement and changing health paradigms. Initially, these oils were industrial byproducts. Cottonseed oil, for instance, was a waste product of cotton manufacturing.
However, as refining techniques improved and grain lobbies gained traction, these oils were transformed into food-grade commodities.
Before the 20th century, North America knew nothing of using canola or corn oil for cooking—they just didn't really exist. Animal fats like lard, tallow, and suet were the lingua franca of the lipid lexicon. Fast-forward to today, and refined veggie oils have formed an invisible, ubiquitous backdrop to virtually all we cook and all we eat—whether packaged foods in supermarkets, our kitchen cupboards, or even Michelin-starred restaurants.
They are everywhere, in everything, and the statistics are startling. Soybean oil consumption, for instance, has seen a thousand-fold increase, making it the most consumed oil in the United States. Vegetable oils, including soybean oil, can account for as much as 20 per cent of all calories consumed.
This sheer scale of this shift brings us to an important question: what impact do astronomical quantities of these relatively new culinary inventions have on our health? And is it possible that modern epidemics, which were virtually unheard of before the 20th century, might coincide with modern foods that, similarly, have no premodern precedent?
Weighing the Evidence
Epidemiological studies provide a complex picture of seed oils' health impacts. While some advocate the benefits of linoleic acid- the omega 6 polyunsaturated fat that is the hallmark of all seed oils- others highlight potential risks of overconsumption. For example, one review analyzing over 195,000 study participants found that when seed oils made up over six per cent of calories, they accounted for more mortality risk than sugar. Remember that many of us are eating triple that amount.
However, nutritional epidemiological studies, which observe large populations but rely on food questionnaires and self-reporting, are notorious for only offering us correlations, also known as associations, but not causations. Aside from the murkiness of self-reporting, this type of research is generally riddled with confounding factors. Smoking cigarettes is an oft-cited case of an association with lung cancer, so glaringly it's become tantamount to causation. But examples like that are profoundly rare.
To truly establish causation, we have to look at the crown jewel of nutritional science, which is the randomized controlled trial. These are experiments that, at the best of times, directly control what people eat, rule out as many confounding factors as possible, and track large numbers of humans (not mice) for a substantial period of time. The primary barrier to this type of gold-standard research is cost: such studies are tremendously expensive. If they are to be publicly funded without a corporate backer (that might influence the results), there must be a strong political incentive to shell out tax money for the budget.
Fortunately for the pursuit of nutritional truth, that incentive did exist from the 1950s onward, when rising rates of cardiovascular diseases seemed to scare everyone, at all levels of society. United States President Eisenhower's own heart attack in 1955 was undoubtedly a major singular catalyst for considerable investments in several legendary RCTs that followed which looked directly at the effect of replacing saturated fat with polyunsaturated vegetable oils.
At that time, the prevailing thinking was the famous diet-heart hypothesis. This widely adopted theory essentially held that saturated fat from animal products likely led to increases in cholesterol in the blood, which then 'clogged' the arteries and increased the risk of coronary diseases and heart attacks.
This hypothesis was based largely on the epidemiological research of rockstar nutritionist Ancel Keys, a towering figure in the annals of nutritional history, who graced the cover of Time Magazine in 1961 and whose name became synonymous with the bygone trope that dietary cholesterol is, categorically, a bad thing.
Nevertheless, despite Keys' outsized influence in media, politics, and science, all that existed to substantiate the theory was a string of questionable- and hotly criticized- associations. The diet-heart hypothesis would need to be tested properly. And tested it was!
This is all cuttingly relevant to any real discussion of seed oils because the same large trials that sought real answers on saturated fats would replace them with polyunsaturated oils like corn and sunflower, giving us insight into the health effects of both.
So, Are Seed Oils Good for Us?
The infamous Sidney Diet Heart Study ran from 1966 to 1973, but its results went unpublished until 2013, possibly due to rather inconvenient findings. This well-designed randomized controlled trial compared 458 men who had recently had a heart attack. In the group that substituted sunflower and safflower oil, there was a 62 per cent increase in mortality compared to the group that ate saturated fats from animal sources. The authors concluded unambiguously that "substituting dietary linoleic acid in place of saturated fats increased the rates of death from all causes, coronary heart disease, and cardiovascular disease."
The Minnesota Coronary Experiment, another huge-scale, double-blind, randomized controlled trial of 9423 people that finished in the 1970s, also had its results hidden from publication for years and years. It seems plausible that the results were withheld because they came to a similar finding: the group that replaced saturated fats with corn oil did succeed in lowering cholesterol, but they also raised the risk of mortality.
Another large-scale randomized controlled trial that demands mention is the Los Angeles Veterans Diet Study, which actually did see publication when it was finished in 1971. The study followed 846 men for eight years with, you guessed it, one group consuming a typical quantity of saturated fats, and the other replacing them with omega six rich, polyunsaturated vegetable oils.
In this study, the seed oil group actually did experience a significant reduction in deadly cardiovascular events. However, the vegetable oil group had almost double the rates of fatal carcinomas. When balancing the deaths from cancer against the deaths from cardiac events, the total mortality was virtually identical.
The Science Behind the Concerns
At the heart of the health concerns surrounding these oils is their high content of omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), particularly linoleic acid. While omega-6s are essential in moderation, the problem arises when their intake overshadows that of omega-3 fatty acids. In the typical Western diet, the omega-6 to omega-3 ratio, which should ideally hover around 2:1 or 1:1, often stretches to an alarming 10:1 or even 20:1.
The reason why this balance is so essential is that fatty acids have a direct impact on inflammatory signalling throughout the body. For the same reason that some people find fish oils (highly concentrated sources of omega-3 fatty acids) to be powerfully anti-inflammatory, an overwhelming excess of omega-6 fats can lead to chronic pro-inflammatory states that are heavily implicated in cancer, cardiovascular dysfunction, and autoimmune disease pathology.
OXLAMs: Oxidized Linoleic Acid Metabolites
The reason why the healthiest natural seed oils (such as black seed oil) are always cold pressed is that polyunsaturated fatty acids are highly delicate by nature. When exposed to heat or chemical reactions, they are prone to oxidation, which creates toxic byproducts. It has been suggested that oxidized omega-6 fatty acids may in fact be a major culprit behind cardiovascular disease pathology. Oxidized omega-6 fats even seem to be a defining characteristic of atherosclerotic plaques recovered from humans.
One of the most concerning oxidation products of omega-6 dominant oils is the formation of 4-Hydroxynonenal (4-HNE). This 4-HNE is a highly reactive aldehyde, and it's been implicated in various pathological processes, including oxidative stress to our own tissues and cells. Its potential links to atherosclerosis and Alzheimer's point to the possible danger lurking in these commonly consumed oils.
Animal studies have also linked OXLAMs to liver injury, raising questions about their impact on human health. One pivotal human study, in particular, revealed that reducing dietary linoleic acid led to a significant decrease in circulating OXLAMs, highlighting the direct influence of seed oil consumption on producing these metabolites.
A Call for Balance and Moderation
The issue is complicated because some science seems to exonerate seed oils from inflammatory activity in the body, implying safety. The debate rages on because both pro and anti seed oil advocates have plenty of science to draw on.
Perhaps allowing seed oils to account for one-fifth of all energy we take in or avoiding them completely are two extremes of the spectrum. Depending on where we find ourselves on that spectrum, an honest consideration of the evidence against industrially refined seed oils might prompt a reevaluation of their place in our diet.
But while they've become a staple in the food supply and have no shortage of defenders, their potential health risks shouldn't be overlooked. Embracing a balanced approach to dietary fats, prioritizing omega-3s, and limiting the intake of processed foods rich in omega-6s might be the safest approach to protecting our health.
We might just be able to find a sweet spot between paranoia and over-indulgence. By staying informed and making mindful choices, we can steer our health in the right direction, one meal at a time.
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