Bite Back with Abbey Sharp - Seed Oils, Inflammation & a Wellness Culture Lie | Fat Wars Part 1

Starting point is 00:00:00 Eat fewer ultra-processed foods and more plants is not exactly breaking news. It's boring, right? It's familiar. It doesn't make you feel like you've uncovered some dark secret that doctors and dietitians and the food industry have been hiding from you for decades. But tell people that there is one toxic ingredient secretly lurking inside hundreds of foods in American grocery aisles right now. that is a viral story. Welcome to another episode of Bite Back with Abby Sharp, where I dismantled diet culture rules,

Starting point is 00:00:40 call out the charlatans spinning the pseudoscience, and help you achieve food freedom for good. At some point in the past 20 years, butter stopped being just a common spread or cooking fat and became an entire personality. It became ancestral, traditional, natural, even godly. Butter arrives at the table carrying a history of purity and morality that is seemingly transferred onto the consumer with a single bite. Seed oils, in contrast, have been cast as the nutritional antichrist. Industrial sludge, machine lubricant,

Starting point is 00:01:23 a supposedly man-made toxic cocktail of inflammation, oxidation, and corporate corruption that is quietly destroying our metabolisms one vinaigrette at a time. According to some corners of the internet, using canola oil instead of butter is not just a banal dietary choice. It is a cowardly act of submission to big food and at admission that you are willing to be duped. Or is it? Today we're going to be doing something deeply unfashionable. We are going to be looking at the evidence. Not just one mechanistic paper or rodent study or 70-year-old trial pulled up from the scientific crypt and presented as the final word. In this two-parter, we are going to be

Starting point is 00:02:15 unpacking the unbiased evidence as a whole. Have we all been lied to by the processed food industry? Or or is our reclaiming of saturated fat, another wellness culture, lie that we will pay for our health at one point? In part one, I'm going to be focusing on the seed oil side of the Fat Wars debate. And then next week, in part two, we're going to be looking at butter, coconut oil, beef tallow, and other saturated fats. All right, friends, I also want to welcome any newcomers to bite back here. I am so grateful that you're taking a few minutes out of your day to get curious and critical and to geek out on the science with me. If you guys enjoy this episode, I would really appreciate you subscribing to the show and leaving me a little love note or a five-star review on this episode wherever you're listening or watching. It really does make a massive difference in my ability to keep this going.

Starting point is 00:03:14 Also, you can read my full disclaimer in the notes, but as always, my content here is for education and entertainment purposes only. so always speak to your healthcare professional for one-on-one advice. All right, I think that is all the housekeeping for today. Let's dive in. Okay, so I usually like to set the stage on these kinds of conversations by stripping everything back to some core definitions. And in this case, that means acknowledging that it is virtually impossible to make a credible argument that seed oils are toxic or saturated fats are healthy when these fats are

Starting point is 00:03:51 not perfectly opposing or homogenous groups. The term seed oil is usually used as a catch-all phrase for plant-based oils that aren't avocado or olive. So that generally includes canola, soybean, corn, sunflower, safflower, grape seed, and cottonseed oils. But believe it or not, seed oil is not an official scientific botanical category. It's a wellness culture construction that conveniently exempts the countless other more aesthetic, expensive, or trendy seeds that we create oils from like sesame flax or pumpkin seed. Clearly, the dividing line between good and bad fat is not botanical. Rather, at least according to my TikTok feed, most of the discourse centers around this idea that seed oils are disproportionately high in omega-6 fats and omega-6 fats, and omega-6 fats,

Starting point is 00:04:50 are pro-inflammatory. This is the claim that has launched a thousand shirtless monologues filmed inside unsuspecting grocery store aisles, and their argument usually goes something like this. Seed oils are packed with an omega-6 fatty acid called linoleic acid. Linolaic acid can be converted into another omega-6 fatty acid called arachadonic acid. An arachidonic acid creates inflated inflammatory signaling molecules like prostaglandins, leukotrines, thrombocanes, and lipoxins. That last one does sound particularly sinister, doesn't it? Mypoxins.

Starting point is 00:05:33 The social media soundbite of this mechanism is typically clean and simple. Seed oils cause chronic inflammation. Alas, if only the body was that simple. So here's a little more scientific nuance from your neighborhood nerd. While linoleic acid can produce arachodonic acid and arachodonic acid can generate pro-inflammatory mediators, this pathway is tightly regulated, so the conversion to those inflammatory molecules is relatively limited. So when we look at human dietary studies, they've shown that consuming more linoleic acid

Starting point is 00:06:12 does not result in a corresponding spike in circulating arachidonic acid, or even inflammation. So in one very large systematic review of 15 randomized control trials, for example, they found virtually no evidence that adding linoleic acid to your diet increased inflammatory markers in healthy people. Perhaps to the contrary, another well-sighted systematic review of cohort studies found that dietary linoleic acid was actually associated with a lower risk of heart disease in some cases. So is the inflammation argument against seed oils completely closed?

Starting point is 00:06:54 Ah, not so fast. I did tell you this was going to be an unbiased conversation, did I not? So a brand new randomized control trial this year threw a wee little wrinkle into the mix. In this study, they took 52 healthy adults and divided them into a diet very low in linoleic acid, so 2.5% of calories. and one where linoleic acid made up 10% of calories. What they found was that while higher intakes of linoleic acid did not increase that pro-inflammatory arachidonic acid as previous research had established, it did seem to reduce levels of the anti-inflammatory fat omega-3 EPA.

Starting point is 00:07:42 Hmm. So are seed oils silently depleted? pleading our omega-3 reserves? Well, that brings us to a conversation about the infamous ratio. Animal diet enthusiasts often claim that our ancestors consumed omega-6 and omega-3 fats in a perfect equal one-to-one ratio. And that seed oils, which again are rich in omega-6 fats, are somehow destroying that critical balance. And like most wellness culture, claims, it starts with legitimate biochemistry and things get muddy along the way. So omega-6 linoleic acid and the plant omega-3 ALA use some of the same enzymes to be converted

Starting point is 00:08:32 into longer chain fats. Think of them as two production lines sharing some of the same machinery. If considerably more raw material is being fed into line one, it's going to affect what comes off of line two. Further downstream, arachodonic acid from the omega-6 family and EPA and DHA from the omega-3 family can also compete for space in cell membranes and for enzymes that turn them into biological signals. Some arachidonic acid-derived signals are potent promoters of inflammation, clotting, and vascular activity, while EPA and DHA can produce more inflammation-resolving. signals. But there are holes in this common argument. So first of all, there isn't like an

Starting point is 00:09:24 inflammation light switch where omega-6 turns it on and omega-3 turns it off. Arachidonic acid produces a wide range of different signals that actually include essential physiological and inflammation resolving roles as well. Not to mention, inflammation isn't necessarily a bad thing. It is critical for proper healing, injury recovery, and our immune system. But the biggest problem with this argument is that it gives us a false sense of precision. There's been a lot of so-called ideal omega-6 to omega-3 ratios thrown around over the years, one-to-one, two-to-one, 10-1, or more. But we actually still don't have any scientific consensus on what that ratio actually is. And that's probably because a simple ratio presents a wildly incomplete clinical picture. Two diets can have the exact

Starting point is 00:10:24 same fat ratio while containing completely different absolute amounts of each fat. A simplified ratio also treats ALA omega-3s as though they are identical to marine-based EPA and DHA, even though it is the latter that provides the most benefits because that ALA is. is so poorly converted and utilized. So the practical goal here might not be to cut out omega-6s, but to add EPA and DHA omega-3 fats whenever we can, which brings me to another very important hole in the anti-seed conversation that I actually alluded to earlier on.

Starting point is 00:11:07 And that is that seed oils are not a homogenous group. Each seed oil has its own unique nutritional fingerprint with variable levels of different fatty acids. Cotton seed oil, which most people don't use that often at home at least, contains an omega-3 to omega-6 ratio of 1 to 55. Not great to be honest. It also has about 26% saturated fat. Soybean oil, which is one of the most commonly used commercial seed oils,

Starting point is 00:11:36 is actually quite balanced with a 1 to 8 ratio of omega-3 to 6, and only 16% saturated. fats. Then contrast that with the oil that the internet ironically loves to hate on the most canola oil. Canola has one of the most impressive fatty acid profiles of literally all fats in oils with an omega-3 to omega-6 ratio of 1 to 2. It also has 64% of the heart-healthy mono-saturated fats and only 7% saturated fat. And just to point out the idiocrycy of our current good oil, bad oil classification system. Our beloved do no harm olive and avocado oils have an omega-3 to omega-6 ratio of 1 to 12 and twice the saturated fat of canola. Now obviously I'm not now

Starting point is 00:12:30 starting a campaign against olive or avocado oil. Like I love using these fats for various applications as well. But if the seed oil hate was really about the impact of those pro-inflammatory omega-6s, these discrepancies and inconsistencies wouldn't be so glaring. But let's explore another potential argument against seed oils, which is their risk of oxidation. Oxidation is essentially the chemical wear and tear that happens when the fatty acids in an oil react with oxygen. Unlike fully saturated fats, which have no double bonds in their structure, polyunsaturated fats like omega-6 fats have a bunch of double bonds, which essentially creates structural vulnerabilities to oxidation in response to excess heat, light, and air.

Starting point is 00:13:27 And one of the potential or eventual byproducts of excess oxidation is the production of compounds called aldehydes. And this is where the fearmongering comes into play. At high enough concentrations, reactive aldehydes may damage or disable structural proteins and enzymes, deplete antioxidant defenses like glutathione, disrupt mitochondria and cell membranes, and at extremes may even react with our DNA. Listing off those terrifying rolls of aldehydes is generally where the charlatans stop as they insinuate that simply walking into the oil is basically enough to give you cancer. They conveniently leave out, that we actually produce aldehydes in our own bodies as a byproduct of normal metabolism

Starting point is 00:14:22 and that we have complex detoxification systems that effectively convert or bind these compounds so that they can be eliminated. So the mere presence of some aldehydes in food is not the problem. The problem is when aldehyde exposure outpaces our body's ability to neutralize and repair the damage. And honestly, this is not happening from sauteing our vegetables for like eight minutes in canola oil. It's happening when these oils are repeatedly reheated or held at very high heats for hours on end and we're consuming foods deep fried in that overused oil on the regular. And it is in this scenario where I see the real cause for concern. Because if, Seed oils are guilty of any nutrition or health crimes, it's not directly because of their fatty

Starting point is 00:15:21 acid composition or their omega-3-to-Omega-6 ratio or their susceptibility to oxidation. It is indirectly through their application in cheap, ultra-processed, and subjectively unhealthy foods. Chips, french fries, cookies, pastries, fast food, packaged snack cakes that have probably been wrapped in plastic and sitting in a gas station storage room for the past three years. Generally, because these seed oils are more stable, have a more neutral flavor, have higher smoke points for cooking, and are just less expensive commodities, food manufacturers rely on them in their packaged, highly processed, or deep fried foods. It's like, unless you're eating at a three Michelin Star restaurant, you're probably not going to find French fries cooked in duck fat. You're not going to get an apple crueler at a

Starting point is 00:16:14 at Dunkin' Donuts made with coconut oil. And nutritionally, that really doesn't actually matter to me. Regardless of the type of oil or fat they are cooked in, these foods also tend to contain excess calories, sugar, sodium, colors, fats, and additives, and are also generally low in lean protein, fiber, omega-3s, and micronutrients. They're also typically hyper-palatable,

Starting point is 00:16:42 easy to overeat, and they crowd out fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, and other nutrient-dense foods in our diet that we know are associated with good health. I don't know who needs to hear this, but there is a massive difference in health outcomes from a meal of tofu, vegetables, and quinoa sauteed in soybean oil and a supersized order of french fries and chicken tenders deep fried in that oil. The oil may be the connecting thread, but it is not the guilty party here. Thinking that it is often can also trick people into making the wrong dietary choices. I see loads of food manufacturers assign what we call a health halo to low nutrition foods by advertising that they are seed oil-free, but instead are

Starting point is 00:17:37 cooked in lard or beef tallow, butter, or coconut oil. We're going to get into the nutrition argument for these saturated fats in part two. But the point I want to make here is that a cookie is still a freaking cookie when it's made with canola oil. A bag of chips is still a high calorie, highly processed snack food, even if it was cooked in lard. And it's actually these wellness culture deceptions that are doing way more harm than the canola oil in your salads vinaigrette. Here's the inconvenient truth. It is just so much more convenient and compelling to have one singular nutrition villain than to point to the broader dietary patterns that may actually be doing the harm. Like, eat fewer ultra-processed foods and more plants is not exactly

Starting point is 00:18:32 breaking news. It's boring, right? It's familiar. It doesn't make you feel like you've uncovered some dark secret that doctors and dietitians and the food industry have been hiding from you for decades. But tell people that there is one toxic ingredient secretly lurking inside hundreds of foods and American grocery aisles right now. That is a viral story. Now we have something that we can easily identify on an ingredient list, purge from our pantries, and feel instantly reassured that we've cracked the longevity code. And I think that, you know, psychological simplicity is actually a huge part of why these ingredient panics are just so seductive. Because real human dietary patterns are really freaking messy. Ultra processed foods are associated with poor health outcomes for a whole

Starting point is 00:19:30 tangled web of different reasons. They can be calorie dense, low in fiber and micronutrients, high in sodium or added sugars, hyper-palatable, easy to eat quickly, heavily marketed, available everywhere, and disproportionately consumed in dietary patterns that consume fewer fruits, vegetables, legumes, and whole grains. And sometimes, the underlying root cause of an individual's health issues isn't even their diet, but all of the other confounding life circumstances that result in said diet. There is no single molecule that we can point to and say, ah, there, that's the bastard.

Starting point is 00:20:14 And wellness culture hates that. It needs the gluten or the lectins or the seed oil scapegoats because it knows that if you can reduce an incredibly complicated public health problem to a single forbidden ingredient, health will suddenly feel far more controllable and more marketable. Like, who needs to worry about the, you know, complex things like sleep or stress, movements, socioeconomic conditions, food access, or whether your diet contains enough of the foods associated with better health?

Starting point is 00:20:48 You just need to buy the fancy beef tallo mayo. And this is where the seed oil conversation starts to feel less about nutrition and more about identity. Because wellness culture doesn't just sell us the idea that certain, you know, foods are healthier than others, it sells us the promise that choosing certain foods makes us better. If you can convince people that the cheaper ingredient eaten by millions of ordinary families is contaminated or toxic or inferior and that there is a cleaner alternative that just happens to cost three times as much, you haven't just created like a nutrition rule.

Starting point is 00:21:35 you have created a status symbol. Because not everybody has the time or money or access to buy artisanal avocado oil crackers or grass-fed beef tallow potato chips or $14 jars of seed oil-free mayonnaise. And I think we need to be very careful when a wellness movement starts turning financial privilege into evidence of nutritional or health virtue. Like being able to afford the expensive chip does not make you health. And it certainly does not make you morally superior to the parent buying whatever oil happens to be on sale to saute their frozen vegetables. Like sometimes canola oil is sitting in somebody's kitchen, not because they have been brainwashed by big food.

Starting point is 00:22:22 It's sitting there because it is inexpensive or versatile and available at their local Walmart. And if that oil helps someone cook, you know, beans and veggies and eggs, tofu, fish, or literally any other nutritious meal for their family, I am going to have a very difficult time accepting the argument that their biggest dietary faux pa was not sauteing with a $20 bottle of extra virgin coconut oil. And honestly, this is the biggest reason why I have been such a loud opponent of the anti-seed oil movement. Because at the end of the day, it really does just distract us from way bigger public health issues, like why millions cannot afford to feed their family's whole food sources of healthy fats and need to rely on readily available, cheap, and hyper-palatable

Starting point is 00:23:17 ultra-processed foods just to get by. I mean, let's just be honest with ourselves, right? Like, an influencer screaming that says a pleasant. Like, that's going to fit much nicer into a 60-second real and also like our own consciousness. And like a healthcare professional saying something like, the relationship between food processing, socioeconomic conditions, energy density, dietary displacement, and long-term health is quite complicated. Like the algorithm doesn't like that.

Starting point is 00:23:44 But if there's one thing that I have learned over the many years of me working in kind of health communication here online, it's that usually the least sexy explanation is the one that the evidence actually supports. And so in part two next week, I'm going to be diving into the other side of this argument about saturated fats like butter, coconut oil, beef tallow and lard. And I'm going to be revealing where we net out in the Fat Wars conversation. So to make sure you don't miss it, be sure to follow or subscribe wherever

Starting point is 00:24:18 you are listening or watching. Also, please leave me a five-sor review and a comment on Apple, Amazon, or Spotify. And until next week, signing off with Science and Sass. I'm Abby Sharp. Thanks for listening.

Bite Back with Abbey Sharp - Seed Oils, Inflammation & a Wellness Culture Lie | Fat Wars Part 1

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