To find the debate around seed oils confusing?

[Falsenegative]

I try and eat well. Minimise UPFs etc. I’m not obsessive or anything but try to keep an eye on it.

But I don’t know what to believe when it comes to seed oils, especially rare seed and sunflower. Some people say it’s got too much omega 6 to omega 3 and so is very unhealthy and leads to inflammation. But others, including the manufacturers, claim many health benefits. Anyone got any basic language knowledge of this?

It's really confusing. Die hard UPF avoiders will say avoid (unless cold pressed) but I believe there was a podcast recently possibly by Zoe that debunks that a little? I just stick to olive oil tbh, people say it doesn't have the right temp but it cooks everything I eat well enough and if it's good enough for the Italians...

I have wondered this too!

To add I believe it's the processing of the oils that are meant to be the issue rather than the ingredients in the oil, that's why cold pressed isn't controversial.

My DH is an expert on fats and oils and his research involves this area, food science. He is at work currently so when he returns I will ask him to reply to your msg.

All we have in our house is olive oil and butter.

I'm a registered dietitian. Monounsaturated fats like olive oil and rapeseed oil can raise good cholesterol and lower bad cholesterol, they are the best fats for heart health. Polyunsaturated fats like sunflower oil can lower bad but also good cholesterol. Saturated fats like animal fats and coconut/palm oil raise bad cholesterol, they are worst for heart health. All fats are equally calorific and should only be consumed in small amounts to prevent unwanted weight gain.

Watch a video on how seed oils are produced, preferably one that goes into the history of why they were developed and why these are considered food, and that might help you make up your own mind.
Spoiler, they were originally waste products from manufacturing and are now industrially produced food-like-products that can be cheaply produced from subsidized crops and sold as a source of calories.

It's convenient for the masses to eat them because they are cheap to produce and easy to store and transport. Goes a long way to solve a problem of a lot of people to provide "food" for.

But ask yourself who is this benefitting? Industry (someone's pockets) or my body?

I absolutely avoid them. If you'd like to learn more I'd suggest reading Dr Andrew Jenkinson's why we eat too much. It's also free as audio book on Spotify.

open.spotify.com/episode/6IERMSBnvdbaa2vaxISKna?si=ZYaasoJdRumht2wpZ2wk5A

Here is the Zoe podcast on seed oils

The temperature thing has been disproven. I use olive oil & butter.

The temperature thing is misproven? I read it’s olive oil has a low smoking point which makes it cancerous at higher cooking temperatures.

i am confused too. I would like to just use olive oil

i think cold pressed rapeseed has a high smoking point. Not sure if that better

Olive oil is so expensive now I’d also like to understand if there’s a healthy alternative.

Do ask him! I am interested too.

Yes, there seems to be conflicting advice given on rapeseed!

I have heard and listened to many debunking coconut myth and many dietitians use this especially in baking etc because its pure. Just shows that it's extremely hard for a normal person to make a decision when 'experts' can't agree.

I use rapeseed and olive oil

I am the posters DH and do research into oils and fats, and attended many conferences on this. In short, the whole area is controversial. The whole saturated fats issue originates from some dubious research in the 1950’s (Ancel Keys, Seven Countries) study in which 7 countries were cherry picked from 22 to “prove” that saturated fats were bad. In fact many studies since have failed to prove a connection, but it had already become embedded (on average saturated fats come out as neutral). The things people agree on are that olive oil is good, omega 3 is good and trans fats are bad. My view is that omega 6 should be avoided, especially in cooking (such as frying) as they tend to oxidise (the main fatty acid is linoleic acid which has 2 reactive double bonds, compared to 1 in oleic acid which dominates olive oil). Omega 3 fish oils oxidise the most but people don’t fry using these. As an aside, saturated fats don’t oxidise at all. Apart from oxidation, there are other studies which show that brain health is adversely affected by too much omega 6. So I personally avoid oils high in omega 6 which are pretty much all the seed oils - these are sunflower oil, rapeseed oil, soybean oil, safflower oil, “vegetable oil” (which is rapeseed oil). The exception is high oleic sunflower oil, this is a genetically modified sunflower oil, which is like olive oil in composition.

@SensibleSigma Tagged you, back to non science actual MN poster here, hope it’s helpful.

Oooh.. I didn’t know that cold pressed was allowed?! I was under the impression that all seed oils in general had been demonised. Good news for me though if true, I can stop feeling guilty that my favourite oil to cook with is cold pressed rapeseed🤣

So we’re back to lard and suet? Yay!

Special sunflower oil and olive oil. Butter. Yum.

I don’t fry really, so that’s manageable.

@CherryValley5 that's what I've read but I'm not clued up in the area.

I think I’ll take the chance with my rapeseed. I’m not an olive oil fan and don’t like using too much dairy so butter is out of the equation. Life’s too short!

I made an effort to avoid seed oils (v. difficult because they are in everything) for a few months and then when I got too busy to cook everything from scratch reintroduced them, and when I ate something with a high seed oil content it gave me a stomach ache, as if my body was no longer used to them and reacting badly

based off this experience I try to avoid them as much as possible.

Surely it depends what you are trying to achieve. I have been told that I am prone to high cholesterol, exacerbated by an underactive thyroid. So that means I am going to avoid lard, suet, butter completely - or at least as much as humanly possible and good alternatives are sunflower oil or vegetable oil.

If you are trying to reduce UPF and have no cholesterol issues then you might choose differently.

I agree. Lots of conflicting information from “experts” including that “calories in/calories out” is the key to weightloss. I’m now on the low carb/low sugar/high fat/moderate protein way of thinking and it’s working for me. I once read “fat makes you full, sugar makes you fat” and that is certainly the case with me. Olive oil and coconut oil for me.

That’s interesting. I read some time ago about sugar companies hoodwinking people (Nixon’s government from memory and possibly involving bribes????) into placing the blame on fats for obesity. Link here to another article about it - lots of it behind a subscription but it leads in with the gist of it.

www.nytimes.com/2016/09/13/well/eat/how-the-sugar-industry-shifted-blame-to-fat.html

So I use olive oil for everything now (sometimes butter if that's nicer like for onions) but as we go into roast season I'm thinking olive oil taste might be a little too much, would goose fat be the best option for roast potatoes? I'm not worried about fat content perse I know it'll be bad in that regard, but trying to stick to real food.

I use olive oil and British cold-pressed rapeseed that comes in glass - no plastic is a plus.