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?

I take a view that some animal fats like lard/butter in moderation, are not the end of the world when part of an overall healthy diet with plenty of veg, lean protein, fibre etc. humans have been consuming them for years and I'd rather eat a little butter than something heavily processed.

We don't fry a lot of things & never deep fat fry. We have roast potatoes done in a little lard once a week & have relatively small servings. The meal will always include 3 green veg eg kale, broccoli, asparagus, green beans, and swede or carrot

In the week we eat a lot of salad and soup at lunch

I agree it’s confusing so I just use olive oil for everything!

What about corn oil? Is that better than sunflower etc?

Another question, what about groundnut oil? I think it is peanut oil and good to use (flavour wise) as it's very neutral.

Thank you for explaining this.

I only cook with animal fat as I've read about oxidation and high smoke points etc. I refuse to listen to the "dieticians" that claim animal fat is the enemy and causes heart diseases when the industrialisation of our food has only been around for a tiny amount of time and it's the exact same time we experienced an explosion of obesity, diabetes etc.

Corn oil/corn syrup etc is linked to all sorts of issues. I read a study that said with corn our brains aren't adapted enough to register a "fullness" from consuming it. Hence the massive obesity issue with America and their over reliance on corn syrup as a sweetener.

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

Hmm interesting, I buy olive oil in a large 2L tin and pour it into an old plastic olive oil bottle for easy pouring, I wonder if I should buy a glass bottle for it.

It's really interesting when you get into it. I can get lost doing deep dives all day long. For me and my family I look at what works we have eaten a hidden years ago? Five hundred years ago? I make my own sourdough bread. I use butter and lard. We eat vegetables and meat. The main processed food we eat are sausages and bacon , burgers etc and I buy them from a butchers. I try to make my own cakes and biscuits every week and and have even grown my own mushrooms, salad veg etc.

I think corn syrup can be subbed with pure maple? It's not an ingredient I've needed to use before, but a recent gelato recipe called for it, I googled and it said I could swap with maple syrup which I did and was lovely. Tbh it probably didn't need any syrup anyway. Not sure what corn syrup is regularly used in?

I had been avoiding seed oils but the recent Zoe episode has made me rethink this and I’m happy to reintroduce them for high temp cooking.

It's used HEAVILY in America and as we know what starts there tends to filter over here. Our bodies are not designed to recognise it as an ingredient and so if you say, fancy a piece of cake, then if you eat cake with sugar your brain will often turn off the craving as it's satisfied. But with corn syrup it just keeps on going and going as it goes under the satiety radar. This is the same some with artificial sugar/sweeteners. And even worse our bodies can mistake them for actual glucose and produce an insulin response that's not needed. Petite think zero drinks help with avoiding diabetes etc but artificial sweeteners are actually really bad for kidneys as well. These days I tend to prefer cold brewed fruit tea and it actually carbonates really well for that fizzy craving

@WitchyBits thank you, interesting, the recipe was American actually. Will continue to avoid!

@RespondLater DH what a helpful post 👏

Thanks everyone. Pleased to know I’m not alone in being confused. I don’t use it at all for cooking - olive, avocado oil, and maybe a bit of butter - but so much shop food has all natural ingredients except for rapeseed and sunflower oil. I tend to put them back but wondered whether this was over the top. It seems I’m best avoiding them though.

Special thanks to the expert husband, good to hear from someone in the industry.

Use sunflower oil to cook. Never cook with olive oil, only use that cold. Use rapeseed oil when we can't get sunflower oil.

Use suet for puddings.

Can see no reason to change.

A dietician suggested Rapeseed oil for cooking at a talk she gave on healthy eating.
Why do you think Sunflower oil is better @BrigadierEtienneGerard ?

I would never use extra virgin olive oil for anything that would necessitate heating it up. (a) The smoking point is too low. (b) It would be extremely expensive. (c) The flavour would not be detectable, so why bother? I keep it for salads and use with bread.

I used to use blended olive in any dish where the oil gets heated, e.g. frying onions for a soup or stew, roasting potatoes or other vegetables, but it's extremely expensive now. I followed a recommendation here and bought a huge container of cold pressed rapeseed oil and I'm very pleased with it. It seems to have a good smoke point and we haven't noticed any change in taste or anything else.

Very occasionally I use butter in place of oil for frying, but rarely, because it burns so easily. I do use butter to make bechamel sauce and in baking. We also put a knob of butter on boiled potatoes or pasta when just cooked and drained, and I'd add it to mashed potatoes. Lovely flavour.

My mother, who is nearly 92, uses lard for stews and so on. Her food is extremely tasty, but I won't be following suit in my kitchen.

Never deep fry, so don't have to worry about that!

It’s really difficult to find certain food that don’t have rapeseed oil.

The two that come to mind are mayonnaise and hummus. Even the ones that claim to contain olive oil still have rapeseed oil as an ingredient. Hunter Gatherer mayo and Waitrose hummus being the exception.

Yes I can and sometimes do make my own. Trying to avoid rapeseed oil, especially when eating out, is increasingly difficult.

It’s a nightmare! That’s why I started this thread really. It’s in absolutely everything.

Are all seed oils bad? What about sesame oil?

I think it’s impossible to avoid it completely and still lead a relatively normal life. The best we can do is be aware and try to mitigate where we can.

I cook with olive oil, ghee, dripping and lard. Use EVOO and avocado oil for dressings/marinades and slap butter on anything else. Also eat oily fish a few times a week.

I hope that all the ‘good’ fats outweigh the bad fats that I can’t realistically avoid.

Wouldn’t bother with them. Olive oil is best if you’re using it cold. Butter and lard are best if you’re going to cook with them. (Did a unit on this in my OU degree, and immediately switched back to cooking with lard).

Lard is so cheap too.

I used cold pressed hemp seed oil for everything... cooking and salads.

I cook with lard, dripping butter or olive oil. Seed oils cause me to get inflammation in my arthritic knees.