Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who unfortunately speaks as the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, has made vociferous public statements about “seed oils,” a category of food that we’re newly forced to reckon with. “It’s one of the worst things you can eat,” he said on national television and an Instagram post last year. One of the chief harms of seed oils, he says, is “body-wide inflammation.” His call to action—blazoned on a red hat in golden-arches-colored lettering—is “Make Frying Oil Tallow Again,” in reference to rendered beef and mutton fat that conservative, self-appointed nutrition experts long for.
So what, if any, truth is there to all of this? What are seed oils, exactly, and are they actually bad? And since the seed oil outcry is obviously a reactionary, misinformed frenzy stirred up and promoted by open supporters of Fascist ideology, can we nevertheless admit that some kernels of truth are embedded in the core of this conspiracy?
“Seed oils” are a category of ingredients demarcated by influencers, not scientists, that we generally encounter as types of vegetable oil. These include canola, soy, corn, cottonseed, grapeseed, sunflower, safflower, and rice bran. Oils from these plants, grouped by the influencer crowd into the “Hateful Eight,” are key and ubiquitous ingredients in our industrial food supply. And ultra-processed food—much of it containing “seed oils”—is a key driver of chronic health issues across the world. So they’ve got that right.
But scientifically, the rest of the conversation is an embarrassing mess. The quackiest layer of the seed oils discussion is right on the surface: a panic about hexane, the petroleum-derived solvent used to extract oil from these ingredients. Hexane is bad, but we should be worrying about people breathing it in the workplace or elsewhere, not trace residues in food.
From there, conflicting theories proliferate. Some assert that seed oils, introduced in our diets at scale first with the advent of Crisco and margarine, then other non-hydrogenated frying oils later on, are destructive to our health purely on the basis of their abundance of omega-6 fatty acids (linoleic acid), which cause inflammation. The details are less important than the reality that that’s not verifiably true. Others focus on the ratio of omega-3 fatty acids (the ones found in fish oil and flax seeds) in our diet versus the amounts of omega 6—a ratio that has been skewed in recent dietary history (seed oil consumption has increased our omega 6 intake, and omega 3s—well, how many of your friends are pescatarian?).
If you abandon vegetable oil and go back to products high in saturated fat, like butter, lard, etc., you’re still signing up for the increased risk of heart problems that those saturated fats definitely help cause.
The problem with the worry over our “ratio” between omega-3s and omega-6s lies in the fact that we’re really not clear on what the optimal balance is, and it’s probably safer to simply increase your omega-3 intake because we’re generally lacking in that kind of fat. Plus, if you abandon vegetable oil and go back to products high in saturated fat, like butter, lard, etc., you’re still signing up for the increased risk of heart problems that those saturated fats definitely help cause and that polyunsaturated fats (omega-3s and omega-6s) help to avoid.
Other influencers want you to forget about the fatty acids and wake up to the scary reality that the processing, storage, and continued re-heating of seed oils in fast food and other restaurant kitchens or frozen food preparation “destroys nutrients” and releases toxins, “tiny bits of poison,” and even trans fats. These claims—including the presence of trans fats, which are exempt from nutrition facts disclosure but do appear in some “seed oils” in small quantities—are not completely crazy. Oxidation, which releases harmful chemical compounds, does occur in these oils when kitchens fry oil repeatedly at high temperature. (For the sake of your groceries, mechanical and/or cold-pressed oils neutralize this concern entirely, as do sensible methods of cooking with chemically extracted oils, which amounts to not running your home kitchen like it’s an overtaxed fry station at McDonald’s during rush hour.)
The harm—and stupidity—of the seed oil controversy stems from the sheer level of obsession it encourages over a single group of ingredients that is itself a fake and misleading category.
The insanity lies less in the claims themselves (which, to be clear, are still never correct enough to be helpful). The harm—and stupidity—of the seed oil controversy stems from the sheer level of obsession it encourages over a single group of ingredients that is itself a fake and misleading category.
It will always be simplistic and absurd to suggest that the removal of one product, ingredient, chemical, or easily-defined group thereof will inherently lead to lasting health improvements. Taking seed oils out of one’s diet is meaningless on its own if you don’t really change your diet at all and instead make a one-for-one substitution between vegetable oil and beef tallow, lard, or some alternative.
Here’s where this kind of hysteria can lead: A post from the “Seed Oil Scout” on Instagram, crying from the rooftops that Perdue’s organic-certified, “lightly breaded,” “simply smart” dino nuggets are using “OFF LABEL” practices that allow them to flash-fry their products in soybean oil without disclosure. The loophole exists, and is sinister. But this knowledge does not alter our understanding of the product itself. It’s a dino nugget. It’s not very good for you. Don’t eat them every day if you can help it.
Being cautious about seed oils is a waste of time. Being cautious about one’s health is a separate, more complex task.
This is how the seed oil scavenger hunt, and the manic quest to eliminate them from one’s personal food supply, generates the stupidest advice. “Only buy from brands you trust, look for the Seed Oil Safe label in stores, and choose whole foods when you can,” the post warns. “Dine very cautiously!” As if Perdue’s organic nuggets are somehow health-promoting until the clandestine use of seed oils is exposed. Being cautious about seed oils is a waste of time. Being cautious about one’s health is a separate, more complex task.
While these talking heads and watchdogs encourage you to follow the money to unravel the seed oil corporate conspiracy, these consumer movements, and the influencer accounts, tracking apps, and certification labels they generate, are feeding from a new revenue stream that this binary category—seed-oil-poisoned versus seed-oil-free—makes possible. Like everything that smells Trumpy, it comes down to a grift and a scam.
Of course, there’s no question that a huge market and supply chain for these “seed oil” products exists, and they don’t want their profits disrupted. From fast food chains to soybean growers, there are major corporate interests in the “seed oil” complex. But if the seed oil mania takes over the American public, they’ll figure this one out. They’re used to adapting supply chains based on consumer whims and political changes. These are the guys who steered the ship away from lard and tallow, inventing margarine and Crisco, only to bring out canola and soybean oil to weather the backlash against hydrogenated oils and trans fats. Just to be safe, the soy capitalists have done the numbers on the effects of a consumer ban on seed oils in the US, and the outlook is bad. But they’re probably equally focused on U.S. trade relations, given that most of these products are seeing the largest growth from exports.
Amidst all of this incompetence, it remains easy to imagine how avoiding seed oils could cause dramatic, positive change in one’s life. Vegetable oils are eminently useful to the makers of ultra-processed foods. By avoiding seed oils, you tend to avoid these foods—unless you shop for dino nuggets with seed-oil-free labeling, in which case you’re screwed. Because it’s the complexity of the numerous ingredients in ultra-processed foods, including seed oils but also additives and chemicals and refined carbs, interacting with each other, that makes our diets inflammatory and disease-promoting. Generally, the overabundance of harmful and wasteful calories and macronutrients, like salt, sugar, and all varieties of fat, are implicated together in widespread chronic disease, and all the suffering that comes with it.
There’s a lot more work to do than frying the dino nugget in beef tallow instead of soybean oil.
This is the entire farce and confusion of RFK Jr.’s performative, faux-populist, ingredient-by-ingredient approach to improving American health. The problem is the dino nuggets. There’s no single ingredient that makes the dino nugget problematic. The dino nugget (in its general dysfunction as a food product) is greater than the sum of its parts. There’s a lot more work to do than frying the dino nugget in beef tallow instead of soybean oil. (The same goes for the alternative-proteins crowd, who want to solve the nugget by swapping soy or biotechnology out for the chicken).
Big money makes big profits by making people sick and unhappy. That’s what we can agree on with MAHA.
Charlie Hope-D’Anieri is a freelance writer. He’s covered food policy and politics for The New Republic, Vox, Mother Jones, and many other places. He recently received an MA in English Literature from the University of Maryland. More at charliehopedanieri.me.
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