Scam Oil
There's a new villain.
Seed oil.
Honestly? Before I looked into this, if someone asked me whether seed oils were good or bad, I would have said bad.
No hesitation. Just because that's what "they" say.
I am not alone.
My mother in law refuses to go to restaurants because of "seed oils."
She read it online, and if it's online, we know it's true.
Somewhere between podcast clips and a tallow company's ad budget, you were told that seed oils (canola, sunflower, soybean) are quietly poisoning you.
Frying your cells. Wrecking your hormones. Making you fat, foggy, and inflamed.
I am not here to tell you to stock up on Crisco.
But when something suddenly becomes THE health villain of the moment and everyone jumps on the bandwagon, it's worth actually looking at the facts.
We've been played before.
Remember when egg yolks were killing us?
The Most Powerful Tool
Fear.
They put fear in seed oils.
That's exactly why it spread.
Seed oils are high in linoleic acid, an omega-6 fat.
Omega-6 does convert to arachidonic acid in the body.
And arachidonic acid can feed inflammatory pathways.
String those three things together, skip the part where you mention it happens at a rate of 0.2%, and you've manufactured a monster.
Point two percent. Not 50. Not 5. Point two.
That's the whole trick.
Take one true mechanism, strip the context, and inflate it into a verdict about your dinner.
It's the same as saying red wine is good for your heart because it contains resveratrol. Technically true.
But you'd need to drink about a hundred glasses a day to get the dose they used in the study.
The truth stretched until it snaps.
What Does the Data Say?
I wanted to look into it myself and found a few interesting studies.
A 2025 study from the American Society for Nutrition looked at the blood of nearly 1,900 people, not what they claimed to eat, their actual linoleic acid levels. They compared people with the highest linoleic acid concentrations in their blood against those with the lowest. The people carrying more of it had lower inflammation, lower insulin resistance, and a healthier heart and metabolic profile across every marker they measured.
A separate 2025 study of almost 3,000 people went hunting for the link between linoleic acid and inflammation markers.
It found nothing. No connection.
A Harvard study of 200,000 people over 30 years found that replacing a tablespoon of butter a day with plant-based oils, including canola and soybean, lowered the risk of death from all causes by 17%.
Before you say anything.
I checked who funded these studies.
The lead researcher on the 1,900-person study is on advisory boards for the Beef Checkoff and the National Cattlemen's Beef Association.
The guy with beef industry money found that seed oils are fine.
Sit with that for a second.
Even Memorial Sloan Kettering, one of the most respected cancer centers in the world, published a statement in early 2026 saying their clinical dietitians fully support seed oils as part of a healthy diet.
That's evidence walking in one direction while the internet sprints the other.
Fear Is Business
And business is booming.
"Everything you eat is poison" moves waaay more product than "your diet's mostly fine, eat your veggies."
The replacement costs more.
Grass-fed tallow and artisanal butter carry a margin a $4 jug of canola never will.
Follow the money.
It's easier to ban one ingredient than to do the actual boring work.
Enough protein, enough fiber, enough movement, enough sleep.
Banning seed oils feels like independent thinking.
But all you really did was switch which crowd you follow.
Correlation vs. Causation
Seed oils got framed because of the company they keep.
They live in the fries, the chips, the drive thru, the stuff engineered to make you inhale a day's calories in ten minutes.
And since seed oils are cheap, that's what gets used in fast food and processed foods.
That's correlation. Not causation.
Ice cream sales and drowning rates both spike every summer.
That doesn't mean ice cream is killing people.
They just both happen when it's hot outside.
Same logic here.
The fries aren't a problem because of the oil.
They're a problem because they're fries.
A home cooked meal with a splash of canola isn't on the same planet.
(For the record, I have no beef with fries.)
What Do I Do Now?
Stop auditing your oil. Audit your plate.
Cook with what tastes good and fits the meal.
Olive, avocado, butter, canola, whatever.
None of it is sabotaging you in moderate amounts.
Spend your worry budget where it counts.
Sufficient protein, fiber, and whole foods.
Focus on the calorie deficit or surplus that matches your goal.
Judge food by the whole package.
When a health claim demands you dump an entire food group and buy the premium replacement, slow down and ask questions.
Bottom Line
The seed oil panic isn't science.
It's marketing.
The data says these oils, in moderation, don't inflame you.
The real damage was never the oil, it was the junk it rode in on.
Stop chasing boogeymen.
Cook your food.
Hit your protein.
Don’t be a sheep. Be the shepherd.
Train Hard.
Think Deep.
Live with Intent.
— The CODE
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