You probably wouldn’t have thought much about the idea of seed oils a year or two ago. However, they are getting more difficult to ignore in 2025.
Wellness influencers caution about the risks of eating the “Hateful Eight”—canola, corn, cottonseed, grapeseed, rice bran, safflower, soybean, and sunflower oil—on social media and in well-known podcasts. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for secretary of health and human services, reiterated those assertions on X late last year, claiming that seed oils are unintentionally poisoning Americans. (A request for comment from Kennedy was not answered.)
Even online parodies now make fun of it: In arecent post on TikTok, a young person pretends to saut a pan that appears to be filled with mini bottles of Fireball Cinnamon Whisky, while intoning, Avoiding seed oils is the most crucial aspect of this meal.
At least some people in the food industry are changing now. This month, Sweetgreen’s CEO announced the launch of the restaurant’s first-ever menu devoid of seed oil. “We’re proud to connect people to real food and give our guests options that we can be proud of,” a Sweetgreen representative told NBC News in a statement.
The concerns around seed oils, however, are essentially a reheated, repackaged wellness fad, according to nutrition experts.
According to Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, director of Tufts University’s Food Is Medicine Institute, this has been happening and disappearing for 20 years. Furthermore, Mozaffarian and other experts contend that the emphasis on seed oils ignores the wider picture of enhancing the health of Americans.
What are the concerns about seed oils and where did they come from?
The director of nutrition research at the Stanford Prevention Research Center, Christopher Gardner, stated, “I really think what they’re after is the omega-6, omega-3 thing when critics talk about seed oils.” (Gardner also sat on the advisory committee for the 2025 Dietary Guidelines.)
The omega-6, omega-3 thing he s referring to is a wellness idea that dates to at least the 2000s, when chatter circulated innutrition circlesabout the supposed dangers of omega-6 fatty acids, which could increase inflammation and thus lead to chronic illness like heart disease or diabetes, or so the thinking went. The American Heart Association eventually released a scientific statement outlining the evidence supporting the health benefits of omega-6 fatty acids, especially with regard to cardiovascular disease, when individuals making these claims gained enough traction.
Given that context, Gardner said, it becomes easier to begin to understand the claims about the dangers of seed oils, which can sometimes seem as if they came out of nowhere.
The majority of assertions regarding the risks of seed oils usually center at least partially on inflammation, more precisely on the fact that seed oils have a high proportion of omega-6 fatty acids compared to omega-3 fatty acids. Critics of current seed oil claim that this ratio is pro-inflammatory and can result in long-term health problems.
Like omega-3s, omega-6s are fatty acids. According to Gardner, the majority of lipids are transformed into energy by the body. According to Gardner, a very tiny percentage of our fats, specifically these omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids, are really transformed into compounds that resemble hormones. He went on to say that these fatty acids are involved in the regulation of blood pressure, vasodilation, coagulation, and blood triglyceride levels—all of which are linked to the inflammatory response.
According to Gardner, omega-3s are slightly less inflammatory than omega-6s. The overall effect of omega-6s is not pro-inflammatory, though some of its derivatives may be somewhat responsible.
However, omega-6s are also linked to health advantages.
Numerous randomized controlled trials have shown that omega-6 fatty acids lower blood cholesterol levels.multiple aspects of blood cholesterol levels, from increasing the good cholesterol, like HDL, reducing LDL cholesterol, reducing triglycerides to improving glucose and insulin levels, Mozaffarian said. Ironically, a lot of the influencers discuss diabetes, and there are established randomized trials that demonstrate that omega-6 fatty acids really enhance insulin resistance, hyperglycemia, and pancreatic insulin production.
“They’re very healthy,” he continued.
Zeroing in on these fatty acids isn t the best way of understanding whether a food is healthy, Gardner said. The question of whether it is saturated or unsaturated is crucial. he said.
Omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids are both classified as polyunsaturated fatty acids, which are a form of unsaturated fat.Data showsthat eating polyunsaturated fats instead of saturated fats can lower heart disease risk. Most saturated fats come from animal products, like meat and dairy. Thefoods that account for the biggest sources of saturated fats in Americans dietsinclude cheese, pizza, ice cream and eggs.
According to Gardner, the difference between omega-6 and omega-3 is not really significant. They re both good for you.
Some of the claims about seed oils aren t wrong but they are misguided, experts say
It s true, as Kennedy and other detractors claim, that Americansare consumingmore seed oils and less animal fat than we were a century ago. But we re also eating more fast food and highly processed foods, both of which tend to contain large amounts of seed oil.
If you look through the grocery store, let s say 70% of the grocery store is packaged foods in the middle aisles, saidLisa Young, a registered dietician and adjunct professor of nutrition at New York University. We have tons of junk that we re consuming. These seed oils are the foundation of all that junk.
The problem, in other words, is just as likely to be theexcessive refined carbohydrates, salt and sugarAmericans are eating along with the seed oils.
It s tempting to zoom in on a specific nutrient and blame America s health woes for it, saidAlice Lichtenstein, a professor of nutrition science at Tufts University. Carbs, calories and fat, for example, have all assumed the role of nutritional villain in the past several decades. But it s more helpful to consider overall dietary patterns, she said. Are the people who consume the most seed oils doing so because they re saut ing vegetables in safflower oil at home? Or are they eating more seed oils because they re eating more packaged foods?
Certainly dietary patterns that are higher in fish are associated with lower risk of cardiovascular disease, Lichtenstein said. But, she added, diets that are higher in fish also tend to be lower in saturated fat and higher in monounsaturated fat. People [who eat fish also] tend to be more active and they tend to smoke less and have other factors that are associated with better health outcomes, she said.
In other words, one good health habit tends to beget another, and the same goes for bad health habits. Zeroing in on one nutritional component misses that bigger picture, Lichtenstein said.
Is there any potential harm in avoiding seed oils?
All that said, choosing to avoid seed oils poses no inherent danger to your health, experts said. But there are downsides.
Avoiding seed oils entirely would mean cooking all your foods at home and that meansallyour food, including things like salad dressing, sauces and even bread, said Julia Zumpano, a registered dietitian at Cleveland Clinic. That takes more time than many busy Americans have, she said.
Many weekends, Zumpano packs a day s worth of snacks for her three kids during their long days of basketball games. It takes time and effort, but for Zumpano, it s worth it to avoid feeding her children the processed food on offer at the gym. (She doesn t make the effort specifically to avoid seed oils, but by avoiding processed foods, she ends up avoiding seed oils, too.)
All they have to eat is hot dogs, chips, a bowl of noodles, she said. There s not one fresh food item there.
But, again, not every parent has the time to prepare and pack an entire day s worth of fresh food, Zumpano said. Also, seed oils are often cheaper than many alternatives, she added.
Those on a budget might not have the option to swap canola oil for comparatively expensive containers of olive oil or avocado oil, both of which are monounsaturated fats. Those kinds of fats, compared to the polyunsaturated omega-6s, are less susceptible to rancidity, Young said.
For Gardner, it s also a matter of taste. Sometimes you need a neutral oil, he pointed out. If you re cooking corn muffins, do you want to put olive oil in your corn muffin? No, I m going to put corn oil in my corn muffins, because I don t want the strong taste of olive oil in my corn muffin, he said. That would be really weird.
But what s replacing the seed oils? That s the real potential health concern, experts say
Really, the trouble with avoiding seed oils is about what people choose to use instead, experts said.
I think the potential harm will be if enough consumers raise this as a concern, and the industry stops using these oils or restaurants stop using the oil, they ll use worse alternatives, Mozaffarian said.
By worse alternatives, he means animal fats like butter, lard or beef tallow, all of which are higher in saturated fat than seed oils.Saturated fat is linked to cardiovascular diseaseand weight gain.
Animal fats are healthier than white bread, Mozaffarian said, but they re not healthier than seed oils.
Instead of focusing on avoiding seed oils, experts said, you d be better off spending that time and mental energy on avoiding fast and highly processed foods.
For years, we have told you to eat less sugar and salt and chips and junk food, Gardner said. If suddenly telling you that the seed oil in them is killing you [means] you stop eating all the crap for the wrong reason I would be thrilled.