Are Seed Oils Toxic?

ultra processed food Sep 20, 2024

Is Zoe Science Reputable?

I was asked to comment this week in the 12 Week Mind Body Rebalance coaching call on our thoughts on seed oils.

This was following a recently released podcast episode from Zoe Science. In this episode, Prof Sarah Berry claimed “that seed oils are not harmful”. She stated that she was shocked by the amount of "nutri-nonsense" out there.

Does every scientist have a conflict of interest?

I listened to the whole episode so I could give thoughtful comments.

Then I did a Google search of Professor Berry.

Interestingly, Prof Berry runs courses on healthy fats for the British Nutrition Foundation. Yay, I thought- I love an online course and the British Nutrition Foundation sounds like an awesome foundation…

except that it is a lobby group funded by the processed food industry. 😳

Surely Wikipedia is wrong here. You can check it out for yourself

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Nutrition_Foundation

No, sadly Wikipedia is not wrong and whilst the British Nutrition Foundation website is not very transparent, one of their articles is very clear.

You can read it here https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/nbu.12617

They discuss the reasons we shouldn't demonise certain foods. Honestly, the fox is truly in the henhouse here.

Fancy, the processed food industry with companies like Coca-Cola PepsiCo and General Mills weighing in on the merits of making sure we don't “demonise” certain foods.

Ah, that would be the processed food products and snacks they are creating- not eggs or red meat. Right?

Are Seed Oils Harmful?

Further on in the episode, Prof Berry debunks the “myth” that heating seed oils is bad. She states the only effect of constantly heating and reheating oil is to reduce some of the polyphenols in it.

She then quotes her own study, The acute effect of meals rich in re-used deep-fried oil on endothelial function as evidence of this. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/248622964_The_acute_effect_of_meals_rich_in_re-used_deep-fried_oil_on_endothelial_function

This was a study done in 2009 on 19 men aged between 18-40. They were given 50g of seed oil (in a muffin). It was either fresh seed oil or reused seed oil ( heated and reheated 5 times a day over a 10 day period).

It was a randomised cross-over study meaning they were either given fresh seed oil followed by reheated oil or vice versa. They had fasting blood tests done and then blood was taken at 3 hours post muffin ingestion as well as some flow studies of the brachial artery.

The tests were designed to represent the effect on the function of endothelium (cells lining the arteries).

The final conclusion was there was no difference in either group.

I am gobsmacked that a leading scientist, who must know that a tiny study of 19 young to middle-aged men on a one-off food challenge does not confer safety to the rest of the population eating seed oils daily. But Prof Berry said on the Zoe podcast, which is listened to by millions of people, that heating and reheating oil doesn't matter “It doesn't matter in real life. It doesn't matter at the levels at which we typically fry our food”

This is in contrast to these studies where the authors think there is cause for concern

Heated Oil and Its Effect on Health,

Kamsiah Jaarin, Norliana Masbah, Yusof Kamisah,

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/B9780128114421000109

Heated vegetable oils and cardiovascular disease risk factors,

Chun-Yi Ng, Xin-Fang Leong, Norliana Masbah, Siti Khadijah Adam, Yusof Kamisah, Kamsiah Jaarin

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S153718911400053

Vested Interest Groups Funding Science

Back to the podcast, there were studies mentioned and links to the research in the show notes. There are 2 that I want to draw your attention to

Case one

Dietary linoleic acid and human health: Focus on cardiovascular and cardiometabolic effects,

Franca Marangoni, Carlo Agostoni, Claudio Borghi, Alberico L. Catapano, Hellas Cena, Andrea Ghiselli, Carlo La Vecchia, Giovanni Lercker, Enzo Manzato, Angela Pirillo, Gabriele Riccardi, Patrizia Risé, Francesco Visioli, Andrea Poli,

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0021915019315758

Two of the authors Andrea Poli and Franca Marangaoni are, respectively, Chairman and Responsible for research of NFI - Nutrition Foundation of Italy, a non-profit organisation partially supported by 19 food and beverage companies. I’ll just leave that glaring conflict here

The study was funded by Bonomelli, a herbal tea company.

“Weird?” I thought to myself. "Why would a tea company be funding a fatty acid study?"

However, with a few clicks of my mouse, I was able to ascertain that Bonomelli is owned by a parent company called Groppo Montenegro. Montenegro owns another company called Cuore (Italian for Heart) that makes corn oil and mayonnaise with the claims that Omega-6 linoleic acid is good for your heart.

Is it any wonder that a study funded by this company reached the conclusion that increasing Linoleic acid is good for our health?

You can see it here https://gruppomontenegro.com/brand/food/

Case Two

Too much linoleic acid promotes inflammation—doesn’t it?

Kevin L. Fritsche,

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0952327808001324

So again, not a lot of digging and I found that Kevin L. Fitsche was currently serving as a scientific advisor for the lipids committee of the International Life Sciences Institute of North America (ILSI-NA).

This institute was founded in 1978 by Alex Malespina, the senior vice president of Coca-Cola. He remained at the institute and at Coca-Cola until 2001. The Institute was funded by the processed food industry including McDonalds, PepsiCo as well tobacco companies in the 1980’s. The institute has had a string of controversies including surprise, surprise compromised scientific research. In fact the controversies are so problematic that even the processed food companies have been severing ties.

In 2021, it completely rebranded as "Institute for the Advancement of Food and Nutrition Sciences" (IAFNS) with a shiny new website that like all these foundations and institutes, there is no declaration of who is funding them.

Great to see that Zoe is promoting Kevin Fritsche as a reputable source for the safety of seed oils

So to answer my rhetorical question, “Is there any good nutrition science out there?”

Is everyone compromised?

Certainly, it seems that Zoe Science and Professor Berry have not done their due diligence here or maybe they are also worshipping at the alter of the processed food giants

This is why at Real Life Medicine, we go back to first principals

Eat Real Food

If you are insulin resistant, lowering your carbohydrates is a powerful way to improve this

Our formula to create is easy

Pick a protein.
Add some veggies
Add some fats if the protein is lean
Add some seasoning- herbs, spices salt.