28/11/2025
Right… let’s be grown ups for a second and actually look at the SCIENCE instead of Instagram fear-mongering.
Seed oils have been turned into the nutritional boogeyman lately. Apparently one drizzle of rapeseed oil and you’ll combust into chronic inflammation and die of omega 6 overload… except… that’s not what the data shows. At all.
🧠 What Are Seed Oils Actually?
Sunflower, rapeseed, soybean, flax… they’re just plant-derived oils rich in polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs). Yes, that includes omega 6. But that doesn’t automatically mean inflammation. Dose and overall diet context matters.
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🔎 What Does the Research Say?
✔ Multiple meta-analyses show seed oil consumption does NOT increase inflammation markers in the average person.
✔ Replacing saturated fats with PUFAs can lower LDL cholesterol and improve cardiovascular risk.
✔ Studies on omega 6 show that unless your overall diet is terrible and your omega 3 intake is low, omega 6 alone is NOT inflammatory.
✔ Chronic inflammation happens when you combine high omega 6 intake with ultra-processed foods, obesity, sedentary lifestyle and poor omega 3 balance. It’s a lifestyle issue… not just a seed oil issue.
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⚠️ The Real Problem Isn’t Seed Oils… It’s Processing
Cold-pressed seed oils? Fine.
High-heat, chemically extracted, repeatedly reused frying oils in fast food? That’s where lipid peroxidation becomes an issue.
Blaming all seed oils because of industrial fast food processing is like blaming chicken breast because KFC exists. Context, mate.
🧪 Omega 6 Isn’t the Enemy – the Ratio Is
The goal: balance omega 3 and omega 6, not eliminate one.
Ancestral diets had roughly a 1:1 to 1:4 ratio.
Modern Western diets are closer to 1:15 or even 1:20 😳
But here’s the kicker: when omega 3s go UP, health markers improve… even if seed oil intake stays the same. That tells us the problem isn’t seed oils – it’s omega 3 deficiency.
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🏋️♂️ Athlete Angle
PUFAs can:
• Support recovery
• Regulate hormones
• Improve cell membrane fluidity
• Aid brain function
Are they magic? Nope.
Are they the devil? Also nope.
They’re a tool – like creatine. Like caffeine. Like carbs. You use them properly, they help.
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🧾 So What Should You Actually Do?
1. Keep seed oils, just pick cold-pressed or minimally processed sources.
2. Jack up your omega 3 intake (fatty fish, algae, chia, flax, etc).
3. Stop eating fried fast food cooked in rancid oil 50 times over.
4. Don’t live off ultra-processed snacks.
5. Train. Sleep. Manage stress.
You know… the boring fundamentals that work.
Stop looking for villains. Start looking at your habits.
Seed oils aren’t the apocalypse. Your lifestyle might be.
So before you throw away the rapeseed oil… maybe throw away the Uber Eats app first.
👊 Evidence over emotion. Always.
