Something I've struggled with for a while now is the realisation that my attention has become increasingly fragmented. This is new to me, and I don't know when it started happening, but it's become more pronounced over the last year or so.

I remember a time when I could sit and focus on a task for a solid hour before needing to take a short break. These days, it's hard to get through thirty minutes before my mind starts rebelling.

So what's the solution? I don't know.

But something I've been doing recently is setting a timer for an hour every time I start working, and whenever I find myself not focusing on the task I should be, I stop the timer. The timer acts as a cue, making me pause, notice my distraction, and refocus. It also reinforces intentionality: Actively deciding to re-engage on the main task instead of mindlessly continuing this random sidequest of fuckery.

Another benefit of this approach, at least for me, is its neutral, observation-based nature. I'm not reprimanding, judging, or criticising myself for losing focus––I'm acknowledging the fact of the matter and getting back on track.

I'm realising that never being distracted is impossible. The problem isn’t losing focus; it’s letting distraction pull me in without noticing. The timer helps me catch myself before that happens—turning moments of lost attention into reminders to refocus rather than letting them spiral into wasted time.

You know what else is a distraction? The fear around seed oils. And that's exactly what we're looking at today (come on, that transition was smooth as hell *takes a bow*).

Seed oils and health: Are they the dietary villain they're made out to be?
​(Probably not)

If you’ve spent any time on social media, you’ve probably heard that seed oils are the dietary equivalent of asbestos.

According to self-proclaimed health gurus, seed oils:

• Lead to inflammation
• Increase your risk of heart
• Are toxic
• Should be avoided at all costs

All this fear-mongering makes it sound like seed oils are a crime against humanity—right up there with kale, which really is a crime against humanity.

But, as usual, the loudest minority with the most sensationalist take gets the most airtime, which sends everyone else into a panic, and before you know it, salad dressing is literal death.

So, what’s the deal with these seeds? More importantly, what does human research show?

A recent review [1] summarised the current human research to date. Yes, human research because why would we rely on mechanistic data from a petri dish or rat studies to inform how humans should eat?

A quick note: The paper we’ll be discussing is a narrative review––which is just a fancy way of saying the researchers went through a bunch of studies, pulled out the relevant bits, and stitched everything together into a coherent narrative. Now, narrative reviews aren’t the gold standard of research since they don’t follow the same strict methodology as systematic reviews or meta-analyses. However, given the broad scope of the question, this approach makes sense. Plus, the review does include discussions of more rigorous review methods (like systematic reviews), so it’s not just a glorified opinion piece.

What even are seed oils?

Seed oils are vegetable oils extracted from the seeds of plants. They’re commonly used in cooking and food processing, and some of the most popular include:

• Soybean oil
• Canola oil (rapeseed oil)
• Sunflower oil
• Corn oil
• Cottonseed oil
• Grapeseed oil
• Sesame oil
• Safflower oil

Seed oils get a bad rap mainly because of their high linoleic acid content, a polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA). Linoleic acid is an essential fatty acid, meaning your body can’t make it, so you have to get it from your diet.

And here’s where the controversy starts:

• Some claim linoleic acid (which is high in omega-6 fatty acids) raises LDL cholesterol (the so-called “bad” cholesterol) and increases the risk of heart disease.
  ​
• Others argue it causes inflammation by increasing certain pro-inflammatory molecules (eicosanoids).

Where it all began

The two studies most often cited as “proof” that seed oils are bad are:

1. The Minnesota Coronary Experiment [2]
2. The Sydney Diet Heart Study [3]

These studies found that replacing saturated fat with corn oil increased mortality and cardiovascular events.

But here’s the part that conveniently gets ignored: Other research at the time reported the opposite, showing potential benefits of linoleic acid on heart health. [4-6]

And yet, these two studies are still paraded around as definitive proof that seed oils are toxic.

Revisiting the seed oil claims with new evidence

Science is messy. Studies use different methods, populations, and designs, so relying on one or two studies isn’t a great idea. This is where systematic reviews and meta-analyses come in.

These studies aggregate all available evidence and use statistical methods to draw conclusions based on the totality of the evidence, not just one or two studies.

So, what do they say about seed oils?

Cardiovascular disease

• Two systematic reviews with meta-analyses found that replacing saturated fats with seed oils lowers LDL cholesterol and triglycerides—both of which are key markers for cardiovascular disease risk. [7, 8]
  ​
• A large observational analysis found that higher linoleic acid intake is associated with: [9]
  • 9% lower risk of coronary heart disease
  • 13% lower risk of dying from coronary heart disease.
• Another meta-analysis found that higher linoleic acid intake is linked to a: [10]
  • 13% lower risk of all-cause mortality
  • 11% lower risk of cancer-related mortality

So, contrary to popular belief, the research suggests that seed oils are more likely to protect your heart than destroy it.

Inflammation

The inflammation argument mainly revolves around the idea that linoleic acid increases levels of arachidonic acid, which allegedly ramps up inflammation.

But again, human data doesn’t support this claim. A 2020 meta-analysis found no significant effect of linoleic acid on inflammatory markers like C-reactive protein (CRP), IL-6, and TNF-alpha. [11]

Even when linoleic acid intake was reduced by 90%, tissue levels of arachidonic acid didn’t decrease—meaning that cutting back on seed oils does not meaningfully reduce inflammation. [12]

In sum

• Replacing saturated fats with seed oils can lower LDL cholesterol and triglycerides—which may reduce the risk of heart disease.
  ​
• Higher linoleic acid intake is associated with a lower risk of coronary heart disease and all-cause mortality.
  ​
• No strong evidence supports the claim that seed oils cause inflammation in humans.
  ​
• Higher-quality trials even suggest that seed oils may have protective benefits on markers of cardiovascular health like serum cholesterol and triglycerides [13, 14]

All in all, the idea that seed oils are “toxic” is just another version of people looking for a single nutrient or food to place all the blame on while ignoring the fact that your diet as a whole plays a much bigger role in all of this.

Focus on eating plenty of whole, minimally processed foods while keeping the ‘junk’ to a minimum. As far as dietary fat is concerned, get a mix of saturated, polyunsaturated, and monounsaturated fats while trying to keep saturated fat intake to <10% of your total caloric intake.

If you’re doing the above, you don’t need to go out of your way to avoid seed oils or worry that you’re accelerating your inevitable demise because you cooked your eggs with sunflower oil or drizzled some canola oil on your salad.

At the end of the day, health isn’t about obsessing over individual ingredients—it’s about the bigger picture. Seed oils aren’t the dietary villain they’ve been made out to be, and as long as your overall diet is in check, you don’t need to stress over every drop of vegetable oil.

Besides, there are far more important things to argue about—like whether pineapple belongs on pizza (it doesn’t).

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