The Most Important Dietary Change for 2025

You go into a restaurant and attempt to eat a healthy meal – a protein, vegetable, or perhaps a salad.  But have you ever given thought to the type of oils your food is being cooked or prepared in and how that might be affecting your health more than anything else?

Or you’re on an airplane and they offer you a package of something – peanuts, crackers, cookies, etc.  But what is actually IN these convenient packaged products? Could it really be that harmful?  It is now thought that the oils in these foods are more toxic in the diet than sugars.

Enter Industrial seed oils.  These are manufactured fats that were nonexistent in nature, until the early 1990’s.

People cooked with butter, olive oil, coconut oil, tallow and lard.  Although we were led to believe these were all bad for our health the opposite has turned out to be true. It’s a long history lesson on how this falsity occurred, but safe to say – follow the money.

These ultra processed inflammatory oils are made from soy, cotton, rapeseed (canola) and safflower plants. Then they are subject to high temperatures and processed with a petroleum-based solvent. They then go through a deodorization process to decrease the unpleasant smells, and then chemicals are added to improve color and taste. 

These include canola (may be labeled rapeseed oil), corn, cottonseed, grapeseed, palm oil (or palm fruit oil, palm kernel oil), rice bran, soybean (may be labeled vegetable oil), sunflower, and safflower oil, which are all compromised of linoleic acid.

These oils are basically a mismatch for our genes and are drivers of chronic disease.  In study after study increased intake of linoleic acid has been linked to mitochondrial dysfunction (think the powerhouses of all your cells).  They are also known as omega 6 fats or inflammatory fats.  Seed oils are highly unstable and easily oxidize when exposed to heat thus creating trans fats.

One hundred years ago, our ancestors maintained a 2:1 ratio of omega 6 to omega 3 fats due to natural sources of omega 6 fats like nuts and seeds.  Recent estimates show our food supply has changed the ratio to 20:1. This large increase in the ratio is what is believed to have caused an increase in obesity, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, just to name a few.

When I ask a client about oils they may say “I only cook with olive oil so I’m safe.”

However, think of all the products you buy in a package that contain an oil. If you have 20 products in your cabinet or refrigerator most likely they are full of industrial seed oils – cookies, crackers, bakery products, snacks, bars, salad dressings, creamers – all designed to make our lives more convenient. This convenience has cost us our health.

So where do we go from here?  For starters, rid your cabinet of all these cheap oils. 

Cook only with olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil, ghee, grass-fed butter, lard and tallow.

Steer clear of any processed foods that contain these oils – make your own salad dressings and treats as much as possible and eat at home to control your ingredients.

Buy grass-fed products – meat, poultry, fish, eggs since these have a higher omega 3 ratio. 

If you must grab something on the run remember to look at the ingredients.

Seed oils have become the fabric of our food chain and now is the time to start equipping yourself with knowledge and voting with your purchases. The next time you eat at a restaurant ask what type of oil is in the salad dressing or perhaps what oil your vegetables are sauteed with. Each decision you make may be lowering inflammation leading to improved health and happiness.