The "Hateful Eight" may sound like an old-time Western movie, but this showdown doesn't involve cowboys or horses or even guns. It's a battle over the supposed dangers posed by eight seed oils – canola, corn, cottonseed, grapeseed, soy, rice bran, sunflower and safflower – and it's being fought on social media. To listen to some people on TikTok, YouTube or any of a number of podcasts, the oil extracted from these plants is poisoning us.
But is it, really? "It's so odd that the internet has gone wild demonizing these things," said Dr. Christopher Gardner, a professor of medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine in California and a nutrition scientist at the Stanford Prevention Research Center. "They are not to be feared.
" The misleading charge is that seed oils are high in omega-6 fatty acids that break down into toxins when used for cooking, causing inflammation, weakening the immune system, and contributing to chronic illnesses. That argument is flawed in numerous ways, Gardner said. First, while seed oils do contain high levels of omega-6 fatty acids, that's not a bad thing.
Omega-6 is a polyunsaturated fat the body needs but cannot produce itself, so it must get it from foods. Polyunsaturated fats help the body reduce bad cholesterol, lowering the risk for heart disease and stroke. The American Heart Association supports the inclusion of omega-6 fatty acids as part of a healthy diet.
Omega-6 gets unfairly demonized because it appears to play a smaller role in.