In this series, we will break down the actual health effects of vegetable oils and whether they are better alternatives to saturated fats. Follow this series to find out whether what you are using to cook with is really the best option.
Though research repeatedly shows that vegetable oils, otherwise known as seed oils, are harmful when cooked, dietary guidelines and health organizations continue to promote polyunsaturated vegetable fats over animal fats.
Nina Teicholz, an investigative journalist who spent a decade researching fats and oils, gave three major potential reasons why the recommendation has not changed despite a lack of evidence of vegetable oils’ purported benefits and discrepancies in studies that point to possible cancer risks.
1. Bureaucracy Versus Science
The anti-saturated fat nutrition recommendation comes from the late American Heart Association (AHA) researcher and physiologist Ancel Keys’ Diet-Heart Hypothesis, originally put forward in the 1950s. Keys’ original assumption was that fat, which raised blood cholesterol levels, caused coronary heart disease. He later narrowed the fat type to saturated fat.
