Big Idea: Why Are Seed Oils So Pervasive and The Case For and Against Them

Dhru Purohit Show

Dhru Purohit

Medicine, Health & Fitness, Alternative Health

4.7 • 3.4K Ratings

🗓️ 23 June 2025

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This episode is brought to you by Momentous, Ollie, and Manukora Honey. Vegetable oils are a hot topic in the wellness world. Some consider them a heart-healthy alternative to saturated fats, while others argue they may be far more harmful to our overall health than once believed. But where did they come from, and how did they become so widely used? Today on The Dhru Purohit Show, Dhru sits down with Jeff Nobbs to discuss the history of seed oils and how they’ve become ubiquitous in restaurants and ultra-processed foods. He also describes the research limitations and selective reporting that have heavily influenced their recommendation and use. Jeff Nobbs is the cofounder and CEO of Zero Acre Farms, a company replacing harmful vegetable oils with healthier, more sustainable options made through fermentation. With over 15 years of experience in health and nutrition, Jeff has launched several start-ups focused on better ingredients and food access, including the restaurant chain Kitava and the nonprofit HelpKitchen. He’s also served as COO of Perfect Keto and GM at Ebates (now Rakuten). In this episode, Dhru and Jeff dive into: The history of seed oils and how they became so pervasive (04:01) Why trans fats were banned from commercial production (17:26) Observational research and the case for seed oils (21:40) Randomized controlled trials and the case against seed oils (28:21) Biomarkers in people who consume seed oils and observational data on trans fats (33:04) The Minnesota Coronary Experiment (40:32) McDonald’s transition to seed oils (43:15) Final thoughts (44:36) Also mentioned: Full episode with Jeff Nobbs This episode is brought to you by Momentous, Ollie, and Manukora Honey. Support your energy, bones, and resilience with The Women’s Three: Iron, Calcium, and Vitamin D3—formulated by experts, made for women. Head to livemomentous.com and use code DHRU for 35% off your first subscription. Want to give your dog the best in clean eating? Take the online quiz and introduce Ollie to your pet. Right now, Ollie is offering 60% off your first box of meals when you subscribe today! Just head to Ollie.com, use the code DHRU, and you’ll get 60% off your first box of meals in your subscription. Upgrade to the creamiest honey, packed with antioxidants and prebiotics. Just go to manukora.com/dhru to get $25 off the Starter Kit and boost your energy, immunity, and digestive health today! Sign up for Dhru’s Try This Newsletter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi everyone, Drew Proud here. Starting now, and I guess as of last week, too, we are now doing
0:05.4	what we're calling a big idea Monday, where we feature key moments, aha moments from podcast
0:11.9	episodes that are succinct, that'll leave you walking away with another level or distinction
0:17.4	about a particular topic or idea. And today's episode is all about the topic of seed oils.
0:24.2	Probably one of the most hotly debated topics in health, but it's actually quite simple.
0:29.9	We'll get to the simplicity in a little bit.
0:31.5	But let's start off with this.
0:32.7	The fact is that vegetable oils and seed oils are ubiquitous in our standard American diet.
0:37.4	You can see them
0:38.2	on every ingredient list you pick up on your average grocery store, specifically with ultra-processed
0:44.4	foods. And they are used in almost every restaurant around the country. I'm talking about oils
0:49.9	like canola oils, soybean oil, cotton seed oil, sunflower oils, sunflower oils, and so on.
0:56.1	Now, there's still a lot of debate in the nutrition world.
0:58.8	I've had a lot of people argue on each side of the debate as to whether or not seed oils are
1:03.3	actually a problem for our health.
1:05.0	And if they are to what degree?
1:06.9	Some argue that it's the ultra-process foods.
1:10.2	That's an issue.
1:11.4	It's not the seed oils alone because a lot of us are not really having a ton of seed oils by themselves.
1:17.8	And the pro-seed oil camp, which they're not necessarily pro-seed oil all the time,
1:22.9	they're more anti-a-lot-saturated fat inside of the diet, they feel that a lot of studies show,
1:30.2	these are mostly observational studies, that people who have an abundance of seed oils in their
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