Seed Oil Scare: The Curious Case of Canola

Gastropod

Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley

Science, Food, History, Arts

4.7 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 8 April 2025

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

If you've been hearing that canola is a killer, you're not alone. It's one of the so-called "hateful eight" seed oils: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. says it's among the most deadly things you can eat, and Joe Rogan agrees. But is it true? This episode, we get to the bottom of the debate over the plant formerly (and still, in some places) known as rapeseed. Why does it have such an unfortunate name, and how did it transform into canola, at least in North America? Is it really engine oil? Does it actually contain a poisonous solvent? And why on earth are Brits buying up a fancy cold-pressed version by the gallon, as the new, home-grown olive oil? Are they roasting their potatoes with an inflammation- and disease-causing disaster? Listen in for the forgotten history and slippery science of this much discussed, little understood oil. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	We're hearing a lot about seed oils. Why should people be worried about these kind of products?
0:08.4	Seed oils are one of the most unhealthy ingredients that we have in foods. And seed oils, the reason
0:19.1	they're in the foods is because they're heavily subsidized.
0:22.9	They're very, very cheap, but they are associated with all kinds of very, very serious illnesses,
0:30.0	including body-wide inflammation.
0:33.4	That is Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and we're sorry to start the episode with him because we're also sorry that he is currently the Secretary of Health and Human Services.
0:42.5	There are so many reasons we're sorry about this. But nonetheless, we started the show with his voice because he is far from alone in saying seed oils are dangerous. It's quite a common belief these days.
0:55.6	Seed oils are some of the worst fucking things your body can consume. There's some sort of
0:59.3	a correlation between seed oils and macular degeneration. Look, it causes inflammation,
1:05.6	and inflammation is fucking terrible for you no matter what. Yes, again, sorry, That's Joe Rogan, host of a truly shockingly popular podcast.
1:13.7	And we, of course, are also hosts of a popular podcast.
1:16.4	This is Indeed Gastropod, the podcast that looks at food through the lens of science and history.
1:20.4	I'm Cynthia Graber.
1:21.3	And I'm Nicola Twilly.
1:22.3	And we, like many of you, have been hearing this anti-seed oil propaganda for a while now,
1:28.0	but then a listener got in touch with an intriguing question that made us want to dive a little
1:32.6	deeper.
1:33.2	Hi, my name is Amy McLeod.
1:34.6	I'm from Vancouver, British Columbia, and I am curious about canola oil.
1:39.4	My grandfather was a farmer in Saskatchewan, and he grew canola on his farm in addition to other
1:45.4	things. And I always use canola oil in my cooking. I feel like it's a great way to support
1:51.8	Canadian farmers. But now with all the buzz around canola oil being really processed, I'm not
	...

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