Hello, I'm Monica Rineagle, and you are listening to the Nutrition Diva podcast, a show where we take a closer look at nutrition research, trends, and headlines so you can make better decisions about what you eat.

Lisa recently emailed to ask about seed oils. I see seed oils being demonized on social media. She

writes, is this just the latest food fear or does evidence back this up? Nutrition influencers,

which does not necessarily mean nutrition experts, have raised a variety of concerns

about certain types of vegetable oils. Ironically, these same oils are often recommended as heart-healthy

choices. So let's take a look at the various charges and see what the research says. But first, what do we mean by seed oils?

Although this term may sound a bit unfamiliar, you have almost certainly been consuming

seed oils your entire life. Soybean, corn, canola, sunflower, sunflower, are all considered

seed oils.

The ambiguously named vegetable oil is usually made primarily from soybeans.

It's sometimes blended with other seed oils or other plant-based oils such as peanut or

olive oil.

Originally, that term vegetable oil served to distinguish plant-based oils from

animal-based ones, like lard. Now, food manufacturers love seed oils because they tend to be

neutral in flavor, relatively inexpensive, and shelf-stable. And that's why seed oils so frequently turn up in processed and packaged

foods, such as chips, crackers, cookies, pastries, salad dressings, and mayonnaise. Most seed oils

are high in polyunsaturated fatty acids or poofas and low in saturated fatty acids.

And this is how they got their reputation for being heart healthy.

Specifically, research suggests that when we replace saturated fats with unsaturated fats,

that can lower our cholesterol levels and reduce risks

related to heart disease. However, for some, that high PUFA content is also a source of concern.

And that's because the PUFAs in most seed oils belong to the omega-6 family of fatty acids.

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