The seed oil panic is hurting my cardiac patients

[bucolic_frolic]

https://www.statnews.com/2026/05/22/seed-oils-healthy-fats-tallow-fact-check-cardiac-health/

There’s something else worth knowing about beef tallow that isn’t making it into the wellness content: It contains ruminant trans fats. They’re naturally occurring, present in all beef fat, and according to cardiologists, present in tallow at levels far above what’s considered safe. A full Steak ’n Shake meal — their 7×7 Steakburger and a large order of their celebrated “RFK’d” tallow fries — clocks in at more than 90 grams of saturated fat and nearly 10 grams of trans fats combined. The administration that declared it is “ending the war on saturated fat” has found a cooking fat that delivers more of the exact compounds most associated with cardiovascular mortality. MAHA is road paved with artery-clogging cholesterol, and they’re calling it a health revolution.

There’s a second irony buried in the dietary guidelines themselves. The document urges Americans to “prioritize oils with essential fatty acids.” In nutrition, “essential” has a precise meaning: fatty acids the body cannot synthesize and must obtain from diet — linoleic acid and alpha-linolenic acid, the omega-6 and omega-3s. The oils richest in these essential fatty acids are canola, soybean, sunflower — the very oils the guidelines are steering people away from. Olive oil, butter, and tallow, the fats offered as examples, are not primary sources of essential fatty acids. The guidelines used the right scientific language and then pointed it at the wrong foods.

MAHA styles itself as a populist revolt against corporate food. A movement that threw out 421 pages of scientific recommendations and handed the beef industry its best marketing cycle in decades isn’t a revolt. It’s a rebrand with a body count it’ll take years to measure.

The boring answer — eat more vegetables and legumes, less ultra-processed food, default to olive oil, and yes, the source of fat matters less than the overall dietary pattern — is boring because it has been substantially right for a long time and doesn’t sell anything. Nutrition science will always lose the attention war to something that offers community and tells you who to blame.

_______________
MAHA Make American Heart Attacks

[Diamond_Dog]

1. Why would anybody follow nutbag Kennedy's nutritional advice?

[Ocelot II]

2. I suppose the amount of saturated fat in a roadkill diet would depend

on the particular carcasses you were able to collect.

[PCIntern]

11. How much saturated fat in raccoon dick?

I didn’t pick it up this morning at the Acme and won’t till I get the answer.

[bucolic_frolic]

4. It must be funded by the financial interests that will benefit

This really is going back to the early 1960s heart attack period. Trans fats whatever you call them - oleo, margarine, shortening - were developed by the industry to meet Depression and WWII shortages. By the mid-1960s nutritionists were in rebellion against dairy fat because of heart disease risks. Trans fats were still popular into the 1990s, and were not see as part of the problem. Then they were replaced by seed oils. A diet must contain some form of the wide range of fats mentioned. You can't eat nothing.

[LuvLoogie]

6. Bigotry. Period.

It's the core MAGA motivation. Anyone guided by better angels left them behind long ago.

[GreatGazoo]

3. There are basically only two ways that food spoils

1. It cultures bacteria by sitting in open air, at room temp, was touched by unwashed hands or rodents, etc.
2. The lipids in it go rancid.

Packaging and cold chain solved #1 easily

The ongoing challenge for any mass produced food and for food supply chains is #2, getting the longest shelf life possible for the lipids in everything. Seed oils are appealing for that goal. Beef tallow was displaced by canola because of that biology. Not because it is or isn't healthier.

The problem with beef tallow is it spoils faster, much faster. The problem with canola oil is it is toxic because rapeseed tastes terrible and has to be bleached out with hexane.

[tinrobot]

9. And yet, canola oil has essential fatty acids that beef tallow doesn't

Quoting the article :

There’s a second irony buried in the dietary guidelines themselves. The document urges Americans to “prioritize oils with essential fatty acids.” In nutrition, “essential” has a precise meaning: fatty acids the body cannot synthesize and must obtain from diet — linoleic acid and alpha-linolenic acid, the omega-6 and omega-3s. The oils richest in these essential fatty acids are canola, soybean, sunflower — the very oils the guidelines are steering people away from. Olive oil, butter, and tallow, the fats offered as examples, are not primary sources of essential fatty acids. The guidelines used the right scientific language and then pointed it at the wrong foods.

Might want to read the article again. It makes a lot of good points.

And if you're put off by canola, there are other alternatives.

[haele]

15. I saw a PBS history type show "Food Saviors" - they were highlighting Okra

A medium sized family farm in Georgia presses their own small batch oils, including Okra Seed Oil (along with pumpkin seed, Sunflower seed, and various nut oils and olive oil mixes).
The primary reasons seed based oils are not well received is in the heat and time point between cooking (especially sauteing) and burning.
All that being said-
What is called a Mediterranean or East Asian type diet with moderate portion sizes has been shown to be healthy and recommended for almost two centuries now for the average person in the Northern Hemisphere: low starches, moderate fatty foods, whole grains as a "carb base" for the meal. Meals should consist of whole "fruits and veggies" and animal (including dairy and eggs) servings on about a 1 to 1 mix, with moderate amounts of sugars.
And, of course, vinegars, herbs and spices (don't forget those) as healthful digestive and metabolism supplements.
Proteins can be supplied with plant protein, but the lipids are not the same, and while good half of people in the Northern Hemisphere can easily live on on plant proteins, some people still need meat based proteins.
Also, extremely heavy labor or extreme environmental situations (especially extreme cold) where the body might require more fat and animal proteins for the energy to "keep going" might change a ratio of animal based fats to plant based fats needed, but nutrient requirement is still pretty much the same to maintain human health.

But with even a basic understanding of biology, when looking at the industrialized "diet plan" that has been pushed over the last century or so, public nutrition seems to be based on "class" and the amount of profit in the supply chain. The industry wasn't so much concerned about overall health benefits and varieties, it's designed to facilitate sales of high profit commercially grown or manufactured products as "just as healthy" as lower profit, regional food products that aren't mass produced and profitable.

Your milage on nutrition may vary, of course, but then, that's between you, your phlebotomist, and your doctor.

[MadameButterfly]

23. I like my essential fatty acids without hexane

Canola oil is promoted by industry as a health food but I thought it's benefits had been debunked by now.

[liberalgunwilltravel]

14. Here is a more complete (and less sensational) summation of analyses regarding seed oils

Bottom line, is that canola oil is safe as generally produced. If you want to avoid the hexane completely (although not necessary) is to use cold pressed canola oil. Both are better for you than beef tallow.

https://nutritionsource.hsph.harvard.edu/2015/04/13/ask-the-expert-concerns-about-canola-oil/

[gab13by13]

5. I was in rehab to get my heart back to normal

after having been in A-fib over a year.

One day we were told that a nutritionist was here to speak with us. We went into a room to listen to her presentation. When she was done she asked us a question about how we can tell if we are eating healthy food. An elderly man sitting next to me spoke up right away and said, if it tastes good spit it out. He brought the house down.

[dalton99a]

7. Kick

[Kali]

8. maha isn't why beef is high right now

[ananda]

10. Flax seeds have most essential amino acids.

...

[MLWR]

13. Anyone who takes medical or nutritional advice

from a brain-worm-addled, heroin addict is crazy. And they probably think* that ivermectin cures covid too.

[Midnight Writer]

16. Steak n Shakes 7x7 burger is seven patties with seven slices of cheese.

Nobody actually orders the damn thing. It is a promotional gimmick.

I wish they would have used a more real-world example instead of using the 7X7 as a strawman.

[gulliver]

17. I love steak

It's naturally going to be very good for you. Our ancient ancestors learned to hunt and to domesticate animals for food. They did it for hundreds of thousands of years. We're here now. I rest my case.

Sometimes, when things are obvious, people have to adopt novel ideas just to feel like they're making progress. Sometimes, one food production sector wants to push certain products they happen to produce. That's the food pyramid, in my opinion.

By the way, I'm perfectly happy with vegans and vegetarians. May they multiply. It makes my steak cheaper.

[bucolic_frolic]

18. Our ancient ancestors hunted and moved about with periods of famine long and short

Harvests were consumed when available. They didn't eat vegetables in the dead of winter nor ice cream in the heat of summer. They stored fat when the beasts were slain for the lean winter season. So they had their ups and downs metabolism, sugar, fat, protein, veggie - wise. We get steady snacking 365 with abundance of all.

[gulliver]

19. They didn't have as much advertising then

Or we probably wouldn't be here.

[bucolic_frolic]

21. Ha!

[biocube]

20. Food stances of MAHA and some on the right

Afraid of "chemicals"
Think sugar is less healthy depending on what plant it's extracted from.
Anti Vax.
Drinking raw milk.

This used to be a thing on the political left. At one time vaccine refusals were the highest in progressive cities. Maybe that's the power of culture wars.

[flvegan]

22. How else will Eliquis and Ozempic afford all those ads?

Such a profoundly stupid species. Has to be told what to eat, how to eat and when to eat. Still fucks it up, still listens to idiots.

That said, how many folks have a doctor that knows Jack Fuckall about nutrition? I don't mean some silly nutritional quack with a laminated pyramid on his/her wall. Exactly. If I had a mechanic who didn't know what type of gas, oil and coolant to put in my (ICE) car, I'd never go to them again.

[Chemical Bill]

24. I hadn't paid attention to the seed oil panic.

I knew seed oils contribute to good nutrition. But it didn't occur to me that MAHA would effect me.

It also never occured to me that my favorite health food store gluten free cookies with seed oils would be replaced with products made with palm oil. Palm oil is a saturated fat, which raises blood pressure, clogs the arteries, and lacks the essential fatty acids that we need. Tallow isn't the only way MAHA will kill us.

Thanks for this, BF.