Seed Oils with Professor Philip Calder
Do you need to lower your linoliec acid intake?
I recently recorded a podcast episode at Human Performance Outliers Podcast with Professor Philip Calder. Professor Calder is Head of the School of Human Development and Health and Professor of Nutritional Immunology in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton. He is an internationally recognized researcher on the metabolism and functionality of fatty acids, with an emphasis on the roles of omega-3 fatty acids, and on the influence of diet and nutrients on the immune and inflammatory responses.
I wanted to bring Professor Calder onto my podcast to discuss the health implications of seed oils. These oils have gotten a lot of attention the last couple of years, and it appears to be one of the more polarizing topics in health and nutrition. I suspect this is for a variety of reasons. One being they are often present in ultra processed foods, which tend to be easy to overconsume. They are very calorically dense and therefore carry the risk of crowding out better more nutrient dense options. There are also a lot of easy to repeat descriptions that on their surface feel bad, making it much easier to persuade someone to avoid them without much further investigation.
The reason I began digging deeper into this topic recently is because some of the claims around their harm have reached what I would consider pretty grand. The arguments can go as far as blaming seed oils for just about every ill the human race currently faces. Since I follow a low carbohydrate diet, fats are my primary macronutrient consumed. If seed oils are uniquely harmful outside of their incredible energy density and association with ultra processed foods, I would like to know and plan accordingly.
The reason I have begun the interview portion of this exploration with Professor Philip Calder is because he didn’t come across as polarizing, has all the credentials to discuss the topic, and in my opinion was a good person to tease out some of the nuance.
After speaking with Professor Calder for just under 2-hours, I would summarize his current stance with these bullet points:
Seed oils are much more diverse compared to the way the word is often used.
The nutrient of concern within seed oils is linoleic acid
When substituting seed oils into the diet for a different source of fat, the data suggests they are health promoting depending on what fatty acid they are replacing.
Western diets are much higher in linoleic acid than historical eating patterns.
Linoleic acid competes with Omega 3s (DHA & EPA) and therefore can create imbalances if consumed in high amounts, especially if the diet is also low in omega 3 fatty acids.
Heating these oils can be problematic, but the context matters. Deep frying over and over (ex. fast food restaurant deep frying) is very likely to be problematic outside of just the caloric load, but single use cooking with these oils at home is likely not an issue (sauteing vegetables in oil).
Much of the negatives that can be associated with linoleic acid can be countered by consuming adequate amounts of omega 3, through things like fatty fish or supplements.
Anti-oxidants, such as vitamin E, can play a role in reducing or even eliminating some of the risks associated with linoleic acid.
Lowering your linoleic acid intake by switching to seed oils with lower amounts of linoleic acid or replacing it with a different fat source is a path forward, but attention should be paid to the tradeoffs of what it is being replaced with.
Future methods of altering the linoleic acid impact of foods through fortification of omega 3s or feeding livestock diets more rich in omega 3s merits further exploration.
Please consider checking out the full podcast episode to better round out the above bullet points (available on all podcast platforms and YouTube). I plan to continue to explore this topic through guest interviews who are actively researching within this field. Please do not hesitate to reach out with any topics or questions of interest on this topic that you would like me to pursue.
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