When I went to culinary school, we were taught that most seed-origin oils were superior to other possible cooking oil choices. But now, there’s a growing online clamor condemning ‘seed’ oils – in some cases, for what seem utterly crazy reasons…
Sunflower is one of least expensive, best-quality seed oils you can choose for all-purpose use…
It’s a process that kicks into gear quickly when awareness of some new food fad or fashion reaches a certain level. The social media channels explode with warnings and rants from all corners of the on-line community. In many cases, the poorly-informed opinions being circulated outnumber the actual facts many-to one. The overall effect is to demonize foods or practices that are actually beneficial.
What they’re saying…
The online blowhards are doing a number on seed oils these days. They’re turning the issue upside-down, and inside-out. It’s just silly. But they apparently don’t have much else to do just now.
Critics are making a number of points that they say ‘show’ or even ‘prove’ that seed oils are not only unhealthy but downright ‘dangerous. And the would-be whistle-blowers are utterly out-to-lunch on all accounts…
They’re high-Calorie
All oils are, by their nature, higher in calories than any other foods. But we don’t consume huge vol-umes of them (usually) and other more nutritious foods we should be getting in our diets should be compensating for the calories in oils.
They’re high in transfats
Nonsense. According to a 2015 study, commonly-used seed oils such as Canola, soybean, and sesame did not contain detectable amounts of trans fat.
They contain high levels of omega-6 fatty acids
This complaint leaves me utterly boggled. Anybody who’s done any reading at all on omegas know that both -3s and -6s are good or you. Omega-3 is particularly prized as it, “lowers blood pressure, reduces triglycerides in the blood, helps reduce joint inflammation in rheumatoid disease, helps nourish brain and eyes functions, helps prevent and alleviate dementia, depression, asthma, mi-graine, and diabetes, and helps reduce the risk and preventing heart disease and ischemic stroke.”
Omega-6 exhibits the same benefits as omega-3, but at less-dramatic levels.
They are ‘refined’, ‘processed’ foods
All plant-based oils are processed and refined, inasmuch as they are pressed, sometimes under me-dium-to-high temperatues, or in the presence of certain solvents to help draw the oils out of the seed pulp. But the temperatures are kept under certain ceilings to ensure that no unwanted changes take place in them during extraction. And solvents such as hexane evaporate almost immediately – and completely – when the oils are liberated from the pulp.
They can cause systemic inflation
Yes… But only in huge, totally unimagineble ‘doses’. Registered dietician and nutrition coach Charissa Lim tells Well+Good.com:“It certainly makes a compelling narrative. But [seed oil nay-sayers] ignore a critical component of toxicology by failing to consider the minimal and maximum effective dosages of seed oils are, and instead frame it like smoking a cigarette, where even a single drop will immedi-ately harm the body.”
My take
Seed oils are actually very good for you, on the whole. As far as I can tell, they have only one signif-icant draw-back: they’re somewhat costlier than other vegetable oils.
For the record, sunflower and safflower are among the higher-quality seed-source oils you can choose for general use in your kitchen, that are also relatively reasonably priced…
In short… Go forth and cook without guilt or trepidation over all the nonsense currently circulating about seed oils!
~ Maggie J.