The Hateful Eight

Back when I was a kid, the big kitchen fear was cholesterol. Doctors told your parents to ditch the butter, lard, and animal fat, and the food industry was happy to oblige. Crisco had already been in the game since 1911. Vegetable oils moved in. Life went on.

Now, some fifty years later, the influencers have decided that those same vegetable oils are the hidden cause of every chronic disease on the planet, from heart disease and diabetes to “brain fog” and, presumably, the feeling that everything is terrible. The villain has been branded with a name: “The Hateful Eight.” Canola, corn, cottonseed, soybean, sunflower, safflower, grapeseed, and rice bran oil. According to wellness podcasters and at least one sitting Cabinet member, these eight oils are quietly poisoning the American public.

This would be a terrifying claim if it had any solid science behind it.

Where This Thing Started

The anti-seed oil movement didn’t start in a lab. 1 It largely traces back to a 2020 episode of the Joe Rogan podcast, where carnivore diet advocate Paul Saladino spent a few hours explaining why vegetables are bad for you. The “seed oil” framing stuck, and the memes followed. By 2022, it had crossed from fitness bro Reddit into mainstream wellness content, and eventually into actual political speeches.

The core argument goes like this: seed oils are high in omega-6 fatty acids, omega-6 converts to arachidonic acid in the body, arachidonic acid is a building block for inflammatory compounds, therefore seed oils cause chronic inflammation, therefore they’re responsible for obesity, heart disease, and the general collapse of human health.

It’s a tidy story. It’s also wrong.

What the Science Actually Says

Here’s the thing about the omega-6 inflammation argument: researchers have tested it directly, with blood markers in real humans, not theories. 2 A 2025 study analyzed data from nearly 1,900 people and found that higher levels of linoleic acid (the main omega-6 in seed oils) in the blood were consistently linked to lower inflammation and better cardiometabolic health. Not higher. Lower.

That’s consistent with what’s been showing up in the research for decades. 3 Scientists at Johns Hopkins and nutritionists at Stanford have both pointed out that the inflammatory claim is based on a misunderstanding of how the body actually processes linoleic acid. Yes, it can convert to arachidonic acid. But the conversion rate is negligible, and arachidonic acid also produces anti-inflammatory compounds. The body is not a simple relay race where one thing mechanically becomes the next thing without any other chemistry happening.

As Stanford nutrition scientist Christopher Gardner put it: the evidence behind replacing saturated fats with unsaturated fats is among the most consistent findings in all of nutrition research. That’s not a controversial position in the scientific community. It’s the consensus.

A large 2025 study published in JAMA Internal Medicine tracked more than 220,000 people over three decades. 4 People with the highest intake of plant-based oils had 16% lower total mortality compared to the lowest consumers. People with the highest butter intake had 15% higher total mortality. The researchers estimated that swapping one tablespoon of butter for a tablespoon of plant-based oil daily was associated with a 17% reduction in the risk of early death.

That’s not a marginal difference. That’s the kind of signal that gets a drug approved.

The Tallow Comeback

The flip side of the seed oil scare is the sudden rehabilitation of beef tallow. RFK Jr. celebrated when Steak ‘n Shake announced it would switch its fry oil from seed oil to beef tallow. His fans treated this as a public health win. 5

Beef tallow is about 50% saturated fat. Harvard, UCLA Health, and the Center for Science in the Public Interest have all noted the same thing: high saturated fat intake raises LDL cholesterol and increases cardiovascular disease risk. The evidence on that point is not contested.

In a controlled study where men were fed diets rich in butter, beef tallow, or olive oil for three weeks each, LDL cholesterol came in highest on butter, lowest on olive oil, with beef tallow sitting in the middle. 6 Tallow isn’t as bad as butter. It’s also not avocado oil. You can use it occasionally if you want. But it isn’t a health food, and the people telling you it’s better than canola or sunflower oil are not following the data.

The Actual Best Fats

To be fair, not all oils are the same, and the science does make some meaningful distinctions. Extra virgin olive oil has the most consistent evidence behind it. It’s high in monounsaturated fat, loaded with antioxidants, and has been linked to lower risk of heart disease and cancer across multiple studies. Avocado oil is a solid high-heat option with a similar fat profile and a very high smoke point.

Seed oils are not as nutrient-dense as these. They’re more processed. If you have the choice, olive or avocado oil is probably the better call for everyday cooking. That’s a reasonable nuance.

What seed oils are not is poison. They don’t cause cancer. They don’t cause systemic inflammation. They are not responsible for the obesity epidemic. The evidence is overwhelming and consistent on those points. 7

When people feel better after cutting seed oils, they’re almost certainly feeling the effects of eating less processed food overall. Seed oils are everywhere in ultra-processed junk: chips, frozen dinners, fast food. Cut those things out and you’re going to feel better. That’s real. But the seed oil didn’t do it. The reduction in added sugar, sodium, and empty calories did it. 3

The Grift Underneath

Here’s what I notice about the seed oil panic: it tends to come packaged with something to buy. Grass-fed beef liver crisps for $89.99. Tallow moisturizer. Carnivore diet programs. The grift isn’t always obvious, but it’s usually there.

The people peddling this stuff are very good at identifying something real (ultra-processed food is bad for you, food companies have prioritized profit over health) and then hijacking that legitimate concern to sell you an alternative that the science doesn’t support.

You want to eat well? Fewer processed foods, more whole foods, olive oil when you can get it, and don’t eat at Steak ‘n Shake regardless of what they’re frying in. That’s it. That’s the whole thing. You don’t need a podcast, a supplement stack, or a $90 bag of dried liver to figure that out.

The “Hateful Eight” is a marketing campaign dressed up as a crusade. The real villain was always the ultra-processed food. The oil was just the decoy.

References

  1. Seed oil misinformation — Wikipedia ↩
  2. Myth-busting study shows controversial seed oils reduce inflammation — ScienceDaily ↩
  3. Five things to know about seed oils and your health — Stanford Medicine ↩
  4. Nutrition Fact Check: Seed Oils — Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics ↩
  5. Beef tallow not a healthier option than seed oils — Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health ↩
  6. Is beef tallow really healthier than seed oils? — Center for Science in the Public Interest ↩
  7. The Evidence Behind Seed Oils’ Health Effects — Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health ↩

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