by Nancy Smith Seigle 

Canola, cottonseed, corn, grapeseed, soy, rice bran, sunflower and safflower—these highly processed, industrial seed oils make up an octet of common pantry staples to avoid in our quest for wellness.   

The main reason is that these seeds, post-harvest, are bleached, deodorized and heated to an extremely high temperature. These processing methods are used to ensure a longer shelf life and oxidize the fatty acids. While omega-6s can be beneficial to the heart, excess consumption can trigger the body to produce pro-inflammatory chemicals.  

Often derived from genetically modified crops, many seed oils contain harmful additives, are cellularly unstable and can easily corrode. In the case of some restaurants, which can reuse their oil repeatedly cooking with very high heat, the heated oil creates even more toxic byproducts and can play a significant role in leading to chronic inflammatory diseases.  

Everything from asthma to Alzheimer’s, diabetes to heart disease and gut health disorders to arthritis can stem from excess inflammation in the body.  

It’s important to realize that inflammation does serve us in notable ways. The inflammatory response which our bodies carry out helps prevent damage, removes cellular waste and pathogens, and initiates the healing process in our body when we experience any physical, chemical or heat trauma. However, too high a level of inflammatory chemicals in our bloodstream, lungs and other tissues can cause metabolic pandemonium and weakens the body’s overall immune system. 

In addition, seed oils are high in calories. One tablespoon of seed oil contains 120 calories which is more than three ounces of smoked salmon, a cup of edamame, or one-third cup of ice cream. More than one-third of American adults eat at fast food restaurants every day. Add packaged snacks to this fried-foods mix and, not surprisingly, obesity and earlier death rates result. 

With tastier, saturated fats readily available such as extra-virgin olive oil, coconut oil and avocado oil, to name a few, it’s become easy to eliminate these less nutrient-dense industrial seed oils from our homes.  

Further, seed oil crop production represents a major source of greenhouse gas emissions and accounts for record rates of deforestation. These, in turn, result in massive biodiversity loss. Each day the world loses 137 species of plants, animals and insects due to deforestation, which is the second-largest contributor to climate change after fossil-fuel combustion. 

Here are some good first steps to eliminating industrial seed oils in our diets: 

• Make homemade salad dressing. Even buying organic, GMO-free dressing, the chances are still good the ingredients will include some type of seed oil.  
• Read ingredient labels. It’s surprising how ubiquitous industrial seed oils are and how easily they can be consumed unknowingly. 
• Research restaurants. Eliminate fast-fried foods and support those establishments which are intentional about using only good fats. Food coming out of their kitchens are almost always tastier, anyway. 

And, finally, tackle some spring cleaning starting with the pantry shelves and fridge. Purging the “hateful eight” industrial seed oils from our diets will result in improved health for our bodies and our planet.