Since 2020, the health effects of consuming certain processed vegetable oils, called "seed oils" by critics, have been subject to controversy in popular media. The trend grew after podcaster and comedian Joe Rogan interviewed fad diet proponent Paul Saladino about the carnivore diet, during which they discussed the health effects of vegetable fats.[1][2][3][4][5] Critics falsely claim that seed oils are the root cause of most diseases of affluence, including heart disease,[6] cancer,[7] diabetes,[8] and liver spots.[9] Such claims are not based in science.[10]
- ^ Dickson 2023: "Derek Beres, the co-author of the book Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat, says he first started noticing whispers about seed oils being hazardous to your health when he saw Paul Saladino, aka Carnivore MD, an influencer with more than two million Instagram followers who advocates for a primarily animal-based diet, speaking about it on Joe Rogan's podcast."
- ^ Zaleski 2021: "Last year, Joe Rogan talked to doctor and carnivore diet evangelist Paul Saladino about this for more than three hours."
- ^ Williams 2022: "[T]he interview with Saladino resonated with Rogan's curious, hungry, and enormous audience"
- ^ Carleton 2022: "Take Dr. Paul Saladino, the doctor behind the Carnivore Diet, which recommends replacing plant foods with meat, for example—he spent three hours on the Joe Rogan Experience in 2020 describing the harms of seed oils, among other fringe views, including that doing cold plunges has the same health benefits as consuming a plate of vegetables. His name is often mentioned on this section of the internet, (one redditor attributed the proliferation of anti-seed oil sentiment entirely to his appearance on the podcast)."
- ^ Saladino 2020, 58:23: "I think it's important to understand what we talked about, processed vegetable oils and processed sugars, hugely bad for humans."
- ^ Harvard University 2022: "[P]ushed back on the idea that these oils cause health ills ranging from headaches to heart disease."
- ^ Bailey 2023: "the bulk of recent research has not been kind to Simopoulos' assertion that the supposedly imbalanced consumption of linoleic acid found in seed oils 'makes you more vulnerable to heart disease, cancer, obesity, inflammations, autoimmune diseases, allergies, diabetes and depression.'"
- ^ Liao 2022: "[T]hey're blamed for a host of ills, such as headaches, foggy thinking, lowered immunity, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and more."
- ^ Williams 2022: "[I]f you want something to blame for everything from cancer to heart disease, dementia to age spots, there are a whole lot of people out there who will tell you the culprit is lurking in your pantry"
- ^ Colorado State University 2023: "Overall, claiming that seed oils are harmful to health is not, in fact, an evidence-based claim."