🌾🧴 Are Seed Oils Worse Than Sugar? Association Between Nutrition and Crown Virus!

This blog post is about fixing the underlying problems that cause metabolic damage and inflammation, leading to autoimmunity, weight gain, diabetes, cancer, and accelerated aging processes. Dr. Cate Shanahan applied her learning and experiences to write Deep Nutrition: Why Your Genes Need Traditional Food.

🔬 What Are Seed Oils?

• Seed oils are extracted from the seeds (not the fruit) of plants.

• Not all are bad — processing and fatty acid content matter most.

• The biggest concern is PUFAs (polyunsaturated fatty acids), which are unstable and toxic when refined or heated.

⚠️ The "Hateful Eight" Seed Oils to Avoid:

Dr. Cate’s list of the most harmful, highly refined, PUFA-rich oils!

These oils are commonly found in processed foods, restaurant meals, salad dressings, and mayonnaise, and are associated with obesity, heart disease, fatty liver, and brain disorders.

💣 Why Are They Harmful?

• PUFAs oxidize during refining and cooking, creating toxic compounds.

• Refined oils undergo deodorization, which forms non-removable toxins.

• These toxins accumulate in body fat, disrupt metabolism, and contribute to chronic disease.

• Even "heart-healthy" claims are based on flawed, industry-funded science (e.g., by AHA and Procter & Gamble).

✅ Safe and Healthy Fats:

Dr. Cate recommends traditional fats that are stable and minimally processed. Chef Janine agrees:

• Butter, ghee, tallow, lard

• Olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil

• Peanut oil (unrefined), macadamia, duck fat, bacon fat

• Sesame oil (in moderation and combined with stable oils)

💄 Seed Oils in Skincare:

• Topical seed oils like grapeseed oil are not harmful, since the skin absorbs little to no PUFA.

❓ Common Misconceptions:

• “Vegetable oil” on labels usually means a mix of harmful seed oils — not olive or coconut.

• Expeller-pressed or organic seed oils are still harmful due to the refining process.

• High-oleic seed oils are less bad but still not healthy long-term.

• Seeds themselves are fine — the oil extraction and refinement cause the problem.

🍽️ Quick Tips:

• Avoid cooking with flax, walnut, fish, and any of the Hateful 8 oils.

• Use refined avocado or coconut oil only when necessary — better than seed oils but not ideal.

• Fish oil supplements are often toxic unless from high-quality sources.

• Hydrogenated oils and margarine are among the worst — full of trans fats.

📚 Learn More:

• Dr. Cate expands on these topics in her books:

  • The FatBurn Fix – Focuses on obesity and metabolism

  • Deep Nutrition – Links seed oils to heart and brain disease

• She also offers a PUFA-free shopping list and links to seed oil-free restaurants.

Bottom Line:

Avoid the Hateful 8 seed oils and processed foods that contain them. Choose traditional, stable fats for better metabolic, cardiovascular, and brain health.

Nutrition & Coronavirus: Why Your Diet May Be Fueling the Fire

According to Dr. Cate Shanahan, the real reason the coronavirus is so dangerous isn’t just the virus itself—it’s the poor state of our collective health. While many physicians initially compared COVID-19 to a bad flu, the reality has been far more severe for millions. The difference, Dr. Cate argues, lies in what we’re putting on our plates.

The standard American diet, particularly the heavy use of industrial seed oils, has turned our immune systems into inflammation engines. These oils—often found in processed foods—wreak havoc on the body’s defenses. And when a virus like COVID-19 targets the endothelial lining of our blood vessels, it’s inflammation that gives it a foothold to do serious damage.

“If the virus gets that far,” Dr. Cate explains, “it’s because inflammation opened the door.”

But here’s the deeper issue:

Most clinicians aren’t trained to recognize the connection between nutrition and immune resilience. Many still believe outdated notions—like cholesterol being the main cause of clogged arteries, salt driving hypertension, and saturated fats being universally harmful. Few doctors, she says, even check the ingredient lists on the food they eat, let alone advise their patients to.

That’s why Dr. Cate advocates for a return to traditional wisdom—where food was medicine long before prescriptions. “Cookbooks,” she says, “were our original nutrition science texts.” They were grounded in real-world knowledge, passed down through generations, reflecting how people once extracted health from their environments without chronic illness.

She credits the Weston A. Price Foundation for reshaping her understanding of health. Dr. Price’s core idea is simple but profound: our physical health mirrors the health of the land and food systems we live in harmony with. This ancestral perspective may hold the key to building true immunity.

To learn more about the dangers of seed oils and how to move toward a traditional, healing diet, visit Dr. Cate's website.