I'm willing to consider and eventually accept the idea that vegetable oil, or some class of oil or fat in general, is causing significant public health problems and increases risk of disease. However, every time I delve into the research on vegetable oil I end up being more confused.
This seems to be the case in many of the studies cited in this essay as well. For example, a number of the studies aggregate over margarine and other types of vegetable oil, which seems really difficult or impossible to interpret, especially given that trans fats are now generally accepted to be unhealthy.
Other problems arise here in and elsewhere in defining oil composition. I've noticed for instance that safflower and sunflower oil are almost always lumped together in one category, even though there are chemically very different forms of both available. For example, high oleic and other sunflower oils are really different, and sunflower oil in general is generally relatively easily modified genetically speaking. So talking about "sunflower oil" as a single ingredient biochemically is problematic.
There's also issues with cooked versus raw oils, which the essay alludes to but seems extremely important given how different fat structures are transformed by heat.
I'm not trying to tear down the piece, but I do find this area of research really difficult to interpret.
This seems to be the case in many of the studies cited in this essay as well. For example, a number of the studies aggregate over margarine and other types of vegetable oil, which seems really difficult or impossible to interpret, especially given that trans fats are now generally accepted to be unhealthy.
Other problems arise here in and elsewhere in defining oil composition. I've noticed for instance that safflower and sunflower oil are almost always lumped together in one category, even though there are chemically very different forms of both available. For example, high oleic and other sunflower oils are really different, and sunflower oil in general is generally relatively easily modified genetically speaking. So talking about "sunflower oil" as a single ingredient biochemically is problematic.
There's also issues with cooked versus raw oils, which the essay alludes to but seems extremely important given how different fat structures are transformed by heat.
I'm not trying to tear down the piece, but I do find this area of research really difficult to interpret.