This is completely inaccurate.

Roughly speaking, caloric surpluses lead to fat storage because of insulin. Carbs and sugars cause insulin spikes. HFCS causes an even more significant insulin spike. It's not natural for your body to ingest something that sweet. For lack of a better term sugar really is the enemy.

There are now studies out that show that even diet sodas cause weight gain, because even though they include artificial, or "low calorie" sweeteners, the body still reacts to them with a small insulin spike.

Seed oils are a small but significant part of the entire mass food system that's creating a state of chronic disease and unhealthiness in the US. When you realize the entire system and food pyramid being pushed by the FDA is working in the opposite direction of your overall health and well-being, you can begin to see how bad it is. We are only a generation or two removed from the history that led to it, with the food demand of two world wars, hybridization of wheat for mass agriculture expansion, etc..

I gave up processed seed oils for lent one year and dropped about 20 pounds before lent was over, without changing anything else in my lifestyle. That led me down a functional medicine journey that has had a huge positive impact on my health, and led me to understand that the standard american diet is killing people, or keeping them sick.

From my understanding the mass manufacturing and refinement process of the oils is what makes them horrible for you. They are damn near cooking it into a transfat during processing, bleaching, deodorizing, etc.. And it's extremely high in omega 6 fatty acids, which cause chronic and widespread inflammation. "Lecithinated" oil is in just about every single packaged food product on the shelves as a preservative. These are highly refined, partially hydrogenated seed oils that cause the same issues. Hell, it's hard to even find a protein powder without seed oils in the form of lecithin.

For non-cooked items: Extra virgin olive oil due to taste and low smoke point.

Cooked: Avocado oil, Ghee, or Coconut oil, due to their high smoke points. Mostly Avocado oil since it has a neutral taste.

You also have to be careful when purchasing non-seed oil products because very often the front of the label will blare out AVOCADO OIL, while the back of the label will show its ingredients include a blend of processed seed oils and avocado oil. Same goes for olive oil products.

ETA: OP: When you remove seed oils from your diet you are not only removing seed oils, but removing all of the ultra processed, packaged foods that include them, so you will generally clean up your diet pretty significantly by just doing that. What else do packaged foods contain? Refined carbohydrates and added sugars. Once you remove seed oils from your diet, start addressing the refined carbs like "enriched" flour and added sugars. The issue is they are in everything. Bread, cereal, pasta, fruit spreads, popular peanut butter brands, everything... so it's very difficult to do.

Also one thing I didn't realize would have such an impact is the order of what you eat. Eating a green salad (without all the added BS), before protein, before carbs (salad, entre, desert) will lead to something like 65% less absorption of those carbs at the end. So something as simple as the order in which you each your meal can have a big impact on your health.

This post was edited on 5/13/24 at 6:13 pm