Why We Quit Seed Oils (And What We Cook With Instead)

Three years ago, if you’d told us that cooking oil would become the most controversial item in our kitchen, we’d have laughed. Canola oil was just… oil. It’s what everyone used.

Then we started reading.

What Are Seed Oils, Exactly?

Seed oils; sometimes called “vegetable oils,” which is a generous marketing term; are oils extracted from the seeds of plants using industrial processes. The most common ones:

Canola oil (rapeseed)
Soybean oil
Sunflower oil
Safflower oil
Corn oil
Grapeseed oil
Cottonseed oil

These oils barely existed before the early 1900s. The technology to extract them at scale didn’t exist. For context, Crisco (one of the first mass-market seed oil products) launched in 1911, originally marketed as a soap ingredient.

How They’re Made

This is what changed our minds. The process for making canola oil goes roughly like this:

Seeds are heated to high temperatures
A chemical solvent (hexane) is used to extract the oil
The oil is degummed, bleached, and deodorized to remove the rancid smell caused by processing
Synthetic antioxidants are added to extend shelf life

Compare that to olive oil: crush olives, collect the juice. Or butter: churn cream. The gap in processing is enormous.

The Omega-6 Problem

Our bodies need both omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids. Historically, humans consumed these in roughly a 1:1 to 4:1 ratio (omega-6 to omega-3).

Modern Western diets (heavily reliant on seed oils) push that ratio to somewhere between 15:1 and 25:1.

Why does this matter? Omega-6 fatty acids, specifically linoleic acid, are precursors to pro-inflammatory compounds. In moderate amounts, this is fine; inflammation is a normal immune response. But chronic, low-grade inflammation is linked to a depressing list of conditions:

Heart disease
Type 2 diabetes
Obesity
Autoimmune disorders
Skin conditions (acne, eczema, premature aging) through the gut-skin axis

We’re not saying seed oils cause these conditions. But removing a major source of excess omega-6 seemed like a reasonable experiment.

What We Noticed After Switching

Full disclosure: this is anecdotal. We’re not a clinical trial. But across our small team, here’s what we observed after 3–6 months of zero seed oils:

Less bloating after meals. the most immediate and unanimous change
Clearer skin. two team members with persistent mild acne saw significant improvement
Better energy after eating. no more afternoon crashes after lunch
Food tasted better. butter and olive oil just have more flavor than canola

The skin change was the most surprising. One of us had tried every topical treatment for years. Removing seed oils and switching to traditional fats did more than any cream ever did. It also opened the door to better cooking overall, especially for high-protein breakfasts that taste incredible in butter.

What We Cook With Now

Here’s our current oil rotation:

Butter & Ghee

Our workhorse fats. Butter for eggs, vegetables, sauces; basically everything at medium heat. Ghee (clarified butter) for higher-heat cooking since the milk solids are removed, giving it a higher smoke point.

We buy grass-fed when the budget allows. Kerrygold is the standard recommendation, and for good reason; it’s widely available and genuinely good.

Extra-Virgin Olive Oil

For salad dressings, drizzling over finished dishes, and low-to-medium heat cooking. We go through a lot of olive oil.

The key is buying real EVOO. A disturbing amount of store-bought olive oil is adulterated with cheaper oils. Look for harvest dates on the bottle, single-origin producers, and dark glass containers.

Tallow

Beef tallow is our high-heat champion. French fries in tallow? Transformative. Searing steaks? Unbeatable. It sounds old-fashioned because it is; every restaurant used tallow before the seed oil industry convinced them to switch.

You can render your own from beef fat (suet) or buy it pre-rendered. A jar lasts weeks in the fridge.

Coconut Oil

Used less frequently, mainly for certain Asian dishes or when we want that subtle coconut flavor. It’s solid at room temperature and has a decent smoke point.

Avocado Oil

Our backup for high-heat when tallow feels too heavy. Good for mayo, too. Just watch the brand; many avocado oils have been found to be diluted or rancid. We stick to Chosen Foods or Primal Kitchen.

Practical Tips for Switching

Making this change is easier than you’d think:

Audit your pantry. check every sauce, dressing, and condiment. You’ll find seed oils in mayonnaise, salad dressings, hummus, pesto, bread, crackers, and even some nut butters.
Make your own dressings. olive oil + acid (lemon, vinegar) + seasoning. Takes 30 seconds and tastes better than anything in a bottle.
Restaurants are the hard part. almost every restaurant cooks with seed oils. We don’t stress about it when eating out occasionally, but for daily cooking at home, we keep things clean.
Read labels at the store. “made with olive oil” often means “made with mostly canola oil, plus a splash of olive oil for marketing.”
Don’t throw away everything at once. use up what you have (except the bottles of canola; those can go). Replace things naturally as they run out.
Upgrade your pans too. Non-stick coatings shed PFAS compounds when heated and accelerate fat oxidation. Our picks for best stainless steel cookware cover the pieces that replaced our non-stick set — they pair naturally with butter and tallow cooking.

The Research Landscape

We want to be transparent: the science on seed oils isn’t settled. You’ll find respectable researchers on both sides. The American Heart Association still recommends “vegetable oils” as a heart-healthy choice, largely based on their cholesterol-lowering effects.

What’s harder to dispute:

These oils are evolutionarily novel. humans never consumed them at this scale
The processing methods are industrial, not traditional
The omega-6 to omega-3 ratio in modern diets is wildly skewed
Populations that consume traditional fats (Mediterranean, Japanese, French) tend to have better health outcomes

For us, the logic was simple: if the choice is between a fat that’s been consumed for thousands of years (butter, olive oil, tallow) as part of an ancestral eating framework and one that requires chemical solvents to produce and didn’t exist until last century; we’ll take the traditional option.

Your kitchen, your call. But maybe read the back of your canola oil bottle first.

Frequently Asked Questions

What can I use instead of seed oils for cooking?

The best substitutes depend on cooking temperature. For high-heat cooking and frying, use tallow, ghee, or avocado oil. For medium-heat sauteing, use butter or coconut oil. For dressings and cold use, extra virgin olive oil is the gold standard. All of these are minimally processed and have been used for centuries.

Are all seed oils bad?

The concern is primarily with highly refined, industrially processed oils high in omega-6 fatty acids: canola, soybean, corn, sunflower, safflower, and cottonseed oil. Cold-pressed versions of some seed oils (like sesame oil used in small amounts for flavor) are less problematic because they retain their natural antioxidants and aren’t damaged by chemical processing.

Is olive oil a seed oil?

No. Olive oil is a fruit oil, pressed from whole olives using mechanical methods. Extra virgin olive oil is cold-pressed without chemicals or high heat. It has a completely different fatty acid profile (high in oleic acid, an omega-9) and thousands of years of safe dietary use. Olive oil is one of the most well-researched healthy fats available.

How do I avoid seed oils when eating out?

You largely cannot. Almost every restaurant cooks with seed oils because they’re cheap. Focus on what you can control: your home cooking. When eating out, choose dishes that are grilled, roasted, or steamed rather than fried. Don’t stress about occasional restaurant meals; the goal is reducing your overall daily intake, not achieving zero exposure.