Seed oils: Making sense of the complex science behind good cooking oils

We all consume them. Oils are an inescapable element of the modern western diet.

Yet the matter of which food oils are best for our health is complex, confusing and, at times, controversial.

Canola, safflower, coconut, peanut, avocado, olive, rice bran and grapeseed are some of the many available oils on supermarket shelves.

The increasingly long list has been driven by the rise and proliferation of seed oils.

They are cheap to produce on an industrial scale and come with a long shelf life, making them a common ingredient in ultra processed foods.

Seed oils were initially marketed as “heart-healthy” alternatives to saturated fats, with clinical trials showing people who replaced saturated fats with them had lower cholesterol and cardiovascular disease risk.

But there are growing conc