Seed Oils: Why Both Sides Are Missing the Real Problem

What’s Inside This Episode:

• Why “seed oils” is a misleading category
• How refined oils differ from whole seeds
• The metabolic consequences of excess omega-6
• The role of oxidation and processing in health outcomes
• How fatty acid balance influences inflammation and insulin signaling
• Why individual metabolic health changes oil tolerance
• Key questions practitioners should ask before recommending oils
• A framework for evaluating oils without fear or hype

Resources and Links:

• Download the Full Transcript here
• Download our FREE Beyond Protocols: A Practitioner's Guide to Root-Cause Pattern Recognition to learn how to identify underlying patterns, connect symptoms with root-cause mechanisms, and make more strategic clinical decisions. 
• Access the Genetic Pathway Mapping Workshop Replay to learn a clinical framework for identifying genetic patterns and applying targeted epigenetic strategies. Approximately 2 hours of training.
• Join the Next-Level Health Practitioner Facebook group here for free resources and community support
• Visit INEMethod.com for advanced health practitioner training and tools to elevate your clinical skills and grow your practice by getting life-changing results. 
• Check out other podcast episodes here

 

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Transcript

 

Dr Ritamarie 

What if the entire seed oil debate is asking the wrong question? One side says seed oils are toxic, avoid them completely. The other side says that's nonsense, omega-6 fats are essential, and the research does not show they're harmful. 

 

Well, here's the problem: both sides are often oversimplifying a conversation that needs much more precision, because seed oils actually are not a true biochemical category.

 

Flax oil, hemp oil, sesame oil, pumpkin seed oil, soybean oil, corn oil, cottonseed oil, and conventional safflower oils can all be called seed oils. All of them are labeled that way, but they don't have anywhere near the same fatty acid profile. They're not processed in the same way. They don't have the same oxidative stability. 

 

These are the things that matter. They don't have the same traditional uses. They do not affect the omega-6:3 balance in the same way. There's always a difference between them, so when somebody says something like, “Are seed oils good or bad?” My first response is, that's not the right question. 

 

A better question is, what is the fatty acid composition? How is the oil processed? Is it fresh or oxidized? Is it being heated? Is it coming from whole foods or processed foods?

 

And, what's the metabolic terrain of the person consuming it? The body doesn't respond to slogans, the body responds to chemistry. What's actually going in? Today we're going to unpack that chemistry in a way that can help practitioners guide people with more clarity, more confidence, and a whole lot less dogma. 

 

Today we're diving into one of the most emotionally charged nutrition debates right now, seed oils. 

 

What we're not going to do is do the usual good versus bad argument. I'm going to show you a study that shows these are good. I'm going to show you one that shows these are bad. We're going to go deeper. We're going to talk about essential fatty acid balance. We're going to talk about omega-6 and 3 ratios, cell membrane function, inflammation, insulin resistance, oxidative stress, and why lumping all oils from seeds into one category is not just scientifically sloppy, it can lead people to make poor clinical and dietary decisions.

 

For practitioners, this matters. For people, this matters, especially people who are suffering from inflammation and autoimmune conditions. They're hearing that seed oils are poison. No seed oils. We see this in a lot of restaurants now. They're hearing that seed oils are harmless.

 

This study showed that it reduced the risk of cardiovascular disease. We're hearing that all omega-6 is inflammatory, and omega-6 lowers cardiovascular risk, all in the same breath. 

 

Dr Ritamarie (03:25)

People are turning to practitioners to help them make sense of it. So let's bring some sanity, science, and critical discernment into the conversation. 

 

Let's start with the most important point. Omega-6 fats are not inherently bad. Omega-3 fats are not magically good in isolation. Both omega-3 and -6 are essential. They're called essential fatty acids for a reason. This means that the body can't make them from scratch.

 

We have to get them from food. The two primary essential fatty acids that we talk about are linoleic acid, which is an omega-6, and alpha-linolenic acid, which is an omega-3. From these, the body can make all the other fats, longer chain fatty acids, EPA, DHA, although conversion does vary widely depending on a person's genetics, their inflammatory processes, what B vitamins, hormones, fat exposure, age, and whole lot of other factors. 

 

Linoleic acid converts downstream into arachidonic acid. Alpha linoleic acid can be converted downstream into EPA and DHA. That conversion is sometimes limited depending on the person's state of health. 

 

That's where the conversation starts to get interesting, because these fats are not just fuel. They become part of every cell membrane. They influence the fluidity of those membranes. They influence receptor function, hormone receptors on the cells. They influence inflammatory and resolving mediators. They influence the mitochondrial function. They influence endothelial function. They influence insulin sensitivity and insulin signaling. They also influence immune communications. 

 

So when we talk about omega-6 and omega-3, we're not just talking about calories from fat. We're talking about the structural and signaling environment of the cell. That's why balance matters so much. 

 

There was a study back in 2024 from the Biobank Population Study, it was called, that found that a higher plasma omega-6 to 3 ratio was associated with a higher risk of all-cause cancer and cardiovascular mortality. Higher omega-6 to omega-3 ratio associated with all-cause mortality.

 

That same study also found that both omega-6 and omega-3 levels, individually, were inversely associated with mortality, with omega-3 showing a stronger association. So that's why this conversation requires nuance. We're finding good things about both of them, their balance and their ratio. 

 

We can't honestly say omega-6 is poison, but it's not clinically wise to ignore the ratio between the 6 and the 3. That's where a lot of people get tripped up. They hear that higher linoleic acid levels are sometimes associated with better cardiovascular outcomes, and they conclude: great, omega-6 is fine. No need to worry about it. No need to look at the ratios. That's important.

 

It's very, very important that we don't look at it that way, because it misses a very important distinction. 

 

An omega-6 fatty acid may be essential and even associated with benefit in certain contexts, while excessive omega-6 to 3 may still be a problem. Those are not the same question. It's like saying calcium is essential, therefore calcium balance doesn't matter.

 

We need to have balance when it comes to nutrients. It's especially true with the omega-6 and 3s, calcium without magnesium, vitamin D, vitamin K, K2, parathyroid function, kidney function, and inflammatory context. It's not the same conversation. So say calcium is important, and  we skip everything else, and we add it. No, this is a place where balance is important throughout the entire body.

 

Omega-6 is essential. We can't avoid all omega-6. Omega-3 is essential. We shouldn't avoid omega-6 or omega-3. The body needs both of them. We can't make these, and they have functions that cannot be taken up and done by other kinds of fats.  

 

Dr Ritamarie (07:42)

What happens is the terrain matters, the source matters. So industrially processed canola or corn oil is very, very different from cold-pressed flax oil, but they're both lumped into the same categories. Unless studies are distinguishing between the source and the processing as well as the quantities, it makes no sense. We might as well not even look at that study, because we don't know.

 

Let's look at the modern shift in fat intake. Let's look at why this became such a big issue. Human diets changed dramatically over the last century. I think there's no arguing about that. 

 

One important paper looked at changes in omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acid consumption from 1909 to 1999. So it's a 90-year period. The authors found major changes in essential fatty acid intake across the 20th century with increased omega-6 intake, largely related to changes in the food supply, especially vegetable oils such as soybean oil, which is used all over the place. 

 

This didn't change just what was in the pantry. It changed what was in our tissue. It changed what was in our cell membrane. There was a review by Guyenet and Carlson that found that linoleic acid, that's the 6, in subcutaneous adipose tissue of American adults increased by 136% over the last half century. That increase strongly correlated with increases in dietary linoleic acid intake. 

 

This is what matters, because people can control what's happening at a cellular level when we control what we're putting in our mouths. Adipose tissue isn't just storage, it's endocrine tissue. We know that adipose tissue, fat tissue, secretes various hormones, leptin and estrogen and other things like that. 

 

That tissue, it talks to the immune system. It influences inflammation, which is super important with the preponderance of autoimmune disease in our current society. It influences the sensitivity of the cells to insulin, which contributes to the lack of sugar within the cell, fuel within the cell that the mitochondria then can convert to ATP. It stores fat-soluble compounds.

 

We need these fats to help with getting the fat-soluble vitamins involved. The fatty acid composition of adipose tissue reflects long-term dietary patterns. If we can measure that, we can see what's been happening over the long haul, not just what happened yesterday. 

 

Dr Ritamarie (10:30)

The question becomes, what happens when the modern diet increases omega-6 rich refined foods?  This is where most of it comes from, and decreases omega-3 rich foods? It increases with processed food exposure, increases oxidative stress, increases insulin resistance, and then we pretend the only issue is whether the oil came from a seed. That's not good science. That's reductionism. 

 

Why do I think that seed oils are a broken category?

 

Well, let's talk about the phrase seed oils. I understand why people use it. It's easy to lump things all together. It's very simple, and it's memorable. Don't eat seed oils. Seed oils are labeled as bad. It gives people something to avoid and allows menus or restaurants to market themselves as ‘healthy' simply because they avoid seed oils. The modern food supply is flooded with ultra-processed products, fried restaurant foods, and refined industrial oils made with various solvents. 

 

Categorizing oils simply as ‘seed oils' is convenient, but it’s not a clinically useful category. It lumps together oils that are chemically, nutritionally, and functionally very, very different. 

 

Let's compare a few. Flax oil is from a seed. It's a seed rich in alpha linolenic acid, an omega 3 fat. It's fragile. It needs to be cold pressed. It needs to be refrigerated. It needs to be protected from light, heat, and air. Hemp oil is from a seed. It contains both omega-6 and omega-3, often in a more favorable ratio than most conventional oils do, and it's still fragile and should be handled carefully. 

 

Sesame oil is from a seed. It contains omega-6 and omega-9, very little, if any, omega-3, along with lignins and antioxidant compounds. Traditionally processed sesame oil is not the same as industrial refined soybean oil or other oils.

 

 Pumpkin seeds, from a seed, has a unique phytochemical profile and culinary use. 

 

Now compare these oils with conventional soybean oil, corn oil, cottonseed oil, canola oil, and high-linoleic safflower or sunflower oils commonly used in packaged foods and restaurant cooking. These oils are used in ways that do not preserve their inherent value and can cause oxidative stress and free radical formation. During processing, they are frequently refined, bleached, and deodorized. They are widely used in ultra-processed foods and consumed in amounts that are historically unprecedented. 

 

We are not getting just a little pinch of olive oil on a salad. We are getting these in all the foods that are on the table, that are on the shelf, that are in breakfast cereals and crackers and cookies and all that. This doesn't mean that every molecule of linoleic acid in them is toxic. It doesn't.

 

When they are subject to industrial processing, there's an increased oxidation risk. There's high dose exposure, there's low omega-3 status and metabolic vulnerability that all have to be part of the conversation. 

 

If somebody is eating a lot of omega-6, but they're also eating a lot of omega-3, they're not going to be as compromised as somebody who is focused mainly on omega-6 that comes from industrially processed foods, ultra-processed foods.

 

When somebody says, “Seed oils are bad.” I want us as practitioners to pause and ask, which seed oil? Cold-pressed or industrially refined? High omega-3, high omega-6, or high omega-9? 

 

Let's be clear about this. Are they fresh or oxidized? Are they heated, or are they raw? It makes a difference, the temperature, the melting point of those foods, used occasionally or consumed daily, as in packaged foods? Are they consumed by a metabolically healthy person, or by someone with insulin resistance, autoimmunity, cardiovascular risk, brain fog, chronic pain, or inflammatory symptoms. 

 

These questions are important, and they move us from ideology to clinical thinking. 

 

Dr Ritamarie (14:45)

Let's dig deeper into this controversy. The people pushing back against the seed oil fear, they're not completely wrong. There are studies that show higher linoleic acid biomarkers associated with lower cardiovascular risk. 

 

For example, a pooled analysis published in Circulation in 2019 found that higher biomarkers of linoleic acid were associated with lower risk of total cardiovascular disease, ischemic stroke, and cardiovascular mortality.

 

The conclusion was a little faulty. The authors concluded that their findings supported potential cardiovascular benefits of linoleic acid and didn't support theorized cardiovascular harms. This is important. We can't ignore it. This is why practitioners like us need to avoid black and white statements like omega-6 causes heart disease, or seed oils are always toxic. That's not precise enough.

 

We also need to be careful not to swing in the other direction and say because minimal biomarkers are associated with lower cardiovascular risk in some studies, people should freely consume refined omega-6 oils without concern. 

 

I saw a popular YouTuber/Instagrammer talking about how the seed oil thing was a controversy, and it was not valid and that omega-6s were fine. I can understand his perspective, and then he was drinking from a bottle of Wesson oil. Come on, that is not good science. That is not good, clinical judgment. It's not precise enough. 

 

Biomarker studies don't always tell us the whole story, and it's population driven. Good for one is not going to necessarily be  good for another.

 

Higher linoleic acid in the blood or the tissue may reflect many things. It could be that it's replacing trans fats. That's a good thing. It could be replacing certain types of saturated fats. That could be good. It might be that the person's eating more nuts and seeds and eating more plant foods or having a different overall diet pattern.

 

Dr Ritamarie (16:48)

Those could be the protective things. Someone that's eating walnuts and hemp seeds and chia seeds and leafy greens and whole plant foods is not the same as somebody eating chips, commercial dressings, fried foods, vegan processed meats, and packaged gluten-free snacks, all made with refined oils. They're very, very different. Both may be consuming omega-6, but what's the quality of that omega-6? The clinical context is totally different.

 

That's where the debate becomes kind of absurd, in my opinion, because one camp says omega-6 is inflammatory, and the other says linoleic acid is associated with lower cardiovascular disease. Neither sentence is enough. The real question is in what context, what form, what dietary pattern, in what person, and with what omega-3 status, and with oxidative burden. What's the tissue ratio of 6 to 3? All of these are important.

 

One of the most important distinctions practitioners can teach is the difference between whole foods and extracted refined oils. Nuts and seeds are not the same as bottled refined oils. Whole sesame seeds, hemp seeds, chia seeds, flax seeds, walnuts, almonds, pumpkin seeds, and sunflower seeds come packaged with fiber, minerals, polyphenols, plant sterols, amino acids, and other compounds that change how they behave in the body.

 

Extracted oils are concentrated fat, and somehow the health food industry has made them heroes. Make sure you have your olive oil, make sure you get your avocado oil. No, eating olives and eating avocados, that's a good thing. Eating the oils may lead to overconsumption of fat and the exposure to oxidative byproducts. That is what we need to be looking for. They're very different. 

 

Extracted oils are very different from whole food sources. When somebody eats a small amount of ground flax or chia, they get omega-3, alpha-linolenic, and they also get fiber, lignins, minerals. All of the things that can support health. 

 

When someone eats tahini or sesame seeds, they get lignins, minerals, and a whole food matrix. When somebody pours large amounts of refined soybean oil into food and eats packaged foods made with refined oils every day, even multiple times a week, that's a very different exposure.

 

Dr Ritamarie (19:08)

We need to distinguish between that as we’re doing dietary intakes with people. 

 

For practitioners, this is a crucial teaching point. Don't put whole nuts and seeds in the same mental bucket as refined industrial oils. They may be higher in omega-6, maybe both are high in omega-6, but it's totally different packaging. Don't put cold-pressed flax oil in the same bucket as refined corn oil. They have a very different effect on the body.

 

It's not science when we do this. It's just lazy categorization without having to look deeper. 

 

I want to talk about cell membranes now and why the ratio matters. Every single cell in our body obviously has a membrane. That membrane is not just a passive wall, it's an intelligent, dynamic, responsive surface, an interface between the cell and the bloodstream.

 

It helps determine how cells receive signals. It influences how insulin receptors and other hormone receptors function. It influences inflammatory signaling. It influences how the mitochondria communicate and how they have the ability to make ATP, the energy. It also influences immune activation, hormone receptor sensitivity as a whole.

 

The fats we eat become incorporated in the cell membranes, so the balance of 6 and 3 fatty acids can influence the inflammatory tone and signaling environment of the cell. 

 

Omega-6 fats can be converted into compounds that are more inflammatory or prothrombotic, although that's an oversimplification, because omega-6 derivatives can also have important regulatory roles. Not bad, not good. They're just functioning in the way that they're intended to support or to hurt. 

 

Dr Ritamarie (21:00)

Omega-3 fatty acids, especially EPA and DHA, can be converted into things called resolvins and protectins and things that help support the resolution phase of inflammation. This is crucial, because inflammation isn't always bad. 

 

The body needs inflammation to respond to injury, infection, and repair. The problem is not the inflammation itself. The problem is the inflammation that doesn't resolve, and omega-3s and -6s, all the categories, are important in those resolutions of inflammation. We don't just need fewer inflammatory triggers. We need better resolution capacity for the inflammation. That's where fatty acid balance becomes clinically relevant. 

 

For people with chronic pain and cardiovascular risk and insulin resistance, autoimmune, brain fog, skin issues, hormonal imbalance, metabolic dysfunction, these are critical. 

 

Let's talk about how omega-6 and -3 tie into insulin resistance. That's a biggie these days. I've been talking about this for over the last 15 years and now it's popular to talk about.

 

This is one of the areas that we as practitioners need to pay very close attention to, because insulin resistance affects all the systems in the body. Insulin resistance isn't just a blood sugar problem, it's a cell signaling problem, it's a membrane problem, it's a mitochondrial problem. It's an inflammatory problem. All of these things play into whether the body is receptive to insulin and carries glucose into the cells or not.

 

It's also a stress physiology problem when we have excess cortisol in the system. We need  nutrient sufficiency, magnesium and chromium and other things like that, and fatty acid composition can influence the terrain. 

 

If the cell membrane is stiff, inflamed, oxidatively stressed, and low in omega-3-derived structural fats like DHA, insulin signaling can be affected. 

 

DHA is especially important for neuronal membranes, retinal tissue, mitochondrial membranes, and cell signaling, and EPA plays a major role in inflammation balance and the resolution of that inflammation.

 

While ALA, alpha linolenic acid, from flax, chia, and hemp is valuable. Many people don't efficiently convert it. This is especially relevant for people who are low in zinc, low in magnesium, low in B vitamins, insulin resistance, inflamed, and genetically less efficient at fatty acid conversion. There are two SNPs, FADS1 and FADS2, that affect that conversion.

 

In clinical practice, the question's not just are you eating flax? A lot of people are. What is your EPA and DHA status? We can measure this. There are ways that we can measure this.

 

Dr Ritamarie (23:52)

For plant-based diets, that may mean algae-based EPA and DHA. For others, it may mean high quality fish oil or increased intake of fatty fish, depending on the values, preferences, and tolerance. The larger point is actually this.

 

You can't correct an omega-6 to -3 imbalance only by saying eat more flax.

 

Sure, that might help, but if somebody's consuming a large amount of refined omega-6 oils from packaged foods, dressings, restaurant foods, processed snacks, but also having low EPA and DHA, we need a two-sided strategy. We need to reduce those refined oil exposures, and we need to increase omega-3 intake and status, and both matters. We need to think about the conversion process. Their B vitamins, magnesium, zinc, all those things. 

 

Here's a practical framework that you as a practitioner can use. Not fear, not dogma, not omega-3 is bad and omega-6 is good. Not never eat this. Not all seed oils are poison. Not the research says omega 6 is fine, so don't worry about it. 

 

Use a decision-making framework. First, identify the oil. What are they doing? Is it flax, hemp, chia, sesame, pumpkin, sunflower, pumpkin, safflower, soybean, corn, cottonseed, rapeseed, avocado oil, coconut? Are they eating oil, or are they eating whole food fat? 

 

Secondly, identify the dominant fatty acid. Is it mostly omega-3, or is it mostly omega-6? Maybe it's mostly omega-9. You could determine that from their diet. You can also determine that by doing a fatty acid study. Is it mostly saturated? 

 

Then we have to look at the processing. Are they eating whole foods?

 

Are they eating cold-pressed oils? Are they eating expeller pressed, refined, bleached, deodorized? Is it industrial processed? Has it been put into a food and then heated to high temperatures? Is it solvent extracted, hydrogenated? That's a lot of stuff to be looking at. 

 

Then what's the use? Are they eating it raw? Most of those oils are not raw. They've been processed with high heat. You can get hemp seed, you can get flaxseed oil, you can get those raw. You can't get all of them that way. 

 

Is it used repeatedly at high heat? Are we going to the McDonald's, or other chains, and getting French fries that are repeatedly heated in the same oil, over and over, again, which is oxidizing the heck out of it? 

 

Finally, let's look at the frequency. How often is this person consuming these? What are the doses? If somebody goes to a restaurant once a week and has a stir fry that has some kind of oil in it. That's not going to be the same as eating it every day, eating it in processed foods.

 

We have to be discerning. Personally, I don't eat it at all. I mean, I go to restaurants sometimes, but most of the restaurants I go to don't use those kinds of oils. I really check. Or, I ask for things without oil, because I don't want to be exposed to that. I don't want to risk my inflammatory processes going haywire. A teaspoon of cold-pressed sesame oil? I do this, not a whole teaspoon, a quarter teaspoon or an eighth of a teaspoon for flavor.

 

It's just not the same as eating refined oil in three-packaged foods a day. It's not the same as doing this on a regular basis. 

 

We finally have to identify the person's terrain. Are they compromised? Are they insulin resistant? Do they have high HS-CRP, the inflammatory marker? Do they have autoimmune reactivity? Have they been diagnosed with an autoimmune condition or two or three? Do they have cardiovascular risk? I personally have high cardiovascular risk based on my family. Do they have brain fog? Chronic pain? 

 

Do they have other things that indicate that there's inflammation going on? Skin inflammation, low omega-3 index. That's a test you can do. Any of the labs, Labcore, Quest, they can all do those. Do they have gallbladder issues or fat digestion challenges? Has their gallbladder been removed? Do they have oxidative stress markers? This is how you guide individualized decisions. 

 

How would I categorize the oils clinically?

 

Here's a simple categorization. It's not perfect, but it is practical. 

Category one, omega-3 rich, fragile oils. These are flax oil, chia oil, and hemp oil. These have high levels of omega-3. They are really fragile. They need to be fresh and cold pressed and refrigerated and protected from light and not heated. I always tell people to use those oils in your salads, if you want a salad dressing, but don't put them in a pan and stir fry things. They can be useful for increasing ALA, alpha-linolenic acid, and omega-3, but they're not going to guarantee adequate EPA and DHA status. 

 

We have to look at the nutrients, we have to look at the B vitamins, we have to look at the magnesium and zinc and other things. 

 

The second category I would look at is traditionally cold pressed seed oils with mixed fatty acids. Things like sesame and pumpkin and hemp, they're a variety of -3, -6, and -9. They may have really good culinary uses and good phytonutrient value, but they still should be used thoughtfully and use the whole foods more than you use the oil. They don't just get a free pass, because they're traditional or cold-pressed. 

 

The third category, high linoleic industrial oils. This includes all the conventional oils, the Wesson oil, the vegetable oil, soybean, corn, cottonseed, grape seed, conventionally produced high linoleic safflower and sunflower oils. 

 

We have to look at these as a category that has a potential of disrupting the 6:3 balance, disrupting cell membrane integrities. I'm really, really cautious about these, because in excess, they are not good. Even in moderation, they're probably not good overall. Especially when they show up repeatedly in either restaurant eating or the processed foods that people eat. 

 

The fourth one is High oleic acid oils. Those include things like high oleic, that's omega-9, high oleic safflower, olive oil, and avocado oil. They're higher in monounsaturated fats and generally more stable, and they don't oxidize as quickly as the others.

 

Dr Ritamarie (30:27)

The last is saturated, tropical fats, and that includes coconut and palm oil. These have a very different fatty acid profile and different controversies. They're not part of the omega-6 overload issue in the same way, but they still need to be individualized based on lipids, genetics, cardiovascular risk, and overall dietary pattern. 

 

The categorization helps people to stop asking, is it a seed oil? And start asking, what is the value, the quality of this oil, and how's it going to react in my body? 

 

Here's how I would explain it to a client or patient in simple language. Your body needs both omega-6 and omega-3 fats. The problem is that the modern diet often gives people far more omega-6 than -3, especially from refined oils and processed foods. This can affect the balance of fats in your cell membranes and could influence inflammation, insulin signaling, and cardiovascular health. 

 

We're not going to panic over every seed or every oil. We're going to upgrade the quality, reduce the refined industrial oils, increase omega-3 rich foods, especially, and make sure your body has the fats needed for healthy cell communication. This is going to land much better with your patients, with your clients, than seed oils are toxic. And with your family, if you're here for your family’s health, it's much more accurate.

 

Here are some practical recommendations that you as practitioners, or as people, can use. 

 

First, reduce processed foods that contain refined soybean, corn, cottonseed, grapeseed, canola oil, and other things, conventionally processed sunflower and safflower. This one change alone can dramatically reduce all the extra omega-6 in most people.

 

Secondly, replace refined bottled oil with higher quality fats if you're using extra virgin olive oil over low to moderate heat, and use avocado oil when a neutral oil is needed. Try not to use oils in cooking, because number one, all the stuff we just talked about, but number two, it's just fat and calories without the bulk and the fiber to help you feel full. People will tend to lose weight when they reduce their oil consumption.

 

Dr Ritamarie (32:47)

If you're going to use oil, and you're using it for cooking, it should be coconut or avocado. If you're looking for flavor on your food, on your salads, and a dressing to make a nice Asian kind of dressing for a salad, those would be things like cold processed, a small amount, of sesame oil. Flax oil will give you good stuff in terms of your omega-3s, but the sesame gives it flavor. 

 

Use your omega-3 rich foods intentionally. What does that mean? What do I mean by intentionally? Well, you can grind flax and chia, you make chia porridge, you can use hemp seeds. I sprinkle it on salads, I sprinkle it into soups, I use it in yogurt, walnuts, same thing. These are high omega-3s that I sprinkle everywhere. Use your leafy greens and add your sea vegetables. Those do have good omega-3 fats in them. 

 

When you're looking at EPA, DHA, consider an algae-based omega-3 for plant-based individuals, or fish-based sources for those that include seafood. 

 

Fourth, don't heat those fragile oils. The omega-3 oils, either as oil, or as a whole food. I'm not a big fan of taking flax and making crackers out of it and putting them in the oven just because of that heat, damaging our omega-3s. Flax oil doesn't belong in the frying pan, and it also doesn't belong in the oven, neither does chia, and neither does hemp. 

 

None of these oils belong in a place where they're going to get heated. They're very delicate, and we create oxidative byproducts and stress. 

 

Then consider testing. This is where you can really help identify when there's imbalances, and you can fix them. You can refresh those ratios very quickly. You can use the omega-3 index. You can look at a fatty acid profile. Complete one. Genova Diagnostics has one. You can look at inflammatory markers like C reactive protein, and then you can look at things like fasting insulin and glucose and A1C and triglycerides, HDL, ApoB, oxidized LDL, which people skip, LpPLA2 and other markers of cardiovascular risk. 

 

You can make decisions based on the risk factor that a person's actually presenting with. You can look at the whole person instead of making assumptions, because somebody may be eating what looks like a healthy diet and still have a poor omega-3 index. Someone may be plant-based and eating lots of nuts and seeds, but not converting ALA efficiently. 

 

Someone might be eating a low-fat diet and still consuming refined oils through packaged foods. People say, I don't eat that. I'm not going to eat nuts or seeds or avocados. I remember my father in law, who was suffering from diabetes and heart disease, saying as I was checking out with him in the supermarket, he looked at all my avocados and nuts and seeds and things. He says, “You shouldn't eat all that fat.” Meanwhile, he's eating packaged garbage that has refined and bad fats for him. 

 

It's a misconception that so many people have. Somebody may be saying, I'm not eating seed oils, but they're eating a high saturated fat diet, and their ApoB may be problematic, or the LDL particle burden. We have to look at all these things. 

 

This is where we have to think logically, clinically, and from a science basis.

 

Here's a few phrases. All seed oils are toxic. Omega-6 causes inflammation. It's way too simplistic. 

 

Omega-6 fatty acids participate in inflammatory pathways. Yes, they do. Omega-6 participates in anti-inflammatory pathways. Yes, they do. They also all are needed for proper immune regulation.

 

Proper context matters. We have to help with the inflammation and get it under control. Inflammation is not inherently bad. If we say linoleic acid is bad, it's too simplistic. It's essential; it's an essential fat. The body can't make it. 

 

Some people are saying things like, “Just take a little fish oil, and you don't have to worry about your omega-6 intake,” and they continue to eat processed refined oils. That ignores the ratio, the food supply, the dose of refined oils that people are getting, and the difference between refined and not refined, the difference between the processing and the oxidative status. 

 

Dr Ritamarie (37:10)

People say sometimes it's cold-pressed, so it's automatically healthy. Not necessarily. It has to do with how much, how it's stored, how it's exposed to light, and how it's exposed to air. 

 

We have to look at that. Individual needs still matter. 

 

Then if it lowers cholesterol, it must be good. When they look at those seed oil studies that say that, what are they replacing? Are they replacing trans fats? Are they replacing a high load of saturated fat and heated and processed things? We have to look at the whole environment around this.

 

We need to look at inflammatory processes and oxidative stress. Of course, insulin signaling. We keep saying that, but I want to make sure that that hits home. 

 

Cell membrane composition, cardiovascular markers, all of these things matter, and to do it properly, we have to do a trial that's not just random people that are eating who knows what, but then their only thing they're controlling for is the amount of omega-6. 

 

Essential fatty acid matters. You should have that by now. The source, the processing, the dose, and the context of the person, the metabolic context, all determine whether a fat or an oil is neutral, problematic, or just helpful. 

 

There's a metaphor that might help. Think of cell membranes as the communication systems in the body. If that membrane is built with the right balance of fats, signals can move more smoothly through the body. Hormones can dock more effectively. Insulin can communicate more clearly. Inflammatory signals can turn on when needed and resolve when the job is done. Isn't that what we all want? 

 

If the membrane imbalance exists, it becomes imbalanced and oxidized and inflamed and low in the fats needed for resolution, the communication system gets noisy. The body starts missing signals. Insulin knocks, but the cell doesn't respond. Nobody's home. Inflammation starts, but it doesn't resolve well. The brain feels foggy, the joints start to ache, and things that are related to inflammation start to react. The skin reacts. The immune system becomes more easily triggered.

 

When we have an imbalance of fat, our mitochondria struggle. They struggle to make the right balance of ATP. 

 

It's not a matter of seed oils being evil, or seed oils are harmful. By now you should get that I don't believe in that, and I think you shouldn't either. What is this cell membrane being built from? 

 

Where do I stand? Obviously, I don't believe the phrase seed oils is precise enough to guide clinical decisions.

 

I also don't believe we should ignore the massive increase in refined omega-6 oils in the food supply. I don't believe omega-6 fats are inherently harmful. I do believe that omega-6 and -3 need to be in balance. I don't believe cold-pressed flax oil belongs in the same category as refined soybean oil. I also don't believe in slathering everything in cold-pressed flax oil. I don't believe sesame seeds, hemp seeds, or pumpkin seeds should be demonized, because they contain seed oils.

 

I do believe that many people, especially those who I work with a lot, with insulin resistance, chronic inflammation, cardiovascular risk, autoimmunity, brain fog, or pain, may benefit from reducing refined high oleic industrial oils and improving omega-3 status. I don't believe the answer is fear. 

 

I believe the answer is precision, and that's the message we need to bring to our clients, our patients, our students, and our communities. If you're a health practitioner, here's a clinical takeaway.

 

Dr Ritamarie (40:50)

When somebody asks you about seed oils, whether they're good or bad, don't answer too quickly. It's an opportunity for you to teach them discernment. Ask them what oils you're currently using at home.

 

What are the oils in your packaged foods? Do you eat packaged foods? A lot of my people don't eat packaged foods anymore. How often do you eat in a restaurant? That's one of our questions on our first initial questionnaire. Are you using oils for high heat cooking? Are you eating whole nuts and seeds or mostly extracted oils? We ask people, how much raw nuts and seeds do you eat in a week, because that gives me an idea of their intake of some of these omegas. 

 

Dr Ritamarie (41:30)

Are you taking or getting EPA and DHA, whether you're eating algae or fish or oils from them? Have you tested your omega-3 index? Do you have signs of inflammatory imbalance? Do you have insulin resistance or pre-insulin resistance?  Do you have cardiovascular risk markers that need deeper evaluation? 

 

This changes the conversation from avoiding this food to understanding your physiology and taking in the foods that work best with it. That's where real transformation happens. 

 

As we close today, I want to bring this back to the bigger mission. We are here to reinvent the healthcare system. This means moving beyond slogans, food fear, and one size fits all nutrition rules. It means helping people ask better questions. Not is this oil good or bad, but what is this oil made of? How is it processed? How are you using it in your foods in your daily life? And what is the balance of -6 to -3? That's all the stuff that we want to ask people to ask themselves, and what practitioners should be asking people. 

 

Is this supporting or disrupting my cell membranes, inflammatory resolution, insulin signaling, mitochondrial function, and long-term metabolic resilience. That's the level of thinking people need. That's part of reinventing healthcare, and it's the level of guidance that we as functional health practitioners were here to provide. 

 

The seed oil debate is not going away anytime soon, but we can elevate it. We can move the conversation from fear to physiology, from food rules to root causes, from internet arguments to individualized, personalized decisions. 

 

That's how we help people reclaim their health with clarity, confidence, and self-empowerment.

 

Okay. If today's episode helped you to see why nutrition conversations can't be reduced to simple good or bad rules, I encourage you to download my free guide, Beyond Protocols: a Practitioner's Guide to Root Cause Pattern Recognition, because this is exactly the type of thinking practitioners do need right now. We don't need to memorize another list of food to avoid. We don't need to grab the next trendy protocol. We don't need to get pulled into online arguments that oversimplify complex physiology. 

 

This guide will help you start looking beneath the surface, so you can recognize patterns, connect symptoms with root cause mechanisms, and make more strategic decisions for the people you serve. You'll find the link in the show notes.

 

If you're a practitioner who wants to go deeper into the root causes of metabolic dysfunction, inflammation, hormone imbalance, and chronic health challenges, I invite you to visit our website at inemethod.com. There you'll find lots of interesting resources and training to help you sharpen your clinical thinking, use labs more effectively, and guide people towards real transformation. Thank you for being part of this movement to reinvent healthcare.

 

Together we can help you create a model of healthcare that's personalized, root cause-focused, and truly supportive of long-term health and vitality. 

 

So until next time, keep asking better questions. Keep looking for the root causes. Keep putting the care back into healthcare. And until we meet again, shine on.