For Scientific American Science Quickly, I'm Country Pierre-Louis in for Rachel Feldman.
What do you ready to bake cinnamon rolls?
Most French fries and many pre-made salad dressings have in common.
They're all made with seed oils.
Until fairly recently,
many of us might have been concerned about how much oil those foods contained,
rather than what kind.
But these days, a lot of people seem to have a problem with seed oils.
Everyone from so-called wellness influencers on social media to Robert F.
Kennedy Jr., the Secretary of Health and Human Services,
wants us to believe that seed oils are uniquely bad for us.
The Health Secretary has gotten so far as to say, without evidence, that seed oils are toxic.
And some restaurants, including the Salad Chain Sweet Cream,
are increasingly boasting of seed oil-free options.
So today, we dig into seed oils.
What are they?
And are they secretly killing us?
To answer these questions, we reached out to Eric Decker.
He's a professor at the Center for Agriculture,
Food and the Environment at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.