Seed Oils, Omega 6, and Inflammation

Just about everyone in the low-carb community is talking about how bad seed oils are. They claim the medical community has it wrong. The conspiracy-minded folks claim doctors want to keep people sick. Thus dependent on medicine for pills and surgery. Hence, seed oils are the new evil part of the picture.

The New Sugar Conspiracy

Seed oils, hydrogenated oils, and omega-6 fatty acids have replaced sugar as the new reason for ill health in America.

Their logic goes like this:

Seed oils are high in omega-6 fatty acids. They claim that high Omega 6 fatty acids are pro-inflammatory. Therefore, if you have more seed oils in your diet, you will have more inflammation. Inflammation is the root cause of heart disease.

Their argument is logical, partially true, and the conclusion is incorrect.  They are selling you snake oil (well, usually supplements).

It is Peanut Butter

The keto crowd will say how "real" peanut butter is made with peanuts and salt. Claiming this peanut butter is "candy" or "full of garbage" and isn't fit to be eaten. But is it? Let's break this down.

Added Sugar

First, the added sugar, which according to the label is 3 grams per serving (two tablespoons), so the whole thing is 190 calories, of which 12 of those calories come from sugar, the rest from fat.

Here is the label from Sprouts Pure Peanut Butter. Nothing but ground peanuts. No salt, no oils, no sugar. There are 200 calories from two tablespoons.

Of the 200 calories from all peanut butter, with no added sugar, you get the same number of calories from the peanut butter with sugar in it. How much sugar? Well, about 3 grams per serving of sugar. How much is that? Not much.  To exceed the recommended dose of sugar from the American Heart Association, you would need to have more than 6% of your calories.  In Skippy, it is 1.5% added sugar.

Low Carb Sugar Conspiracy

Sugar was the "evil" that low carbohydrate folks said caused obesity. If you read their literature from twenty-plus years ago, it blamed sugar for obesity. Not just sugar, but any carb that was sugar, they claimed, would become fat. They even had their alternative view of history of obesity in the country.

They stated that the world was not obese until Ancel Keys blamed heart disease on fat. Then the US government promoted a low-fat diet. The result was obesity bloomed because they replaced fat with sugar. That evil food pyramid caused people to turn away from fat, substituting sugar. That sugar substitution led to obesity.

It sounds so logical. If you ever go on a low-carb diet (Atkins, South Beach, Paleo, Keto, Carnivore), you stop eating junk food and eat steak. You feel satisfied eating lots of meat.  Then you get tired of steak. You lose weight because you are in a calorie deficit, not because of ketosis. But that weight loss leads to confirmation of the theory that sugar made you fat.

You go off the restrictive diet. Now you gain weight. You gain weight because you are eating more. But you blame the slice of bread. What you forget is now you are eating more steak because you have more flavors in your mouth. That slice of bread is 100 calories, but you think an 18-ounce Porterhouse (1260 calories) is a diet food? So you blame the bread or the lava cake. But not the extra calories.

Where It Falls Apart

But something about your low-carb diet doesn't make sense. You notice that obesity has increased in the United States. But...