Thread by @anabology

Everyone's talking about seed oils—but why are they actually bad? 🤔

Thread 🧵

For most of human history, omega-6 fats from animal and fruit sources made up only around two percent of our diet. Today, with the rise of seed oils, we’re looking at levels closer to ten percent.

Here’s why this shift is so disruptive:

In small amounts, omega-6 fats served a useful evolutionary purpose.

Embedded in cell membranes at low concentrations, and being quite reactive, they were the perfect inflammatory signal.

When cells were damaged, enzymes could easily cleave off these omega-6s, releasing them to trigger a targeted inflammatory response—a signal to the body that something needed repair.

This was an efficient, low-level warning system, tuned to indicate real injury or infection.

But with the modern surge in omega-6 intake, we’re flooding our cells with these fats.

Now, when omega-6s are constantly present in our diet, they’re also constantly circulating in our blood, primed to be used as inflammatory signals.

To the immune system, it’s as if there’s ten times the cellular injury at any given moment.

The result? Chronic inflammation.

We’re seeing immune responses that were meant for acute, genuine threats now triggering on a near-constant basis, leading to inflammatory conditions like obesity, accelerated aging, unhealing wounds, blindness, and other damage.

And it’s not just in processed food—fryer oils, for instance, are packed with these pre-degraded inflammatory compounds, intensifying the issue.

Since aspirin blocks these inflammatory seed oil metabolic pathways, you could think of modern fryer oil as the "anti-aspirin."

Seed oils aren't just extra calories.

They distort our body’s warning system, overwhelming it with ‘damage’ signals that don’t exist.

This is just the tip of the iceberg.

If there's one takeaway I can give you:

DON'T EAT FRIED FOOD FROM RESTAURANTS!

We could return to safe dining if we replace current fryer oils (seed oils) with tallow, but currently, this is the most damaging food out there -- even more than processed foods.

high* oops. It’s high but not used for inflammatory pathways until cleaved by enzymes, to clarify.