7 ms·

Increase in Adipose Tissue Linoleic Acid of US Adults in the Last Half Century

76 points by voisin 5y ago

porknubbins 5y ago
Interesting, kind of raises the stakes for the anti seed oil campaign since it shows that they are being accumulated in our bodies. I’m trying to go to evoo, acocado, peanut and butter as a precaution.
- bern4444 5y ago
  I use EVOO oil for pretty much all cooking and its wonderful. Only time I wouldn't is for high heat cooking but I don't do much of that as it is. No reason to use any other type IMO for (most) cooking.
  - elil17 5y ago
    Well it really depends on your cuisine - EVOO works great for most things European, but many other cultures work better with peanut oil.
    - loudtieblahblah 5y ago
      Peanut oil is ridiculously high in omega6s too just like seed oils.
  - jandrewrogers 5y ago
    It depends on what you are cooking. While I use plenty of EVOO, I also use a fair amount of refined avocado oil (high temp, neutral flavor) and butter. There are many cooking contexts where the latter two are quite arguably the superior choice, either for flavor or performance reasons. Right tool for the job and all that. There isn't one cooking oil that serves all purposes adequately.
    - mgarfias 5y ago
      Personally I like beef tallow
      - goldenkey 5y ago
        I like fractionated coconut oil if I'm not cooking with it. Little known secret: MCT Oil is just fractionated coconut oil with different branding: > What percentage MCTs do your coconut oils have? > Our Liquid Coconut oil has 80 to 85% MCT. https://louana.com/faq/ https://louana.com/faq/
      - 13of40 5y ago
        I did some popcorn in cod liver oil the other day. Lots of vitamin A, but it gives the house a bit of a nautical atmosphere.
        Brian_K_White 5y ago
        stealing nautical atmosphere
        loudtieblahblah 5y ago
        I wouldn't do that Cod liver oil is mostly omega3 pufa. Omega3s oxidize really easily under heat. Use coconut, ghee, butter, macademia nut, avocado or maybe even olive oil. Or any kind of animal fat (duck fat, beef tallow, etc)
      - betwixthewires 5y ago
        I cooked with nothing but beef tallow for a few years, I used to render it myself, lately I've been using coconut oil and butter, it's just much easier. I no longer render the fat from beef I eat and just eat it with the meat to get more fat in my diet.
    - jancsika 5y ago
      With EVOO there is at least a certification seal from the COOC for California-based olive oils. Not only does that certify oil quality and safe storage practices-- it certifies that it is actually olive oil. This is necessary because, according to various sources I've read, there's a better chance than a coin flip that the EVOO bought at the grocery store is a) some other oil (and dyed green), b) cut with other cheaper oils, or c) substandard non-virgin olive oil. So I guess my question is-- how do you know that the avocado oil isn't fake? Is there a certification body? Without one, it seems like the current popularity of it would push manufacturers to use the same tricks as with EVOO. But again, I'm not even talking about quality or storage-- just whether it is actually the oil claimed by the label on the bottle. I mean-- there's a oil manufacturer literally called "California Olive Ranch" that does an oil with a little graphic that says something like "Global Blend!" And apparently they used to be COOC certified manufacturer but got the cert revoked because there's rule that putting "California" on the label requires all the olives to be from California (obviously). Hell, there was even a story about a mysterious proposal to change some of the language in the certification guidelines to soften this rule, but a lot of the members petitioned against that. Given this weirdo shady oil environment I'm just assuming everything is either dyed vegetable oil or some other trick unless I can get my hands on a really good reason to believe otherwise.
  - porknubbins 5y ago
    Yes, it tends to lose its olive flavor once cooked so it works for a lot of things. I think saturated fats do crisp up foods better. I cook steaks and ground beef in ghee which gives a great crust.
    - rayiner 5y ago
      I’ve decided to go back to my desi roots and use ghee for more things. It’s awesome.
- hourislate 5y ago
  That's a great start but sadly most of those seed oils can still find a way into your body through through much of the food people eat. It's insane how much cotton seed, canola, rapeseed, corn, sunflower, Safflower, soy, rice bran oils are found in all processed and prepared food like breads, sauces, salad dressings, snack foods, and basically any every other packaged or processed food. Unless you are eating extremely clean, you're ingesting seed oils. Most pork and chicken that is bought is raised on seed oils but from what I understand ruminant animals are able to filter it out through their urine. One has to be extremely diligent in their food choices to eliminate seed oils from their diet and it takes years to get it out of your body. Ray Peat has some interesting stuff and has basically preaching long before it was popular to get PUFA's out of your diet. If you eat out, all restaurants and fast food is either cooked in it or it's in the food they are serving. Check your pantry and read the ingredients on everything. I basically use Costco Organic EVOO and the big tub of Coconut oil you can buy there for everything and never go out to eat anymore for at least the last 4-5 years. My diet is so simple that I lost 100 pounds and kept it off just eating clean and doing some fasting.
  - porknubbins 5y ago
    Yeah it really is in almost everything. I cook from scratch all but a few times a month so I’m hoping to reduce exposure, but going to any restaurant or fast food place it is pretty much a given that they will use cheap oils.
  - teslabox 5y ago
    > If you eat out, all restaurants and fast food is either cooked in it or it's in the food they are serving. Was recently searching for information about the restaurant industry’s switch from classic fryer oils to seed oils. I ran across something about Buffalo Wild Wings (BWW) getting sued by a vegetarian because they’d assumed BWW used ‘vegetable’ oil in their fryers. BWW’s attorneys got the suit thrown out. On learning this, I added BWW to my list of restaurants to patronize. Had a friend buy me lunch last Thursday. She ordered fried shrimp from the appetizer menu. They were very greasy - I pulled off the breading to hopefully avoid the oil. The next day I cautioned her about eating foods fried in vegetable oil. We went to BWW that night. I ordered wings and French fries. Would order again. [0] BWW lawsuit report: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-buffalo-wild-lawsuit-idUSKBN1F82CH https://www.reuters.com/article/us-buffalo-wild-lawsuit-idUS...
- UncleOxidant 5y ago
  It seems like I've seen recent articles touting linoleic acid as being a good thing. For example: https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/2014/11/05/dietary-linoleic-acid-and-risk-of-coronary-heart-disease/ https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/2014/11/05/diet...
- loldk 5y ago
  Why is that a bad thing? It seems like everyone in here is jumping to conclusions?
  - porknubbins 5y ago
    You’re right theres not a lot to show seed oils are really bad for you, thats why I mentioned avoiding them as a precaution. Its completely unscientific but frying with highly processed canola makes your kitchen smell vaguely like paint thinner which is unpleasant if not unhealthy.
- Sophistifunk 5y ago
  Lard is your delicious friend.
  - ginko 5y ago
    This shouldn't be downvoted. Lard is an excellent cooking fat that's been needlessly maligned.
    - scotty79 5y ago
      But the smell is horrid.
    - BizarroLand 5y ago
      I thought the issue with Lard was the trans fats, but since I didn't know I double checked and apparently Lard has no trans fats, so I then wanted to know why we quit using it. It seems that Lard was very popular up to WWII, but then we had supply issues due to the war effort so people switched over to vegetable shortenings, and afterwards pork fats like Lard were considered unhealthy compared to the "pure vegetable oils" which were often hydrogenated and filled with Trans Fats which were worse for you health-wise than Lard is. So, yeah, WWII and food purity aesthetic might be responsible for some measurable portion of the modern obesity crises!
- pjc50 5y ago
  This is the first I've heard of an anti-seed oil campaign?
  - scotty79 5y ago
    Basically the argument is that plant fats are kind of new in our diet and used in huge quantities when compared to historic levels (with perhaps exception of olive oil) and their introduction correlates with rise in diseases that we believe are caused by western diet.
    - vinay427 5y ago
      First of all, this article is about seed oils, not plant fats. Secondly, does the world in which this argument exists consist only of the west? Your mention of olive oil as the exception and a “western diet” seems to indicate so given that plant fats (such as in nuts or coconut oil) have been consumed for thousands of years. Would any of this generalize to humanity?
      - scotty79 5y ago
        Was coconut oil manufactured and consumed in large quantities before industrial age? Was it a staple of local diet? Were people there healthy and not unusually prone to various diseases and not overweight? In some island nations being overweight was beneficial for travel and times of scarcity. So tradeoffs of their diet might not fit us so well as it fitted them. Plant fats consumed with their respective plants are probably tolerable, because your stomach has limited volume. Only after they are squeezed out do that you can have oil out of 20 kilos of plants in each single meal then it might not suit your body. So let me restate the question. Do you any plant fats that were extracted from plants before industrial age and used as a staple meal ingredient by themselves? Olive oil is one. Is coconut oil the second? What else?
        vinay427 5y ago
        > Was coconut oil manufactured and consumed in large quantities before industrial age? Was it a staple of local diet? Probably? Coconuts were certainly cultivated and used in prominent societies dating back to 1500 BCE or earlier, and the oil has been used for nearly as long, although it's unclear to what extent this was for culinary purposes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coconut#Origin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coconut#Origin > Were people there healthy and not unusually prone to various diseases and not overweight? In some island nations being overweight was beneficial for travel and times of scarcity. So tradeoffs of their diet might not fit us so well as it fitted them. This is also unclear, although I assume the same ambiguity applies to animal-sourced fats which were consumed in cultures very different to our own.
- ChrisRR 5y ago
  For anyone like me who didn't know what EVOO is, it stand for Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- reedjosh 5y ago
  Don't forget good old fashioned tallow and lard.
s1mon 5y ago
Ok, so I only skimmed this, but did it clearly get beyond a correlation into causation?
nathanaldensr 5y ago
I've seen a couple of mentions to avocado oil in this thread. For those unaware, see this thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30105062 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30105062 ("Study finds 82% of avocado oil rancid or mixed with other oils")
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
guruz 5y ago
Recommended reading: * https://www.reddit.com/r/StopEatingSeedOils/ https://www.reddit.com/r/StopEatingSeedOils/ * https://www.reddit.com/r/SaturatedFat/ https://www.reddit.com/r/SaturatedFat/ * http://yelling-stop.blogspot.com/ http://yelling-stop.blogspot.com/
shaxophemdos 5y ago
Seems like a lot of people on this thread assume high LA fats are bad for you or somehow cause obesity. It would be interesting to investigate the LA concentration in adipose tissue of populations with differing body fat percentages. E.g., do we see people with high body fat have higher portions of that fat as LA than in leaner people? This study doesn’t really tell us anything beyond increasing LA consumption increases concentration in adipose tissue, which seems like a pretty straightforward and unsurprising conclusion.
bluepoint 5y ago
Can someone explain in what way this is a bad thing?
- refurb 5y ago
  Apparently seed oils are bad somehow.
  - loudtieblahblah 5y ago
    The omega6 contents of seed oils are ridiculously high in a way not found in nature. Omega6s are inflammatory. It'll go down in history, eventually, that seed oils are more responsible for cancer, heart disease and even autoimmune issues in a way that exceed sugar could only hope to aspire to. But in combination with our 200-400g of carb a day diets? It's no wonder America is so sick
    - BizarroLand 5y ago
      Also there seems to be some evidence that the imbalance of Poly-unsaturated Fatty Acids and Saturated Fatty acids in our foods combined with high carbohydrate intake that may be contributing to overeating by turning our body fat into a sort of parasite that preferentially consumes calories to make more fat rather than allowing our organs first pick. https://fireinabottle.net/the-scd1-theory-of-obesity-part-1-insulin-leptin-scd1-and-thermogenesis/ https://fireinabottle.net/the-scd1-theory-of-obesity-part-1-... I am aware this site is trying to sell you something but the 3 part dive into research literature makes me feel like they might be onto something with this.
      - loudtieblahblah 5y ago
        Fire in a bottle is such an amazing blog
    - refurb 5y ago
      Is this the same way that free radicals are harmful but then we realized the human body can't function without them. Excuse me for dismissing the latest internet theory on diet.
scotty79 5y ago
Olive oil should be safe-ish right? It's not modern invention. People used it for cooking in Mediterranean area before the industry happened and they were fine. Do you know any other plant oils with similar traditions?
- pjc50 5y ago
  > People used it for cooking in Mediterranean area before the industry happened and they were fine Argument from tradition is not sufficient; all sorts of traditional foods have health caveats that have only been discovered in the modern era. Arsenic in rice, for example.
  - scotty79 5y ago
    That's why I said safe-ish. It doesn't guarantee anything but it at least points you in the right direction. And in specific case of olive oil I think that we have enough data about it's safety, both modern and historic.

76 points by voisin 5y ago

Interesting, kind of raises the stakes for the anti seed oil campaign since it shows that they are being accumulated in our bodies. I’m trying to go to evoo, acocado, peanut and butter as a precaution.

bern4444 5y ago
I use EVOO oil for pretty much all cooking and its wonderful. Only time I wouldn't is for high heat cooking but I don't do much of that as it is. No reason to use any other type IMO for (most) cooking.
- elil17 5y ago
  Well it really depends on your cuisine - EVOO works great for most things European, but many other cultures work better with peanut oil.
  - loudtieblahblah 5y ago
    Peanut oil is ridiculously high in omega6s too just like seed oils.
- jandrewrogers 5y ago
  It depends on what you are cooking. While I use plenty of EVOO, I also use a fair amount of refined avocado oil (high temp, neutral flavor) and butter. There are many cooking contexts where the latter two are quite arguably the superior choice, either for flavor or performance reasons. Right tool for the job and all that. There isn't one cooking oil that serves all purposes adequately.
  - mgarfias 5y ago
    Personally I like beef tallow
    - goldenkey 5y ago
      I like fractionated coconut oil if I'm not cooking with it. Little known secret: MCT Oil is just fractionated coconut oil with different branding: > What percentage MCTs do your coconut oils have? > Our Liquid Coconut oil has 80 to 85% MCT. https://louana.com/faq/ https://louana.com/faq/
    - 13of40 5y ago
      I did some popcorn in cod liver oil the other day. Lots of vitamin A, but it gives the house a bit of a nautical atmosphere.
      - Brian_K_White 5y ago
        stealing nautical atmosphere
      - loudtieblahblah 5y ago
        I wouldn't do that Cod liver oil is mostly omega3 pufa. Omega3s oxidize really easily under heat. Use coconut, ghee, butter, macademia nut, avocado or maybe even olive oil. Or any kind of animal fat (duck fat, beef tallow, etc)
    - betwixthewires 5y ago
      I cooked with nothing but beef tallow for a few years, I used to render it myself, lately I've been using coconut oil and butter, it's just much easier. I no longer render the fat from beef I eat and just eat it with the meat to get more fat in my diet.
  - jancsika 5y ago
    With EVOO there is at least a certification seal from the COOC for California-based olive oils. Not only does that certify oil quality and safe storage practices-- it certifies that it is actually olive oil. This is necessary because, according to various sources I've read, there's a better chance than a coin flip that the EVOO bought at the grocery store is a) some other oil (and dyed green), b) cut with other cheaper oils, or c) substandard non-virgin olive oil. So I guess my question is-- how do you know that the avocado oil isn't fake? Is there a certification body? Without one, it seems like the current popularity of it would push manufacturers to use the same tricks as with EVOO. But again, I'm not even talking about quality or storage-- just whether it is actually the oil claimed by the label on the bottle. I mean-- there's a oil manufacturer literally called "California Olive Ranch" that does an oil with a little graphic that says something like "Global Blend!" And apparently they used to be COOC certified manufacturer but got the cert revoked because there's rule that putting "California" on the label requires all the olives to be from California (obviously). Hell, there was even a story about a mysterious proposal to change some of the language in the certification guidelines to soften this rule, but a lot of the members petitioned against that. Given this weirdo shady oil environment I'm just assuming everything is either dyed vegetable oil or some other trick unless I can get my hands on a really good reason to believe otherwise.
- porknubbins 5y ago
  Yes, it tends to lose its olive flavor once cooked so it works for a lot of things. I think saturated fats do crisp up foods better. I cook steaks and ground beef in ghee which gives a great crust.
  - rayiner 5y ago
    I’ve decided to go back to my desi roots and use ghee for more things. It’s awesome.
hourislate 5y ago
That's a great start but sadly most of those seed oils can still find a way into your body through through much of the food people eat. It's insane how much cotton seed, canola, rapeseed, corn, sunflower, Safflower, soy, rice bran oils are found in all processed and prepared food like breads, sauces, salad dressings, snack foods, and basically any every other packaged or processed food. Unless you are eating extremely clean, you're ingesting seed oils. Most pork and chicken that is bought is raised on seed oils but from what I understand ruminant animals are able to filter it out through their urine. One has to be extremely diligent in their food choices to eliminate seed oils from their diet and it takes years to get it out of your body. Ray Peat has some interesting stuff and has basically preaching long before it was popular to get PUFA's out of your diet. If you eat out, all restaurants and fast food is either cooked in it or it's in the food they are serving. Check your pantry and read the ingredients on everything. I basically use Costco Organic EVOO and the big tub of Coconut oil you can buy there for everything and never go out to eat anymore for at least the last 4-5 years. My diet is so simple that I lost 100 pounds and kept it off just eating clean and doing some fasting.
- porknubbins 5y ago
  Yeah it really is in almost everything. I cook from scratch all but a few times a month so I’m hoping to reduce exposure, but going to any restaurant or fast food place it is pretty much a given that they will use cheap oils.
- teslabox 5y ago
  > If you eat out, all restaurants and fast food is either cooked in it or it's in the food they are serving. Was recently searching for information about the restaurant industry’s switch from classic fryer oils to seed oils. I ran across something about Buffalo Wild Wings (BWW) getting sued by a vegetarian because they’d assumed BWW used ‘vegetable’ oil in their fryers. BWW’s attorneys got the suit thrown out. On learning this, I added BWW to my list of restaurants to patronize. Had a friend buy me lunch last Thursday. She ordered fried shrimp from the appetizer menu. They were very greasy - I pulled off the breading to hopefully avoid the oil. The next day I cautioned her about eating foods fried in vegetable oil. We went to BWW that night. I ordered wings and French fries. Would order again. [0] BWW lawsuit report: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-buffalo-wild-lawsuit-idUSKBN1F82CH https://www.reuters.com/article/us-buffalo-wild-lawsuit-idUS...
UncleOxidant 5y ago
It seems like I've seen recent articles touting linoleic acid as being a good thing. For example: https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/2014/11/05/dietary-linoleic-acid-and-risk-of-coronary-heart-disease/ https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/2014/11/05/diet...
loldk 5y ago
Why is that a bad thing? It seems like everyone in here is jumping to conclusions?
- porknubbins 5y ago
  You’re right theres not a lot to show seed oils are really bad for you, thats why I mentioned avoiding them as a precaution. Its completely unscientific but frying with highly processed canola makes your kitchen smell vaguely like paint thinner which is unpleasant if not unhealthy.
Sophistifunk 5y ago
Lard is your delicious friend.
- ginko 5y ago
  This shouldn't be downvoted. Lard is an excellent cooking fat that's been needlessly maligned.
  - scotty79 5y ago
    But the smell is horrid.
  - BizarroLand 5y ago
    I thought the issue with Lard was the trans fats, but since I didn't know I double checked and apparently Lard has no trans fats, so I then wanted to know why we quit using it. It seems that Lard was very popular up to WWII, but then we had supply issues due to the war effort so people switched over to vegetable shortenings, and afterwards pork fats like Lard were considered unhealthy compared to the "pure vegetable oils" which were often hydrogenated and filled with Trans Fats which were worse for you health-wise than Lard is. So, yeah, WWII and food purity aesthetic might be responsible for some measurable portion of the modern obesity crises!
pjc50 5y ago
This is the first I've heard of an anti-seed oil campaign?
- scotty79 5y ago
  Basically the argument is that plant fats are kind of new in our diet and used in huge quantities when compared to historic levels (with perhaps exception of olive oil) and their introduction correlates with rise in diseases that we believe are caused by western diet.
  - vinay427 5y ago
    First of all, this article is about seed oils, not plant fats. Secondly, does the world in which this argument exists consist only of the west? Your mention of olive oil as the exception and a “western diet” seems to indicate so given that plant fats (such as in nuts or coconut oil) have been consumed for thousands of years. Would any of this generalize to humanity?
    - scotty79 5y ago
      Was coconut oil manufactured and consumed in large quantities before industrial age? Was it a staple of local diet? Were people there healthy and not unusually prone to various diseases and not overweight? In some island nations being overweight was beneficial for travel and times of scarcity. So tradeoffs of their diet might not fit us so well as it fitted them. Plant fats consumed with their respective plants are probably tolerable, because your stomach has limited volume. Only after they are squeezed out do that you can have oil out of 20 kilos of plants in each single meal then it might not suit your body. So let me restate the question. Do you any plant fats that were extracted from plants before industrial age and used as a staple meal ingredient by themselves? Olive oil is one. Is coconut oil the second? What else?
      - vinay427 5y ago
        > Was coconut oil manufactured and consumed in large quantities before industrial age? Was it a staple of local diet? Probably? Coconuts were certainly cultivated and used in prominent societies dating back to 1500 BCE or earlier, and the oil has been used for nearly as long, although it's unclear to what extent this was for culinary purposes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coconut#Origin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coconut#Origin > Were people there healthy and not unusually prone to various diseases and not overweight? In some island nations being overweight was beneficial for travel and times of scarcity. So tradeoffs of their diet might not fit us so well as it fitted them. This is also unclear, although I assume the same ambiguity applies to animal-sourced fats which were consumed in cultures very different to our own.
ChrisRR 5y ago
For anyone like me who didn't know what EVOO is, it stand for Extra Virgin Olive Oil
reedjosh 5y ago
Don't forget good old fashioned tallow and lard.

s1mon 5y ago

Ok, so I only skimmed this, but did it clearly get beyond a correlation into causation?

nathanaldensr 5y ago

I've seen a couple of mentions to avocado oil in this thread. For those unaware, see this thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30105062 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30105062 ("Study finds 82% of avocado oil rancid or mixed with other oils")

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

guruz 5y ago

Recommended reading: * https://www.reddit.com/r/StopEatingSeedOils/ https://www.reddit.com/r/StopEatingSeedOils/ * https://www.reddit.com/r/SaturatedFat/ https://www.reddit.com/r/SaturatedFat/ * http://yelling-stop.blogspot.com/ http://yelling-stop.blogspot.com/

shaxophemdos 5y ago

Seems like a lot of people on this thread assume high LA fats are bad for you or somehow cause obesity. It would be interesting to investigate the LA concentration in adipose tissue of populations with differing body fat percentages. E.g., do we see people with high body fat have higher portions of that fat as LA than in leaner people? This study doesn’t really tell us anything beyond increasing LA consumption increases concentration in adipose tissue, which seems like a pretty straightforward and unsurprising conclusion.

bluepoint 5y ago

Can someone explain in what way this is a bad thing?

refurb 5y ago
Apparently seed oils are bad somehow.
- loudtieblahblah 5y ago
  The omega6 contents of seed oils are ridiculously high in a way not found in nature. Omega6s are inflammatory. It'll go down in history, eventually, that seed oils are more responsible for cancer, heart disease and even autoimmune issues in a way that exceed sugar could only hope to aspire to. But in combination with our 200-400g of carb a day diets? It's no wonder America is so sick
  - BizarroLand 5y ago
    Also there seems to be some evidence that the imbalance of Poly-unsaturated Fatty Acids and Saturated Fatty acids in our foods combined with high carbohydrate intake that may be contributing to overeating by turning our body fat into a sort of parasite that preferentially consumes calories to make more fat rather than allowing our organs first pick. https://fireinabottle.net/the-scd1-theory-of-obesity-part-1-insulin-leptin-scd1-and-thermogenesis/ https://fireinabottle.net/the-scd1-theory-of-obesity-part-1-... I am aware this site is trying to sell you something but the 3 part dive into research literature makes me feel like they might be onto something with this.
    - loudtieblahblah 5y ago
      Fire in a bottle is such an amazing blog
  - refurb 5y ago
    Is this the same way that free radicals are harmful but then we realized the human body can't function without them. Excuse me for dismissing the latest internet theory on diet.

scotty79 5y ago

Olive oil should be safe-ish right? It's not modern invention. People used it for cooking in Mediterranean area before the industry happened and they were fine. Do you know any other plant oils with similar traditions?

pjc50 5y ago
> People used it for cooking in Mediterranean area before the industry happened and they were fine Argument from tradition is not sufficient; all sorts of traditional foods have health caveats that have only been discovered in the modern era. Arsenic in rice, for example.
- scotty79 5y ago
  That's why I said safe-ish. It doesn't guarantee anything but it at least points you in the right direction. And in specific case of olive oil I think that we have enough data about it's safety, both modern and historic.