Dr. Vinay Prasad on Red Dye #3 and Seed Oils
tl;dr: Wow, no wonder we can't find anyone to take the pro-seed-oil side of the debate.
“It also means: let’s be cautious about cooking Tommy’s pancakes in this industrial grade oil product that Dow Chemical found on the bottom of the distillery column because we could use butter, which has existed for thousands of years, and has never had a problem.
“(This is also my problem with the seed oil debate. We used to make fries in tallow. They tasted good. Then some moron said vegetable oil is healthier. That was a lie. No evidence supports that. So we should never have switched. But now the same moron is back saying to prove vegetable oil is harmful. Listen asshole, we moved away from tallow because you were lying, and now we caught you, so we don’t have to prove it is harmful. The fries taste like shit now. They are floppy and lack proper crunch. They aren’t fluffy enough in the center. Anthony Bourdain never switched because he knows what a fry should taste like and he is an idiot like you. Also the oil is aerosolizing and sticking up the ceiling tiles. So, we should switch back without having to prove anything to you. Go back to working on your alcohol meta-analysis that shows even looking at wine is harmful. Bye now.*)
“The burden of RCTs exist for those who offer, sell or deploy substances THEY CLAIM make you better off, but not those who think we should add novel chemicals to our bodies that are done for CONVENIENCE or COLOR or PRESERVATION— these individuals face a much different bar. If all animal and preclinical data is assuring, we might allow the addition. We will monitor carefully, and even a weak suggestion of harm will be grounds to dismiss because we have alternatives, this is not strictly necessary, and no one thinks it is good for you anyway.”
Ouch. Although the asterisk is to this: “*since my audience cannot always tell, this is also a joke,” but it’s rather impossible to tell which part. The joke seems to be on him.
The case with seed oils is actually worse than what Dr. Prasad says.
They did an RCT to prove that vegetable oil is healthier. Several. They showed they were worse. They (the AHA & cardiology professions) hid the evidence, and lied that it was better. For decades, and they’re still at it.
Anthony Bourdain’s recipe for fries is awesome, and he does recommend ditching the seed oils.
“Peanut oil is what we use at Les Halles…. In a perfect world, we’d love to render down some beef fat, or the kidney fat from veal, and fry in that.”
When I made his fries, I used tallow (rendered kidney fat from beef) and they were divine. In fact, almost every recipe in this book can be made Paleo if you so desire, it’s an excellent reference.
References
Bourdain, A., Meirelles, J., Lajaunie, P., & DiScalfani, R. (2004). Anthony Bourdain’s Les Halles cookbook: Strategies, recipes, and techniques of classic bistro cooking. Bloomsbury. https://amzn.to/3Eb9vcg
I did appreciate his distinction of proving the benefit of medicines versus providing some evidence of the harm of food additives. Most people have probably never thought of the difference.
'“*since my audience cannot always tell, this is also a joke,” but it’s rather impossible to tell which part.'
I noticed that right away. Prasad's writing is often imprecise, contradictory, and confusing, not to mention he doesn't define his acronyms.
Good thing I can't comment on his articles because I'm not a paid subscriber. Saves me a lot of time ;)