Lies, Damn Lies, and The Atlantic on Seed Oils.

tl;dr: I don't think I've ever seen this much misrepresentation and falsehood in a single article...

Yasmin Tayag and The Atlantic are at it again.

Has "The Atlantic" Lost The Plot on Cooking Oil?

Life is just to short to go through everything this propagandist publishes, so I will refer you to my previous post for a catalog of the nonsense this magazine sees fit to print.

Her latest work, “America Stopped Cooking With Tallow for a Reason”, is even worse. The mind boggles.

Why the panic about the truth coming out about seed oils?

I won’t go through the entire thing, because there’s just too much misinformation here to catalog.

But two points:

First: Again, she’s quoting Walter Willett repeatedly. Probably the single worst thing Willett says (and there’s a lot of competition!) is this:

“Some tallow truthers claim that consuming too much omega-6, a polyunsaturated fatty acid commonly found in seed oils, allows it to outcompete its more healthful cousin, omega-3, which is found in nuts and fish. But, according to Willett, the body’s regulatory mechanisms prevent such imbalances, and viewing individual fatty acids as competitors is ‘an extreme oversimplification of what actually goes on in our metabolic system.’”

The competition between Ω-6 and -3 is basic science, and has been demonstrated in too many animal papers to cite here—it would be like citing sources to show the world is round—but we can start with this:

“Because omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids compete for delta-6 desaturase enzyme in the desaturation and chain elongation pathway and a higher intake of omega-6 fatty acid may lead to an increase in the production of thromboxane A2, a pro-aggregatory vasoconstrictor, a higher ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acid intake may attenuate the benefit of omega-3 fatty acid.” (Hu, 2002)

That is a quote from a paper written by Willett and his colleagues. Which Willett are we to believe? If Willett hadn’t himself written a number of papers detailing the harm in humans from consumption of seed oils, I might attribute this to Tayag’s care-free approach to facts and journalism, but I don’t think that’s fair.

From my previous post.

Willett and his colleagues have in fact published papers showing harmful outcomes from high–Ω-6 seed oil consumption.

“Compared with persons consuming sunflower oil, those using mustard oil for cooking had an RR of 0.44 for [ischemic heart disease] in the age-, sex-, and smoking-adjusted analysis.” (Rastogi, 2004)

Willett doesn’t do experiments, just epidemiology. Here’s an experiment, from an RCT on human subjects:

“Both n-6 and n-3 FA are known to compete for common enzymes in the synthesis of FA…. The resulting cell membrane composition from this competition has profound effects on eicosanoid metabolism, inflammatory markers, platelet aggregability, hemostasis, and, myocardial function.” (Wein, 2010)

They found that a lower consumption of Ω-6 fats allowed the body to overcome the negative competition and produce healthy Ω-3 fats.

The body certainly does not have regulatory systems to prevent it. That’s a falsehood (Wein, 2010).

Second: this is a perfect example of the carelessness of Tayag with respect to facts and science.

“Pure Tallow and Cream Soap. Grass-Fed Skin Food Bar”

“Americans aren’t just eating beef tallow—they’re also smearing it on their faces as a supposedly natural alternative to conventional moisturizer, despite a lack of scientific evidence…”

A minute of effort yields scientific evidence:

“The second objective was to analyze the benefits of tallow on the skin. Tallow was found to offer hydrating and moisturizing properties…. The third objective was to determine the therapeutic properties of topical tallow. Research indicated that tallow may be beneficial in helping with skin conditions such as dermatitis, psoriasis, dry skin, and wounds.” (Russell, 2024)

This is a systematic review of the scientific evidence from a few months ago. And that’s ignoring the fact that tallow has been used in soap for probably a significant part of human history.

“Although the origin of soap is not very clear, it is widely accepted that some form of primitive soap-making methods existed several thousand years ago, dating as far back to 2000 BC. For many centuries, soaps were made by heating a mixture of animal fats (tallow) with lye, a basic solution obtained from wood ashes.” (Ghaim, 2001)

Tayag’s ignorance is unimpeachable. This is like arguing with a Flat-Earther, all contrary evidence is ignored, and any confirmation, however weak is bandied about like a primitive trophy.

Enough.

(Thanks to paid subscriber Jay See for bringing this to my attention.)

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References

Ghaim, J. B., & Volz, E. D. (2001). Skin Cleansing Bars. In Handbook of Cosmetic Science and Technology. CRC Press.

Hu, F. B., Bronner, L., Willett, W. C., Stampfer, M. J., Rexrode, K. M., Albert, C. M., Hunter, D., & Manson, J. E. (2002). Fish and Omega-3 Fatty Acid Intake and Risk of Coronary Heart Disease in Women. JAMA, 287(14), 1815–1821. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.287.14.1815

Rastogi, T., Reddy, K. S., Vaz, M., Spiegelman, D., Prabhakaran, D., Willett, W. C., Stampfer, M. J., & Ascherio, A. (2004). Diet and Risk of Ischemic Heart Disease in India. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 79(4), 582–592. https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/79.4.582

Russell, M. F., Sandhu, M., Vail, M., Haran, C., Batool, U., & Leo, J. (2024). Tallow, Rendered Animal Fat, and Its Biocompatibility With Skin: A Scoping Review. Cureus. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.60981

Wien, M., Rajaram, S., Oda, K., & Sabaté, J. (2010). Decreasing the Linoleic Acid to α-Linolenic Acid Diet Ratio Increases Eicosapentaenoic Acid in Erythrocytes in Adults. Lipids, 45(8), 683–692. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11745-010-3430-3