When Technology Goes Too Far: The Rise and Fall of Nut and Seed Oils
Fat is one of the most hotly debated topics in modern dietary conversations. It’s surrounded by controversy, misunderstandings, and even political agendas. The medical literature is riddled with conflicting and often misleading information, leaving many of us confused about what’s truly best for our health. But understanding fat is crucial—because it’s in almost everything we eat, from potato chips to steaks.
To make informed dietary decisions, it’s essential to understand the role of fat in human history and how it has evolved—or devolved—over time. By looking at fat through the lens of our ancestral diets, we can separate fact from fiction and gain a clearer understanding of what nourishes us best.
Animal-Based Fats Came First
Archaeological evidence from Ethiopia’s Dikika region reveals a transformative moment 3.4 million years ago: an ancestor, likely Australopithecus afarensis, used a simple stone tool to crack open a bone and access nutrient-rich marrow. This innovation marked the beginning of our reliance on animal fats, the most bioavailable and nutrient-dense sources of nourishment for early humans.
As our ancestors evolved into hunter-gatherers, animal fats like marrow, offal, and other high-quality sources became essential for fueling the rapid growth of our brains and bodies. These fats were so vital that they shaped the trajectory of human evolution, ultimately giving rise to Homo sapiens.
Fatty Fruits: An Early Plant-Based Milestone
The first plant-based fats didn’t appear in our diets until much later. Archaeological evidence from Kfar Samir, off the coast of Israel, dates olive oil production to approximately 10,000 years ago. Similarly, palm oil emerged in Egypt around 5,000 years ago, and coconut oil’s use is referenced in Ayurvedic texts from 4,000 years ago. These oils, derived from fruits, required minimal processing—no intense heat, pressure, or chemicals—and were regionally specific.
Despite these introductions, animal fats continued to dominate diets globally. Olive, palm, and coconut oils were supplemental rather than primary sources of fat for our ancestors on a species-wide scale.
When Technology Took It Too Far
The industrial extraction of nut and seed oils is a relatively recent phenomenon, beginning just 150 years ago. Cottonseed oil, one of the earliest examples, was introduced into the food system in the late 19th century as an adulterant for lard. By the 1880s, companies like Armour & Co. were blending cottonseed oil into lard, sparking public outrage and prompting Congressional investigations. Unlike minimally processed fruit-based oils, nut and seed oils undergo extensive processing. This involves cleaning, pressing, heating, centrifuging, and often chemical treatments to mask their flavor, odor, and appearance.
The Problem with Nut and Seed Oils
Throughout our evolutionary history, dietary fats from animal sources have been a cornerstone of human nutrition. By contrast, nut and seed oils are a recent addition, introduced through industrial processing that masks their inherent unsuitability for human consumption. Our senses, honed by millions of years of evolution, are designed to detect the quality and safety of food. The need to refine, deodorize, and chemically alter these oils should raise red flags.
Key Takeaways
- Animal Fats Are Foundational: High-quality fats like marrow, tallow, lard, schmaltz, butter (especially fermented), and derivatives like ghee have sustained humans for millions of years and should remain dietary staples.
- Fruit-Based Oils Are Acceptable: Oils from olives, coconuts, palm fruits, and avocados are minimally processed and have a longer history of human use. However, they are better used cold in recipes for dressings and mayonnaise than in applications that require high heat.
- Avoid Nut and Seed Oils: These industrially produced oils are not food. Their introduction into the human diet coincides with the rise of chronic health issues.
- Source Matters: Prioritize animal fats from well-raised animals and minimally processed, high-quality fruit oils. Be cautious of adulteration, especially with olive and avocado oils.
Final Thoughts
From cracking open bones with simple tools to the industrial production of seed oils, technological advances in food preparation have profoundly impacted our diets. While early innovations aligned with our evolutionary needs, modern processing has led us astray. To nourish ourselves as our ancestors did, prioritize animal fats and minimally processed fruit oils—and discard nut and seed oils altogether.
At the Modern Stone Age Kitchen, we are dedicated to this approach. We exclusively use high-quality animal fats and fruit oils in our cooking, taking a strong stance against industrial nut and seed oils. Additionally, we produce a range of nourishing animal-based fats for sale, including lard, tallow, schmaltz, asiento, bacon grease, and fermented butter, along with some of the finest extra virgin olive oil available.
Help for when you are dining out
We also want to empower you to make better choices when dining out. The Seed Oil Scout app is a fantastic resource for identifying the fats restaurants use, and we are proud to be one of the few restaurants with a blue check mark, signifying that we meet all their rigorous criteria. Together, we can reclaim nourishing, traditional fats and support a healthier future for ourselves and our families.
dine fearlessly with us at the MSAK – blue check mark baby!!
Hi Bill and team
does this article apply to peanut oil and sesame oil which some people claim are very healthy.
Stephanie
Yes, 100%. Peanut and sesame oil both fall into the category of nut and seed oils.
You mention that the increase in use of seed/nut oil coincides with an increase in chronic health conditions. However, there’s also a strong correlation between chronic health conditions and the amount of money (inflation-adjusted) that Americans spend on “food away from home”. I’d be very interested to see more details about why seed oils are the main culprit.
You make a great point. But, I would also argue that almost every restaurant on the planet is relying on industrially produced nut and seed oils in practically everything they are making. What has happened in our home kitchens has also happened in the restaurants, but on a massive scale. Much of this is for economic reasons. It is much, much cheaper to fill a fryer with peanut oil than with lard. It is much cheaper to butter the pan with some hydrogenated butter-like substance or butter cut with oil than it is to use butter. It is much cheaper to make a dressing, mayonnaise or sauce with canola oil than extra virgin olive oil. So, by default, unless you are very, very selective eating out greatly increases your consumption of these damaging fats.
how do you ferment your fries? would love to be pointed to resources on potato fermentation!
Here’s 2 blog posts about it: https://eatlikeahuman.com/what-makes-our-fermented-potato-chips-different/
and
https://eatlikeahuman.com/traditional-potato-detoxification-research-in-bolivia-peru/
The history of fat and oil consumption is only part of the argument, and for some provides a null argument, for similar reasons as arguing that (some groups of) humans smoked for countless generations, therefore smoking is, and should remain, a ‘cornerstone’ of thriving civilisations.
Of far greater significance is the chemistry, which translates to biochemistry, which includes toxicity, including cytotoxicity, and genotoxicity, i.e. potential carcinogenicity.
Unsaturated fat molecules, as are predominant in most seed and nut oils, are intrinsically chemically, relatively unstable*. Cooking with them, that is, exposing them to high temperatures, results in accelerated reactions that can generate “aldehydes, ketones, hydrocarbons, lactones, alcohols, acids, esters, furans and aromatic compounds” (Source: Senanayake, Sep 2018, AOCS). Much the same as the charring of any food, the ‘Maillard reaction’ gone too far, to brown if not black colourations, to many represents flavour, but to a more informed minority, instead represents a plethora of toxic compounds analogous to the thousands of toxins found in, again, smoke. Burning, whether in the form of a lit cigarette, or from cooking too hot and/or for too long, results in the same basic chemical process, oxidation. While some researchers have identified the different types of compounds produced from adverse reactions, others have quantified their amounts. For example, Mendick, in The Telegraph, 07 Nov 2015, states that ” … ‘a typical meal of fish and chips’, fried in vegetable oil, contained as much as 100 to 200 times more toxic aldehydes than the safe daily limit set by the World Health Organisation”.
But even heat/cooking is not necessary for unsaturated fatty acid molecules to oxidise*. Leave any of the many so-called ‘vegetable oils’ (from seeds or nuts) for long enough, they will begin to oxidise in the bottle, just at a slower rate than at elevated/cooking temperatures. A simple experiment can be done to demonstrate to self or others: Apply a small teaspoon or so amount of a supermarket-sourced cooking oil, to a clean odourless piece of white cloth, and leave in a sealed clean odourless container at ambient room temperatures (testing with various oils, one per cloth/container, is most revealing). After a few weeks or months, observe, and open and sniff (minimally, carefully, be warned!) each container. With many seed/’vegetable’ oils, the cloth will have changed colour, e.g. yellowed, and your breath will be taken away, so sharp, acrid or rancid, indeed ‘toxic-smelling’, is the headspace of the container, from the oxidised-oil products.
In contrast, saturated fatty acid molecules, as are predominant in coconut oil, palm oil, and animal fats – including butter, are intrinsically relatively stable.
*Footnotes:
Although UNsaturated fatty acid molecules are intrinsically relatively UNstable versus saturated ones (the former incorporate relatively reactive double-bonds in their carbon backbone, the latter contain only relatively unreactive single carbon-carbon bonds), instability may be offset in oil products that contain either naturally-occurring, or processor-added, ‘anti-oxidant’ molecules, (such offsets should come as no surprise really, from both the name, and action: ‘anti-oxidant’).
Some oil products are marketed as ‘highly refined’, which may, somehow, ‘sound better’. Counterintuitively, based just on that tag, these can actually be far more, not less, prone to oxidation; because ‘refining’ may involve high heat which destroys naturally occurring anti-oxidants.
I will close by returning, full circle, now somewhat in defence of the ‘history’ argument, but from a physiology ‘you-are-what-you-eat’ angle. Even if you do not further corrupt unsaturated fatty acids through heat alteration reactions, simply eating them will result in them being incorporated into cell membranes, instead of historical saturated/animal-derived ones. And this may result in thinner cell membranes, which “may show increased permeability to ions and small molecules” (Source: Vvedenskaya ,’PUFAs coming from diet incorporate into the plasma membrane and affect its biophysical properties’). Cell membranes allow cells to control and maintain their internal composition, and to defend against entry of deleterious entities, or not.