Seed Oils: A Case Study In Explaining Pseudoscience to Clients

What's happening?

As dietitians, we tend to have a sixth sense about whether a nutrition claim might be legitimate or not, which can be difficult to explain to clients. A current example would be the fuss surrounding “seed oils” (certain refined vegetable oils, including canola, corn, cottonseed, grapeseed, rice bran, safflower, soy, and sunflower), spurred by the American health secretary’s recent claims that they are harmful and the subsequent media (and social media) attention (1). 

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