The term “seed oils” in recent times has become a negative term in the natural/organic food industry. The term appears to have originated in 2018, and then became popular in 2020 after a Joe Rogan program with Paul Saladino. This term became even more popular last year, in 2025, when HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy made it a part of his “Make America Healthy Again” slogan. Until recently, most Americans had never heard the term “seed oils,” even though they’ve likely cooked with and consumed them for decades. It’s the catchy description coined by internet influencers, wellness gurus, and some politicians to refer to common cooking oils — think canola, soybean, and corn oil — that have long been staples in many home kitchens. Those fiery critics refer to the top refined vegetable oils as “the hateful eight” and claim that they’re fueling inflammation and high rates of chronic diseases like obesity and diabetes. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the new health secretary, has said Americans are being “unknowingly poisoned” by seed oils and has called for fast-food restaurants to return to using beef tallow, or rendered animal fat, in their fryers instead. What Are Seed Oils? Simply put, they are oils extracted from plant seeds. They include eight commonly targeted by critics: canola, corn, cottonseed, grapeseed, soybean, sunflower, safflower, and rice bran I totally agree with their “eight commonly targeted” seed oils of “canola, corn, cottonseed, grapeseed, soybean, sunflower, safflower, and rice bran” as being highly toxic, and unhealthy. These polyunsaturated oils have only been in the human food chain for a short time, since World War II when we developed expeller-pressed technology to extract oils from crops we never did before that time. They are not shelf stable, and need to be highly processed to make them so, which creates many health problems. However, to state that these toxic oils should only be replaced with animal fats, such as beef tallow, is very short-sighted, because there are many seed oils that have been used to extract edible oils and that have nourished populations for thousands of years.

We've known for years that sleep matters, but new data from Oregon Health & Science University makes the stakes even clearer. Researchers found that insufficient sleep (fewer than seven hours per night) was significantly associated with shorter life expectancy, second only to smoking in its impact on mortality when controlling for diet, physical activity, and other traditional health behaviors. The relationship held across diverse populations regardless of income level, access to healthcare, or geographic location, suggesting that sleep insufficiency affects longevity in a fundamental way. It's essential to note that sleeping fewer than seven hours isn't always about dedicating insufficient time to rest. Many people struggle with sleep because of a disrupted stress response system and dysregulated HPA axis, which keeps the nervous system in a state of hyperarousal even when you're exhausted.