Why seed oils are the perfect boogeyman

[Carl-Richard]

• It's that it's simple and easy to identify (oil made of seeds)
• It's a food item that people don't have a strong preference for or against (it has a relatively neutral taste and is used as a means to an end, as a cooking accessory, more than a food you want to eat)
• It's not seen as strictly necessary (you can get fats from many other sources)
• It's tied to "you fear what you don't understand" with respect to the processing steps for making the oil (involving sometimes spooky-sounding chemicals and modern industrial processes)
• It's tied to "big money" capitalist conspiracies ("big food companies just want to earn money") and conspiracies of narrative control (big food companies lobbying in government, science)
• It's tied to the naturalistic frame or fallacy ("the processes for making the oil are not natural", "natural is better"), simple in- and out-group dynamic
• It's a food item that people don't know much about so they can easily adopt a new narrative and usually one that plays on weaknesses and that sticks

Now, I haven't made an empirical case for or against its health effects. But notice how many things are not good for you but how some things are amplified more than others. Feel free to add more things or find a similar boogeyman.

Edited 14 hours ago by Carl-Richard