What are Industrial Seed Oils?
What we like to call “Industrial Seed Oils” (ISOs) are a group of edible oils which have one thing in common: the extreme, modern processing methods necessary to manufacture them. Without these methods some of these oils are impractical or impossible to extract, some are acutely toxic, some are unpalatable, and some are not stable enough to have a useful shelf life. Some of them are derived from things which aren’t even vaguely food, like cotton seeds!
Introduced around the turn of the 20th century, Industrial Seed Oils have come to increasingly dominate most modern diets, especially so-called “Western” diets. These oils took off quickly, for a variety of reasons, and only recently has more research about the multitudinous consequences of their introduction to the human diet been undertaken.
These Industrial Seed Oils include:
- Cottonseed Oil
- Canola Oil (AKA rapeseed oil)
- Grapeseed Oil
- Soybean Oil
- Corn Oil
- Sunflower Oil
- Safflower Oil
- Lupin Oil
- Ricebran Oil
To obfuscate their questionable sources, they are often called “vegetable oil” and you should check the ingredients carefully whenever you buy food. Even if you think it couldn’t possible contain any oils, it probably does! Everything from artisanal sourdough bread to “nut milk” can – and very often do – contain Industrial Seed Oils.
You shouldn’t need to worry about what’s in your food! But unfortunately, because of the sad state of our modern food supply, a smart consumer needs to be ever-vigilant about what’s in their food.
That’s why we made Just Right Organics. We did it for those who want to know their food is real food, and not a concoction of terrifying food-like substances.
Check our blog for more installments in our series on seed oils, where we will go through the origins and effects of Industrial Seed Oils in the modern diet.