This article first appeared in Forum, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on November 4, 2024 - November 10, 2024

At about the same time my article “Hidden danger in consuming ‘dark calories’” was published on theedgemalaysia.com (July 17, 2024), the Seed Oil Free Alliance unveiled its “Seed Oil Free Certified” food label. In my article, I recommended avoiding seed oils from sunflower, corn, soybean and cottonseed as the harmful health efects of these vegetable oils become wider known in the US.

The Seed Oil Free Alliance lists as harmful a longer list of seed oils, viz soybean oil, corn oil, canola (rapeseed) oil, sunflower oil, peanut oil, rapeseed oil, safflower oil, rice bran oil, cottonseed oil and flaxseed oil, for being high in omega-6 linoleic acid or other polyunsaturated fats and also highly refined. I had set a higher threshold for the omega-6 fatty acid content.

Which brings us to the basic question: If a product is “free” of something, does that mean it’s better?

The term “free” in food labelling can indeed give the impression that a product is healthier because it suggests the absence of potentially harmful ingredients. However, this perception isn’t always accurate.

Labels like gluten-free, sugar-free or fat-free often lead consumers to believe that the products are healthier options. This is because the term “free” implies the removal of something undesirable or harmful. Just because a product is free from a specific ingredient doesn’t necessarily mean it’s healthier overall. For example, sugar-free products might contain artificial sweeteners, which have their own health implications. Similarly, fat-free products might have added sugars or other ingredients to compensate for the loss of flavour and texture, potentially making them less healthy in other ways.

As for “palm oil free” labelling, the marketing has less to do with human health and more about environmental issues such as deforestation, habitat destruction and the endangerment of species.

Seed oil free certification, on the other hand, is all about health as consuming seed oils has been compared to smoking cigarettes by Dr Cate Shanahan, author of Dark Calories, and Dr Chris Knobbe, author of The Ancestral Diet Revolution, who sounded the alarm that seed oils are the primary driver of health issues including obesity, coronary heart disease, cancer, Type 2 diabetes, dementia, Alzheimer’s, age-related macular degeneration and autoimmune conditions.

If seed oils are so bad for human health, then what about the options approved by Seed Oil Free Certification?

The alternatives to seed oils as approved by Seed Oil Free Certification include healthier oils such as olive oil, avocado oil, butter/ghee, tallow and lard, cocoa butter, macadamia nut oil, coconut oil, almond oil and walnut oil. Unfortunately, some of these, especially nut oils, are prohibitively expensive for most consumer and commercial applications in the US.

The more accessible and affordable options approved by Seed Oil Free Certification, which are animal fats and coconut or palm oil, have been accused of being unhealthy due to their high saturated fat content. These accusations have been upended by Dr Nina Teicholz, author of the New York Times bestseller, The Big Fat Surprise, who documented how the low (saturated) fat nutrition advice of the past 60 years has amounted to a vast uncontrolled experiment on the entire population, with disastrous consequences for our health.

The challenge for American consumers is that the vegetarian options endorsed by Seed Oil Free Certification in coconut or palm oil are virtually absent from supermarket shelves in the US.

This can change quickly as the US is an established importer of coconut and palm oil. With the resurgence of the seed oil-free movement and growing acknowledgment in the US that seed oils, which emerged from the 19th century as industrial oils, are harmful, there is an opportunity for palm oil to position itself as a viable alternative. To capitalise on this opportunity, much work needs to be done to strengthen palm oil’s three key pillars: sustainability, affordability and health benefits.

Sustainability: This is a significant focus with the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) certification. Major oilseed crops like soybean, rapeseed and sunflower have environmental issues too. For example, soybean farming drives deforestation in the Amazon, rapeseed cultivation leads to habitat destruction, and pesticides used in sunflower farming harm biodiversity.

Affordability: Palm oil is the cheapest vegetable oil, making it the default choice in Asian countries, including Malaysia and Indonesia. However, in the US, it faces steep competition from soy and canola, which have sometimes been cheaper than palm oil in recent years.

Health benefits: We must continue to emphasise palm oil’s health benefits. First, palm oil is not associated with cardiovascular disease. Second, its health effects upon consumption are similar to olive oil. While we’ve prioritised sustainability, focusing on health benefits will attract seed oil users to palm oil as they seek alternatives.

The rise of the seed oil-free movement presents a fantastic opportunity for the palm oil industry to seize, but it must up its game by strengthening all three key pillars: sustainability, affordability and health benefits. While palm oil is a viable non-seed oil alternative, lingering negative associations with environmental concerns and health issues due to its classification as a saturated fat must be addressed. Unfortunately, there is still a lot of misinformation about palm oil that needs to be corrected.

Qua Kiat Seng ([email protected]) is an adjunct senior lecturer at Monash University Malaysia where he lectures on their short course in oils and fats processing

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