Over the last 125 years, our consumption of these oils, extracted from soybeans, peanuts, sunflowers, safflower, and other seeds and beans, has multiplied more than any other food source. Between 1909 and 1999, Americans’ intake of soybean oil alone increased more than a thousand-fold. Today, linoleic acid, the main fatty acid in seed oils, is responsible for up to 8-10% of our total caloric intake, up from near zero just over a century ago. 

That rise has far-reaching health implications that have often been downplayed or dismissed by some of our nation’s foremost nutrition experts. To turn the page on our chronic disease crisis, the new administration should initiate a thorough, science-based review of seed oils. This effort could include the Food and Drug Administration’s reexamination of its “generally recognized as safe” status, a process that would fall within RFK Jr.’s purview if Senate-confirmed.

Seed oils weren’t originally considered fit for human consumption; they were largely developed as machine lubricants during the Industrial Revolution. It was Procter & Gamble that introduced them into the food supply via its product Crisco in 1911 and aggressively marketed them as a modern-day alternative to lard.