A quarter of people in the UK have at least one diagnosed chronic illness. Could dietary fats and seed oils be playing a role?

Let's talk about what's really behind the rising rates of heart disease. (Hint: it’s not the saturated fats). Heart disease was practically unheard of until 1912. Interesting timing - that's exactly when industrial seed oils started creeping into our food supply.

B Corp Hunter & Gather, the brainchild of Amy Moring and Jeff Webster, is an ancestrally inspired lifestyle brand whose mission is to fuse ancestral and modern wisdom to give people the tools to thrive in life. From creating real food and supplements that are not only free from refined sugar, grains and inflammatory seed oils, but also champion quality and taste, to a welcoming community ‘tribe’, providing education to guide their journey to better health.

Hunter & Gather would rather make trends than follow them, so they’ve taken a deep dive into the slippery science of seed oils, aka vegetable oils, to see if their decision to keep well clear of them is science-backed and not just trendy.

The Facts

Certain ‘essential’ fats must be included in our diets. For example, Linoleic acid (an omega-6 polyunsaturated fat) is an essential oil in TINY amounts. But, with the advent of the oil industry circa 1911, our exposure to omega-6 polyunsaturated fats, including linoleic acid, multiplied exponentially. Linoleic acid is central to any debate about seed oils.

1912 heralded the first recorded heart attack—it quickly became the world’s leading cause of death and remains so today.

Seed oils (vegetable oils) make up 60% of the world’s most inefficient crops. They provide almost no nutrients at all…but lots of calories. During processing and at home they begin to oxidise, creating reactive chemicals that cause oxidative stress and trigger inflammation.

Many restaurant cooking oils are highly toxic.

Comments Amy Moring: “Most people today still believe omega-6 polyunsaturated fats are a ‘healthy choice’. They overconsume them, pushing their levels of linoleic acid beyond normal. This excess creates oxidative stress at a cellular level, triggering inflammation and errant immune responses.”

Nutrients that defend against these pressures are used up quickly, leaving people open to diseases, including cardiovascular disease. For decades, we've been told to avoid traditional fats in favour of industrial alternatives. But those vegetable oils marketed as heart-healthy are actually industrial seed oils, with the majority extracted using harsh chemicals and heat that transform them into something the body barely recognise as food.

Hunter & Gather suggests letting the scientists battle it out, but in the meantime, consumers have nothing to lose by reducing the worst offenders, including restaurant fried foods and ultra-processed junk foods that are hiding everywhere - your favourite crisps are swimming in sunflower oil. That "healthy" granola from the supermarket that you top your yoghurt with every morning is highly likely to contain rapeseed oil. Even that virtuous “heart healthy” low-fat spread is packed with inflammatory oils.

The solution? Swap ultra processed foods for real food and seed oils for stable, natural fats.

Continues Amy: “Chronic disease is on the increase and with seed oils only joining our diets in the last 114 years, we believe that seed oils are the next tobacco or sugar when it comes to our health. Seed oils are often heavily processed with hexane chemicals, have a high level of omega-6 polyunsaturated fats which disrupts our omega 3 to 6 ratio and they are unfortunately found in most everyday foods. We have gone from not eating seed oils in our diets to overconsumption. A better choice is animal based fats, like tallow, butter and ghee or alternatively avocado oil or coconut oil."

Back in 2017, supermarkets were packed with sauces and condiments that were highly processed and questionably cheap. This got Amy (a lifelong coeliac and optimal health champion) thinking… with obesity and type 2 diabetes rising fast, why were condiments being side-lined? There was compelling evidence to suggest that replacing the ultra-processed seed oils found in many branded mayos (think rapeseed, sunflower, and vegetable oils) with fruit oils (avocado, olive and coconut oil) or animal fats (tallow, butter, and ghee) can have remarkable positive health outcomes.

After months of research, Hunter & Gather 100% Avocado Oil Mayonnaise was born… eight years on, retailers are sitting up and taking notice and Tesco, Ocado, Booths and Holland & Barratt now stock Hunter & Gather’s seed oil free mayonnaise.