The Titans Are Cutting Seed Oils. Here’s What a Dietitian Actually Thinks.

Last week, I got a call from Nick Suss, the Titans beat writer at The Tennessean. He wanted a dietitian’s take on the team’s decision to ban seed oils from their facility. I said yes, partly because I love talking nutrition, and partly because I had a lot of feelings about this topic that I needed to get off my chest.

The article ran this week, and I was one of five experts quoted.

Here’s the thing: the seed oil conversation is one of those topics that sounds really scary on social media and is genuinely a lot more nuanced in real life. So I want to break it down the way I would with any of my clients. No fear, no agenda, just the facts.

First, What Are Seed Oils?

Seed oils are exactly what they sound like: oils extracted from the seed of a plant. You probably know them as vegetable oils. Think canola oil, sunflower oil, corn oil, soybean oil. They show up in two very different places in your diet, and that distinction matters more than anything else I’m going to say in this post.

The Two Very Different Situations

Here’s what concerns me about the seed oil conversation: when people hear “seed oils are bad,” they don’t just stop eating chips. They start feeling guilty about the oil they’re cooking with at home.

Those are not the same thing, and we need to talk about that.

Situation One: Ultra-Processed Foods

Chips, fast food, packaged cookies — yes, seed oils are in there. But the issue with ultra-processed foods isn’t the oil. It’s the high sodium, the added sugar, the portion sizes, and the overall pattern of eating them regularly. That’s where the real concern lives.

And just to be clear: I’m not telling you to never eat chips again. That’s not realistic, and frankly, chips with your hot dog at a Memorial Day cookout is not going to be the demise of your health. What we’re talking about is overall patterns, not a meal here or there.

Situation Two: Home Cooking

This is where I push back hard on the seed oil fear narrative.

Sautéing your vegetables in canola oil is genuinely a health-promoting choice. Canola oil is affordable, widely available, and has real heart-healthy benefits. It also has a high smoke point, meaning it holds up well at higher cooking temperatures without breaking down, making it great for roasting, sautéing, and stir frying. Not everyone can afford to swap it out for olive oil or avocado oil, and honestly? They don’t need to.

We cannot let fear of one ingredient make people feel like they’re doing something wrong when they cook at home.

What Does the Science Actually Say?

Let’s talk about the two big claims you’ve probably seen online.

“Seed oils are bad for your heart.”

Actually, the opposite is true. Many seed oils like canola, sunflower, and soybean oil are high in unsaturated fat, what we call the heart-healthy fat. Research shows these oils can help lower LDL (bad cholesterol), especially when they replace saturated fats in the diet. That is well-established nutrition science, backed by the American Heart Association.

“Seed oils cause inflammation.”

This is the big one, and it’s where most of the fear comes from. The theory goes: seed oils contain a fat called linoleic acid, which the body can convert into a compound associated with inflammation. Sounds scary, right?

What the theory leaves out: in real people, less than 1% of linoleic acid actually converts that way. The body just doesn’t follow the script. When researchers actually measure inflammation in people consuming these oils, they don’t find what the theory predicts. In fact, the Framingham study — one of the longest running heart health studies in the country — found that people with more linoleic acid in their blood actually had lower inflammation, not higher.

So What About the Titans?

Here’s my honest take: professional athletes operate in a completely different nutritional world than the rest of us. They have an entire team preparing their food, very specific and large energy demands, and a budget that makes this level of optimization possible.

If the Titans want to eliminate seed oils as part of their performance strategy, there’s no strong evidence it’s going to hurt them, but there’s also no strong evidence it’s going to meaningfully help. A grilled chicken breast and roasted vegetables are going to perform the same whether they’re cooked in canola oil or olive oil. The food on the plate is what matters. The oil it’s cooked in? Not as much.

But that’s a very different conversation than everyday families in Tennessee feeling like they need to do the same thing to be healthy. And honestly, this next part is what really stuck with me after reading the full article.

One of the other people interviewed was the founder of a PB&J company that markets itself as seed-oil-free. His reason for avoiding seed oils? He said the ingredient names ‘rapeseed oil’ (aka canola oil) and ‘soybean oil’ made him uncomfortable. His words:

“All of that just sounded inflammatory to me. So it was candidly more of an artistic and less of a scientific approach.”

Not because of science. Because of vibes. And that is how nutrition myths are born. They start with a half-truth and a catchy tagline. The names sound weird, someone with a platform says they’re scared of it, and suddenly everyone is throwing out their canola oil.

What Should You Actually Do?

I know you were waiting for this part. Here it is, and I promise it’s simpler than the internet makes it look.

Cook more at home. That’s it. That’s the move.

Personally, I’m a fan of both canola and olive oil. Canola is your everyday workhorse: neutral flavor, incredibly versatile, works for everything from roasting to baking. Olive oil is great for cooking too, and I love it as part of a dressing on this Mediterranean Chickpea Orzo Sald or drizzled on pretty much anything.

Eating out occasionally? Completely fine. Health is never about one meal — it’s about what you do most of the time.

And if you want to reduce seed oils? If you have the means to do it easily, go for it. It’s not going to hurt you. But it’s also not going to give you any measurable health benefit on its own. So if avoiding them means you’re cooking less at home, spending more money, or feeling anxious about your food, that tradeoff is definitely not worth it.

Here’s what I know after years of working with real people: lasting health change doesn’t come from being afraid of a single ingredient. It comes from building habits you can actually live with.

The Bottom Line

Think about the 90s when we cut out all fat. Then low-carb. Then everything had to be high-protein. We want to make nutrition simple: eat this, but don’t eat that. But every time we eliminated something, we missed the bigger picture.

Fat? We need it for brain function, hormone production, and absorbing vitamins. Carbs? Your body’s primary fuel source. Protein? Great, but not at the expense of everything else.

Seed oils are not the villain. The real conversation is about ultra-processed foods, financial access to affordable ingredients, and building a diet that actually fits your real life.

That’s what we do every day at Dietitian Group. We take insurance, we meet you where you are, and we help you figure out what actually works, without the fear.