Are Vegetable Oils Good For You?

A century ago, linoleic acid wasn't a major part of the human diet. Today, it dominates, and is hidden in nearly every processed food and most restaurant meals, this polyunsaturated fat, found in vegetable oils like soybean, corn, canola, palm and margarine, has quietly become the most consumed fat in the modern world.

If your energy's been crashing, your metabolism feels stuck, or your gut hasn't been right for years, there's a good chance that vegetable oils are part of the problem.

You've been told it's healthy, but it behaves differently inside your body to other fats, which are chemically stable. It breaks down easily when exposed to heat, light or oxygen, turning it into toxic by products that your body struggles to clear. And unlike fats your body uses for energy, this one gets stored in your tissues and builds up over time, where it quietly interferes with energy production, gut health, and hormone regulation.

If you've been dealing with low energy, unexplained weight gain, or insulin resistance, there's a good chance this hidden ingredient is working against you. Most people don't realise that the foods they've been told are heart-healthy, like certain oils, nuts, packaged snacks, salad dressings, pork and chicken are loading their cells with something they weren't designed to consume.

Linoleic acid disrupts mitochondrial function, damages gut balance, and triggers insulin resistance breaking down energy production inside every cell. The half life of linoleic acid in body fat is estimated to be two years, meaning that every meal high in LA adds to a long-term problem that  your body can't easily reverse. The result is poor glucose handling, inflammation, and insulin resistance - what many people blame as aging, is actually preventable damage.

Balancing protein, carbs and fats in your diet, help protect your mitochondria from the overload that linoleic acid creates. 

Your mitochondria need essential nutrients to turn food into usable energy. These include key B vitamins like Niacinamide (Vitamin B3), Thiamine (Vitamin B1), and Riboflavin (Vitamin B2), which act like spark plugs in your cellular engine. They help fuel the chain of reactions that power energy production.

Coenzyme Q10 helps shuttle electrons inside your mitochondria and reduces oxidative stress.

Magnesium plays a key role too - helping to stabilize ATP and supports hundreds of enzymes involved in metabolism and insulin sensitivity.

LA triggers a cascade of inflammation from your gut outward, interfering with the ability of colon cells to burn butyrate for fuel, which leaves more oxygen in your gut. The extra oxygen disrupts the environment, harming helpful bacteria and allowing helpful ones to take over - dysbiosis. The same fibre that normally helps you, actually makes things worse, by breaking up the gut lining and allowing harmful bacteria to enter the bloodstream. Over time, this makes insulin resistance worse, and raises your risk for problems like fatty liver, obesity and diabetes. 

What can you do to take back control?

Ditch vegetable oils completely. Avoid all processed and packaged foods, read ingredient labels and cook at home using single ingredients for your meals.

Switch to safe fats that don't damage your mitochondria - replace Omega 6 fats with stable, saturated fats like grass fed butter, ghee, beef tallow and organic coconut oil. These fats support energy, hormones, and brain health without contributing to inflammation.

Eat more foods that repair your gut and feed your colon cells - high quality carbs like sweet potatoes, carrots, squash, and rice are rich in fermentable fibres that fuel this process. If you're struggling with bloating, cramping, loose stools or constipation, start by healing your gut with probiotics first. Then slowly introduce fibre-rich foods.

Avoid olive oil, nuts and seeds, even the healthy ones, walnuts, almonds, pecans, sunflower and pumpkin seeds are all loaded with LA. Even macadamia nuts and olive oil, while lower, are rich in monounsaturated fats that oxidize easily under heat and light.

Olive oil is often adulterated with cheaper vegetable oils, if you snack on nut butters or drizzle olive oil over everything, it's time to rethink those habits.

Stay consistent, because LA takes years to clear, remember every LA free meal you eat, helps reduce your oxidative burden, improve mitochondrial function, and restore metabolic health day by day.