Apr 1, 2022
Back in February, Dr. K, the Seed
Oil Disrespecter on Twitter, was contacted by Audrey
Carleton, a reporter for the news website VICE. She had some
questions about why the seed oil topic had become a 'big thing' in
the bitcoin world. He mentioned me as being knowledgeable about the
seed oil and health topic, and suggested I reach out to her.
I did, and we had a nice chat, although it probably went on
longer than she was expecting. I've often heard it's wise to record
conversations with journalists, and we did so via Zoom, to which
she agreed.
We had a pleasant enough conversation, and she listened to me
at length (~48 minutes).
She didn't get back to me for any follow-up discussion, and
then finally the article came out:
I'll not editorialize about the many problems with that
article, but the major one is they never addressed the research
from institutions like the NIH and the AHA showing that there are
credible reasons to think that the benefits of seed oils are
oversold, and that there are real reasons to fear harmful
effects.
"Misinformation is a two-edged sword in the seed oil
debate, however. Figureheads like Shanahan, after all, believe that
most mainstream dietary guidance around fat consumption is built on
lies, the kind that have quietly fueled America’s major health
epidemics for decades. Like Bitcoin itself, the anti-seed oil
stance reflects a skepticism of authority, one that is often not
unfounded in the least but which can quickly snowball, echoed and
amplified online."
It's rather routine at this time for journalists to spread
misinformation while pretending to be preventing it, and this is a
perfect example of that.
So I am presenting here the full discussion I had with VICE,
so you can be the judge yourself of the value of what they elected
to leave out while claiming that being concerned about seed oils is
"misinformation".
Journalists have editors, and many publications have clear—often
unadmitted—editorial biases. I have no particular reason to think
that Audrey wrote the bias into this story, so I won't blame her
for it. I appreciate the time that she took to speak to me.
I do blame VICE, however, which I think is fair. They printed
a biased, misleading article, while ignoring that there are valid
scientific reasons to think seed oils are problematic.
I'm glad they left my name out of it.