Oil extracted from safflower seeds are used mainly in margarine and cooking oil.
Credit: USDA.
A research team led by scientists at the UNC School of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health has unearthed more evidence that casts doubt on the traditional “heart healthy” practice of replacing butter and other saturated fats with corn oil and other vegetable oils high in linoleic acid.
The analyses show that interventions using linoleic acid-rich oils failed to reduce heart disease […]
Looking at the age of the data it’s pretty obvious that the margarine would have been made from hydrogenated oils, which definitely are worse for us than saturated fats. The amount of linoleic acid in the margarine could easily have been irrelevant to the outcomes of the study.
This is another case of so called science reporters not looking critically at a study. This would need to be replicated with non-hydrogenated oils to be relevant today. And, ideally, a very low oil diet such as used by the Ornish study should be be included as a control.