How Choosing Which Oil to Buy Got So Complicated
Canola? Olive? Vegetable?
This is an edition of The Wonder Reader, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a set of stories to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Sign up here to get it every Saturday morning.
Seed oils—think canola, soybean, corn—have long been “maligned by both the crunchy left and the MAHA right,” Rachel Sugar wrote yesterday. Many consider them to be unhealthy, despite no scientific evidence to back up that claim. (Just don’t use a black plastic spatula to spread oil around.) But in a trade war, these underdog oils will have one important thing in their favor: They’re inexpensive, and are likely to stay that way. Today’s newsletter explores the future of the oil we eat.
On Oil
Guess What Kind of Cooking Oil Is Tariff-Proof?
By Rachel Sugar
Seed oils are about to get their revenge.
America Stopped Cooking With Tallow for a Reason
By Yasmin Tayag
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s view on fats is about bucking convention, not promoting health.
Americans Have Lost the Plot on Cooking Oil
By Yasmin Tayag
Olive oil is a great choice. So is canola oil, vegetable oil, avocado oil, and pretty much everything else.
Still Curious?
- “Make America Healthy Again” sounds good until you start asking questions: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s health agenda is politically slippery, Yasmin Tayag wrote in November.
- Throw out your black plastic spatula: It’s probably leaching chemicals into your cooking oil, Zoë Schlanger wrote last year.
Other Diversions
- The problem with Abe Lincoln’s face
- The box-office smash that left David Sims cold
- A defense against gaslighting sociopaths
P.S.
I recently asked readers to share a photo of something that sparks their sense of awe in the world. “Traveling through Bosnia, we came to a stop on the road as a shepherd herded his sheep across it in front of us,” Mary Beth, 64, from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, writes. “They ended up making their way to this field. Amazing how shepherds have been caring for their sheep for thousands of years.”
I’ll continue to feature your responses in the coming weeks.
— Isabel
