‘No Seed Oil’ Restaurants Seize the Moment

When Peter Phillips was brainstorming with his business partner for Massi’s, their new sandwich shop in Astoria, Queens, he wanted something with a “homemade feel,” in both aesthetics and production. The bread would be made fresh every day, the fries cut in-house. And everything would be fried in beef tallow. It “just felt like a natural extension of what we were creating, with this focus on things that were pretty natural,” says Phillips. So when it came time to market the restaurant, centering that homespun framing just made sense — on Massi’s Instagram, they note the sourdough is fresh, reassure everything is fried in beef tallow, and finally, affirm that there are “no seed oils.”

If you asked me last year “what’s a seed oil,” I wouldn’t have known. I was familiar, of course, with the family of oils to which the umbrella term refers — canola oil, corn oil, sunflower oil, and other versions of cooking oils derived from plant seeds and kernels. These were the “neutral” oils called for in so many recipes. They’re the workhorse oils that could be whipped into a mayonnaise or heated to fry a chicken without adding any pesky, distinct flavor of their own. And while it is possible to get, for instance, sunflower oil mechanically cold-pressed from sunflower seeds, most seed oils in the grocery store are extracted with heat and chemical solvents.

But like the ’90s “nonfat” craze or the great carb scare of 2003, seed oils have become the dietary concern du jour. Sites like Seed Oil Scout and Local Fats allow users to search for restaurants that are seed oil free, while Louisiana considers a new seed oil labeling law. More restaurants are noting that they’re seed oil-free because more people are asking.

The concern over seed oils is rooted in their higher levels of omega-6 fatty acids, which can cause inflammation. Omega-6 fatty acids have become a larger part of the American diet over the course of the 20th century, specifically with massive increases in ingestion of soybean and canola oil since the 1980s. And there’s the issue that most commercially available seed oils are highly processed foods, produced with chemical solvents like hexane. The EU limits how much residual hexane can be in seed oils, while the FDA does not monitor hexane residue at all.

Phillips says that aside from it feeling “natural,” the choice to use beef tallow at Massi’s is about taste, not health. “Eating large amounts of beef tallow every day is probably not great for your health either,” he says. Instead, Phillips hoped putting “no seed oils” on social media and on the menu communicates that they’re not using cheap, industrial ingredients, while also highlighting an ingredient choice that might differ from what people assume when they order a chicken Parm and a plate of fries.

But in our broader political moment, “no seed oils” has also become shorthand that signals a wider wellness ethos, though diners and restaurants may not agree on the same meanings. For some, seeing “seed oil-free” may signal what Phillips intends, or a shared understanding of the risks of an omega-6 rich diet. Or perhaps they see a kindred spirit in a Make America Healthy Again agenda, and assume an adherence to a host of other ideas about “health.”

Though sources like the American Heart Association and Harvard Medical School say omega-6s pose no real risks, for some restaurateurs, omitting seed oils connects deeply to their own health journeys. Olga Estrella, founder of Cafe Largesse in Austin, Texas, says she had been struggling with PCOS, with doctors unable to prescribe her anything that helped. “I don’t know what blog I read, but it said seed oil may have something to do with the inflammation,” she says. So she cut it out of her diet. “Obviously, there were many different components, but seed oil was one of the first things that I did. It wasn’t overnight, but I noticed a huge reduction in my inflammation and brain fog.”

She and husband Frank Rog figured that if they cooked this way at home, it’s how they should cook at the restaurant. They use avocado oil, olive oil, and butter, and though the whole menu isn’t seed oil-free, as some ingredients from vendors still use them, they make it clear they cater to a seed oil-free diet. And according to Rog, it’s becoming easier by the day to find vendors who make their supplies without seed oils.

Chef Deborah Williamson of James Provisions in Hurst, Texas, similarly sought answers after a health scare in 2016, back when she was operating her restaurant’s first iteration, James, in Brooklyn. “It really started me on this path of trying to figure out, What is health?” she says. She notes she’s long been in “wellness spaces,” and after learning about seed oils and omitting them from her diet, she’s felt a massive change in her energy levels.

Cooking without seed oils can be an ordeal. Williamson says James was known for its fries, but she took the fryer out of the kitchen at James Provisions, and instead serves roasted potatoes with compound miso butter alongside her burgers. “I’m trying to replicate that mouthfeel and the satiation of a deep-fried french fry, but without using a fryer,” she says.

Chef Chris Dumesnil of Aydea in San Francisco notes the increased cost of this commitment, explaining it’s more expensive to use beef tallow, avocado oil, and chicken fat rendered from their chicken dishes. But customers haven’t complained, and for him, it’s worth it. “Everybody in the restaurant that comes and becomes our guests, I don’t want to have them become sick,” he says. “In my mind, it’s like taking care of my family.”

For many restaurateurs, avoiding seed oil is in line with a larger organic mission. Aydea also advertises that it uses organic, raw sugars and honeys, grass-fed and organic milk, and pasture-raised eggs. James Provisions also promotes that it’s “seasonal” and uses “thoughtful sourcing.” Phillips says that even though his other concepts — Chip City and Somedays Bakery — don’t advertise as being seed oil-free, “premium products have always been something central to my thinking”; there, cookies and pastries are made with high-fat European butter. If quality is the point, this is one more way to signal it.

“Seed oils are one of the most unhealthy ingredients that we have in foods,” posted now-Secretary of Health and Human Services RFK Jr. in October 2024. “We need to Make Frying Oil Tallow Again.” Kennedy’s ascendance to office turbo-charged the anti-seed oil movement; he’s threatened to ban seed oils and called for fast food restaurants to begin using beef tallow again to fry their food (which some have). Also, Casey Means, RFK Jr.’s new pick for Surgeon General, has been publicly outspoken about seed oils.

And so the wariness around seed oils comes with a host of other beliefs common under the general umbrella of the MAHA movement. RFK Jr. has been outspokenly critical of vaccination, most recently saying there are “problems” with the measles vaccine as unvaccinated children die of the disease for the first time in decades. He has supported debunked theories that childhood vaccines cause autism, and has promoted the falsehood that AIDS is caused by drug use and “compulsive homosexual behavior.” Meanwhile, Means also frequently criticizes vaccines in her wellness newsletter, called birth control a “disrespect of life,” and believes gluten causes mental illness. And as I wrote this, I received a press release for a four-part series from production company MAHA Films called Toxic Nation: From Fluoride to Seed Oils, How We Got Here, Who Profits, And What You Can Do, explicitly putting the rejection of seed oils within the purview of other health conspiracies.

Should it matter what other people believe if you’ve found that cooking a certain way makes you feel better, or if you’d rather spend your money on local, organic olive oil than Crisco and Mazola? Ideally, no. Most restaurateurs I spoke to were adamant that their support of the anti-seed oil movement had nothing to do with politics; it was simply an extension of their beliefs regarding its health benefits. In the FAQ section of James Provisions’ website, Williamson writes a fact followed by an opinion: “Seed oils are highly processed, chemically treated, bleached, and deodorized. They don’t belong on your plate or in your body.”

But it’s not so easy to separate one choice from the political movement that advocates it — especially as the political discourse fuels a growing diner interest.

Graham Honig, co-founder of Talo Organic Grill in Venice, California, says about 90 percent of his customers come specifically because they advertise using beef tallow instead of seed oil. The restaurant also advertises other “Talo difference(s)” on its website, like “no cooking in plastic or non-stick pans,” “no gums,” and “no plastic cutting boards,” but it’s the seed oils point that makes up much of its branding. Honig tells me he’s trademarked the phrase “seed oils suck,” which appears on the brand’s T-shirts. Honig also says he’s adamantly apolitical. “I would say people should pay attention to what we say and what we actually promote, and come to their own conclusions,” he says. “My only focus is creating a healthier world and healthier options for people.” (Talo has received investment from Calley Means, Casey Means’s brother and co-author of their book Good Energy, and has posted using the hashtag #maha)

Increasingly, restaurant owners say, customers are coming to them precisely because they don’t use seed oils. “There’s a demand there,” says Rog. “When it is brought up and they realize that that’s what we offer, it’s a great thing for them. They know what we’re talking about.” Honig tells Fitt/Insider it’s “fortuitous timing” that there’s a larger cultural movement around seed oils.

And Dumesnil says he noticed that after RFK Jr. went on the Joe Rogan podcast, some customers became more curious about seed oils, which allowed him to explain the restaurant’s positioning. “Whether it’s someone famous, a political person or an actual dietician that says don’t use seed oils, we say it’s something that we do, but not for the politics — but because of the nutritional value that it brings towards our family.”

I sense myself veering into a defense of seed oils as I watch the larger MAHA movement gain popularity, which feels like defending the Coca-Cola Company, or fossil fuels. The naming and shaming of seed oils is an attempt to correct a very real problem in American foodways: that so much of our diet consists of ultra-processed food made by corporations that prioritize profit over quality. Most U.S. residents’ omega-6 intake is due to an increased reliance on fast food and pre-packaged food like bread, frozen meals, and sweetened breakfast cereal that use hydrogenated seed oils to remain shelf-stable. So of course there’s a draw to restaurants that advertise organic, nutrient-rich ingredients and reject things like mass-produced canola oil.

It’s also telling that so many restaurateurs came to reject seed oils after finding few answers for their ailments within the U.S. medical establishment. Christy Harrison, author of The Wellness Trap, noted in an interview with The Cut that conditions like chronic fatigue, and those that disproportionately affect women like endometriosis and PCOS, “have been historically contested and therefore under-funded” by the conventional healthcare system. This disconnect between the medical establishment and many patients makes the wellness space ripe for promoting individual solutions to collective problems. “American individualism and capitalism fit right in with wellness culture,” says Harrison. “Our health care system makes so many people feel dismissed and unheard, and they feel the need to take things into their own hands.”

Indeed, one of the key components of the MAHA movement is the idea that health is an individual responsibility. It’s what’s behind RFK Jr. saying that “only very sick kids should die from measles” while questioning the proven efficacy of the measles vaccine, or TV personality and current administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Dr. Oz saying on Fox News that “it is your patriotic duty to be as healthy as you can.”

Ultimately, it’s nobody’s business if you stock your pantry with organic avocado oil instead of corn oil, or if you choose to only frequent restaurants that don’t use seed oils. The restaurateurs I spoke to nearly all said they wanted to be one more option in the seed oil-free community, a place where people at any stage of fighting the same health concerns as them, or people just wanting a meal made with high-quality ingredients, could eat and enjoy themselves. Now that “seed oil” as a phrase has broken containment within MAHA circles, it’s more likely that restaurants will use the label to stand out among competitors, and diners will see it as a trendy buzzword, like “farm to table” or “artisanal,” without any other associations. After all, it is not a problem to use olive oil in your aioli, or to cook things in beef tallow (unless you’re vegetarian). Those choices don’t solve these wider problems of access and health. But that’s never been the point of a restaurant.