> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.themeatmafia.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Nina Teicholz on The Big Fat Surprise, Saturated Fat and Seed Oils - URL: https://www.themeatmafia.com/episodes/nina-teicholz-big-fat-surprise-seed-oils/ - Published: 2026-11-04T19:44:59.000Z - Updated: 2026-11-04T19:44:59.000Z - Description: Nina Teicholz tells us how a restaurant-review gig and a trans fat assignment led to The Big Fat Surprise, and why she questions seed oils and the case against saturated fat. - Author: Harry Gray - Tags: Seed Oils & Ultra-Processed Food, Carnivore & Animal-Based, #blog, #episode, #jre-guest [Joe Rogan Experience guest, #1058](https://jrelibrary.com/1058-nina-teicholz/) **By The Meat Mafia (Harry Gray and Brett Ender)** *Before she wrote one of the best-known books on dietary fat, Nina Teicholz was a young writer in New York who hadn't eaten red meat in 20 to 25 years.* She took over a restaurant-review column at a small free paper with no budget. That meant she ate whatever the chef chose to send out, and in the mid-2000s chefs liked to send out red meat, foie gras and other rich dishes. She says she loved the food. She also figured she was headed for a heart attack, so she went to her doctor. > "Your cholesterol numbers look better than ever, which was this weird mystery paradox." ([07:08](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJy-Yk86vb0&t=428s)) She was losing weight too, even with all those huge restaurant meals. Around the same time, Gourmet magazine had assigned her an article on trans fats. She says it became one of the magazine's most-read pieces and led to a book contract. So she spent her first few years of research talking to oil chemists, the people who study seed oils. That work pulled her into a bigger question: why do we think fat is bad in the first place? She says the experience opened her mind to the idea that everything she had believed about food might not be true. She had avoided red meat for years while struggling with her weight, telling herself that at least she wasn't eating red meat. When she looked at what replaced saturated fat in the American diet, she landed on seed oils. > "if you take out saturated fats, what do we replace them with? It's these highly oxidizing inflammatory seed oils." ([05:24](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJy-Yk86vb0&t=324s)) That is the thread of this conversation: a journalist who started with her own plate and followed the research from there. Below is what she told us about seed oils, how to read nutrition studies, and where she sees hope. This is her view, not medical advice. Talk to your own clinician before you change your diet. [Listen to the full episode](https://share.transistor.fm/s/da35ec83) · [Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJy-Yk86vb0) **TL;DR:** Nina Teicholz says her research started with a magazine assignment on trans fats and a restaurant-review job that put red meat back on her plate after 20 to 25 years. She explains why she thinks seed oils deserve more scrutiny, how she reads nutrition studies, and why she says people should be skeptical of the case against saturated fat. Her views, not medical advice. **Who is Nina Teicholz?** An investigative science journalist, author of *The Big Fat Surprise*, founder of the Nutrition Coalition and writer of the Substack *Unsettled Science*. ## Key takeaways - Her research began with a Gourmet magazine article on trans fats (03:28). - She says seed oils oxidize, especially when heated, and that the byproducts may drive inflammation (04:33). - After years without red meat, she says her cholesterol numbers looked better than ever when she started eating it again (07:08). - She explains why observational studies can't separate diet from everything else about people's lives (32:10). - She says there's no clinical trial on the carnivore diet yet, but points to Stefansson's year-long all-meat experiment (28:11). ## Her case on seed oils Nina says she spent her early research years with oil chemists. She describes seed oils as oxidizing even at room temperature, and especially when heated, and says those oxidation products may drive inflammation (04:33). That's her reading of the research, and the debate is still open. SAVE & SHARETHEMEATMAFIA.COM [![Infographic titled Question the Fat Story, from Nina Teicholz on Meat Mafia episode 186: start with your plate, check your labs, look at the swap, heat matters, know study types and stay curious.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/a7/74/a7746fb4-f95a-43c9-80de-d89d93cfaf68/content/images/2026/11/teicholz_card.png)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/a7/74/a7746fb4-f95a-43c9-80de-d89d93cfaf68/content/images/2026/11/teicholz%5Fcard.png) Question The Fat Story, from Nina Teicholz on MMP #186\. Tap to open the full-size card (1080×1350) to save or share. ## How to read a nutrition study She walks through the difference between randomized clinical trials and observational studies. In a trial, the groups should be alike in every way except the intervention. In an observational study, she says, people differ in so many ways that you can never tease all of it out (32:10). ## What about carnivore? She says there's no clinical trial on the carnivore diet yet. She points to the one-year all-meat experiment by Vilhjalmur Stefansson and a colleague, partly supervised in a New York hospital, and says that's more than anecdotal (28:11). She also says doctors' clinical observations deserve weight (29:42). ## Where she sees hope She says she sees more and more people regaining their health by turning the food pyramid upside down (54:30), and points listeners to the Nutrition Coalition and her Substack, *Unsettled Science* (1:08:10). ## FAQ **Who is Nina Teicholz?** An investigative science journalist and the author of The Big Fat Surprise. **What does Nina Teicholz say about seed oils?** She says they oxidize, especially when heated, and that the oxidation products may drive inflammation (04:33). **Is there a clinical trial on the carnivore diet?** Nina says not yet, though she points to Stefansson's one-year all-meat experiment (28:11). ## Related on The Meat Mafia - [Calley Means on the food system](https://www.themeatmafia.com/episodes/calley-means-food-system-metabolic-health/) - [Dr. Gabrielle Lyon on muscle](https://www.themeatmafia.com/episodes/gabrielle-lyon-muscle-centric-medicine/) - [More on Seed Oils & Ultra-Processed Food](https://www.themeatmafia.com/health/seed-oils/) - [Browse all episodes](https://www.themeatmafia.com/episodes/) **Get the free guide: 100 Books to Transform Your Health.** Join the Meat Mafia email list and we'll send it to you. [Sign up free →](https://www.themeatmafia.com/100-books/) --- *Not medical advice. This post summarizes a podcast conversation for education. The views are the guest's own. Talk to a qualified clinician before you change your diet, supplements or any medication.*