The Real Reason Legacy Media is Trying to Rehabilitate Ultra-Processed Foods, with Dr. Casey Means
What this video covers
In this Megyn Kelly Show segment from November 2024, Kelly asks Casey Means to respond to a New York Times piece questioning whether seed oils are really bad for you, which quoted Stanford professor Christopher Gardner defending them. Means lays out her case against industrial seed oils, argues that legacy media is running a campaign to “rehabilitate” ultra-processed foods, and fields Kelly’s practical questions about pasta and food dyes before the segment closes with a sponsor read.
Key points
- Kelly opens with the Times article, in which Gardner is quoted saying decades of research show seed oil consumption is associated with better health, and that there is no evidence seed oils are what makes ultra-processed food unhealthy.
- Means counters that there is an “all-out campaign” by legacy media to create confusion about nutrition, pointing to a recent Time article asking whether ultra-processed foods are “as bad as we think,” which she calls ludicrous.
- Means gives her reasons for avoiding seed oils: the monocrop, pesticide-heavy farming behind them (she says over 90% of U.S. canola is genetically engineered), and an industrial production process involving hexane solvent extraction, bleaching, and deodorizing — unlike butter, which she notes is made by churning, or olive oil, by pressing.
- On the health science, Means argues modern diets run an omega-6 to omega-3 ratio of about 20-to-1 that promotes inflammation, and she directly disputes the Times’ claim that higher omega-6 intake is linked to lower risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer, saying it contradicts what she learned mechanistically and in medical school.
- Means concedes part of Gardner’s point — seed oils are partly a problem because they are the cheap “backbone” of ultra-processed food, subsidized through the farm bill (notably soybeans) — while noting ultra-processed food now supplies, by her figure, 67% of American calories, and that seed oils have become nearly impossible to avoid, appearing in most salad dressings and deli cooking.
- Asked about pasta, Means advises against all non-organic pasta, saying even chickpea pasta has tested with high glyphosate residue, and suggests organic black bean, lentil, or lupini bean pastas instead.
- On the Times’ fact-check of RFK Jr.’s Froot Loops comparison, Means notes the Canadian version uses natural colorings while the U.S. version contains Red 40, Yellow 5, Blue 1, and BHT; she says Red 40 has been linked to attention disorders in children, BHT is banned in Europe, and roughly 4,000 chemicals are allowed in U.S. food, many never tested for safety.