Over the last 50 years, the fat stored in our bodies has changed—more of it comes from processed vegetable oils, which might be changing how our body burns energy.

The highly processed vegetable oils we eat a lot of today—like soy and canola oil—can cause damage inside our cells because they break down easily and lack protective nutrients, which might mess with how our body uses energy.

Dietary intake of linoleic acid from seed oils correlates with increased accumulation of linoleic acid in human adipose tissue over time.

Over the last 50 years, Americans have been eating more soybean oil and other seed oils, and as a result, more of the fatty acid called linoleic acid has built up in our body fat.

Eating a lot of seed oils over a long time causes a type of fat called linoleic acid to build up in your body fat, which then triggers ongoing internal damage to your cells.

Over the last 50 years, the amount of a specific fat called linoleic acid in people’s body fat in the U.S. more than doubled, probably because we started eating more foods like vegetable oils and processed snacks.