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Seed oils have become a hot topic of conversation online with the help of influencers who’ve positioned them as a borderline poison. There may not be any hard scientific evidence to back those claims, but that didn’t stop Robert Saleh from taking a fairly drastic measure after stepping into his new role as the head coach of the Titans.
The Tennessee Titans brought the Brian Callahan Era to an end after less than two seasons when the head coach was fired last year after getting off to a 1-5 start during his sophomore campaign.
The team started searching for a new skipper in the offseason before landing on Robert Saleh, who will have a shot at redemption in Nashville following an ill-fated stint with the Jets where he posted a 20-36 record and failed to make the playoffs before being kicked to the curb five games into his fourth year at the helm.
There’s currently no telling how that decision is going to pan out, as we’re still in the period of the offseason where the bulk of the discussions involving Saleh revolve around the “culture” he’s attempted to institute since ushering in a new regime—one where seed oils have apparently been exiled from the team’s facilities.
Why did Robert Saleh get rid of seed oils after taking over as the coach of the Titans?
Every NFL franchise has plenty of incentive to make sure its players are as healthy as possible, a mandate that extends to the food they serve them.
Based on the most recent NFLPA survey, guys who play for the Titans are pretty satisfied when it comes to the team’s food options and the nutritionists and dieticians they have access to, as the team received a “B” in both of those categories.
However, based on what Saleh had to say during a press conference on Thursday, he was less than thrilled to discover the presence of seed oils in the team’s dining facilities, saying removing them was “one of the first things” he did upon his arrival while noting his players seemed to appreciate the move.
Interesting: #Titans HC Robert Saleh said one of the first moves the team made in its nutrition overhaul was removing all seed oils from the building.
He says players have appreciated it. https://t.co/Ojh1Q9KP1h pic.twitter.com/HODuPmG0gB
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) May 21, 2026
If you have no idea why seed oils have become a target (or what they are in the first place), you have likely been able to avoid the corners of social media filled with wellness influencers masquerading as nutritional experts who have been waging a war against them.
If you’re in the dark, you should know the oils in question are derived from seeds that those influencers commonly refer to as the “Hateful Eight”: canola, corn, grapeseed, safflower, soybean, sunflower, cottonseed, and rice bran. They are commonly sold as standalone products or combined to make what is marketed as “vegetable oil,” which makes them a staple in households across the United States.
However, they’ve become villainized among critics who’ve come at them from multiple angles while attempting to call attention to supposed health risks.
That includes the production process that harnesses hexane, a toxic substance in high quantities, as well as claims seed oils promote inflammation due to omega-6 fatty acids and cause more obesity compared to alternatives like olive oil, avocado oil, and beef tallow, the last of which has become all the rage over the past few years.
However, those arguments do not really stand up to any scrutiny. Experts say levels of hexane in commercially produced oil are not high enough to pose any serious threat, there is no scientifically documented link between omega-6 acids and inflammation, and obesity has nothing to do with the type of oil you consume but rather the amount of calories it’s responsible for.
At the end of the day, Saleh’s decision to get rid of seed oils probably isn’t going to hurt, but the fact that he seemed to make that a priority does raise some questions about where he’s getting his information from and his ability to actually verify it.