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Diet and food › Seed Oils and the Heart › Studies

Randomized trial · measured lab tests or safety

10-week trial in 61 adults: omega-6 oils gave less liver fat than butter fat

Bjermo and colleagues · The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2012

Original title: Effects of n-6 PUFAs compared with SFAs on liver fat, lipoproteins, and inflammation in abdominal obesity: a randomized controlled trial.

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What the study found

Points to benefit

Omega-6 diet gave less liver fat than butter diet (16%, MRI; P < 0.001). Inflammation markers TNF receptor-2 (P < 0.01) and IL-1 receptor antagonist (P = 0.02) were lower. No sign of added inflammation.

The study at a glance

Type of study
Randomized trial
Who or what was studied
61 people · adults with belly fat, 15% with type 2 diabetes
What was tested
10 weeks of a diet high in vegetable omega-6 oils vs a diet high in butter fat
What it measured
Lab tests or markers
How long
10 weeks
Trial registration
NCT01038102
Who has a stake
No disclosure in PubMed
No disclosure in PubMed.
Journal
The American journal of clinical nutrition, 2012
Source
PubMed record 22492369. This page is based on the abstract only.

How much this study counts

  • ✓Randomized: people were put into groups by chance, so the groups start out alike.
  • •Medium size: 61 people.
  • –Short: 10 weeks. Longer-term effects are unknown.
  • –Measured lab tests or markers, which stand in for heart disease and inflammation. A better marker does not always mean better health.
  • •The PubMed record has no conflict-of-interest statement.
  • •Summarized from the PubMed abstract only. The full paper may hold details the abstract leaves out.

✓ Strength– Limit• Note

These points come from fixed rules about the type of study, its size and length, what it measured, and who has a stake. Every study on Digestery gets the same rules.

Where this study sits

Each dot is one on-topic paper on this question. Steps near the top answer the question more directly.

↑ Stronger evidence

  1. Trials in people: heart disease

    1

    1 harm

  2. Trials in people: other measures

    0

    None among the papers we read.

  3. Trials in people: lab tests or safety

    4

    1 benefit, 3 no difference

    ↑ This study is the ringed dot

  4. Population studies

    2

    2 mixed

  5. Blood levels and genes

    0

    None among the papers we read.

↓ Weaker evidence

  • Points to benefit
  • Mixed
  • No difference
  • No direction
  • Points to harm

How it fits with the other research

The short answer to “Are seed oils bad for your heart?”

Not clearly; the evidence conflicts.

Confidence: very low. Based on 13 on-topic papers.

Read the full answer

Of the other 3 papers on the same step: 3 no difference. This one found benefit. It differs from most of them.

  • Quoted in “What we found”: In two diet trials of 8 and 10 weeks, oils rich in omega-6 did not raise inflammation markers, compared with olive oil or with butter.
  • Part of the finding “Omega-6 diets did not raise inflammation in trials”.
  • Marked as a key paper in the research timeline: Trial: omega-6 diet did not raise inflammation.
  • Open item for a person: Four of five trial papers (Prater 2024, Wu 2022, She 2026, Bjermo 2012) have no COI statement in PubMed; check full texts for disclosures.

Other papers on the same step

See all 13 studies on this question

How this page was made

Label

First read of the abstract
Claude Sonnet
Independent second read
Claude Haiku
Differences settled
The reviewer corrected 1 field after reading the abstract. Claude Opus 5.5.
Headline
Claude Sonnet, from the checked study record. A script checked its numbers and wording.
Numbers
Checked against the abstract by a script
“How much this study counts”
Fixed rules, the same for every study
Source check by a person
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