It may not make sense that a book titled The Book of Tea is as much about Eastern philosophy as the drink made by infusing the dried crushed leaves of Camellia senensis in boiling water. But a reflection found therein certainly does and certainly applies to you.

It’s that the true art of living life lies in making “constant readjustments” to it necessitated by changes in your “surroundings.” Interpreted liberally and applied to your consumption of food, it means that to become a da Vinci of diet you need, when given good reason, to be willing to readjust your views on it.

But how do you know when you’ve been a given a good reason?

For if anything has been made absolutely clear about nutrition in the last 50 years, it’s this. While our knowledge of it is expanding at an astounding rate, it’s still in a state of infancy.

We now know, for instance, there are about 39 trillion (that’s right, trillion) microbes in your microbiome and that they affect your health and are affected by your choice of foods. We’ve also discovered that so many of those microbes are so personal to you that you need to be seen as a unique entity.

A unique entity, by the way, that’s also a perplexing mystery since neither your surroundings nor the foods you choose to eat fully explain why you are a dietary one and only.

Which is a pretty good argument for why we’ll never find a single diet that works for everyone — and a pretty good reason to write about your need for periodic dietary readjustment.

About 50 years ago, for example, the commonly held belief was that eating fat makes you fat and leads you down a road headed toward type 2 diabetes, obesity, and all sorts of cardiovascular problems. As a result, for the better part of a decade we experienced what could be sardonically called the Fat-Free Craze, and many were eating cookies, cakes, and ice cream aplenty — as long as they were free of fat.

This practice eventually created a backlash, a demonization, so to speak, of carbohydrates, which led to the creation of all sorts of high-fat diets.

Many of those rejected the prior hierarchy where saturated fat was low man on the consumption-of-fats totem pole. And though there was no single low man for the longest time, in these recent times of X, Instagram, and social influencers, the low men in the eyes of many are the seed oils, most notably soybean, corn, and canola oil.

How low? Even though there’s something in seed oils essential for human health, omega-6 fatty acids, one online influencer still calls them “the most destructive force in the world today.”

While I’m sure you view that statement as pure hyperbole, all the negative talk about seed oils probably has affected you to some degree, so you could very well need a dietary fat-intake review, which could lead to a readjustment. It’s a consideration based not only on the sagacity found in The Book of Tea, but also the key takeaway from a study presented at this year’s annual American Society for Nutrition meeting.

That the omega-6 fatty acids in seed oils may actually lessen the risk of heart disease and diabetes.

In a Medical News Today article about the study, lead author Kevin C. Maki, PhD, acknowledges the “great deal” of controversy surrounding seed oils while presenting his group’s findings — which he calls “the opposite of what would’ve been predicted.” That consuming a diet higher in omega-6 fatty acids, in essence linoleic acid, may actually support cardiometabolic health to such a degree that it lowers the risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

Maki and his colleagues arrived at this conclusion after analyzing medical data from 1,894 adults who were part of an observational study where the primary focus was on the effect of COVID-19 on the participants. When the researchers focused on the amount of linoleic acid found in the serum in the blood of the participants, however, they found those with a higher concentration of linoleic acid in their blood serum had lower levels of two important inflammation biomarkers, one being C-reactive protein.

In many prior studies, Maki explains, higher levels of C-reactive protein “have been associated with an increased risk for heart attack and stroke.”

Equally as important, the researchers uncovered a link between higher serum linoleic acid levels, better blood sugar levels, and better glucose homeostasis, as well as lower BMI readings. Maki, however, stresses that because the study’s observational (which is typical for practical as well as ethical reasons), it doesn’t prove cause and effect.

What it certainly does prove, however, is that seed oils are far from “the most destructive force in the world today” — as well as that to eat optimally requires constant readjustment.