Check your food oil? That’s what this former chiropractor and online health guru and his daughter say you should be doing when buying snack chips for your house.
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But do their theories on oils hold water?
Daniel Pompa, a former chiropractor who goes by the online handle Dr. Pompa (@drpompa), and his daughter, chiropractor Olivia Pompa, say there are three best oils your chips should be fried in.
Experts don’t agree though.
The Pompa’s video was posted to TikTok back on January 27. It currently has over 98,000 views.
Check your food oil?
“What chips do I give my kids?” Pompa senior asks rhetorically in the video’s opening.
“A lot of people go wrong here. Lot of bad stuff,” he states as his daughter Olivia nods in agreement.
“We always want to be sure we’re shopping, when we’re going with corn [chips], organic,” she claims. “Grain? Organic. Always, but oils, we need to be checking oils.”
According to the pair, three oils are preferable: avocado, coconut, and tallow (tallow is technically a fat, not an oil).
The two then call out two specific brands of chips that they “love.”
“The two brands that we love, we do have to order them online, but you’ve got Gilly Loco. They cook theirs in coconut oil only and then you’ve got Masa chips, which is tallow, which is lard,” Olivia says.
Does it matter what your chips are fried in?
Daniel Pompa has warned against seed oils in the past.
According to Massachusetts General Hospital, “Seed oils are cooking oils extracted from the seeds of various plants and commonly known as vegetable oils. The most common seed oils, referred to by social media wellness influencers as the “Hateful Eight,” include:
- Canola (rapeseed) oil
- Corn oil
- Cottonseed oil
- Soybean oil
- Sunflower oil
- Safflower oil
- Grapeseed oil
- Rice Bran oils.”
However, peer-reviewed research has debunked most of the health risk concerns that are often touted by the online wellness movement.
In 2022, Harvard researcher Guy Crosby stated that while “many foods that use seed oils—such as packaged snacks and french fries—are unhealthy, they also tend to be high in refined carbohydrates, sodium, and sugar.”
In other words, snack foods tend to be unhealthy in general, no matter what they are fried in.
“If you cut back on these foods, chances are you’re going to feel better,” Crosby said. But these other components, not the seed oils themselves, are the culprit behind weight gain and other negative health outcomes.”
“There’s a lot of confusion about seed oils,” Dariush Mozaffarian, MD, DrPH, a cardiologist and the Jean Mayer professor of nutrition at Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science & Policy told Consumer Reports.
“The internet is full of so-called ‘experts’ citing convincing arguments, he says. ‘But if you actually read the research, you’ll find that the evidence [against seed oils] is incorrect or incomplete.’”
Who are the Pompas?
The Daily Dot has previously reported on Daniel Pompas.
According to his bio at the International Hyperbarics Association website, Daniel Pompa “received his undergraduate degree in communication from The University of Pittsburgh.”
He then earned his Doctor of Chiropractic degree at Life University in Marietta, Georgia, an accredited University focused on training chiropractors.
He has no formal training in nutrition. According to his author’s bio on Amazon.com, he “studied nutrition for over 20 years.”
His adoptive daughter Olivia Pompa has a similar background. Per her website, she “received her Bachelors [sic] of Science in Exercise Science at Florida State University. She then moved to Atlanta, Georgia to pursue her doctorate in Chiropractic at Life University.”
The website also states she “has been trained thoroughly in the expertise of Dr. Daniel Pompa, her mentor and Father in unexplainable, neurotoxic illness, cellular health, and detox.”
@drpompa Healthiest Chips for Your Family?! 🤔
♬ original sound – Dr. Daniel Pompa
Viewers have questions
One of Pompa’s viewers, Dah Man (@riskman73) pointed out, “I can’t argue they are healthier options but doubt they are ‘healthy’ overall especially in mass production.”
Another asked, “What about Olive oil?”
Other viewers had things to say about tallow, which Pompa senior seemed to conflate with lard.
“Tallow is not lard. I raise pastured raised hogs and cattle so that’s why I know. Lard is pork fat and tallow is beef fat.”
“I was told beef tallow is not lard. and since when is lard good for you?” another viewer asked.
And one simply stated, “No kind of chips are good for you.”
The Daily Dot reached out to Daniel Pompa via Instagram and TikTok direct message for further comment.
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