As both a tahini lover and seed oil disrespectooor, this is a question I've thought about more than I care to admit.

imo, the tentative answer is somewhere in the middle. With the caveat that I'm not a molecular biologist and I could change my view.

Some of the worst aspects of seed oils in modern processed foods are that they are produced with extremely high heat in an industrial process that damages them, they literally turn rancid, and then various de-odorizing chemicals are used to mask that. There's a million red flags there. And they're in everything. I went down this research rabbit hole like 15 years ago, and then tested various diets on my own body with blood results and such.

Tahini is a more traditional food, able to be made with low-tech and lower-heat methods. Blended up sesame seeds is likely not the worst thing to eat on occasion.

It's kind of like how when people who are too sensitive to eat American bread go to Europe and can eat their bread without obvious consequences. Their breads are lot less acutely bad. They're probably nowhere near an "optimal performance" diet, but there's some damage control there. Same thing for like "Einkorn wheat" and stuff.

I went through a big ketogenic phase, and then seasonal ketogenic, etc. That's kind of where I'm at now: seasonal. I eat tahini only when in Egypt. It's so good, including with Egyptian bread which I otherwise try to minimize, and rather than having all our family meals have to revolve around me, I just adapt to the local diet, eat the parts I love, and then when I want to be more strict, I do it on my own time.

My rule for diets is to optimize them up until they cause stress. Once they cause stress, they start offsetting the good aspects.

And for me, dipping some Egyptian bread into some Egyptian tahini, is worth it on occasion.

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Beautiful work by Joana Schneider