I was recently sent the video linked below by a good friend and reader. It speaks to what I think is one of, if not the number one health item of concern in our culture today:
The $100 Billion Dollar Ingredient making your Food Toxic
Industrial seed oils in my opinion ruining health, taxing and emisserating the poor and increasing the likelihood our civilization collapses. If I could give everyone one rule to follow for health it would simply be:
Avoid all omega six oils - on the labels they are listed as “polyunsaturated fats”
The statement above is going deeply against the grain. If you are like I was and used to believe authoritative institutions had your best interests at heart you might think omega-6 oils are “heart healthy”.
The American Health Association says right here that you should eat more of these oils:
AHA Recommendation:
For good health, the majority of the fats that you eat should be monounsaturated or polyunsaturated.
Foods high in polyunsaturated fat include a number of plant-based oils, including:
soybean oil
corn oil
sunflower oil
And here’s what the genius health bloggers at Harvard are saying (source):
“limit the saturated fats, and replace them with essential polyunsaturated fats...
Corn oil, sunflower oil, and safflower oil are common examples. Polyunsaturated fats are essential fats. That means they're required for normal body functions, but your body can't make them. So, you must get them from food. Polyunsaturated fats are used to build cell membranes and the covering of nerves. They are needed for blood clotting, muscle movement, and inflammation.”
The Harvard article is also discreetly telling the crucial truth yet summarizing as if unable to add 1 + 1.
In the last line...what are these essential fatty acids needed for?
A: Clotting and inflammation.
Q: Oh, are we all sick and dying from a lack of inflammation and clotting?
A: We are dying from excess inflammation and clotting
These experts don’t even understand their own copy.
From my point of view these institutions should be subject to class action lawsuits similar to or worse than big tobacco.
How can I have such a bold opinion and counter all those distinguished gentlemen and ladies and their distinguished and well padded careers?
A: Logic, Multiple lines of logic:
Common knowledge: As said above polyunsaturated fats are precursors to blood clotting and inflammation...blood clotting and inflammation are associated with every major modern disease.
Countervailing science: there are more and more articles overturning the bad science of yesteryear; unfortunately, it takes a long long time for research to make an impact on doctors in practice and seats of power.
I reckon the lag to society of inconvenient facts is something like 50 years.
25 years for dogma to be overturned in medical education and then another 25 for students to ascend into positions of authority late in their careers.
Note: Hand washing was demonstrated in 1847 to be very beneficial and it took until the late 1980s and 1990s for major government institutions to put out guidelines suggesting antiseptic soap for MDs...despite the fact that germ theory was recognized for over 100+ years prior!
Chemistry: the chemistry of fat susceptibility to oxidation is known (see Wikipedia). Saturated fatty acids are less susceptible. The basic chemistry is rather straightforward and clues are in the nomenclature. “Polyunsaturated” means a molecule with many unsaturated, unsaturated by hydrogen, carbon double bonds and thus many places where oxidations are likely to occur.
Physiology: it is also known that the oxidation of polyunsaturated fats plays a significant role in the causes of aging, just as it is known that inflammation and fibrosis which are products of polyunsaturated fat reactions in warm bodies are also a drivers of aging.
Age spots - these visible markers of aging, which also occur internally, are made of lipofuscin and require the presence of polyunsaturated fat for their production.
Evolution - we certainly didn’t eat any of the so-called healthy manufacturing waste product oils in the evolutionary environment while we did eat animals which were well saturated with fat and as well as plenty of plants full of antioxidant compounds - sometimes paired with monounsaturated fats.
This shifted only in the last generation. As far as I can tell ~100% of medical Mds and PhDs basically know nothing about evolution and its implications for health and disease.
Q: Should they? A: yes
Q: Do they? A: no
Economic correlation (probable causation). The economic data is relatively easy to find:
This chart has a y-axis of kgs of consumed oil per person per year and an x-axis of 1949 to 1999.
Many “cultural paradoxes” really parodies fly in the face of our so-called science. Our institutions have made themselves into corrupt jokes, or rather marketing wings of ADM and Pfizer. See “The French Paradox” for further information.
Historical origins and logic of the founding myth. The original myth was that cholesterol was the source of heart disease, lowering saturated fat lowers cholesterol production (relatively valid). Yet, the story of causality of cholesterol is refuted and yet the edifice of products, norms and propaganda it helped build still maintains. The cause of most modern diseases is looking a lot more like inflammation and increased clotting factors...
Q: Which are purportedly from?
A: Essential polyunsaturated fatty acids. Ipso facto, it’s essential for you to get diabetes, hypertension and all other related modern diseases…and quick too!
As we also know:
"War is peace, freedom is slavery, and ignorance is strength." (Orwell, 1984)
Economic incentives and influence - soy is one of America's biggest agricultural products...bigger than dairy or cattle. It does not seem far-fetched to assume capture of universities, political parties and health nonprofits has occurred and is skewing so-called “science” in favor of these agricultural products despite their downstream costs to society.
The so-called “essential” and “heart healthy” fats are exactly the opposite. Despite the clarity of the physiological evidence and its simple chemistry underpinnings, institutions of authority continue the ruse. The origin seems to simply be bad science, an error within a doctrine with positive intent, but the momentum and group think that has followed is nearly beyond comprehension, yet it is the world we are actually living in.
It is hard to state the full impact of our errors. The massive increases in inflammation, obesity, hypertension, dementia and various other related diseases of civilization are present in our (declining) mental health, moral characters and intelligence.
If it seems like most people around the world want overly simplified political narratives and all sides are acting hysterical. I’d suggest it’s because they do and they are. I’ve mentioned it in earlier articles, but the Flynn effect, the established though remarkable 100+ historical trend of increasing average intelligence, has been reversed for a decade...we are now, on average, growing dumber...and it shows. The near future does not look good.
Q: How do we solve any problems when our brains are riddled with inflammation and our metabolisms are sluggish?
A: Not well, not well indeed.
Exorcising omegas 6s:
If you find the movie or any bits I’ve written compelling you will want to consider exorcizing these industrial waste products from your kitchen, your habits and your life. Experiment with identifying what items have the item's nutrition labels list polyunsaturated fats as significant in absolute and relative terms. Also note that we can assume that 99% of all restaurants and restaurant items are similarly permeated with oils doing us all immediate harm. If you are as disagreeable as me simply ask any waiter or clerk what is being used when preparing your food. I do, and many of the best restaurants I used to go to have surprised me with their ingredients, unfortunately the surprises were never positive.
Even in most upscale restaurants this, or something like it is what you are getting .
and this I definitely believe is not butter:
Beef note:
Cows are some of America’s largest consumers of corn, and this happens only in their last few months of life and it’s unnaturalness in their diet drives a much higher concentration of omega-6s in their tissue - our food. Compared to most cows fed in feedlots, grass fed beef have fats with 2/3rd less omega 6 fat (source). If you are considering eating more meat in an attempt to reduce omega-6 fat exposure, keep this in mind.
If you have not already, please make the effort to watch this video:
The $100 Billion Dollar Ingredient making your Food Toxic
Positive note - If you are concerned about another restriction and think what is left for me to eat. I know it’s a mess - the US media is demonizing sugar when they should specify that it is sugar in vehicles without the natural blood sugar regulators like potassium and apigenin...those are what we call fruit.
Enjoy fruit
Avoid Omega 6s
Have many more great days