What do chronic diseases in modern society, such as heart disease, cancer, high blood pressure, stroke, diabetes, obesity, metabolic syndrome, Alzheimer’s disease, macular degeneration, etc., have in common? They have all grown at an astonishing rate over the past few decades. Also, they are all related to edible seed oils.
In a recent presentation at the Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel titled “Diseases of Civilization: Are Seed Oils Beyond a Unifying Mechanism?”, Dr. Chris Knobbe reveals startling evidence that the seed oils so prevalent in the modern The cause of most diseases of civilization. Chronic diseases today.1
Knobbe is an ophthalmologist and founder of the nonprofit Cure AMD Foundation, which works to prevent vision loss due to age-related macular degeneration (AMD).2 He is a former clinical associate professor emeritus at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.3
His research shows that high daily dietary intake of omega-6 seed oils is a major unifying driver of chronic degenerative diseases in modern civilization. He called the phenomenon of Western diets flooded with harmful seed oils “a global human experiment … without informed consent”.
The Rise of Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids (PUFAs)
Trans fats and polyunsaturated fatty acids, also known as PUFAs, are recent inventions found in vegetable oils, cooking oils, seed oils, and vegetable oils, including cottonseed, rapeseed, sunflower, safflower, rice bran, soybean, corn and other popular oils. PUFAs owe their existence to the “roller milling technique” that replaced the stone milling technique used to grind wheat into flour around 1880.4
Roller milling technology helps to completely remove the bran and germ of the grain, leaving only the endosperm, a refined product from which nutrients have been stripped.5 According to Knobbe on the Cure AMD Foundation website:6
“The first of [PUFAs] It’s cottonseed oil. This was followed by hydrogenation and partial hydrogenation of cottonseed oil, resulting in the first ever artificially produced trans fat. The latter, introduced by Procter & Gamble under the name “Crisco” in 1911, was advertised as “a healthier alternative to lard…and more economical than butter.”
Crisco is the granddaddy of commercially produced PUFAs, or trans fats, which are still widely sold today. Knobbe said the plan for vegetable oil producers is to sell them at a reduced price to replace higher-priced animal fats.7 The plan worked.
PUFAs have become so popular that they now make up 63 percent of the American diet, form the basis of USDA food recommendations, and are found in 600,000 processed foods sold in the US today.8 In 1909, Americans were eating 2 grams of vegetable oil a day; by 2010, they were eating a staggering 80 grams a day, Knobbe said.9
PUFAs are harmful for a number of reasons, Knobbe said. Unlike animal fats, they are deficient in vitamins A, D, and K and therefore lack nutrients. They are responsible for most of the chronic diseases associated with modern civilization. Polyunsaturated fatty acids also contribute to the obesity epidemic. The 80 grams of PUFA Americans now consume totals 720 calories a day, Knobbe said, meaning most people get a third of their calories “from the factory.”10
Chronic disease linked to polyunsaturated fatty acids
As many of you know, diabetes, obesity, cancer, heart disease, metabolic syndrome, and other diseases were less prevalent in the first half of the 20th century than they are today. But the rise in rates of these diseases has been more dramatic than many realize. According to Knobbe:11
- In 1900, 12.5% of the U.S. population died of heart disease; in 2010, that number was 32%
- In 1811, 1 in 118 people died of cancer; in 2010, 1 in 3 people died of cancer
- Type 2 diabetes has increased 25-fold in 80 years
- 1.2% of Americans were obese in the 19th century; 39.8% were obese in 2015
- In 1930, there were no more than 50 cases of macular degeneration; in 2020 there are 196 million cases
Are these increases in chronic diseases associated with increased dietary consumption of PUFAs? Absolutely, Knobbe said in his presentation. He gave the following explanation:12
“From heart disease to atherosclerosis to type 2 diabetes to macular degeneration and cancer, these diseases all have the same thing. They all have mitochondrial dysfunction … when the electron transport chain fails The first thing that happens…is that it starts releasing reactive oxygen species – these are hydroxyl radicals and superoxide…
These free radicals cause nuclear mitochondrial DNA mutations…cause heart failure…macular degeneration, Alzheimer’s Parkinson’s…catastrophic lipid peroxidation cascade reaction [that] Leads to toxic aldehydes. “
Linoleic acid, an 18-carbon omega-6 fat, is at the root of the harmful biochemical reactions caused by the seed oil, Knobbe said. Linoleic acid is the main fatty acid found in polyunsaturated fatty acids, accounting for about 80% of total vegetable oils. Omega-6 fats must be balanced with omega-3 fats in order not to be harmful.
“Most of this linoleic acid produces lipid hydroperoxides when oxidized, and these quickly degrade to … oxidized linoleic acid metabolites,” Knobbe said.13
Oxidized linoleic acid metabolites are a perfect storm. They are cytotoxic, genotoxic, mutagenic, carcinogenic, atherogenic and thrombogenic, Knobbe said. Their atherosclerotic and thrombotic effects are of particular concern because they produce strokes and blood clots.
PUFAs Contribute to Insulin Resistance
diabetes, Insulin resistance Metabolic syndrome has been gaining popularity since American diets were based on polyunsaturated fatty acids.It is estimated that nearly 70 percent of Americans are now overweight Or obesity and a lot of unhealthy metabolism.14
This puts people at risk for type 2 diabetes, as well as many chronic diseases associated with insulin resistance, from cancer to Alzheimer’s disease. In his presentation, Knobbe explained how these conditions developed:15
“When you consume excess omega-6…it binds to reactive oxygen species such as hydroxyl radicals…so this starts a catastrophic cascade of lipid peroxidation – these polyunsaturated fats is accumulating [in] Your cells, they accumulate in your membranes, they accumulate in your mitochondria, and they cause peroxidation. “
Knobbe goes on to say that because there are so many reactive oxygen species, it can lead to insulin resistance at the cellular level and the production of lipid droplets in the liver:
“…that creates a catastrophic lipid fraction, or it feeds back into lipid peroxidation…so now you’re not burning fat properly for fuel, so people gaining weight and getting sick in that area now Dependent on carbohydrates – their glycolysis is working but… [they] Start storing fat…so this leads to obesity. “
Linoleic acid, in particular, is a culprit in this harmful process, and physician reporter Paul Saladino, Ph.D., agrees on the podcast. Linoleic acid “disrupts the insulin sensitivity of fat cells” — it makes them more sensitive to insulin — and, since your fat cells control insulin sensitivity in the rest of your body by releasing free fatty acids, you end up with insulin resistance.
Rat Study and Aboriginal People Show PUFA Dangers
Animal studies have significantly demonstrated the harmful effects of PUFAs. In one study cited by Knobbe, two groups of mice were fed the same diet, except one group was fed 5 percent cottonseed oil and the other 1.5 percent milk fat.16 The findings are:17
“…the mice on cottonseed oil grew to sixty percent of their normal size and survived[d] 555 days on average; they are, weak, brittle, sick little mice.The mice on the cream are healthy; they grow to a normal size, they live 1020 days, so they grow to almost twice their size [of the cottonseed oil-fed rats], double lifespan, and be healthier. “
While it has been suggested that the American Heart Association and other medical groups might discount such studies and possibly call them contradictory, there are also examples of saturated and animal fats having positive effects on human health, Knobbe said.
For example, the diet of the Tokelauans who live on the South Pacific island between Hawaii and Australia is almost entirely coconut, fish, starchy tubers and fruit.18 Knobbe notes that they get between 54 percent and 62 percent of their calories from coconut oil, which contains saturated fat.
Still, a study of Tokelauan men aged 40 to 69 found they had no heart attacks, obesity or diabetes.19 They were “very healthy,” Knobbe said.
Whether we’re talking about animal studies or non-Westernized population studies, at least 80 percent of obesity and chronic disease in Westernized countries comes from processed foods, Knobbe concluded. “It’s driven by vegetable oils and trans fats … Fast food restaurants cook with soybean and canola oils almost everywhere.”
Other Experts Agree Knob
In a previous newsletter on the Saldino podcast mentioned above, I discussed how Saladino and journalist Nina Teicholz condemned the popular and ubiquitous Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids in Modern Food Systems And believe in the health benefits of saturated fat.
In the podcast, Saladino and Teicholz review the history of the demonization of saturated fat and cholesterol, which they say began with the false assumption that saturated fat caused heart disease in 1960-1961.
This assumption was supported by the first Dietary Guidelines for Americans, introduced in 1980, which told people to limit their saturated fat and cholesterol while avoiding carbohydrates, increasingly made of polyunsaturated fatty acids. Not surprisingly, this assumption and dietary guidelines have been linked to rapid increases in obesity and chronic diseases such as heart disease.
In the podcast, Saladino and Teicholz discuss what allows this myth to persist despite scientific evidence against it.
If Saturated Animal Fats Are Considered Healthy Processing Industry Vegetable Oils And grains are exposed as unhealthy, which will destroy the major processed food and fast food industries that rely on vegetable oils and grains. Additionally, sales of statins and other profit areas for Big Pharma will suffer. Big Food and Big Pharma have financial incentives to hide the health benefits of real food.
Like Knobbe, experts believe that consumption of linoleic acid, due to its ubiquity in industrial vegetable oils and processed foods, has increased dramatically and is a major metabolic driver of obesity, heart disease, cancer and other chronic diseases.
They stress that the notion that high low-density lipoprotein (LDL), the so-called “bad” cholesterol, is a risk factor for heart disease and that lowering LDL can reduce heart attack risk is incorrect. Science simply cannot prove it, they say. This is because not all LDL particles are created equal.
Reducing your intake of red meat and saturated fat and eating more vegetable oils may lead to elevated LDLs, but these LDLs are not oxidized, Saladino explained. The role of LDL oxidation can trigger insulin resistance and related problems, including heart disease — something that cannot be detected by LDL tests. On the other hand, eating saturated fat may raise your LDL, but those LDL particles will be large and fluffy and won’t cause arterial damage, Saladino says.
The important message from Dr. Knobbe and Saladino is that seed oils are responsible for the vast majority of modern diseases and the best thing you can do for your health is to give them up.
