Polyunsaturated fats are good for us, right? Not so fast sea bass! As Ivor Cummins and I discuss in this snippet from our recent talk on my podcast (Fundamental Health, available on iTunes, Youtube, and everywhere, link in bio) omega-6 polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs) have been repeated shown to be HARMFUL to humans in anything over very small doses. The ancestral human diet doesn’t appear to have contained more than 1% of these fats and as Ivor points out, in animal models, amounts greater than 3% induced LIVER CANCER. How much of the American diet is these fats? greater than 10%!! Where are these coming from? VEGETABLE OIL. Hear this next bit loud and clear: THROW OUT YOUR CORN, CANOLA (sorry @Whole30, you are very wrong about this and many other things) , SOYBEAN, AND PEANUT OILS. When you got to restaurants, ask what oil they cook food in- you’ll be surprised how often it is vegetable oils which are highly made of PUFAs. Here’s the takeaway: in order for our cell membranes to function properly they need to be composed of the right ratios of fats. If we eat too many omega-6 PUFAs this will lead to increased oxidative stress and membrane damage — BADNESS (cancer? Heart disease? You name it). And guess what else? Saturated fat PREVENTS oxidative membrane damage. Yes, the opposite of what you have been told for the last 50 years is true: Polyunsaturated fats like linoleic acid are harming us and saturated fats from animal foods are GOOD for us!
