Dr. Chris Knobbe is an esteemed eye physician and surgeon in Boulder, Colorado and currently leads the Cure AMD Foundation. Cure AMD Foundation seeks to spread the message regarding his research that AMD (Age-related macular degeneration) is caused by “Westernization of the diet”. Luckily, he has a theory that macular degeneration, which is the leading cause of irreversible vision loss and blindness, is not only preventable but also treatable with the implementation of an ancestral diet. He came to this conclusion when he left his full-time practice to commit his time to numerous years of full-time investigative research on nutrition. He now shares his breakthrough findings on this and the harms of industrial seed oils through presentations across the country as well as scientific papers and books. You can learn more at cureamd.org
He did an amazing presentation in Denver recently and has really brought a lot of new information to the table when it comes to the industrial seed oils being the root of all evil! I’m not even exaggerating that much. Populations can be healthy on almost any diet on the planet until the high omega 6 seed oils come into the picture. These go along with processed foods of course, and the refined grains and sugar. But maybe the seed oils are the real X factor. Long time listeners will be familiar with this concept from episode 20 with Tucker Goodrich who did an eye opening interview on this same topic. Go back and check this one out and make sure to start at episode 1 to get the full download of all this super valuable health info.
So make sure to balance your omega 3s to omega 6s and definitely don’t eat oxidized vegetable oils which are even worse – the ones they use in deep fryers that are reused and kept at super high temperatures. Pork and chicken have gotten a bad rap in our health community, and rightly so, because they are usually super high in omega 6 compared to omega 3.
SHOW NOTES
- [7:07] Chris’s battle with arthritis and how he fixed it.
- [9:12] Processed seed oils are the major culprit for many chronic diseases.
- [10:12] Westernization of our diets.
- [17:42] The rise of seed oils and why they are so harmful.
- [21:42] Why omega-6 linoleic acids are so bad for us.
- [25:12] The prevalence of heart disease and how seed oils play a huge role.
- [33:12] In 2010, seed oils represented 32.5% of the standard american diet.
- [34:32] Four major problems from vegetable oils.
- [36:32] What it means when a molecule is proxidative.
- [40:37] Omega-6 fats drive insulin resistance by breaking down the electron transport chain of the mitochondria.
- [46:52] Toxicity and how it relates to seed oils.
- [50:57] There is no relationship between total cholesterol and heart disease.
- [52:47] LDL cholesterol, heart disease, and lifespan.
- [54:22] 80% of all olive oils are often adulterated with cheap seed oils.
- [58:52] Anecdotes of tribes who ‘should’ have chronic disease but are actually some of the healthiest.
- [1:10:37] Why Chris is a fan of a low-carb diet.
- [1:14:42] AMD is the third leading cause of blindness in the world.
- [1:18:22] How diet affects AMD.
- [1:21:17] How aging and genetics plays less of a role in AMD than some professionals think.
- [1:25:24] Vitamin A, D, K2 deficiency are all driving AMD.
