003: Fats That Heal, Fats That Kill, with Dr. Udo Erasmus

 

Welcome back to the BiOptimizers’ Awesome Health podcast! For our third show I’m delighted to bring you the one and only, Dr. Udo Erasmus.

Dr. Erasmus is the pioneer on healthy fats and has been for 30 years. He was researching this topic before any of us had an even heard the term “healthy fats”. He’s a Hall of Fame member of the Canadian Health Food Association (CHFA), and you’re about to find out why.

Today we talk about why and how his journey into the world of fats began, why omega 3s, omega 6s and omega 9s are important and what you can start doing today to improve your health and well-being through healthy fat choices in your diet. Listen in for all of that and more on this edition of the BiOptimizers’ Awesome Health show.

More About Awesome Health with Dr. Udo Erasmus

Dr. Erasmus journey began in his mid-30s. He was working as a pesticide sprayer, and was being careless as he sprayed lawns wearing only rubber boots and a bathing suit. As he worked, the spray would drift back onto him and his skin. After three years of doing this he was poisoned.

Things got serious when he went to the doctor and asked what she could treat him, she said nothing. That was the day he realized his health was his responsiblity and if he didn't care about it then no one would.

With his scientific background, he knew cancer was in his future so his initial thought was to undo what he had done to get poisoned. He started looking at nutrition and disease, in particular oils. While doing so he realized they are the most sensitive of all of our nutrients, they are easily damaged by light, oxygen and heat.

His research led him to the realization that more health issues stem from oils than any other part of nutrition. He also could see the opposite is true: more benefits will come from adding undamaged oils to our diets.

About this same time it was established that omega 3s are essential nutrients, our bodies can't make them so we have to consume enough to be healthy and stay healthy. If we don't get them our health deteriorates, and if we don't get adequate amounts over a long enough period of time we will die.

He discovered 99% of the population doesn't get enough omega 3s. Udo's oil came out of that along with his now world-famous book, Fats That Heal, Fats That Kill.

Also on our episode he explains why omega 3, 6 and 9s are important. Dr. Erasmus says fats hold more physical keys to health than anything else. They are so sensitive, yet our oil industry damages 1% of the molecules and tells us it’s fine. While 1% doesn't sound like a lot, it actually is. For example if you take 1 tbsp of an oil and 1% of it is damaged, that means 60 quintillion molecules are damaged!

The fats we take in are so vital because numerous different mechanisms use essential fatty acids. Some become hormones that regulate cell activity, which is a big issue. Every cell in the body needs these hormones to regulate their activity, and the essential fatty acids are critical to the creation and proper function of these hormones.

Essential fatty acids are also made into DHA: DHA is needed for brain function, vision, sperm formation.They are also turned into powerful antioxidants (which protect our bodies from tissue damage), and some are turned into very powerful anti-inflammatory molecules.

One of the biggest issues is that omega 3s are very chemically active and go rancid easily, which is why we refrigerate these oils and shouldn’t use them for frying. It's also why they are so beneficial for our bodies and why they increase our energy levels. The energy we live on comes from oxygen reacting with fuel molecules.

Are You Deficient In Omega 3 or Omega 6 Essential Fatty Acids?

So how do we know if we are deficient in omega 3s or omega 6s? Dr. Erasmus has the answer. He says few people are deficient in omega 6 since it's in so many of our cooking oils, but it comes with toxins because of the processing. 99% of the population gets omega 6s with toxins and 99% of the population gets too little omega 3s for optimum health.

Every cell in our bodies needs both so when we aren’t getting enough the symptoms are widespread: lower energy, increased inflammation, slower recovery and healing times, etc..

Research now shows when we increase omega 3s in the diet (non-toxic and non-damaged omega 3s) we can improve every major degenerative condition of our time. The improvements include:

• reduced inflammation
• better cardio health
• increased bone strength
• better brain function
• healthier child development
• greater fitness and exercise for all ages
• faster healing
• more stamina
• faster and stronger hair & nail growth
• increased liver and kidney function
• more insulin sensitivity
• fewer cravings
• fewer mood swings
• lower rates of obesity
• healthy skin

We also decrease symptoms in autoimmune disorders. We even tan better and burn less! Dr. Erasmus says omega 3 and omega 6 deficiencies are the most widespread deficiencies of our time.

Since most of us are deficient Dr. Erasmus goes on to specify how we can use fats and add them to our diets to be healthier. In general, he recommends eating the freshest food possible. The short story is fried foods and fried oils fry our health.

Our food is most nutritious if we eat it raw, fresh, whole and organic, and we should only cook something if we need to kill bacteria in it. By eating mostly raw, fresh, whole and organic foods we are living in line with nature. It’s when we change the way we eat that we get degenerative diseases, what we used to call diseases of civilization.

He has found the biggest issue in nutrition and disease is the processing, so to make the shift into whole, fresh, organic and raw foods we should give ourselves a transition time of anywhere from six months to two years. And in that time we can fundamentally go from more processed to less processed by first boiling food rather than frying it, then going from boiled to steamed, steamed to blanched and finally blanched to raw.

On this episode he also describes his typical diet on any given day, what he keeps in his fridge, and what happened to the North American’s average diet in 1979 that caused the the population to go from 25% overweight to 65% overweight.

You’ll also hear why he's been driven to find total harmony for humans since the age of 6, and much more on today’s edition of BiOptimizers’ Awesome Health podcast with Dr. Udo Erasmus!

Episode Resources

• Dr. Udo Erasmus’ web site
• Fats That Heal, Fats That Kill by Dr. Udo Erasmus
• Total Sexy Health by Dr. Udo Erasmus
• Dr. Udo Erasmus’ other books
• Udo’s Choice on Instagram
• Udo’s Choice on Facebook
• BiOptimizers web site
• Masszymes web site