Lose Them Pounds

By Dr. Mercola

Up to 50 million Americans struggle with acne, making it the most common skin disorder in the United States.1
When it strikes during the teen years, it can lead to feelings of self-consciousness, embarrassment and depression. Many severe acne sufferers struggle with low self-confidence, feelings of alienation and social withdrawal as a result.
And it’s not only teens who are affected; one in five U.S. adults also suffers from acne, and for them the psychological toll is often no less severe.
Many are desperate for help to clear their skin, and if the typical face washes and topical treatments don’t work, they may gratefully accept a prescription for the acne drug Roaccutane (generic name, isotretinoin, and formerly sold as Accutane in the United States).

Isotretinoin (Formerly Sold as Accutane) Greatly Overused

This is an extreme step, given that isotretinoin is easily one of the most dangerous drugs ever made. Yet, incredibly it remains the industry standard for treating severe acne. One leading UK dermatologist even recently spoke out to say it is being greatly overused.
More than half a million people worldwide have been prescribed Roaccutane, despite the fact that it’s intended to be used only as a last resort (and even then its use is highly questionable). But UK dermatologist Tony Chu said that often Roaccutane is being offered far more than that:2

“Roaccutane is grossly overused …I’ve seen patients who have been to see a local dermatologist to treat four of five spots and still been offered it … If you read the guidelines it should only be used for people who have severe acne.”

In the United States, it remains one of the most controversial drugs, and Swiss drugmaker Roche, manufacturer of Accutane, has spent most of this century in court defending itself against lawsuits from people whose health has been irreparably damaged by this menacing drug.

Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Suicide, Depression and More …

Roche has lost nine out of 13 lawsuits since 2007, and was ordered to pay more than $25 million in damages in 2010, plus another $18 million in 2012, to Accutane users who developed inflammatory bowel disease as a result of the drug. Due to generic competition and the exorbitant cost of defending personal injury lawsuits, Roche stopped selling the drug in June 2009.
However, the generic form of Accutane (isotretinoin) is no less deadly and remains available on the marketplace under the names Claravis, Sotret and Amnesteem. Aside from its links to inflammatory bowel disease, Accutane has been implicated as a cause of depression and suicide.
In 2004, brain scans showed that people taking Accutane suffer a 21 percent decrease in activity in the orbitofrontal cortex, a brain area known to mediate symptoms of depression.3 These brain changes may explain the depression, suicidal and aggressive behavior, and psychotic reactions reported by some Accutane users.
Is reducing your acne worth that? In light of this evidence and reports of suicide or suicide attempts associated with the use of isotretinoin, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stated:4

“All patients treated with isotretinoin should be observed closely for symptoms of depression or suicidal thoughts, such as sad mood, irritability, acting on dangerous impulses, anger, loss of pleasure or interest in social or sports activities, sleeping too much or too little, changes in weight or appetite, school or work performance going down, or trouble concentrating, or for mood disturbance, psychosis, or aggression.

…Patients taking isotretinoin may experience side effects including bad headaches, blurred vision, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, seizures, stroke, diarrhea, and muscle weakness. Additionally, serious mental health problems, such as depression and suicide, have been reported with isotretinoin use.”

Isotretinoin is a Category X Drug for Pregnancy – Guaranteed to Cause Birth Defects

Isotretinoin now has the strongest warning available for any drug category — and was given an FDA Pregnancy Category X rating, which means if you are taking isotretinoin and become pregnant, you are virtually guaranteed to be damaging your baby. Accutane is extremely teratogenic (causing damage to a fetus). According to the FDA:5

“If you are pregnant or may get pregnant, isotretinoin can cause birth defects, miscarriage, premature births, and death in babies.”

The risk is so well-established that anyone taking the drug must go through the FDA’s iPledge system, which was designed specifically to eliminate fetal exposure to this toxic drug. The system requires both the patient and the prescriber to enter in specific information on a monthly basis prior to the drug being dispensed. In the United States, a woman must:

Use two forms of effective contraception simultaneously for one month before, during, and for one month after isotretinoin therapy.
Have two negative urine or blood (serum) pregnancy tests with a sensitivity of at least 25 mIU/ml before receiving the initial isotretinoin prescription (an additional pregnancy test must be taken with each month of additional therapy).

According to the FDA’s iPledge system:6

“There is an extremely high risk that severe birth defects will result if pregnancy occurs while taking isotretinoin in any amount, even for short periods of time. Birth defects which have been documented following isotretinoin exposure include abnormalities of the face, eyes, ears, skull, central nervous system, cardiovascular system, and thymus and parathyroid glands. Cases of IQ scores less than 85 with or without other abnormalities have been reported. There is an increased risk of spontaneous abortion, and premature births have been reported.

Documented external abnormalities include: skull abnormality; ear abnormalities (including anotia, micropinna, small or absent external auditory canals); eye abnormalities (including microphthalmia); facial dysmorphia; cleft palate. Documented internal abnormalities include: CNS abnormalities (including cerebral abnormalities, cerebellar malformation, hydrocephalus, microcephaly, cranial nerve deficit); cardiovascular abnormalities; thymus gland abnormality; parathyroid hormone deficiency. In some cases death has occurred with certain of the abnormalities previously noted.”

If a drug is this toxic to a developing fetus, it certainly does make you wonder how it could possibly be safe for any living creature. Indeed, in addition to teratogenic and psychological adverse effects, Accutane (isotretinoin) users have also reported the following negative effects:

Increased levels of triglycerides and cholesterol in your blood
Increased liver enzyme levels and liver damage
Erectile dysfunction

Headaches and brain swelling
Disturbances of your central nervous system
Seizures

Damage to skin and mucous membranes Premature epiphyseal closure
Hyperostosis (excessive bone growth) and bone demineralization
Neutropenia, agranulocytosis, and rhabdomyolysis (blood disorders)

Development of inflammatory bowel disease
Damage to your eyes including cataracts
Hearing impairment

Pancreatitis
Heart attack and stroke
Allergic vasculitis

Did You Know Acne Can be Treated Naturally?

The root cause of acne is most likely not bacteria or genetics, but environmental factors — particularly your diet. Acne is much less of a problem in non-Westernized societies, where refined carbohydrates, sugar and fructose are consumed in much lower amounts. Solid evidence exists that diets high in sugar and refined carbohydrates are the primary CAUSE of acne.
When you eat grain carbohydrates and sugar/fructose, it causes a surge of insulin and an insulin-like growth factor called IGF-1 in your body.7 This can lead to an excess of male hormones, which cause your pores to secrete sebum, a greasy substance that attracts acne-promoting bacteria. Additionally, IGF-1 causes skin cells known as keratinocytes to multiply, a process that is also associated with acne.
Additionally, these very same foods — refined carbs, such as fructose, sugar and grains — will also increase inflammation in your body, which may trigger acne, and at the same time they will also wreak havoc on the makeup of your intestinal bacteria, which may also play a role.
This is why simply eliminating grains, sugars (particularly fructose), cereals, potatoes, corn, rice, pasta, processed foods, etc., radically improves acne for most people. Fruit contains a fair amount of fructose, so it should be consumed in very limited quantities if you are predisposed to acne. And fruit juices should be strictly avoided since the sugar is very concentrated in them. (Vegetable juices are great, though, especially green juices.)
Additionally, psychological stress may also alter the microflora in your intestines, which could therefore contribute to systemic inflammation that could exacerbate acne and other skin conditions. In one study, researchers noted:8

“Experimental studies show that psychological stress stagnates normal small intestinal transit time, encourages overgrowth of bacteria, and compromises the intestinal barrier. SIBO [small intestinal bacterial over growth] is strongly associated with depression and anxiety, while eradication of SIBO improves emotional symptoms.

Although the frequency of SIBO in acne vulgaris has not yet been investigated, a recent report indicates that SIBO is 10 times more prevalent in those with acne rosacea vs. healthy controls. Correction of SIBO leads to marked clinical improvement in patients with rosacea.”

It’s actually well proven that stress can aggravate acne. One study involving college students found a connection between acne flare-ups and stress from final exams.9 Researchers found that subjects who had the most stress during examination periods also had the worst acne outbreaks, suggesting emotional stress from external sources is a significant factor. While it has been argued that the stress associated with acne is an effect of acne rather than a cause, the above researchers believe this evidence proved otherwise — that it’s the stress that is exacerbating the acne, not vice versa.

Ditch the Drugs and Try This Instead

No one wants to live with acne, but that doesn’t mean you have to resort to toxic drugs to clear your skin. Remember, your complexion is a reflection of your overall health. Don’t forget to incorporate these essential factors into your acne-busting plan:

Sugars/Fructose and Grains: This is probably the single most important step you can take to improve your skin health. If you can eliminate all sugars, fructose and grains for a few weeks there is a major likelihood you will notice rapid improvement in your complexion. Be sure to check out my nutrition plan for a simple guide on how to eat right for healthy skin and overall health.
Water: Drink plenty of fresh, pure water every day. Hydrating your body facilitates cell growth and regeneration, elimination of wastes, and sloughing away dead skin cells. Hydration will also improve your skin tone.
Every day, drink enough water so that your urine is a pale yellow color. If your urine is bright yellow, you probably need to drink more water (unless you take B vitamins, which themselves turn urine bright yellow).

Exercise: Getting plenty of high-intensity exercise helps your body flush out toxins, including those in your skin’s pores. Plus, exercise is vitally important to all other aspects of your heath. If you happen to have access to an infrared sauna, this can be helpful too, because the more you sweat, the more you flush unwanted debris and contaminants out of your pores.
Sleep: Did you know that a good night’s sleep can decrease your stress and lead to clearer skin? Your body’s main time for healing and rebuilding is at night while you sleep, and this applies to your skin. Sleep is also required for good energy and mood.

Proper balance of bacteria: This is especially important if you have been on antibiotics, because those drugs indiscriminately kill off the beneficial bacteria in your gut, without which you cannot have a strong immune system. You can reestablish your bacterial balance by incorporating naturally fermented/cultured foods into your diet and/or taking a high-quality probiotic supplement.
Vitamin D: This important nutrient is crucial for maintaining a healthy immune response, and most people are deficient in it. Without adequate vitamin D, your body cannot control infection, in your skin or elsewhere. Exposing large areas of your skin to appropriate amounts of sunshine is the best way to optimize your vitamin D levels, or alternatively use a safe tanning bed. You should expose your skin until you just barely begin turning pink, which indicates you’ve generated the optimal amount of vitamin D for the day.
If you don’t have access to regular UV exposure, the last option is an oral vitamin D3 supplement, accompanied by regular monitoring of your vitamin D levels with a blood test.
Address your stress: My favorite tool is the Emotional Freedom Technique, or EFT. EFT involves tapping your body’s energy meridians with the tips of your fingers to clear emotional blocks, thus restoring balance to your mind and body. EFT is a powerful de-stressing technique that is easy for adults and children to learn. It can even relieve physical complaints such as chronic pain, allergy symptoms, and more. You can also add in other proven stress-busters, such as yoga and meditation.

The fact that most olive oils on the market are fraudulently diluted with less expensive (and more harmful) oils has been known for years. Now, a report1,2,3 in the journal Food Control warns that the purity and quality of avocado oil sold in the U.S. is questionable at best, and that standards to protect consumers and genuine producers are urgently needed.
Adulterated Avocado Oil Is Commonplace
According to the Food Control report,4 a vast majority of commercially available avocado oils labeled as “extra virgin” and “refined” are in fact adulterated and of poor quality; 82% were found to have gone rancid before their expiration date.5

Three of 22 oils were not even avocado oil but something else entirely (likely soybean oil). Co-author Selina Wang told Olive Oil Times6 that while she expected “some percentage of adulterants,” she was shocked to find several cases of 100% adulteration.
As noted in the report:7

“This study analyzed avocado oils currently on the market in the US to evaluate their quality (e.g., free fatty acidity, peroxide value, UV absorbances, vitamin E) and purity (e.g., fatty acids, sterols, triacylglycerols).
Our results showed that the majority of commercial samples were oxidized before reaching the expiration date listed on the bottle. In addition, adulteration with soybean oil at levels near 100% was confirmed in two ‘extra virgin’ and one ‘refined’ sample.”

How Purity and Quality Are Assessed

As explained in the Food Control report,8 an oil is considered authentic and pure when no additives or other oils have been added, and when the content matches that listed on the label.
Quality includes consideration of the raw material (the quality of the avocado used), the extraction process used and storage, but is “mostly related to the level of hydrolysis of the fruit and oxidation of the oil.” With this report, the authors have begun compiling a database “to support standards development for this industry.”
In all, 22 avocado oil samples were obtained from six grocery stores and two online sources, covering the major brands and types of oils, which include extra virgin/unrefined and refined. Countries of origin included California, Mexico, Brazil and Spain.
The majority of the samples were of low quality … This likely resulted from improper or prolonged storage, using damaged or rotten fruits, or extreme and harsh processing conditions.

While previous researchers have proposed a healthy level of free fatty acidity (FFA) should be between 0.1% and 0.55% for refined avocado oils, three of the 22 samples had FFA values close to 2.5%. Extra virgin avocado oils had an FFA range between 0.03% and 2.69%, with an overall average of 1.31%. 
According to the authors, these elevated FFA levels may be due to poor-quality fruit and/or poor handling during processing.9

“Unhealthy fruits that are damaged, bruised, overripe, insect infested; prolonged time between harvest and processing; overheating during processing are all factors that can contribute to a rise in FFA,” the authors note.

To put this into an easier to understand perspective for you, I am sure you have opened an overripe avocado in the past to see the ripe green avocado color turn to very dark, nearly black. Can you imagine the entire avocado being black when you open it up and processing it and turning it into oil? Well, that is precisely what you do when you purchase rancid avocado oil.
High Oxidation Is Common
When an oil is exposed to oxygen, peroxides and other oxidation products form, thereby giving the oil undesirable odors and flavors. While not as conspicuous as the FFA values, the trend toward high oxidation was also evident. In other words, many of the oils were rancid well before their “best by” date.

Extra virgin avocado oil had the highest oxidation values, which is expected, as the refining process removes peroxides. Still, many of the refined oils also had higher than expected peroxide levels. In fact, all but three samples were above Mexico’s CODEX cap.

Not surprisingly, the three samples with the highest peroxide levels were stored in clear, rather than tinted, packaging. This makes sense, as tinted bottles protect against photooxidation.

Storage time also contributes to higher oxidation. The longer the oil sits, the more likely it is to be oxidized, so always be sure to check the best by date. Sadly, higher price does not guarantee quality, as the most expensive oil assessed in this review also had the highest peroxidation value.
Exaggerated Vitamin E Content Suggests Adulteration
The vitamin E content was also measured, and exaggerated levels in some of the samples suggest adulteration with cheap soybean oil. As explained in the Food Control report:10

“There are eight compounds that make up vitamin E content, four tocopherols (?-tocopherol, ?-tocopherol, ?-tocopherol, ?-tocopherol) and four tocotrienols …
This study shows multiple samples (EV3, EV6, R1, U4, U5, U6) had total tocopherol contents over 400 mg/kg, which is interesting as the highest documented total tocopherol content in literature, to our knowledge, is 282 mg/kg.
In particular, there are three samples with a notably high total tocopherol content, EV3, EV6 and U6 at 645.4 mg/kg, 906.2 mg/kg, and 692.9 mg/kg, respectively. These samples had significantly higher levels of gamma and delta tocopherols compared to the other samples in this study and to values seen in literature for avocado oils.
A study that reported on the tocopherol content in fruits and vegetables, showed soybean oil has similar tocopherol levels and distributions to those seen in EV3, EV6 and U6, therefore, it is possible these samples contain soybean or had soybean tocopherols added after processing for preservation.”

Industry Standards Are Urgently Needed
The Food Control report is the first to demonstrate there are serious problems in the avocado oil industry. Just like olive oil, much of what’s being sold is adulterated and of inferior quality. As concluded by the authors:11

“The majority of the samples were of low quality with five of the seven oils labeled as ‘extra virgin’ having high FFA values and six of the nine ‘refined’ oils had high PV [peroxidation value]. FFA, PV, and specific extinction in UV data demonstrated that these oils have undergone lipolysis and oxidation, respectively.
This likely resulted from improper or prolonged storage, using damaged or rotten fruits, or extreme and harsh processing conditions. Extra virgin oils often are more expensive and distinguished from lower grades such as virgin or crude oils using the above quality parameters.
Adulteration with soybean oil was found in two samples labeled as ‘extra virgin’ avocado oil (EV3 and EV6) and one labeled as ‘pure’ avocado oil (U6).
Tocopherol, fatty acid, sterols, and TAGs data show this adulteration is occurring at or near 100% for all three samples. This not only is a potential health hazard for consumers but creates unfair competition in the market …
In the case of samples EV3, EV6, and U6 the adulteration was confirmed in addition to the adulteration percent and adulterant oil. However, the need for standards is also demonstrated by the samples R1, U4, and U5.
The variance seen in their fatty acid, sterols, TAGs, and tocopherols profiles could be due to natural variance of the avocado fruits, processing conditions, or unnaturally, economic adulteration with high oleic sunflower or safflower oils.”

Benefits of Authentic Avocado Oil

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I personally have never used avocado oil as I typically avoid processed oils, with the exception of our own Solspring biodynamic olive oil. I think it is far better to eat the whole food. That is precisely what I do — I have half an avocado every day in each of my collagen protein powder smoothies.

As detailed in “An Avocado a Day Keeps the Doctor Away,” avocados are loaded with healthy fats your body can easily use for energy. They’re also rich in fiber, protein and essential vitamins and minerals such as B vitamins, potassium, folate and vitamin K, and have been shown to counteract metabolic syndrome.

Considering the excellent nutritional profile of avocados, it’s no wonder avocado oil has risen in popularity in recent years. However, extracting the oil and putting it into a bottle allows plenty of opportunity for fraud, as the Food Control report demonstrates.

Unfortunately, the report does not specify the brands investigated, so it cannot be used as a guide when shopping. Provided you can actually find authentic avocado oil, it can be a very healthy addition to your diet. Health benefits of authentic avocado oil include:12,13,14

Normalizing blood pressure, thanks to its high potassium and vitamin E content that supports healthy blood vessel function and combats free radicals15
Anti-inflammatory effects, which help lower your risk of heart disease, arthritis and other inflammatory conditions16
Detoxification, thanks to its high chlorophyll content (which is also a natural source of magnesium) and glutathione17
Enhancing collagen production, thanks to vitamins A and D. High protein and amino acid levels also aids tissue regeneration and cellular renewal18
Supporting healthy vision, thanks to the carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin19

Should You Cook With Avocado Oil?
Avocado oil is typically said to have a high smoke point, although just how high differs depending on the source. Masterclass.com cites it between 375 degrees Fahrenheit and 400 degrees F in one chart, while listing it at 480 degrees F for unrefined and 520 degrees F for refined in another.20
Australian researchers, meanwhile, cite a smoke point of about 386 degrees F (196.67 degrees Celsius plus or minus 0.577 degrees C).21 Either way, the higher smoke point of avocado oil has been relied on by many for the recommendation to use it during high-heat cooking, baking and frying.
However, the Australian researchers present evidence suggesting this might not be such a good idea after all. The study,22 published in 2018, assessed the correlation between various oils’ smoke point and other chemical characteristics associated with stability and safety.
Importantly, they found that “smoke point does not predict oil performance when heated.” Avocado oil was one of 10 cooking oils investigated. Paradoxically, they found that oils with higher smoke points, such as avocado oil, actually tended to produce higher levels of harmful compounds during heating — including trans fats.
For this reason, I don’t recommend avocado oil for cooking. Chances are, you’re better off using it cold. Without a doubt, your best alternatives for high-heat cooking, baking and frying include lard, grass fed butter and organic ghee. Coconut oil may also be a healthier alternative when cooking than avocado oil, as it’s known to be quite stable at high temperatures. The Australian study appears to support this as well.

In the video podcast above, Dr. Paul Saladino and science journalist and author, Nina Teicholz — who is also an adjunct professor at NYU’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and the executive director of The Nutrition Coalition — review the evidence against chicken, and why saturated fat really qualifies as a health food.
Teicholz’ book, “The Big Fat Surprise,” challenged the conventional wisdom on dietary fats, especially saturated fat. Saladino, meanwhile, is releasing the second edition of his book, “The Carnivore Code,” August 4, 2020.
Why Conventional Chicken May Contribute to Poor Health

As noted by Saladino, while consumption of red meat is on the decline, thanks to the vilification of red meat and saturated fat, people are eating more and more chicken.
Long thought of as a healthier type of meat, primarily because it’s leaner than red meat, the problem with conventional chicken is that they’re fed corn — typically GMO varieties that are farmed with glyphosate.

Increasingly, we’re finding that trans fats and polyunsaturated fat from vegetable oils are far worse for your health, and a greater contributor to chronic disease, than added sugar even. And what happens when chicken is fed corn? The meat becomes high in omega-6 linoleic acid, as corn is high in this type of fat.1

As Saladino points out, high chicken consumption actually adds to your vegetable oil consumption. While you need some omega-6, the amounts obtained from a standard American diet high in processed foods are far too high for health. High omega-6 intake also skews your omega-3 to omega-6 ratio, which ideally would be close to 1-to-1.

As noted by Saladino and Teicholz, 60% of the U.S. population has chronic disease, nearly 70% are overweight or obese, and recent NHANES data2 reveal 87.8% of Americans are metabolically unhealthy, based on five parameters. That data is over four years old now, so the figure is clearly greater than 90% of the population today.
That means virtually everyone is at risk for Type 2 diabetes and all the chronic diseases associated with insulin resistance, which run the gamut from cancer to Alzheimer’s. Simply assuming you are one of the 12.2% (from the 4-year-old figures) that are metabolically healthy would be risky business.
Will Saturated Fat Myth Soon Be Upended?

Part of why chronic ill health is so widespread is this persistent idea that saturated animal fats are unhealthy, and should be replaced with industrial vegetable oils.3
On the upside, Teicholz reviews a recent paper4 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, published online June 17, 2020, which actually admits the long-standing nutritional guideline to limit saturated fat has been incorrect. This is a rather stunning admission, and a huge step forward. As noted in the abstract:

“The recommendation to limit dietary saturated fatty acid (SFA) intake has persisted despite mounting evidence to the contrary. Most recent meta-analyses of randomized trials and observational studies found no beneficial effects of reducing SFA intake on cardiovascular disease (CVD) and total mortality, and instead found protective effects against stroke.
Although SFAs increase low-density lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol, in most individuals, this is not due to increasing levels of small, dense LDL particles, but rather larger LDL which are much less strongly related to CVD risk.
It is also apparent that the health effects of foods cannot be predicted by their content in any nutrient group, without considering the overall macronutrient distribution.
Whole-fat dairy, unprocessed meat, eggs and dark chocolate are SFA-rich foods with a complex matrix that are not associated with increased risk of CVD. The totality of available evidence does not support further limiting the intake of such foods.”

How Did We Go so Wrong?
In the podcast, Saladino and Teicholz review the history of the demonization of saturated fat and cholesterol, starting with Ancel Keys’ flawed hypothesis5 that saturated fat causes heart disease in 1960-1961, and how the introduction of the first Dietary Guidelines for Americans in 1980 (which recommended limiting saturated fat and cholesterol) coincided with a rapid rise in obesity and chronic diseases such as heart disease.

The massive increase in linoleic acid (omega-6 polyunsaturated fat found in industrial vegetable oils) is a key metabolic driver of obesity, heart disease, cancer and other chronic disease.

They also discuss the reasons why this myth has been allowed to persist, despite the scientific evidence against it. In short, the low-fat, low-cholesterol myths promulgated by Keys in the ’60s rapidly led to dramatic changes in the food and drug industries, and these behemoths are incredibly reluctant to relinquish what have become highly profitable businesses.

Acknowledging that saturated animal fats are healthy, and processed industrial vegetable oils and grains are not, would decimate the processed food industry, as it relies on vegetable oils and grains. The healthy alternative is real food, and there’s no big industry profits to be made from that.
Vegetable Oils Undermine Your Health
Saladino and Knobbe are both equally convinced that the massive increase in linoleic acid (omega-6 polyunsaturated fat found in industrial vegetable oils) is a key metabolic driver of obesity, heart disease, cancer and other chronic disease. They review several studies6,7,8,9,10,11,12 demonstrating the truth of this. 

Historically, humans got an estimated 2% polyunsaturated fat from their diet. Today, that percentage is between 10% and 20% — and conventional poultry is a hidden source of harmful polyunsaturated fat as well.

Importantly, they also review the incorrect belief that high LDL is a risk factor for heart disease, and that by lowering your LDL, you lower your risk of a heart attack. The science simply doesn’t bear this out, and the reason for this is because not all LDL particles are the same.

By cutting down on red meat and saturated fat and eating more vegetable oil and chicken for example (which again will count toward your vegetable oil or polyunsaturated fat intake), your LDL may go down, but those LDLs are now going to be oxidized, and no one is testing for oxidation. Oxidized LDL, Saladino explains, will in turn trigger insulin resistance and related problems, including heart disease.

Eating saturated fat, on the other hand, may raise your LDL, but those LDL particles will be large and “fluffy,” and do not cause any arterial damage. Many studies have demonstrated that high LDL has nothing to do with heart disease. High LDL does not raise your risk of heart disease per se, but oxidized LDL do.

Teicholz also makes another important point, in that the saturated fat myth has been one of the most thoroughly and comprehensive hypotheses in the history of nutritional science, and it has failed miserably.

She also details how avoiding saturated animal fats causes you to end up with nutritional deficiencies, as animal foods and fats are also rich in micronutrients. Industrially processed vegetable oils are not. As noted by Teicholz, “foods high in saturated fats are the most nutrient-dense foods on the planet.” These nutrients are also highly bioavailable.

Meanwhile, the diet recommended by our Dietary Guidelines for Americans do not actually meet nutritional goals. As a result, the most disadvantaged among us — impoverished school children who rely on school meals, hospital patients and the elderly who are in long-term care facilities for example — are being disproportionally harmed, as they have few if any options to make healthier food choices.
The Benefits of Carnosine
In addition to saturated fat and the vitamins and minerals it contains, red meat is also an important source of carnosine, a dipeptide (two amino acids put together) made up of beta-alanine and histidine. Carnosine is only found animal products. It serves as a scavenger or sink for reactive carbonyl groups — intermediaries that go on to form advanced lipoxidation end-products.
If you can grab these carbonyls before they attack proteins and fats, you can essentially stop the vicious cycle resulting in catastrophic peroxidation. Diets that exclude animal products and meat will lower your carnosine level, and carnosine is a really important nutrient to limit the damage from oxidation products. It’s also important for mitochondrial function.
Summary of Why Saturated Fats Are so Crucial
Toward the end of his podcast, around one hour and 44 minutes in, Saladino offers a comprehensive summary of the entire discussion. Here’s a quick review of his key points:

The insulin sensitivity of your adipose fat cells is inverse to the rest of your body. In other words, you want your fat cells to be insulin resistant, because this makes the rest of your body insulin sensitive (i.e., not insulin resistant). If your adipose fat cells are insulin sensitive, the rest of your body will be insulin resistant. The factor that determines the insulin sensitivity of your adipocytes is the fats you eat.
Linoleic acid “breaks the sensitivity for insulin at the level of your fat cells” — it makes them more insulin sensitive — and, since your fat cells control the insulin sensitivity of the rest of your body by releasing free fatty acids, you end up with insulin resistance.
Conversely, when you eat saturated fat, because of the way it’s beta-oxidized in your mitochondria, your fat cells become insulin resistant. As a result, they do not grow and they do not release free fatty acids. Thus, the insulin sensitivity in the rest of your body improves, and insulin resistance goes down.

Vegetable Oils Are Toxic
As discussed in my recent interview with Knobbe (above), the polyunsaturated fats from vegetable oils, seed oils and trans fats are mostly stored in your fat cells (opposed to being used for fuel), and have a half-life of 600 to 680 days.13

They also get incorporated into tissues, including your heart and brain. Who in their right mind would want a highly oxidizable oil saturating their organs for years? One result of this could be memory impairment and increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease, which is exactly what they found with canola oil.14 As reported in one 2017 study:15

“Our findings do not support a beneficial effect of chronic canola oil consumption on two important aspects of AD pathophysiology which includes memory impairments as well as synaptic integrity. While more studies are needed, our data do not justify the current trend aimed at replacing olive oil with canola oil.”

In the interview above, Knobbe explains the harms of vegetable oils and, like Saladino and Teicholz, reviews why they are a root cause behind virtually all chronic diseases.

Your body functions best when it’s in balance; the biological term for this is homeostasis. Basically, this means that while a little of something may be good, a lot of the same thing can be bad.
Your body also functions optimally when it is under some stress. For instance, your muscles grow and strengthen when they are asked to perform. Your immune system creates antibodies when it is exposed to a pathogen. You experience personal growth and development only when you step past the edge of your comfort zone.
Yet, with too much stress, your body can get overwhelmed and damaged. Being exposed to too many free radicals is one example. This leads to oxidative stress, which is an imbalance between free radicals and antioxidants.1 Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are free radicals that are the by-products of metabolism and they play an important role in cell signaling.
Your body constantly produces ROS. When there aren’t enough antioxidants to keep the number in check, it can result in oxidative stress. This can lead to several health conditions such as neurodegenerative disease, gene mutations, cancer, heart disease and inflammatory diseases.2
Your Body Uses Two Types of Antioxidants

At the molecular level, free radicals have an unpaired electron. This makes them highly unstable, damaging your cellular structures. The damage happens when the free radicals steal an electron from another molecule. This process is called oxidation.3 You can see the visible signs of oxidation when you cut into an apple and let it sit on the counter and watch as the flesh begins to turn brown over the next couple of hours.
In small amounts, free radicals help fight infections, inhibit aging and start wound healing. But in larger amounts they are damaging. Your body has a built-in mechanism to help fight the damage from ROS using antioxidants. These molecules are different since they can donate an electron and remain stable, thus reducing the damage from free radicals.
More than one type of antioxidant is in play when it comes to our defenses. In one group are exogenous antioxidants: These are molecules that are formed in foods and can be absorbed when eaten. Examples I’ve talked about are vitamin C, astaxanthin, flavonoids and polyphenols. Keeping a balance between damaging ROS and antioxidants may also help your body fight infectious diseases, such as flu and COVID-19.
Your body can also form endogenous antioxidants, including superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidases, glutathione and catalase. While getting enough external antioxidants from your food is important, it is the endogenous antioxidants like superoxide dismutase (SOD) that are the first line of defense against ROS.4
Glutathione plays a crucial role in health and fitness. It is an intracellular antioxidant that can improve the activity of other antioxidants like vitamins C and E, CoQ10 and alpha lipoic acid.5 Since glutathione is poorly absorbed from foods,6 it may be beneficial to raise your levels using the precursor N-acetyl L-cysteine (NAC).7
Another powerful antioxidant made inside your body is SOD, which plays a role in a variety of physiological and pathological conditions such as cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes and inflammatory diseases.8 During metabolism, an aggressive superoxide radical is created. SOD breaks this down to hydrogen peroxide and molecular oxygen.9
The accumulation of hydrogen peroxide in the cells is also damaging. At this point in the reaction catalase, another endogenous antioxidant, breaks down the hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen.
Aronia Berry Supplementation Fights Oxidative Damage

SOD is found in every cell of your body as well as between the cells.10 When adequate amounts of this enzyme are produced, you are powerfully protected against the ravages of oxidative stress. However, levels of SOD go down as you age.11 In one review, researchers discussed its importance to overall health and wellness, writing:12

“It has been suggested that proper daily SOD supplementation will protect the immune system and significantly reduce one’s chances of diseases and ultimately slow down aging process.”

SOD is a metalloenzyme, which means it needs a metal ion to work. The ions that researchers have found most commonly bound to SOD include zinc, iron, manganese and copper. Large amounts of extracellular SOD (SOD3) can be found in nearly all human tissue.13 Several places, including the heart, have the ability to transcribe SOD3 RNA from SOD DNA, raising the level of production.14
By reversing the loss of SOD, scientists may be able to have a powerful effect on reducing oxidative stress and therefore lower the potential risk of many chronic diseases. There are two ways to increase it:

Consume a source of SOD to raise the levels
Consume a precursor to help the body boost levels of production

Enter the Aronia berry. In parts of the country they are known as chokeberries, in reference to their sour flavor.15 They come in red and black colors, with the red berries being slightly sweeter than the black. They are a native, perennial, deciduous shrub in North America.16
In a study from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), researchers found that chokeberries had 50% more antioxidant activity than other, more common berries.17 In addition to high levels of exogenous antioxidants, Aronia berries can activate nuclear factor erythroid 2–related factor 2 (NRF2), a key regulator of antioxidant action,18 to boost the production of SOD.19
Supplementation with Aronia berry extract reduced oxidative stress in the fruit fly so significantly that it extended the life of the fly by 18%.20 It also reduced oxidative stress and the pathogenesis of colitis in an animal model.21
The berry extract modulated mitochondrial antioxidant activity and upregulated antioxidant enzymes, preventing depletion of reduced glutathione and glutathione peroxidase.
What Affects Your Endogenous Antioxidant Production?

In the search for ways to raise SOD levels, nearly 35 years ago scientists pulled it from the blood of livestock and injected it directly into the joints of people with osteoarthritis. The results showed significant improvement.22 However, other research showed disappointing results and it was not developed for commercial purposes.
When intraperitoneal and oral administration of SOD was compared to naproxen and dexamethasone in an animal model, the results revealed that oral SOD lowered lipoperoxidation.23 In the animals that received the drugs, 20% of those getting naproxen died of hemorrhages in the gastrointestinal tract and 50% of those getting dexamethasone died of pulmonary infections.
The question has remained as to how to naturally increase the amount and activity of SOD in the body. Although some plants naturally produce it, once consumed, the harsh environment of the gastrointestinal tract destroys it.24
It appears that consuming Aronia berry extract could actually increase SOD levels. In one study, researchers engaged 47 participants; 22 were healthy and 25 had metabolic syndrome. The participants with metabolic syndrome were given 100 mg of Aronia extract three times a day for two months.25 This group saw reductions in their blood pressure and cholesterol levels while their SOD levels were significantly raised.
Researchers have also learned that curcumin supplementation can increase SOD, catalase and glutathione peroxidase, all important endogenous antioxidants.26 This same effect was also found in the fruit fly.27
Remember, SOD has to have metal ions to function properly. This is an important consideration for our time, as some people may be taking zinc to protect against COVID-19, flu and other infectious conditions. In a discussion of the importance of the zinc/copper balance, Chris Masterjohn, Ph.D., writes:28

“The negative effect of zinc on copper status has been shown with as little as 60 mg/d zinc. This intake lowers the activity of superoxide dismutase, an enzyme important to antioxidant defense and immune function that depends both on zinc and copper.

Notably, the maximum amount of zinc one could consume while staying in the acceptable range of zinc-to-copper ratios and also staying within the upper limit for copper is 150 mg/d.”

Molecular Hydrogen: A Potent Selective Antioxidant

Molecular hydrogen is yet another important antioxidant. Among the many benefits of using it is the ability to selectively decrease excessive oxidative stress and inflammation.29
As discussed earlier, it’s important to remember that the body requires balance in all its processes, including stress. By inhibiting excessive oxidative stress and damage, molecular hydrogen helps to maintain homeostasis. This means the goal is to neutralize excessive free radicals, but not all of them.
In my interview with Tyler W. LeBaron, founder of the science-based, nonprofit Molecular Hydrogen Institute, he talked about the selective elimination of free radicals. You can see the entire interview in my article, “Molecular Hydrogen — Is it the Best Antioxidant You Can Take?” He comments:30

“Sometimes antioxidants can even exacerbate oxidative stress because they can increase Fenton reaction cycles and redox cycling and end up being potent pro-oxidants. So, it is very complicated, and we have to be very cautious …

One of the reasons we know hydrogen gas could be so safe is because it simply does not have the reductive power or potential to neutralize or react with some of these critical important signaling oxidants, such as hydrogen peroxide, singlet oxygen, superoxide radicals and nitric oxide. It just does not have the ability to react with these, even in vitro, if you just put the two together, they don’t react.”

Molecular hydrogen will react with hydroxyl radical, which is the most reactive and oxidative radical in the body. It is turned into harmless water.31 Molecular hydrogen is inexpensive, has no risk and its potential upside is tremendous. Use the article link above to read more about its benefits.
How to Use Molecular Hydrogen at Home

Molecular hydrogen is absorbed in gas form. As LeBaron and I discuss in our interview, easiest way to get it into your system is to dissolve molecular hydrogen tablets in pure water and drink it. It is important to be sure the concentration is high enough and that the frequency is not continuous.
As LeBaron explained, when exposure to molecular hydrogen is continuous, it is less effective. At this time, further study is needed to determine the best frequency.
Until then, customizing the dose to your personal circumstances may be appropriate. For example, if you live in non-stressful circumstances and are not exercising much, once a day may be enough. On the other hand, if you exercise vigorously, it may be more appropriate to take it a couple of times a day.
The normal dose is one tablet in 500 mL or 16 ounces of water. You want to drink the whole glass as soon as the tablet dissolves and before the cloud of hydrogen gas dissipates. The rate the tablet dissolves will depend on the water temperature. Ideally, use room temperature water so there’s more gas in the water by the time the tablet is fully dissolved.
It’s important to use plain water and not sparkling water, which contains carbon dioxide that will disperse the hydrogen gas faster. The water will take on a milky look from the dissolved hydrogen gas. You’ll want to drink it as quickly as possible while the hydrogen is suspended in water.

Salmon is often used as an example of a health-conscious food choice, but its health value depends greatly on its source. While wild salmon is nutritious, there are many problems with farm-raised salmon, which makes up the bulk of salmon sold in U.S. supermarkets and served in restaurants.
A key part of that lies with their diet, which in the wild is made up of marine life, including zooplankton and other fish. In an attempt to simulate their wild diet, during the 1990s virtually all farmed salmon were fed diets rich in fishmeal and fish oil.1 This wasn’t sustainable, however, and in an effort to create feed for farmed fish that didn’t involve overfishing, vegetable ingredients were added as a replacement.
While fishmeal and fish oil once made up about 90% of farmed Norwegian salmon feed, by 2013 this dropped to about 30%.2 Other research suggests that by 2016, only 10% of the fat in farmed salmon feed was marine-based.3 High levels of vegetable oils, including rapeseed, or canola, are now used instead, which has had dramatic consequences for the salmon and, likely, for those who use them as a food source.
Farmed Salmon Feed Alters Cell Metabolism

Researchers from the Norwegian Institute of Food, Fisheries and Aquaculture (Nofima) conducted a study to find out how dietary changes affect the way salmon utilize fat, particularly during fasting.4 In the wild, salmon regularly experience periods of fasting when they’re unable to catch food. Farmed salmon may also fast, but only due to illnesses, spawning and prior to slaughter.5
“During these periods, it is vital for salmon to regulate fat metabolism in the body well, which is why it is interesting to study how these processes change with altered diets,” study author Bente Ruyter of Nofima explained. “This is something that is not easy to study in fish that are alive, but we can conduct a more detailed study of the energy metabolism in cultured cells.”6
Using primary fat cells isolated from 20 live fish, the researchers added fatty acids found in fish feed to determine their effects. The fatty acids included:

Eicosapentaenoic (EPA), an omega-3 marine fat that used to be more plentiful in the feed than it is now
Oleic acid (OA), which is found in vegetable oil and is added in higher quantities to fish feed than it was before
Palm acid, a saturated fatty acid found in fish oil and plant oil, which has also decreased in farmed fish feed

Significant differences were seen in the cultured cells depending on fatty acid, including changes in the amount of mitochondria — the cells’ powerhouses — and alterations in the release of fatty acids during fasting.
The findings also suggested that oleic acid may promote overweight and obesity in Atlantic salmon more so than EPA and palm acid, with the researchers noting, “The supplementation of OA to mature Atlantic salmon adipocytes lead to a higher production of intracellular lipid droplets.”7
Dietary Changes Cause Significant Cellular Alterations

Changes in commercial farmed fish diets have led to significant reductions in EPA, the omega-3 fat DHA and palm acid in salmon’s adipose tissue, along with an increase in OA. These fats yield “very different and often opposing effects on central adipocyte functions,” the researchers explained, affecting adipose tissue metabolism and physiology via a number of mechanisms, including:8

Modulating the transcript level of relevant genes
Modifying lipolytic activity
Modulating metabolic processes, such as lipid droplet formation, the leptin system and mitochondrial dynamics

It was formerly believed that salmon transport fat as free fatty acids, including during sexual maturation, when nutrients from fat tissue are transferred to reproductive cells. The study revealed, however, that the fat is transported on phospholipids, cholesterol esters and triglycerides.9
Correlations were also seen with humans, as the salmon fat cells reacted to fasting similarly to human fat tissue.
“Many of the regulatory mechanisms associated with energy metabolism when on a fatty diet appear to be similar to those found in humans,” according to Nofima.10 The researchers suggested that more research is needed to find out how the lipid composition of fat cells affects fish physiology and health, especially during fasting.
When a fish stops eating, the ability to recruit lipids from fat cells is essential for reproduction as well as recovery from disease, making the dietary changes potentially disastrous. What’s more, it could also serve as a warning for humans. According to Nofima scientist Marta Bou Mira:11

“In this journal, most research focuses on humans, but I think salmon is increasingly being considered as a possible model for humans. We have conducted basic research on fish that has never been done before, and the combination between adipose tissue models and an increased understanding of obesity-related issues most likely caught people’s eye.”

How Does Eating Farmed Salmon Affect Humans?
If you eat farmed salmon, you’re essentially consuming the salmon’s unnatural diet as well. In a review published in the Journal of Experimental Biology, Nini Sissener with the Institute of Marine Research in Norway looked into how changes in commercial salmon feed affect the fatty acid composition of salmon tissues, and how these changes affect the humans who eat them, essentially following the fatty acids through the food chain.12
Salmon is the second most popular type of seafood in the U.S. (shrimp is the first), with just over 2 pounds consumed annually, per person.13 A key reason behind its popularity has to do with its perceived health benefits. As a rich source of beneficial animal-based omega-3 fats, salmon can, indeed, be a very healthy food choice.
While farmed salmon may still provide a source of omega-3 fats, the concentrations are less than they were before, however, and are less than those found in wild salmon.
“Farmed salmon still contributes positively to the overall n-6/n-3 ratio of a Western diet, but to a much lesser extent than before,” Sissener wrote. “Combined with similar changes in much of our food supply, this is a cause for concern, and efforts should be made to limit the amount of n-6 FAs in salmon fillets.”14
Farm-raised salmon makes up 75% of the salmon consumed worldwide, and its volume has increased nearly 1,000% from 1990 to 2015,15 which means that changes in its nutritional content may affect public health.
While half a fillet of wild Atlantic salmon contains about 3,996 milligrams (mg) of omega-3 and 341 mg of omega-6,16 the same amount of farmed Atlantic salmon contains an astounding 1,944 mg of omega-6.17 Aside from an inferior nutritional profile, farmed salmon is also more likely to contain toxins.
Consuming Atlantic Farmed Salmon May Pose Health Risks
The Environmental Working Group (EWG) tested farmed salmon from U.S. grocery stores and found farmed salmon had, on average:18

16 times more polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) than wild salmon
Four times more PCBs than beef
3.4 times more PCBs than other seafood

What’s more, in 2005 researchers found that farmed Atlantic salmon were so contaminated with PCBs, toxaphene, dieldrin, dioxins and polybrominated diphenyl ethers that they posed a cancer and additional health risks to humans, even when consumed in moderate amounts:19

“Many farmed Atlantic salmon contain dioxin concentrations that, when consumed at modest rates, pose elevated cancer and noncancer health risks.

However, dioxin and DLCs [dioxin-like compounds] are just one suite of many organic and inorganic contaminants and contaminant classes in the tissues of farmed salmon, and the cumulative health risk of exposure to these compounds via consumption of farmed salmon is likely even higher.

As we have shown here, modest consumption of farmed salmon contaminated with DLCs raises human exposure levels above the lower end of the WHO TDI [World Health Organization’s tolerable daily intake], and considerably above background intake levels for adults in the United States.”

27% of Wild-Caught Fish Fed to Fish

The environmental risks of farm-raised salmon must not be overlooked, and while feeding farmed salmon a diet more comparable with what they would eat in the wild may be preferable from a nutritional standpoint, it’s not a sustainable solution.
About 27% of wild-caught fish — amounting to about 20 million tons of seafood — is used to make fishmeal that’s fed to farmed fish,20 and stocks of wild fish may be dwindling as a result.
An undercover investigation in Vietnam, India and The Gambia by the Changing Markets Foundation, titled “Fishing for Catastrophe,” also revealed that the demand for fishmeal and fish oil used in the aquaculture industry is fueling overfishing and putting intense pressure on wild fish stocks.21 According to the report:22

“Our findings show that FMFO [fishmeal and fish oil] production, driven by demand from the global aquaculture sector, is visibly accelerating the decline of fish stocks in India, Vietnam and The Gambia that marine fisheries for human consumption have already pushed to breaking point.

Local fisherpeople and communities are clear-eyed about the consequences for them; they see the slump in catches they are currently experiencing as a precursor to the inevitable destruction of the fisheries that sustain them. However, they feel powerless against the economic might of the industry.”

While 90% of the fish being used for fishmeal and other uses could be used to feed humans directly,23 they’re instead being diverted into other uses, contributing to food insecurity in local communities. Further, as noted in “Fishing for Catastrophe:”24

“A report published in July 2019 found that the Scottish salmon industry alone uses roughly the same quantity of wild-caught fish to feed its salmon as the entire adult population of the UK purchases in one year, and that it will require a further 310,000 tonnes of wild fish per year to meet its ambitions to double in size by 2030.”

Safer, Sustainable Seafood Options

With fishmeal and fish oil representing an unsustainable feed source, and plant-based feed alternatives leading to changes in farmed salmon’s cellular metabolism and nutritional value, eating farm-raised salmon is not advisable.
I only recommend eating safer seafood choices such as wild-caught Alaskan salmon, sardines, anchovies, mackerel and herring. All of these are at low risk of contamination yet are high in healthy omega-3 fats. You’ll want to opt for sustainably harvested wild-caught fish as well.
One of the best options toward this end is to look for the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) logo, which features the letters MSC and a blue check mark in the shape of a fish. The MSC logo ensures the seafood came from a responsible fishery that uses sustainable fishing practices to minimize environmental impacts.25

Fake meat is all the rage, and although plant-based meat alternatives have been on the market for years, the industry is gaining speed, promoting its meatless ‘burgers’ as a sustainable solution to feed the world. The green image is an illusion, however, one predicated on a product that’s the epitome of unnatural.
Impossible Foods, which made headlines for its meatless burgers that “bleed” like real meat, is one of the leaders in the fake meat industry. Its website suggests its plant-based meat is better for you and the planet,1 but eating an Impossible burger is not akin to eating a plate full of vegetables.
Far from it, Impossible Foods should be called “Impossible Patents,” according to Seth Itzkan, environmental futurist and co-founder and co-director of Soil4Climate, who suggests fake meat products are destroying the environment by perpetuating a harmful reliance on genetically engineered (GE) grains while accelerating soil loss and detracting from regenerative agriculture.2
Impossible Foods Holds 14 Patents, Has 100+ Pending

Impossible Foods’ products resemble nothing found in nature. That’s why the company holds 14 patents, with at least 100 more pending. “It’s not food; it’s software, intellectual property — 14 patents, in fact, in each bite of Impossible Burger with over 100 additional patents pending for animal proxies from chicken to fish,” Itzkan told Medium, adding:3

“It’s iFood, the next killer app. Just download your flavor. This is likely the appeal for Bill Gates, their über investor. It’s a food operating system (FOS), a predecessor, perhaps, to a merger with Microsoft. MS-FOOD.

The business model is already etched in Silicon Valley — license core technology (protein synthesis) while seeking vertical integration of supply chains, which, in this case, is not from coders to users, but from genetic engineers to protein seekers.”

Natural foods cannot be patented, but Impossible Foods’ products certainly can be. The Impossible Burger is a meat alternative that’s unlike others on the market due to the addition of soy leghemoglobin, or heme. This, the company says, it what makes meat taste like meat, and, in plants, leghemoglobin is the protein that carries heme, an iron-containing molecule.
Originally, Impossible Foods harvested leghemoglobin from the roots of soy plants, but deemed that method unsustainable. Instead, they turned to genetic engineering, which they use to insert the DNA from soy plants into yeast, creating GE yeast with the gene for soy leghemoglobin.4
Impossible Foods’ products are heavily processed and created in production rooms — not grown in or found in nature. Their science project creations are also heavily protected, as evidenced by the 14 patents assigned to Impossible Foods, uncovered by Itzkan:5

Patent No. 10287568 — Methods for extracting and purifying nondenatured proteins
Patent No. 10273492 — Expression constructs and methods of genetically engineering methylotrophic yeast

Patent No. 10172380 — Ground meat replicas
Patent No. 10172381 — Methods and compositions for consumables

Patent No. 10093913 — Methods for extracting and purifying nondenatured proteins
Patent No. 10039306 — Methods and compositions for consumables

Patent No. 10087434 — Methods for extracting and purifying nondenatured proteins
Patent No. 9943096 — Methods and compositions for affecting the flavor and aroma profile of consumables

Patent No. 9938327 — Expression constructs and methods of genetically engineering methylotrophic yeast
Patent No. 9833768 — Affinity reagents for protein purification

Patent No. 9826772 — Methods and compositions for affecting the flavor and aroma profile of consumables
Patent No. 9808029 — Methods and compositions for affecting the flavor and aroma profile of consumables

Patent No. 9737875 — Affinity reagents for protein purification
Patent No. 9700067 — Methods and compositions for affecting the flavor and aroma profile of consumables

Patent No. 9011949 — Methods and compositions for consumables

Impossible Foods Are Junk Foods

While the industrialized meat production that occurs on the concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) responsible for most meat consumed in the U.S. is an environmental and ethical atrocity, creating fake meat in high-tech laboratory settings is not the answer.
Impossible Foods is only perpetuating the consumption of ultraprocessed foods, of which Americans already eat far too much of. Americans not only eat a preponderance of processed food, but 57.9% of it is ultraprocessed6 — products at the far end of the “significantly altered” spectrum that have been robustly linked to obesity,7 ill health and early death.8
Friends of the Earth (FOE), a grassroots environmental group, released a report that posed critical questions about the growing trend toward animal product alternatives. In it they pointed out the highly-processed nature of these products:9

“Various ‘processing aids’ are employed to make some of these products, including organisms (like genetically engineered bacteria, yeast and algae) that produce proteins, and chemicals to extract proteins.

For example, chemicals like hexane are used to extract components of a food, like proteins (from peas, soy, corn etc.) or compounds (from genetically engineered bacteria) to make xanthan gum … disclosure of these ingredients is not required.

Other processing aids (e.g. bacteria, yeast, algae), including those that are genetically engineered to produce proteins, are also not currently required to be disclosed on package labeling. The lack of transparency makes it difficult to assess the inputs and impact of their use.”

Many of these foods, including Impossible Foods’ fake meat, are made with GMO soy, which in itself is ecologically devastating, in part because it’s often planted where essential grasslands and prairies once stood. That soy is heavily sprayed with the cancer-linked herbicide glyphosate, posing additional environmental and potential human health risks.
Not surprisingly, testing by consumer group Moms Across America found the Impossible Burger contains Roundup ingredient glyphosate and its breakdown product AMPA,10 at levels of 11.3 parts per billion — that’s 11 times higher than the glyphosate found in the Beyond Meat Burger,11 the company’s biggest fake meat competitor.
‘There Is No Place for Nature’ at Impossible Foods
Impossible Foods has even taken aim at regenerative farming practices, which are promoting optimal nutrition and health while at the same time helping to prevent pollution and restore damaged ecosystems. Yet, as Itzkan noted:12

“In this software-as-food scenario, there is no place for nature. Manufacturing of Impossible Burger starts with glyphosate-sprayed soy grown on what was once healthy prairie. It is then infused with heme molecules produced by patented yeast in high-tech labs for the blood-like upgrade.

Finally, it ends its journey as a plastic-wrapped puck that some are brave enough to ingest. Just fry with canola oil and the illusion of a meal is complete.”

Impossible Foods also claims that they have a better carbon footprint than live animal farms and hired Quantis, a group of scientists and strategists who help their clients take actions based on scientific evidence, to prove their point.
According to the executive summary published on the Impossible Foods website, their product reduced environmental impact between 87% and 96% in the categories studied, including global warming potential, land occupation and water consumption.13 This, however, compares fake meat to meat from CAFOs, which are notoriously destructive to the environment.
“The pretense that this wealth-concentrating march of the software industry into the food sector is in any way good for people or the environment is predicated on a comparison with only the worst aspects of animal agriculture,” Itzkan said.14
Grass Fed Farms Represent a Truly Regenerative Solution
White Oak Pastures in Bluffton, Georgia, which produces high-quality grass fed products using regenerative grazing practices, commissioned the same analysis by Quantis and published a 33-page study showing comparisons of White Oaks Pastures emissions against conventional beef production.15
While the manufactured fake meat reduced its carbon footprint up to 96% in some categories, White Oaks had a net total emission in the negative numbers as compared to CAFO produced meat. Further, grass fed beef from White Oak Pastures had a carbon footprint that was 111% lower than a typical U.S. CAFO and its regenerative system effectively captured soil carbon, which offset the majority of emissions related to beef production.16
“Within our margin of error,” the report noted, “there is potential that WOP [White Oak Pastures] beef production is climate positive. This would be very rare and it is unusual that there is more benefit to producing something than to simply not produce,”17 but it’s within the realm of possibility when it comes to properly raised grass fed beef. Fake meat produced in a lab simply can’t compare.
“It [the fake meat industry] ignores, entirely, the rapidly growing regenerative movement that is offering so much hope for the planet at this key time, healing landscapes, replenishing aquifers and mitigating fires,” according to Itzkan. “Thus, because of its reliance on grains, tillage, pesticides and fertilizers, fake meat of scale exacerbates depletion of grasslands while undermining a more legitimate solution.”18
Are There Health Risks in Fake Meat?
The drive for plant-based meat alternatives isn’t due to health or even to support vegan or vegetarian diets. Those truly interested in eating a plant-based diet can do so by eating plants, after all, and in so doing can enjoy the many health benefits that eating plant foods provides.
Impossible Foods’ numerous patents reveal that their products are driven by profits, and perhaps the ultimate goal is to replace real meat altogether with a highly lucrative patented product.
It’s already known that the consumption of ultraprocessed food contributes to disease,19 but manufactured fake meat may also pose additional risks. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, for instance, has raised concerns over the soy leghemoglobin in the Impossible Burger being a possible human allergen.20
Impossible Foods’ scientists also fed leghemoglobin to rats for 28 days to determine the risk of allergic reaction or toxicity. Dana Perls, from Friends of the Earth, pointed out that the rats exhibited alterations in blood chemistry “that could indicate kidney or other health problems,” which the company did not follow up on.21
Consumer Reports senior scientist Michael Hansen added that there are no long-term studies of soy leghemoglobin in humans, even though the process to make it creates at least 45 other proteins as byproducts, which are also consumed and in need of further evaluation.22
The fact is, fake meat cannot replace the complex mix of nutrients found in grass fed beef and other high-quality pastured meats, and it’s likely that consuming ultraprocessed meat alternatives could lead to many of the same health issues that are caused by a processed food diet. To protect your health and the environment, skip pseudofoods that require patents and stick to those found in nature instead.

I’ve written many articles detailing lifestyle and dietary strategies that may decrease your COVID-19 risk by boosting your immune function and general health. Now we can add fermented foods to the list, which shouldn’t come as such a great surprise, considering the influence your gut health has on your immune system.

The study,1 posted July 7, 2020, on the pre-print server medRxiv, conducted by researchers in Berlin, Germany, looked at whether diet might play a role in COVID-19 death rates. Interestingly, mortality rates tend to be lower in countries where consumption of traditionally fermented foods is commonplace. As reported by News Medical Life Sciences:2

“The researchers say that if their hypothesis is confirmed in future studies, COVID-19 will be the first infectious disease epidemic to involve biological mechanisms that are associated with a loss of ‘nature.’ Significant changes in the microbiome caused by modern life and less fermented food consumption may have increased the spread or severity of the disease, they say.”

Fermented Veggie Consumption May Lower COVID-19 Mortality
The researchers obtained data from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) Comprehensive European Food Consumption Database and compared consumption levels with COVID-19 mortality statistics (deaths per capita) for each country, obtained from the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.
For each g/day increase in the average national consumption of fermented vegetables, the mortality risk for COVID-19 decreased by 35.4%.
The EFSA database includes statistics on countries’ consumption of fermented vegetables, pickled or marinated vegetables, fermented milk, yogurt and fermented sour milk specifically.
They also looked at potential confounders, such as gross domestic product, population density, percentage of the population over the age of 64, unemployment and obesity rates. According to the authors:3

“Of all the variables considered, including confounders, only fermented vegetables reached statistical significance with the COVID-19 death rate per country.
For each g/day increase in the average national consumption of fermented vegetables, the mortality risk for COVID-19 decreased by 35.4%. Adjustment did not change the point estimate and results were still significant.”

Probiotics May Ease Depression
In related news, a review4 of seven small clinical trials has found probiotics and/or prebiotics may be helpful for those struggling with depression and anxiety. While these mental health challenges are epidemics in their own right, the global lockdowns certainly have not made the situation any better.

According to the authors,5 all of the studies “demonstrated significant improvements in one or more of the outcomes” compared with no treatment, placebo, or baseline measurements, leading them to conclude that “utilizing pre/probiotic may be a potentially useful adjunctive treatment” for patients with depression and/or anxiety.

The review builds on earlier studies that have shown people with depression tend to have higher amounts of specific gut bacteria than those who are not depressed.

While it seems the gut microbiome’s role in health is a very recent discovery, as early as 1898 — yes, 122 years ago — a paper6 in The Journal of the American Medical Association proposed that intestinal microbes might play a role in melancholia. As noted in the 2019 paper, “The Microbiome and Mental Health: Hope or Hype?”:7

“The primary tenet of FMT [fecal microbiota transplantation] is that dysbiosis within the human host gut microbiome predisposes an individual to disease. The exact mechanisms through which this occurs have not yet been established, but several potential direct and indirect pathways exist through which the gut microbiota can modulate the gut–brain axis.
These pathways include endocrine (cortisol), immune (cytokines) and neural (vagus and enteric nervous system) pathways, and the assumption is that introducing microflora from a healthy individual will help recolonize the system with a microbial pattern more in keeping with wellness either by establishing the new healthy microbiota or by allowing the host to ‘reset’ their own microflora to a pre-illness state.”

Bacteria Associated With Mental Health and Depression
Two types of gut bacteria in particular, Coprococcus and Dialister bacteria, have been shown to be “consistently depleted” in individuals diagnosed with clinical depression. According to the authors of a study published in the April 2019 issue of Nature Microbiology:8

“Surveying a large microbiome population cohort (Flemish Gut Flora Project, n = 1,054) with validation in independent data sets, we studied how microbiome features correlate with host quality of life and depression.
Butyrate-producing Faecalibacterium and Coprococcus bacteria were consistently associated with higher quality of life indicators. Together with Dialister, Coprococcus spp. were also depleted in depression, even after correcting for the confounding effects of antidepressants.”

The researchers went on to analyze and catalogue the neuroactive potential of these gut bacteria, finding that those associated with good mental health had the ability to synthesize the dopamine metabolite 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid, while those associated with depression produce ?-aminobutyric acid. Other studies have identified yet other microbial profiles associated with better or worse mental health. For example:

• 2016 research9 found the relative abundance of Actinobacteria was increased, and Bacteroidetes was decreased in depressed individuals compared to healthy controls.
• A 2015 study10 found patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder had higher amounts of Bacteroidetes, Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria, and lower amounts of Firmicutes than healthy controls.

“These findings enable a better understanding of changes in the fecal microbiota composition in such patients, showing either a predominance of some potentially harmful bacterial groups or a reduction in beneficial bacterial genera,” the authors wrote.

• A 2014 study11 found depressed individuals had an overrepresentation of Bacteroidales and an underrepresentation of Lachnospiraceae bacteria.

Lachnospiraceae are a family of beneficial bacteria that ferment plant polysaccharides into short-chain fatty acids such as butyrate and acetate.12 The genus Oscillibacter, and one specific clade within Alistipes were also significantly associated with depression.

Zinc for Mental Health and Immune Function
Aside from fermented foods, zinc is another dietary factor that impacts both your mental health and COVID-19 risk. As noted in a 2013 article in Psychology Today:13

“Zinc is an essential mineral that may be lacking in modern processed and strict vegetarian diets, as major sources are meat, poultry, and oysters … Since the body has no special zinc storage capability, its important to consume a bit of zinc on a regular basis.
What does zinc have to do with depression? It turns out that zinc plays a part in modulating the brain and body’s response to stress all along the way …
The highest amount of zinc in the body is found in our brains, particularly in a part of our brains called the hippocampus. Zinc deficiency can lead to symptoms of depression, ADHD, difficulties with learning and memory, seizures, aggression, and violence …
In humans, zinc has been found to be low in the serum of those suffering from depression. In fact, the more depressed someone is, the lower the zinc level … Zinc supplementation has been shown to have antidepressant effects in humans …”

Zinc May Be Crucial Against COVID-19

Zinc is also important for your immune defense against the common cold and other viral infections, including COVID-19, and is a component of enzymes involved in tissue remodeling. As noted in Psychology Today:14

“Low zinc also seems to affect inflammation and immunity. The T cells in our immune system, which hunt and kill infection, don’t work well without zinc and also release more calls for help (leading to more inflammation, via IL-6 and IL-1) in the case of zinc deficiency.”

Interestingly, low zinc levels are associated with a loss of taste and smell, and these are also two early symptoms of COVID-19 infection. This suggests zinc deficiency may indeed be a key factor in the illness.

Researchers have also argued that one of the key mechanisms of action of the drug hydroxychloroquine is its ability to shuttle zinc into the cells. In fact, zinc appears to be a “magic ingredient” required to prevent viral replication.15

This is likely why, when taken early along with zinc, the drug appears to have a high rate of success against COVID-19. As noted in the preprint paper, “Does Zinc Supplementation Enhance the Clinical Efficacy of Chloroquine / Hydroxychloroquine to Win Todays Battle Against COVID-19?” published April 8, 2020:16

“Besides direct antiviral effects, CQ/HCQ [chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine] specifically target extracellular zinc to intracellular lysosomes where it interferes with RNA-dependent RNA polymerase activity and coronavirus replication.
As zinc deficiency frequently occurs in elderly patients and in those with cardiovascular disease, chronic pulmonary disease, or diabetes, we hypothesize that CQ/HCQ plus zinc supplementation may be more effective in reducing COVID-19 morbidity and mortality than CQ or HCQ in monotherapy.”

Being a natural zinc ionophore (meaning it improves zinc uptake by your cells), the supplement quercetin also has very similar mechanisms of action and appears to be a viable alternative to hydroxychloroquine.

Simple Strategies to Lower Your COVID-19 Risk
Personally, I take quercetin and zinc at bedtime as a prophylactic each day. The reason it’s best to take them in the evening — several hours after your last meal and before the long fast of sleeping — is because quercetin is also a senolytic (i.e., it selectively kills senescent or old, damaged cells) that is activated by fasting. So, by taking it at night, you maximize its other benefits.

If you’re not already eating fermented foods, now would be a good time to consider adding some into your diet. Fermented vegetables are easy and inexpensive to make at home, and provide a whole host of health benefits, thanks to the beneficial bacteria they provide. To learn more, see “Fermenting Foods — One of the Easiest and Most Creative Aspects of Making Food from Scratch” and “Tips for Fermenting at Home.”
If you have symptoms suggestive of COVID-19 infection, then my best recommendation is to start nebulizing food grade hydrogen peroxide at 0.1% as discussed in “Could Hydrogen Peroxide Treat Coronavirus?”
I would also make sure that your vitamin D levels are adequate, as discussed in my Vitamin D in the Prevention of COVID-19 report. If you don’t know your vitamin D level and have not been in the sun or taken over 5,000 units of vitamin D a day, it would likely be helpful to take one bolus dose of 100,000 units, and make sure you are taking plenty of magnesium, which helps convert the vitamin D to its active immune modulating form.

New research published in the Journal of Clinical Pathology suggests that chronic fatigue syndrome, also known as myalgic encephalitis (ME), is linked to a stomach virus. More than 80 percent of the biopsy specimens from patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome tested positive for enteroviral particles, compared to 20 percent of specimens from healthy people. Enteroviruses infect your bowel, causing severe but short lasting respiratory and gut infections. There are more than 70 different types of enteroviruses, and they can spread to the central nervous system, heart, and muscles.In a significant portion of patients, the initial infection had occurred years earlier, but they were still showing evidence of mild, long-term inflammation.Journal of Clinical Pathology September 14, 2007Eurekalert September 13, 2007 

July 15, 2020, the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) published its 2020 report, an independent scientific review on the nutrition and health status of Americans, and there was a concerning finding: Most Americans don’t get enough choline, an essential nutrient that’s vitally important, but rarely discussed.
Marie Caudill, Ph.D., a registered dietitian who is internationally recognized for her research on choline and folate, says the most alarming find from the report is that the populations who would benefit the most from extra choline — pregnant and lactating women, infants and children — are falling especially short.
In pregnant women, choline deficiency is associated with an increased risk of neural tube defects. In the general population, getting too little choline can lead to the development of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and muscle damage.
What Does Choline Do?
Choline is often lumped in with the B vitamins, but it’s not technically a vitamin. It’s more of a vitamin-like nutrient.1 Choline helps support optimal health at all stages of life. It plays a role in healthy fetal development, helps maintain cognition and memory, boosts energy, improves fitness and keeps your liver healthy. Your brain and nervous system need adequate amounts of choline to help regulate muscle control, mood and memory.2 Choline is also involved in metabolism. Other roles of choline include:

Promoting healthy fetal development3 — Choline is required for proper neural tube closure,4 brain development and healthy vision.5 Research shows mothers who get sufficient choline impart lifelong memory enhancement to their child due to changes in the development of the hippocampus (memory center) of the child’s brain.6 Choline deficiency also raises your risk of premature birth, low birth weight and preeclampsia.

Helping reduce the risk for cardiovascular disease — According to a study in the journal ARYA Atherosclerosis, choline may help prevent cardiovascular disease by converting homocysteine to methionine.7 Homocysteine is an amino acid that may increase your risk for heart disease and stroke if it accumulates in the blood.8

Aiding the synthesis of phospholipids, the most common of which is phosphatidylcholine, better known as lecithin, which constitutes between 40% and 50% of your cellular membranes and 70% to 95% of the phospholipids in lipoproteins and bile.9

Boosting your nervous system health — Choline is necessary for making acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter involved in healthy muscle, heart and memory performance.10

Strengthening cell messaging, by producing cell-messaging compounds.11

Facilitate fat transport and metabolism — Choline is needed to carry cholesterol from your liver, and a choline deficiency could result in excess fat and cholesterol buildup.12

Modulates DNA synthesis,13 aiding in the process along with other vitamins, such as folate and B12.

Improves cognitive performance — Researchers found a relationship between high dietary choline and better cognitive performance in a study involving men and women from the Framingham Offspring population.14 In a group of 1,391 men and women, performance factors were better in those who consumed more choline, adding to evidence your nutrition makes a difference in how your brain ages.

Helps manage certain mental disorders — Research shows that low choline intake is associated with increased anxiety levels.15 This nutrient has been used in treating rapid-cycling bipolar disorder, too. A study published in the journal Biological Psychiatry shows that choline supplementation helped reduce the manic and mood symptoms of people with bipolar disorder.16

Influences methylation reactions17

Aids in healthy mitochondrial function18

The Problems With Choline Deficiency
If you don’t get enough choline through your diet, it can result in a choline deficiency, which has widespread negative health effects. Because choline is involved in fat metabolism, low levels of the nutrient can result in an overaccumulation of deposits of fat in your liver.19 Eventually, this can lead to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, which currently affect 30% of the U.S. population.20 Choline deficiency can also lead to liver damage and muscle damage.21
Choline deficiency can be even more worrisome for pregnant women and lactating mothers. Choline is essential for proper brain development of a growing fetus. It also helps maintain proper homocysteine concentrations during pregnancy.22
According to a study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, there is an increased risk of neural tube birth defects in babies of women who consume less than 300 mg of choline per day when compared to pregnant women who get at least 500 mg daily.23
Because choline will be pulled from the mother’s blood to supply adequate amounts to the fetus, pregnant and lactating women have higher choline needs, yet only 5% get enough, according to one study.24 In addition to pregnant and lactating women, groups at especially high risk for choline deficiency include:

Endurance athletes — Endurance exercises, like marathons and triathlons, can deplete choline levels. Studies show that supplementing with choline before these types of stressful exercises can help keep the levels of choline in the blood from getting too low.25,26
People who drink a lot of alcohol — Excess alcohol consumption can increase your need for more choline while simultaneously increasing your risk of deficiency.27
Postmenopausal women — Postmenopausal women have lower estrogen concentrations, which can increase the risk of organ dysfunction in response to a low-choline diet.28
Vegetarians and vegans — Animal foods like beef liver, eggs and krill oil are the highest sources of dietary choline. Because vegetarians and vegans have dietary restrictions that eliminate some or all of these choline-rich foods, it can be more difficult to get an adequate amount of the nutrient through diet alone.29

How Much Choline Do You Need?
Your liver makes some choline, but the amount isn’t enough to keep you healthy and prevent the adverse effects of choline deficiency. That’s why you need to get adequate amounts through your diet.
The amount of choline you need depends on your age, sex and whether or not you’re pregnant or nursing. Here’s a general breakdown from the National Institutes of Health30:

Age
Male
Female
Pregnant Women
Nursing Women

0 to 6 months
125 mg/day
125 mg/day

7 to 12 months
150 mg/day
150 mg/day

1 to 3 years
200 mg/day
200 mg/day

4 to 8 years
250 mg/day
250 mg/day

9 to 13 years
375 mg/day
375 mg/day

14 to 18 years
550 mg/day
400 mg/day
450 mg/day
550 mg/day

19 years and older
550 mg/day
425 mg/day
450 mg/day
550 mg/day

Keep in mind, however, that some people have genetic polymorphisms that increase the need for choline and certain ethnic and racial groups are more likely to be affected.31 According to Chris Masterjohn, who has a Ph.D. in nutritional science, eating a diet that’s high in (otherwise healthy) saturated fats can also increase your need for choline.32
How to Get More Choline
Grass fed beef liver is the richest dietary source of choline, with 430 mg of choline per 100-gram cooked serving.33 But liver isn’t as much a staple on American plates as the second highest source of choline — eggs. One single egg, which weighs around 50 grams, contains 169 mg of choline.34
Here’s the catch, though: Most of that choline, or 139 mg, is found in the yolk.35 Egg yolks are also rich in lecithin, a fatty acid that’s a precursor for choline. That means if you’re still following the outdated and totally misguided advice to eat only the egg whites, you’re missing out on a lot of the egg’s nutrition.
Krill oil, which comes from krill, a crustacean mainly eaten by whales, penguins and other aquatic creatures, is also a rich source of choline. A 2011 study published in the journal Lipids found 69 choline-containing phospholipids in krill oil.36
Of those phospholipids, 60 were phosphatidylcholine substances, which protect against liver disease (including hepatitis and cirrhosis in alcoholics), reduce digestive tract inflammation and lessen symptoms associated with inflammatory conditions such as ulcerative colitis and irritable bowel syndrome.37 Other dietary sources of choline include:38

Grass fed beef liver
Organic pasture raised chicken

Atlantic cod
Alaskan salmon

Kidney beans
Quinoa

Brussels sprouts
Broccoli

Shitake mushroom
Cauliflower

According to the DGAC, most multi-vitamin supplements don’t contain sufficient amounts of choline. You can find supplements that contain only choline, but it’s always best to try to get what you need through a healthy diet.

If you’re a fig lover, this next sentence may be hard for you to swallow. The figs you’re eating could have a dead wasp stuck in them. I know that probably makes you squirm, but it sounds more dramatic than it is. You may think the idea of wasps inside a fig is gross, but it’s actually pretty amazing to see how nature knows exactly what it needs to do to allow both plant and insect species to survive.
Figs and fig wasps have a mutually beneficial relationship — something that’s officially called mutualism1 — that developed over millions of years of evolution. They need each other to survive. Fig wasps help pollinate figs and, in turn, the figs provide a safe place for the wasps to lay their eggs. This relationship is crucial to a balanced ecosystem and is also crucial to you enjoying a fresh fig or that fig jam you love.
So, don’t let this tidbit of information make you shy away from eating figs. The fruit, or technically flower, is full of resistant starch, potassium and other nutrients such as magnesium and choline, that help keep you healthy.2 Plus, you’re probably already eating a lot of bugs without even realizing it. Read on to see what I mean.
Why Do Figs Need Wasps?

Figs are often eaten as a fruit, but they’re actually inverted flowers with a fascinating biology.3 Unlike other flowers that bloom and expand outwardly, fig flowers bloom inside the fig’s pod. Because the flowers are on the inside, they require a special system for pollination — and that’s where the female fig wasps come in.
Each flower produces a single fruit called an achene that’s composed of a single shell and a hard seed. Because several flowers grow inside the fig pod, there are also several of these hard-shelled fruits. That’s what gives fresh figs their seeded inside and signature crunch.
Female fig wasps enter a fig through small passageways called ostioles. The ostioles are so narrow that the fig wasps actually lose their wings and antenna when traveling through them.4 Because of this, they can get in the figs, but they usually cannot get out. That’s OK with them, though, because their sole purpose is reproduction.
There are female and male figs. The female figs are the ones we eat, while the male figs serve solely as a place for fig wasps to reproduce. Once inside a male fig, the females lay their eggs. Eventually the eggs hatch and then the baby male wasps dig tunnels through the fig so that the baby female wasps, covered in pollen, can escape and continue the cycle in another fig.5
However, if a fig wasp enters a female fig, she can’t lay her eggs. Instead, she pollinates the flowers inside the fig, but then stays behind, living out the rest of her maximum 48-hour life cycle,6 and dying inside the fig.7
So, Are There Dead Wasps in Figs?

The short answer to whether or not there are dead wasps inside your fig is: Maybe. Most figs grown in the U.S. are self-pollinating, which means they don’t need the wasps to grow. Karla Stockli, CEO of the California Fig Advisory Board, points out that more than 95% of the figs produced in California are self-pollinating and most of the figs that you can buy in the U.S. (100% of dried figs and 98% of fresh figs) come from California, which has the highest quality standards in the world.8
That’s one bit of good news. The other thing that may ease your mind is that the figs actually contain an enzyme called ficin that breaks down the exoskeletons of the wasps and turns them into protein. Technically, when you eat a fig, you could be eating protein that comes from a wasp, but you’re not likely to find an intact wasp carcass in the fig.
Even if you did find an intact wasp, it’s not like the wasps you’re probably picturing. Fig wasps are really small9 — about 1.5 millimeters in size — so you probably wouldn’t even notice them. For reference, a typical yellowjacket worker wasp is around 12 millimeters, while the queen can grow to about 19 millimeters.
Don’t Worry, You Already Eat Bugs

The other thing that may ease your mind­ (or not, depending on how you look at it) is that if you eat fresh fruit and vegetables, you’ve likely eaten thousands of bugs already.
According to a report by Terro, a pest control company in Pennsylvania, the average person can consume up to 140,000 insect parts each year.10 That’s because the FDA allows certain amounts of insects into the food supply. For example, a half-cup of frozen berries is legally allowed to contain two whole insects.
And those hops used to make beer? They get the go-ahead with 25,000 whole insects in a half-cup. While this may make you squirm, insects are actually a regular part of the diet in many places. Approximately 80% of people worldwide eat one or more of the different 1,700 edible insects as a source of protein.11 Some parts of the world, especially tropical countries, even consider them delicacies.12
They’re only considered gross in Western societies because we’re not accustomed to eating them and categorize them as pests instead of food. With animal agriculture, we also don’t really have a need for alternate protein sources, so we tend to shy away from edible insects.
Health Benefits of Figs

If you can get past the idea the idea that some of the figs you eat may have a wasp in them, there are a lot of reasons to include them in your diet. One medium sized fig is approximately 40 calories and provides 1.5 grams of fiber, in addition to an abundant amount of magnesium and choline, as well as vitamin B6, copper, pantothenic acid and folate. It’s also rich in beta carotene.13
Figs are a good source of potassium, which your body uses to control blood pressure and balance the sodium potassium ratio, and calcium. As you might expect, the nutritional value increases by weight as the fruit is dried. For instance, 100 grams provide 35 mg of calcium when fresh14 but 162 mg of calcium when dry.15
Since figs are high in fiber, they may act as a natural laxative. High-fiber foods also provide a feeling of fullness and one of the types of fiber in figs — resistant starch — acts as a natural prebiotic to support pre-existing beneficial bacteria in your gut.16 Resistant starch also helps control blood sugar, protect the kidneys and help the body use certain vitamins, like vitamin D — a combination that can help control diabetes and reduce diabetic complications.17
Resistant starch also increases satiety, helping to control body weight and reduce the risk of obesity. In one animal study, researchers found adding resistant starch to the diet of obese rats helped reduce body weight by as much as 40%.18
Another animal study evaluated the effects of figs, dates and pomegranates on neuroinflammation.19 They found daily administration of a supplement containing these three fruits decreased inflammatory cytokines and delayed formation of senile plaques. The researchers concluded the fruit mediated the reduction of cytokines and may be one mechanism that can help protect against neurodegenerative diseases.
Fig leaves may be as important nutritionally as the fruit itself as they have unique health benefits, including an ability to regulate blood sugar. In one study, patients given a decoction of fig leaves for one month were able to lower their average insulin dose by 12%.20
An animal study evaluating hypertriglyceridemia in rats used an administration of fig leaf decoction. While total cholesterol levels were unaffected, the fig decoction had a clear positive effect on lipid molecule breakdown.21
Figs, including the fruit, skin, leaves and pulps are also rich in antioxidants and phenolic compounds.22 These compounds help combat oxidative stress and can protect against age-related and chronic conditions like heart disease, cancer, metabolic syndrome and obesity.23