26 Comments
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Dr May Meleigy's avatar

Thanks for Clarifying, amazing to know that sesame oil can increase ketone levels! Other than seed oils being rapidly oxidised, how do they actually cause inflammation-in the blood vessels?

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Nick Norwitz MD PhD's avatar

If there is a true omega-6/3 imbalance in the body, the signaling molecules that result can promote inflammation. Here's a cool paper, also linked in newsletter: https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-019-0521-4.pdf

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ilaria bertini's avatar

this is the way of thinking I love and I share every point deeply!

context, matrix, metabolic health, whole foods

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Nick Norwitz MD PhD's avatar

Call me Keto Neo ;)

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ilaria bertini's avatar

You are an amazing fabulous genius 🥹😜

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Nick Norwitz MD PhD's avatar

Too kind :)

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ilaria bertini's avatar

Too real! Thank you ! Open minded ever and forever to human being and becoming

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An Ominous's avatar

Until further notice, I have adopted this Substack article as my perspective on the seed oil issue.

Your three practices at the end are great ways to combine the nutritious with the delicious.

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Nick Norwitz MD PhD's avatar

Thanks. Happy to hear it :).

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discoScrooo's avatar

Hey Nick

Although, like you said, dietary Omega 3/6 ratios will not correspond to what goes on in the body, is there a tendency for higher omega 6 consumption to eventually shift this ratio, like with your eggsperiments (pun intended).

Cheers

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Nui's avatar

I think that when people are talking about "seed oils being bad", they mainly refer to seed oil from fast food frying that are heated at super high temps and that have been extracted and refined in a way that may cause disease in humans.

It is true that there is a big confusion on the term "seed oils" because a cold pressed olive oil or coconut oil isn't the same as refined sunflower or canola oil.

Quality of seed, extraction methods, uses and frequency of ingestion matters imo.

I think that if you have the time, you should dig more into the subject because I think this article is a bit incomplete and you would need to dig into the fabrication process of the oil and then different uses (frying and number of uses, low heat cooking - smoking point - salad dressing etc) which can have multiple outcomes depending on the health of the person eating it and the frequency/quantities.

By the way have you read/heard about the book "Dark Calories" by Dr. Catherine Shanahan? I haven't read it yet but it's on my list since I'm really interested in the subject.

I also wonder if there's a genetic or microbiome compound to how well you can handle those oils and how it affects you. Because in my town there was a 105 year old lady who was claiming that mcdonalds and coke was her favorite food (an article of her came up in the news because McDonalds offered her a free pass to their restaurant) yet she wasnt obese nor had mental issues like alzheimer and lived pretty old (well she died a year after that article). Though I don't know the frequency she went there nor if she started going to mcdonalds recently or 30 years ago. I always wondered if she would have lived longer had she gone on a clean keto or low carb diet!

Hope to see and read more from you on that subject, thank you!

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Jane Drouot's avatar

Thanks for another thoughtful and balanced review of this issue. Very helpful!

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Nick Norwitz MD PhD's avatar

Very welcome Jane :)

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Tucker Goodrich's avatar

Nice work, Nick, as always. I posted some thoughts here:

"Is It Reasonable To Think Seed Oils Cause Obesity?"

https://tuckergoodrich.substack.com/p/is-it-reasonable-to-think-seed-oils

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Gregory Rehmke's avatar

Very helpful. Also, typo alert: under Cell Inflammation image: "So, I order to manipulate 6/3 ratio,"

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Nick Norwitz MD PhD's avatar

Thanks. Corrected. Managing your own social media as a mild dyslexic comes with its risks ;)

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Travis Statham - Meatrition's avatar

I post all news, science, blogs, and so on at r/StopEatingSeedOils - you can click on the flair to sort it by these. https://www.reddit.com/r/StopEatingSeedOils/?f=flair_name%3A%22Peer%20Reviewed%20Science%20%F0%9F%A7%AB%20%22

Good to have you weigh in on the topic, it's complex and confusing with perhaps a false consensus.

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Alan's avatar

May I ask what lab assessed your Omega-6/3 ratio?

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Nick Norwitz MD PhD's avatar

Was called BrainSpan health, in collaboration with a clinic called transform that was run by a friend.

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Alan's avatar

TY

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Nick Norwitz MD PhD's avatar

YW

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Dec 11
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An Ominous's avatar

I've heard that about olive oils. I wish there were an easy way to tell.

I doubt that ghee and coconut oil are faked using soybean, canola, or other seedy seed oils.

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Nick Norwitz MD PhD's avatar

Some suggestions (i) look for dark glass or metal bottle, not clear and not plastic (ii) look for 'pressed on' date or something similar to indicate when the olives were pressed, ideally within last 18 months (iii) will be expensive-ish... if it's cheap (e.g. $10 for 500mL), it's not real (iv) can taste test... take a 1 Tbsp shot... if should burn in the back of your throat.

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Dec 11
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An Ominous's avatar

I learned to make butter in kindergarten. Ah, the good old days.

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Nick Norwitz MD PhD's avatar

I won't ask the year... but that's fun. We just got cookies before story time before nap time before snack time (of more cookies)

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An Ominous's avatar

It was probably 1966, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth.

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