It often comes as a surprise to people, but these common oils (they seem to be in EVERYTHING!) can cause severe inflammation.

Inflammation is the fundamental cause of heart disease, digestive diseases, autoimmune diseases, diabetes, mental health issues, joint pain, arthritis and much more.

If you want to know why these diseases are rampant in our society, just visit your local grocery. Every inch of grocery store shelving has incredible value to the store and the suppliers of the products sold on that shelf. If you see 20 bottles of corn oil in a row, that tells you that this product flies off the shelves.

Side note: A solution to out-of-control health care costs in the US: Brick up both ends of the oils and cereal asiles in every grocery store in America. Health care costs would tank!

What Do I Use Instead?

Saturated fats are best to cook with: Butter, coconut, and palm oils. For lower temperature cooking and dressings, use extra virgin olive oil and avocado oil.

Be aware that restaurants usually use toxic seed oils and that the reheating of the oil that happens in fryers creates many toxic substances that become part of your meal. Moral: avoid deep-fried foods in restaurants.

See the article below for detailed information on Toxic Seed Oils

8 Toxic Seed Oils– What to Know

Ronald Grisanti D.C., D.A.B.C.O., DACBN, MS, CFMP

The eight industrial toxic seed oils are Canola, Corn, Cottonseed, Soy, Sunflower, Safflower, Grapeseed, and Rice bran.

Industrial seed oils are the highly processed oils extracted from soybeans, corn, rapeseed (canola), cottonseed and sunflower, and safflower seeds. After the seeds are gathered, they are heated to extremely high temperatures to oxidize the fatty acids. This process creates byproducts that are harmful to your health.

Omega-6s are found in corn, safflower, sunflower, soy, and vegetable oils and products made with those oils. Excess consumption of omega-6s can trigger the body to produce pro-inflammatory chemicals.

What’s wrong with industrial seed oils?

There are six main problems with industrial seed oils, all of which play a significant role in chronic inflammatory diseases.

The consumption of industrial seed oils represents an evolutionary mismatch.

Eating industrial seed oils raises our omega-6-to-omega-3 fatty acid ratios, with significant consequences for our health.

Industrial seed oils are unstable and oxidize easily.

They contain harmful additives.

They’re derived from genetically modified crops.

When industrial seed oils are repeatedly heated (as restaurants do in fryers), even more toxic byproducts are created.

How are industrial seed oils making us sick?

Industrial seed oils are far from the “healthy” label they carry. They have been linked to a number of chronic health problems such as:

• Asthma
• Autoimmune disease
• Cognitive and mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, cognitive decline, dementia, and even Alzheimer’s disease.
• Diabetes and obesity
• Heart disease (they are far from being heart-healthy!)
• Gut health issues such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBD) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBS)
• Inflammation
• Infertility
• Macular degeneration
• Osteoarthritis

The best thing you can do for your own health and your family’s health is to get rid of all vegetable oils and margarine from your home.  Simply throw them out. Replace them with saturated fats for cooking and extra virgin olive and avocado oil for dressing.

Summary:

At this point, it should be clear that we want to avoid omega-6 fats in our cooking oil. The following is a good graphic to represent what to avoid.

Oils from tropical plants such as cacao, coconut, and palm are lowest in omega-6, while oils from cold-weather plants such as sunflower and soybean are highest in omega-6 and best avoided.

Dr. Melodie Billiot

Anxiety and Depression-Brain On Fire?

Ronald Grisanti D.C., D.A.B.C.O., DACBN, MS, CFMP

Depression, Anxiety, and other mental disorders have reached epidemic proportions. 

In the US, the national rate of anxiety in 2019 tripled from 8.1% to 25.5%, and depression almost quadrupled from 6.5% to 24.3%.

What is going on?

The present paradigm of treating these mental disorders lies in balancing the neurotransmitters through pharmaceutical agents like SSRIs (Zoloft, Lexapro, Prozac, etc.) and Benzodiazepines (Ativan, Xanax, Valium, and Klonopin.

Unfortunately, it may just be possible that the neurotransmitter paradigm is antiquated and does not address the underlying root cause(s) of these mental disorders.

After reading and researching, and doing a deep dive into these mental disorders’ possible root causes, I found something amazing and life-changing!

What I discovered was while nutrient deficiencies do play a role, the major eye-opener was the fact that depression, anxiety, and other mental disorders are largely inflammatory in nature.

In the brains of people suffering from depression, anxiety, and many other mental health challenges, the immune system is activated with evidence for elevated levels of inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin 6 and tumor necrosis factor-alpha.

Like rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn’s disease represent inflammation in the joints and gut, psychiatric disorders are linked to inflammation in the brain.

If we hope to gain any control over these mental issues, we must address quenching the brain’s inflammation.

Now here is what I found quite shocking.

Benzodiazepines and SSRIs have another mechanism of function most people are not aware of.

Guess what it is?

They both have anti-inflammatory properties.

Yes that is correct.

Is it possible that these psychiatric medications have little to do with balancing neurotransmitters and more to do with reducing the inflammation in the brain?

The medical literature tends to support this theory.

Now to control this inflammation, one need not look any further than the gut.

Once the gut inflammation takes hold, cytokines circulate throughout the body, including into the brain.

The secret to reducing gastrointestinal inflammation is to identify food irritants, bacterial pathogens and improve optimal microbial flora. Some studies have found that the probiotic, Lactobacillus (L.) rhamnosus has some promise in reducing anxiety and improving microbial flora.

Overall, a picture of the gut microbiome playing a facilitating role between stress response, inflammation, and depression and anxiety is emerging and should be considered with anyone suffering from anxiety, depression, and in that case, any mental disorder.

This new and emerging treatment for anxiety, depression, and other psychiatric disorders is complex but promising!

Although a 180-degree approach to the neurotransmitter deficiency theory, it is worth considering and even embracing.

Do you have severe, long-term, or frustrating health problems?

• Are you exhausted, depressed, anxious, or unable to sleep?
• Do you feel anxious, depressed or overwhelmed?
• Do you have digestive disturbances, joint pain, headaches, hair loss and weight gain?

Do you wonder how you got here? One day you woke up in a complete mess, but can’t for the life of you figure out how it happened?

It’s not your fault, but you CAN fix it.

Here is a way you can start to get your life back—with energy and vitality no matter the stage of your life.

Dr. Melodie Billiot is a doctor who has lived through her own exhaustion and illness, and discovered the answers to her own health.

As a result, she has helped thousands of people just like you to regain their health.

Get Started: Do a complimentary Health Analysis and Consultation

Dr. Melodie Billiot

Groundbreaking News: Low Fat Diets Increase Risk of Death, Study Says

Jill C. Carnahan, MD, ABFM, ABIHM, IFMCP

As you probably know, I’m a huge proponent of having plenty of healthy fats in your diet. People have been incorrectly cutting fat to dangerously low levels for far too long.

This old-school and precarious advice came about because it was far too easy for us to believe this simple and misleading equation: fat intake = fat on the body.

But we now know this fat fable isn’t true.

Our bodies are much more complex than this. We need fat to create hormones, maintain healthy cell membranes, and have excellent neurological function.

Notice I didn’t say decent or good neurological function, and that’s because fat has been shown to crush neurological disorders.

I want to shout it from the rooftops: FAT IS GOOD!

A study which was released August 29, 2017, examined the dietary habits of 135,000 people and came to the resounding conclusion that… drum roll, please…

“High fat intake – including saturated fat – was associated with a reduced risk of mortality.”

Furthermore, this study found that a high carbohydrate diet increased the risk of mortality. Though it did not distinguish between processed and unprocessed carbohydrates.

This is great news because it backs a pivotal recommendation my colleagues and I are impressing upon the mainstream.

It essential for the health of our society to destroy the belief that fat is resoundingly bad.

Remember the backlash the recent American Heart Association (AHA) report received when it recommended against fat and coconut oil? This new study directly contradicts the major points of that report and supports concepts most functional medicine doctors know to be true.

This study is HUGE news!

So, without further ado, let’s dig a little deeper and discover what this study means for you and your health.

What The PURE Study* Means for You…

*PURE Study: Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology* (PURE) study is a large-scale study that plans to recruit approximately 140,000 individuals residing in 600 + communities in 18 low-, middle-, and high-income countries worldwide. Data includes diet, lifestyle, medical history, and other factors of health. The study began in 2002 and is continuing today.

*Epidemiology: the branch of medicine which deals with the incidence, distribution, and possible control of diseases and other factors relating to health.

3 Fast Facts:

1. One of the most powerful aspects of the PURE study is its sheer magnitude. The PURE study has followed over 140,000 people from 18 countries over nearly a decade so far.
2. And throughout that time, as we just learned, overall findings pointed to increased mortality for those with high carb diets and a decreased risk of mortality for those with high-fat diets.
3. What’s more, this study found “saturated fat in moderation actually appears good for you.”

This study does not distinguish between the causes of death and points out, saturated fat findings “had no effect on cardiovascular disease in the model.” This adds to the mounting evidence that saturated fat does not cause cardiovascular disease.

Saturated fat has been the unjustified villain of cardiovascular health for the past 60 plus years. We know cardiovascular disease is caused by inflammation, not fat buildup in the arteries, yet many remain mislead.

Beyond the benefits of a high fat, low carb diet, here are three other important findings from this study:

Three or four daily portions of fruit and vegetables appear to have similar benefits as the current recommendation of five. Meaning, it’s unnecessary to over-stress about getting exactly five servings of fruits and veggies each day. In this study, three to four servings worked out to be 375-500 grams. Just for reference, 100 grams of fruits and veggies is about the equivalent of two cupped hands of raw, diced fruit or veggies. This means you should try and get at least eight cupped handfuls of fruits and vegetables per day.

The benefits of fruits, vegetables, and legumes are greater if they are consumed raw. The science behind the idea that raw is better is fairly complicated. But what’s most important is that you’re eating plenty of vegetables and fruits, so if cooking them means you’ll eat more, then, by all means, cook ‘em.

Replacing saturated-fatty-acid intake with carbohydrates had an adverse effect on blood lipids. This study examined the impact of fats, carbohydrates, and proteins on total cholesterol, LDL (“bad”) and HDL (“good”) cholesterol, and apolipoprotein A1 (apoA1) and B (apoB).

Significantly, this study examined these factors as a “big picture” concept because they interact within the body in balancing relationships – their ratios are health indicators. And to look at any one factor individually would contribute to the disproportionate and misleading information, which is exactly what the American Heart Association does.

I found it interesting that this study took a direct dig at the recent American Heart Association (AHA) report. The researchers called out the AHA recommendations and declared their findings to be in “direct contradiction” to their advice.

The PURE Study Directly Contradicts the Recent American Heart Association Report

The participants in the PURE study who had 10-13 percent of their dietary energy intake consist of saturated fat experienced a lower risk of death than those with low levels of saturated fat in their diet. Furthermore, those with very low saturated fat intake experienced harmful consequences.

Currently, the average saturated fat intake of Americans is around 14 percent, but the AHA recommends saturated fat intake should be less than six percent of total energy intake – which is dangerously low. This study found saturated fat levels that low increase the risk of mortality.

The leader of the PURE study, Dr. Salim Yusuf, made the poignant comment, “The AHA guidelines are not based on the best evidence – saturated fat was labeled as a villain years ago, and the traditional church kept on preaching that message. They have been resistant to change.”

What Do Skeptics Have to Say?

As always, it’s best to examine data with a balanced lens. And while I do believe this study is substantial in its support for fat, especially saturated fat, there are a few concerns worth addressing.

Firstly, the AHA directly responded to this study, saying that it should be interpreted with caution because it used questionnaires. But the sheer scope of this study in the number of participants and duration of time allows statistics to do its job. When you have a study with numbers of such abundance, statistically relevant information and outliers can be carved out, leaving us with big picture conclusions.

Secondly, Dr. Laura Mauri asked how this study can be stacked up against randomized trials like the PREDIMED study of the Mediterranean diet. Randomized trials have always been tricky to conduct on a large scale because nutrition is inherently complex. The PURE study is a massive observational study with biomarkers and statistically relevant adjustments, which gives it authority.

Ultimately, this study is an in-depth analysis and challenge of modern nutrition recommendations.

Would we benefit from well-designed, randomized, and controlled trials? Absolutely. We could always use more studies, but the PURE study serves as a strong opponent of conventional diet recommendations until then.

It is my hope we can live better lives, empowered with accurate information about our health. Share this important study with your friends and family so together we can squash the belief that fat is bad!

Do you have severe, long-term, or frustrating health problems?

• Are you exhausted, depressed, anxious, or unable to sleep?
• Do you feel anxious, depressed or overwhelmed?
• Do you have digestive disturbances, joint pain, headaches, hair loss and weight gain?

Do you wonder how you got here? One day you woke up in a complete mess, but can’t for the life of you figure out how it happened?

It’s not your fault, but you CAN fix it.

Here is a way you can start to get your life back—with energy and vitality no matter the stage of your life.

Dr. Melodie Billiot is a doctor who has lived through her own exhaustion and illness, and discovered the answers to her own health.

As a result, she has helped thousands of people just like you to regain their health.

Get Started: Do a complimentary Health Analysis and Consultation