616 - Canola Deep Dive
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All right. Last time we were here, we were discussing RFK, and we got into the discussion about his disdain for seed oils. And Vinnie Tortorich, too, if I remember correctly, is not a fan of seed oils. But I didn't really know the data behind this. And so I kind of sound like a dumbass here.

And I wanted to do a deep dive. So I did that. And I've got to tell you, I'm not any more enlightened after looking at all the research than I was. Because like everything else, it's complicated. It's not black and white. Sometimes these things are good. Sometimes they're bad. And so what you have to do is figure out when is it bad for you. And I'm going to give you a spoiler alert here.

I don't see enough data here to ban these things. Now, I'm willing to be proven otherwise because I do have an open mind. So let's just talk about it. Let's focus on canola oil. And interestingly, canola oil is not made from the canola plant. The term canola oil comes from Canada –

I'll come to it in a little bit. But it's made from the rapeseed. And it is, you know, one of the concerns is that it's highly processed. These oils undergo a lot of processing, including bleaching, deodorizing. And this may reduce its nutritional value and introduce harmful compounds. So that's a possibility. There's a lot of processing going on.

They have omega-6 fatty acids. So, you know, these are essential fatty acids, but in some circumstances can be pro-inflammatory, particularly when they outweigh the omega-3 fatty acids in our diet. And, you know, so the typical Western diet tends to be higher in omega-6s, and so we tend to be less healthy in that regard because inflammation is the killer factor.

You know, it increases the risk of heart attack and stroke, cancer, other things like that. So we want to prevent inflammation wherever we can. Now, we're going to come to another group of people who say that this isn't an issue with omega-6s. So we'll get to that. But I'm just giving you what the concerns are right now.

Now, there have been some animal studies that have linked canola oil to negative health outcomes, such as increased inflammation again and impaired memory. These are animal studies. They don't always translate to humans, but, you know, we can't just ignore it either. Now, there's this stuff called erucic acid. It's E-R-U-C-I-C. I have not heard it pronounced, so I'm thinking it's erucic or erucic, but I'm going to say erucic.

This stuff was pretty toxic, but it was present in older varieties of rapeseed oil.

And they contained higher levels of erucic acid. And modern canola oil has been bred. The seeds have been bred not through genetic modification other than Mendelian genetics. All of our food is genetically modified. But there's a difference between inserting genes using a vector like a virus or using like a CRISPR or something like that to construct genes.

And just Mendelian genetics, meaning that you're just cross-breeding things to, you know, the original version of corn was a tiny little thing like a cocktail corn. It looked like grass and had little, these little sort of bulby things on the end that with cross-breeding genetics,

trying to get a bigger and bigger head, we've ended up with corn. So corn is genetically modified. It doesn't exist in nature like that.

Anyway, they have done Mendelian genetics on the rapeseed plant to make lower levels of erucic acid. Now, what's the evidence in favor of canola oil? It is low in saturated fat.

And saturated fat is a risk factor for heart disease. So there you go. It's also high in monounsaturated fat, which is not that different from olive oil. And therefore, it's a good source of monounsaturated fat, and that can help lower bad cholesterol levels, which is why canola oil was promoted in the first place.

It does contain ALA, which is an omega-3 fatty acid. It's just the omega-6 is also there.

And it is affordable. It's way more affordable compared to like olive oil, for example. Although I will say if I have a choice between olive oil and canola oil, I'm going to pick olive oil. Now, people will say, well, you can't cook with olive oil. Yeah, you can. You just can't cook with the cheap stuff. And avocado oil, even better. And what I found, here's a little secret.

If I go to the grocery store and buy a liter of avocado oil, it's about $30 where I shop. I go to the Asian store, they have exactly the same brand, and it's there for like $15. I don't know why, but our Asian grocery store has avocado oil for much cheaper, and it is a high price.

smoking point oil. Here's one of the problems. When you cook with oil and you burn it, and this applies more in other countries where they're cooking things over and over in open flame with a big metal pot. And when you're talking about the smoke point,

The oil is starting to burn. And when it burns, and we're going to get to this in a little bit, there are molecules that are formed that are very naughty and are not good for our health. So the higher smoke point oils are probably better for you. And avocado oil is one of those. But anyway, but it is expensive.

And, you know, canola oil has a neutral flavor because of all the processing that's been done to it. And it has a high smoke point. And so it's good for lots of cooking methods, particularly the way Americans tend to and Europeans as well tend to cook.

Now, a lot of experts, including major health organizations, you can say, well, they're in the pocket of big pharma, don't you know, and big agro. But, you know, olives are part of agriculture as well. But many health organizations, including the American Heart Association, consider canola oil a heart-healthy choice. Now, maybe they just don't know why.

Right. Or maybe they're in the pocket of somebody. That's the argument that's made. But I tend to find the American Heart Association to be pretty reliable source on things. Now, a lot of experts recommend choosing less processed oils like extra virgin olive oil when possible. OK. And we need more high quality human studies to fully understand the long term effects of canola oil.

But the fact that we need those tells us that if there is an effect, it's likely small in the sense that if it was a big effect, we would there would be conclusive evidence of it. And there is some conclusive evidence both ways. And we're going to get to that. So, you know, there are some concerns about canola oil generally considered safe.

And may offer some health benefits. But if you're concerned about it, use other oils like oil or avocado. Okay, so let's go look at some actual studies. So I did a deep dive in the medical literature.

And here's one on the effects of canola oil on cardiovascular risk factors. This is a systematic review and meta-analysis. So what they do is they go through and they find every study they can possibly find that

on canola oil and cardiovascular risk. And then they take all the data and pool it so that they're making a larger study. And when you do that, when you have more numbers, if you do this properly, you can start to tease out smaller effects and you get more valid results than small, tiny studies. So if you have 100 studies with 10 people in it and you mush them all together, it's like you've got one study with 1,000 people in it.

All right. And so this is a meta-analysis with dose response analysis of controlled clinical trials. In other words, what they're looking at is the people who took in more canola oil, did they have worse effects? So, you know, I'll just read the abstract here.

Canola oil is a plant-based oil, potential to improve several cardiometabolic risk factors. We systematically reviewed, controlled clinical trials investigating the effects of canola oil on lipid profiles. They looked at cholesterol levels.

Apo, lipoproteins, again, you know, cholesterol protein, lipoproteins, which are lipids and, you know, amino acid complexes bound together. Glycemic index, so that they're looking at things like risk for cancer.

diabetes, inflammation. So they would look at a highly sensitive C-reactive protein. That's one blood test that you can use. You can use erythrocyte sedimentation rate, but these are just blood tests that look at total body inflammation.

and blood pressure compared to other edible oils in adults. So this should be pretty good, right? If there's some cardiovascular problem, we ought to be able to tease that out. So they mushed 42 articles together.

And it said canola oil significantly reduced total cholesterol. Well, that should be good. I don't really care, though, about something that reduces total cholesterol if it doesn't reduce heart attack and stroke.

If I had a drug that would triple people's cholesterol, but it would reduce their heart attack and stroke risk by 50%, I would prescribe it. So the lipid number is kind of a secondary endpoint. The primary endpoint is outcomes. But...

Those are harder studies to do. So most researchers have agreed that lowering lipids are good. There's a medication on the market. I'm not going to say its name. It's not a statin that reduces LDL cholesterol. It doesn't reduce heart attack and stroke. So statins also decrease inflammation and some other things have other effects. So it may be a combination of those effects. And so...

Until somebody does outcome studies, hey, we're going to feed these people a bunch of canola oil and these people, we're going to give them olive oil and see if there's a statistically significant difference in actual heart attack and stroke. But anyway, so for this study, they looked at high-density lipoprotein. So that's the ratio. So that's good cholesterol versus the bad cholesterol. And we want to see a total difference.

to a high density of three or less, and that actually reduces your risk of cholesterol no matter how high your total cholesterol is. They looked at other things like apolipoprotein B. Don't worry about it. Compared to olive oil, canola oil decreased total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triglycerides, let me see, compared to sunflower oil, triglycerides,

Let me see. Canola oil improved LDL and the LDL-HDL ratio. And in comparison with saturated fats, it also improved total cholesterol, blah, blah, blah, all the other things. So what they said is based on nonlinear dose response curve, replacing canola oil –

with approximately 15% of total caloric intake provided the greatest benefits. So they're saying the more the better, but not more than 15% of your diet. And so their conclusion was canola oil significantly improved different cardiometabolic risk factors compared to other edible oils.

And then they, as always, they recommend further well-designed clinical trials are warranted to confirm the dose response association. So that's very interesting. So that sort of piqued my interest because all I hear is canola oil is bad, seed oils are bad. And here's a large systematic review that showed at least for cardiovascular risk factors,

that canola oil was superior to other oils and actually improved things. So here's another one from what journal is this from? Oh, crap. I lost the journal name, but it was I only looked at high quality journals, but it's called Evidence of Health Benefits of Canola Oil.

And here they say canola oil-based diets have been shown to reduce plasma cholesterol levels in comparison with diets containing higher levels of saturated fatty acids. Well, that'll always be true. Saturated fatty acids are like solid fats, like fat. And we know that those are, you know, mostly less good for you than other fats overall.

Consumption of canola oil influences biological functions that affect various other biomarkers of disease risk. Previous reviews have focused on the health effects of individual components of canola oil. Here, the objective is to address the health effects of intact canola oil. That makes sense because people aren't taking components of canola oil. They're actually consuming actual intact canola oil.

And this has immediate practical implications for consumers, nutritionists and others deciding which oil to consume or recommend. So literature search was conducted to examine the effects of canola oil consumption on coronary heart disease, insulin sensitivity, lipid peroxidation, inflammation, energy metabolism, and cancer cell growth.

And data reveals substantial reductions in total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein, that's the bad cholesterol, as well as other positive actions, including increased tocopherol levels and improved insulin sensitivity compared with consumption of other dietary fat sources.

In summary, growing scientific evidence supports the use of canola oil beyond its beneficial actions in circulating lipid levels as a health-promoting component of the diet. So this was a 2013 study. Here's one, 28-day and 13-week dietary toxicity studies of canola oil in rats. So this was a rat study.

And let me see where I've got the—this is the 13-week toxicity study was subsequently conducted. No adverse effects were noted in clinical observations, clinical pathology, histopathology. These studies support the food and safety of DHA, canola oil, and meal. Now, it's in rats, so, you know, if we can't—if we're not taking—

toxicity in rats seriously. We can't take beneficial effects in rats too seriously either, but it is interesting. Now, this one is

concern me a little bit because, okay, that's cardiovascular risk. Well, there's other parts of the body, right? And lots of medications and nutrients have different effects on different parts of the body. For example, aspirin is pretty good for, you know, was the drug of choice back in the day for rheumatoid arthritis pain, but also helps prevent heart attack and stroke in low doses. So

So, you know, canola oil may reduce cardiovascular risk, but it may do other things that are very naughty. So here is a 2010 study, testosterone-lowering activity of canola and hydrogenated soybean oil. But what was the population? Stroke-prone, spontaneously hypertensive rats. So these are genetically modified rats through Mendelian genetics that

that make them prone to strokes and prone to hypertension. So you're looking at sort of a model, a rat model of, say, metabolic syndrome, where people are prone to strokes and heart attacks and high blood pressure and stuff.

So it said canola and some other types of oil unusually shorten the survival of stroke-prone, spontaneously hypertensive rats compared to soybean oil, perilla oil, and animal fats. So this is where...

You know, RFK says we'll just use beef tallow. And good luck finding that, though, in the quantities that we need. But, you know, whatever. Since differential effects of canola and soybean oil on steroidal hormone metabolism...

suggested by preliminary studies. They looked at it by, you know, et cetera. Said in the second experiment was found that hydrogenated soybean oil, let's forget about that, testosterone levels in the serum and testes were found to be significantly lower in the canola oil group than in the soybean oil group. So maybe what we need to do is

determine what people are at risk from these nutrients. And we should do that with everything. So if canola oil is more likely to cause hypogonadism, in other words, low testosterone, in people who already have metabolic syndrome...

then maybe they shouldn't use canola oil. But other people can, and it may be beneficial for other people. This is why, like I said, it's not black and white. If it were black and white, we would already know the answer. And my shrink tells me these things are not simple. They are complex. And that's why we can still argue over them because one group –

Maybe looking at testosterone and low testosterone, how it's, you know, making men less strong or whatever. And then other people are looking at cardiovascular risk and they'll argue past each other. Well, it's bad. It's good. It's bad. It's good. Well, they're both right. It can be bad in some situations and good in other situations.

So what I would like to see is a human study of testosterone levels in men who have, let's say, metabolic syndrome or just any cohort of men and see if their testosterone levels decrease. I could not find anything like that. Now, on the other side, here's an article that

From – damn it. I lost the journal names, but none of these were shit journals. I'll say that right off the bat. You'll have to trust me on that, but I can get you the references if you're interested.

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Chemo preventative effects of dietary canola oil on colon cancer development. Now, all right. So let's see what this is all about. Okay. Wrong page. Okay. Fatty acid composition of dietary fat plays a vital role in colon tumor development in animal models. Fats containing omega-6 fatty acids like corn oil, enhanced fat,

And omega-3 fatty acids like flaxseed oil reduced chemically induced colon tumor development in rats. The objective of this present investigation was to study the effects of dietary canola oil, a source of omega-3 fatty acids, on azoxy-methane-induced colon cancer development in fisher rats compared with dietary corn oil.

Dietary canola oil significantly with a P of less than 0.05, meaning that there's only one chance in 20 that this result was obtained through chance, decreased colonic tumor incidence and tumor multiplicity as compared to dietary corn oil in rats.

Fatty acid analysis showed that corn oil group had higher levels of omega-6 fatty acid levels, whereas canola oil groups exhibited higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids. From the colon and serum samples of rats. For the mechanistic study, COX-2 expression, okay, you don't have to worry about that, but it is up.

So COX-2 is involved in inflammation, to say that. So when you inhibit COX-2, you reduce inflammation. That's how a lot of...

non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs work by suppressing COX-2, said in the mechanistic study, in other words, looking for what's the mechanism of this, COX-2 expression in the colon samples from the canola oil group were significantly lower, with, again, a P of 0.05, indicating 5 in 100 COX-2

or 1 in 20 chances that this result was obtained through random chance. Taken together, dietary canola oil may be chemopreventative for colon tumor development.

Okay, this is in rats, of course, so we need human studies, but isn't that interesting? So seed oils may be bad for certain things, and for other things, maybe be protective. So if you're at high risk for colon cancer, perhaps in the future, we will encourage people to consume more canola oil, not less. Now...

It looks like this erucic acid seems to be the culprit. I found a 1994 article called Toxic Oil Syndrome. Now, this is kind of interesting. So hundreds died.

Thousands were poisoned by rapeseed oil, adulterated with aniline, and sold illegally in Spain in 1981. This may be where some of the adverse press for canola oil came from, was this particular incident. The clinical manifestations, now known as toxic oil syndrome, included pulmonary hypertension. That would be high blood pressure in the pulmonary arteries. In other words, the arteries

arteries going from the, um,

to the lung. And they're not, they actually, it's weird. That side of the heart, anything going away from the heart is called an artery, but the pulmonary artery actually has deoxygenated blood and it's pumping blood to the lung to be oxygenated. And then the pulmonary vein returns oxygenated blood to the heart where it then is pumped out of the aorta as oxygenated blood, which is the main artery coming out of the heart that carries oxygen.

blood that's usable.

Anyway, so when you have pulmonary hypertension, it's hard for the heart to pump blood into the lung and you get back up, you get right heart failure, you have all kinds of problems breathing, etc., etc. We use sildenafil for that, by the way. So you can treat your pulmonary hypertension and have a raging erection at the same time because sildenafil is the active ingredient in Viagra.

Well, anyway, they had right heart ventricular hypertrophy, like we just talked about, because of the increased back pressure, plus widespread vascular and neural lesions. In other words, circulatory and nervous system lesions in other organs. Many of the late deaths ended...

via a scleroderma-like illness. Scleroderma, what it sounds like, it's thickening and scarring of the skin, but it also involves the heart. An examination was made of small and large coronary arteries and other things from 11 victims dying with toxic oil syndrome, and there was dense fibrous tissue that

and hemorrhages in the pacemaker of the heart. And there was also what they called cystic degeneration of the sinus nodes, which is also part of the conduction part of the heart.

And it was bad. And I'm trying to find why this stuff. OK, based on observations by others with experimental feeding of rapeseed oil containing either high or low erucic acid, it is suggested that this oil must remain a major suspected cause of toxic oil syndrome, particularly in conjunction with some as yet unexplained facilitative influence by oleoanalysts. Just another. Don't worry about it.

If this is so, it's important to reexamine the widely recommended use of any rapeseed oil product as a suitable food for humans or animals. So this was 1994. Since then, they have bred these seeds to not have as much erysic acid in it. And matter of fact, it's negligible. So this may be where that sort of bias against these oils came from, to be honest with you.

Okay, here's another one. Maternal... So here's one on the other side. Maternal dietary canola oil suppresses growth of mammary carcinogenesis in female rat offspring. So in other words, when they fed mother rats...

canola oil, their offspring had fewer breast cancers. Now, that's nuts. How is that even possible? But, you know, the study was actually very good. The p-values were 0.01, meaning one chance in 100, not even five chances in 100.

So, you know, I'm just reading the conclusion. These results suggest a potential anti-cancer effect of maternal dietary canola oil may be useful in devising prenatal nutritional strategies to reduce breast cancer risk in humans.

So that sounds good. We need to do human studies for that. But, you know. All right. Now, this is from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. They're not some bullshit organization. This is updated January 24th, 2024. And they just did a literature search and did some writing of a synthesis of their research.

And it says, in the culinary world, cooking oils like olive, avocado, vegetable, and canola are indispensable, but amid the frying, sautéing, and dressing, whispers of concern have arisen regarding the potential link between cooking oils and cancer. There is ongoing research into the relationship between cooking oils and cancer, as well as the chemical reactions created during the cooking process.

but definitive conclusions remain elusive. Some animal studies have suggested potential links between certain cooking oils and cancer risk due to the formation of harmful compounds during high-heat cooking. This makes sense to me. You get nitrosamines from charring meat, and nitrosamines are known products

carcinogens. So just if all you ate was barbecue and charred meat day in and day out, it could increase your risk of certain cancers. So they say, where are the concerns coming from? High heat cooking with fats is primarily a concern in countries where cooking is done over fire and the oils burn or smoke, leading to a release of carcinogens.

It's thought that in some parts of the world, high heat cooking is a major cause of head and neck esophageal and other cancers. It's not as clear that this is... Oh, shit. Sorry. It's not as clear that this is as something...

Sorry, this article got cut off. It says the International Agency for Research on Cancer classifies acrylamide as probable human pathogen. And it's likely to be carcinogenic to humans. It's important to note these determinations are based mainly on studies in lab animals, not studies in people's exposures to acrylamide from foods. So I'm trying to see where the...

Well, where they're getting the acrylamide from, it must be from burning the oils. I thought I had this down. Let's see. For example, olive oil, celebrated for its heart-healthy attributes, boasts an abundance of antioxidants, which can counteract oxidative stress. On the other hand, oils like corn and soybean oils can be prone to oxidation due to their chemical structure and form polyunsaturated fatty acids. So,

So it just says this relationship isn't straightforward. So the bottom line is context is key when addressing these concerns. The occasional use of high heat cooking methods using refined oils in the home is likely OK. In other words, occasional not being a street vendor cooking over high heat in a metal pot where the oil is burning and making smoke and you're inhaling that or you're consuming it day in and day out.

Incorporating oils with higher smoke points, think avocado, peanut, refined versions of olive oil can be an option. All right. Now, let's see. The smoking point of avocado oil is 520 degrees. It's pretty freaking hot. I don't think I've ever gotten any of my cooking oils that hot before.

when I'm frying something. But avocado oil is so expensive. Sunflower oil is $4.50. Grape seed, $4.20. Canola oil, $4.00. I usually, if I'm frying something, which is not that often, although I've got a great recipe for fried tofu that I got from Cooking with Lau, if you want to

I can tell it to you or just go to their YouTube channel, Cooking with Lau. And this guy has his father who was a chef in China and he came over to the United States, doesn't speak English. So the son translates for him and he shows you how to make all this stuff. It's very authentic.

I mean, because he was a chef in China, so he made Chinese cuisine, which in China they just call cuisine. And it's a very great show. But that's about the only time I ever actually deep fry anything.

And so and I use canola oil for that and I get it to 325 and then I put it back in at 350 to, you know, I blanch it at like 320 and then re-fry it at 350 and it makes it perfect.

Olive oil, refined olive oil, depending on how refined it is, can have a smoking point as high as 470 degrees. Again, extremely expensive. Extra virgin olive oil has a smoke point of 410. And then coconut oil is low at 350. Now, I do use coconut oil to make popcorn and stuff like that. So I've never heard anything about coconut oil being bad for you. So anyway, so there's that. Now,

I want to read one last thing to you all, and then we'll get on to more fun stuff. This is from Harvard Health Publishing, and this is another synthesis of different articles in the medical literature.

No need to avoid healthy omega-6 fats. So here we're talking about how omega-6 fats are the bad ones and omega-3 are the good ones. Well, it turns out actually that they're both good under certain circumstances and in the proper ratio.

But the term omega-3 and omega-6 doesn't signify anything mystical. It's just that they describe the position of the first carbon-carbon double bond in this fat's backbone, and it influences the shape of the fat molecule, which in turn affects its function in the body. So it's just the terminal part, so the omega part of the molecule. Okay.

So anyway, so omega-6 fats, which we mainly get from vegetable oils, can be beneficial. You get them from vegetable oils and other sources like, you know, the omega-3 fats come from fish, so do omega-6 fats.

to improve the ratio of omega-3 fats to omega-6 fats, you want to eat more omega-3s, not fewer omega-6s. So in other words, increase the omega-3s and don't worry so much about the omega-6s as long as you're eating more 3s than 6s.

But omega-6 fats are beneficial under certain circumstances. They lower harmful LDL cholesterol. They boost the protective, you know, the good cholesterol, HDL. They help keep blood sugar in check by improving the body's sensitivity to insulin. And they don't have the same reputation as omega-3 fats. And the main charge against omega-6 fats is that body can convert most of the common ones into

which is linoleic acid, or I'm sorry, linoleic acid into another fatty acid called arachidonic acid.

And that is a building block for molecules that can promote inflammation, blood clotting, and the constriction of blood vessels. So this is where omega-6s get their bad reputation from. But the body also converts arachidonic acid into molecules that calm inflammation and fight blood clots. So you can't just look at one part of the pathway. You have to look at the whole thing. And people will latch on to this. Oh, it makes arachidonic acid. So it has to be bad. Not necessarily.

The critics argue we should cut back on our intake of omega-6 acids to improve the ratio of omega-3 to omega-6s. Now, the American Heart Association says hogwash, which is a very medical term, in a science advisory. It was two years in the making. Nine independent researchers from around the country, including three from Harvard, say data from dozens of studies support the cardiovascular benefits of eating omega-6 fats.

They're not only safe, but also beneficial for the heart and circulation, says advisory co-author Dr. Darius Mazzafarian, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital. So they looked at...

Heart attacks and other coronary events and a separate report published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition pulled results of 11 large cohorts showed that replacing saturated fats with polyunsaturated fats, including omega-6 and omega-3 fats, reduced heart disease rates more than did replacing them with monounsaturated fats or carbohydrates.

So here's where you find these things. Omega-6 fats, safflower oil, sunflower oil, corn oil, soybean oil, sunflower seeds, walnuts, pumpkin seeds. Omega-3 fats, oily fish such as salmon, herring, mackerel, sardines. Wait a minute. Hang on.

Let me start. Let me do that again. Safflower oil. No, I'm sorry. Oily fish such as salmon, herring, mackerel, and sardines.

I almost threw up that time. He's making throw-up sounds and he almost threw up. That was too key, everyone. Flaxseed oil, flaxseeds, walnuts, and chia seeds. Oh, I drink a kombucha that's got chia seeds in it, so...

I guess I should drink more of that. Latest nutrition guidelines call for consuming unsaturated fats like omega-6 fats in place of saturated fat. Or saturated fat, remember...

It may be listed as partially hydrogenated or hydrogenated fat when you look at the ingredients. And that makes liquid fat solid and solid fat seem to be the, you know, the bad thing. So and it makes more trans fat. So, you know, trans fats, bad trans, everything else, you know, yeah, I'm OK with that.

The AHA, along with the Institute of Medicine, recommends getting 5 to 10 percent of your daily calories from omega-6 fats, the supposedly bad one. For someone who usually takes in 2,000 calories a day, that translates into 11 to 22 grams, which isn't a lot. But a salad dressing made with one tablespoon of safflower oil gives you 9 grams of omega-6 fats.

And one ounce of sunflower seeds gives you 9 grams and an ounce of walnuts, 11 grams. So most Americans eat more omega-6 fats than omega-3 fats on average.

And that's not so good. So a low intake of omega-3 fats is not good for cardiovascular health. So you want to eat more omega-3 fats, not necessarily decrease the omega-6 fats. So I know this was probably boring, but I didn't want to let last week just go without doing some deep dive. And like I said, after reading this, I'm not a whole lot more enlightened than I was before. I certainly don't have a strong...

opinion about canola oil necessarily being bad. But I have an open mind. There may be other studies or there may be a small effect that we need to know about, but I think it's population-based.

I remember reading a study that showed that little kids may not benefit from canola oil because they would be more sensitive to some of the adulterants that are formed when you cook with it. So maybe you don't cook with it with your kids and then adults can have it and it's fine as long as they don't have high blood pressure and they're prone to strokes.

in which case there may be an issue there. So you see, just like a lot of things, it depends. The answer is it depends. People will call me and write to me all the time, is vitamin D good?

And it's like, well, for what? What's your objective? You want to prevent rickets? It's fucking great. As a matter of fact, it's the drug of choice to prevent rickets. Do you want to prevent cancer? Well, the data isn't so good on that. I am advocating vitamin D replacement. At this point, the data is still not great, but it doesn't harm you as long as you don't

The megadose vitamin D, remember vitamin A, D, E, and K. Remember the mnemonic ADEC. Those are the fat-soluble vitamins. Those are the ones you can overdose on. The vitamin B or the, you know, the B-type vitamins are

are water soluble, really very difficult to overdose on those. But you can absolutely get hypervitaminosis D and hypervitaminosis A, and they can cause some real problems. So go easy on those. But just taking the 400 IU a day, it probably helps, and it certainly doesn't hurt.

So as long as you buy it from a reputable source. Okie doke. All right. Let's take some phone calls. I've got time for a little bit, but thank you for hanging in there with me. Like I said, I just couldn't let that go without sounding a little bit more authoritative. And I still...

Like a lot of things. You know, I'm not convinced. Number one thing, don't take advice from some asshole on the radio. All right. Let's do this one. Dr. Steve! Hello. Oh, my God. Hey, I got a question about testosterone. Okay. Can you tell me what kind of, I know you were talking recently about what testosterone you use now. You changed how you administer it.

Are you trying the cream or? No. Yeah, I think we answered this question already. That's my buddy, Logan Field, who has played in Super Android 23 with me before. I'm using the gel and I've – this is another one of these topics that is –

in the sense that people will disagree about it. I had a doctor on the show that was a men's health person that swore that you need to do the injections because you get this up and down rhythm of your testosterone. And somehow that's more physiologic, except, you know, I kind of challenged him on that because the testicles do have a bit of a rhythm to their waxing and waning movements.

of testosterone levels, but it happens to mostly be diurnal. In other words, a daily rhythm and not a biweekly rhythm. But he swore that it was more physiologic. I had to disagree. And it's one of those, you know, we're disagreeing. So I've got some patients that swear that they do better with the injections. Other people swear they do better with the constant release with pellets.

or the early morning release with the gel that you put on your shoulders and chest right before, you know, after you take your shower. So, again, another one of those things where it just depends. That's why we don't just have one type of testosterone that we prescribe to people. That's why we don't just have one pain medicine, one antihypertensive medication, one antidepressant.

because everybody's different. There's a natural variation in humans, and therefore there's a natural variation in response to medication and a natural response or, you know, a natural immunity and variation in immunity to different viruses and stuff. And that's the thing that keeps things like Stephen King's The Stand from happening. Even during the flu epidemic in the early 20th century, people

It killed a shitload of people, but it was 1% of the Earth's population, which is a definition of a shitload of people. But that means 99% of people didn't die.

So a lot of people were susceptible to that virus, but the vast majority of people were not. So, you know, we have to be cognizant of that. All right. Let's do this one. Hi, Dr. Steve. This is Kevin from 516. Hey, Kevin. I have generalized anxiety disorder. Me too. It's been plaguing me for about two years now. And I take Xanax for it.

And I used to take an antidepressant, but I couldn't get a boner with an antidepressant, so I stopped taking it. Okay. I don't know if you use this on the air. Yeah, sure.

So Xanax is Alprazolam. It is a benzodiazepine, what's so-called minor tranquilizer. They are extremely habit-forming. If you wanted to get off of it, do not stop it suddenly. Taper off of it and do it under the supervision of your prescriber. The problem with the boners with antidepressants is pretty common, but there are ways around that.

For example, I have some people that are on, say, a serotonin norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor like Cymbalta, also known as duloxetine. And some people will have delayed ejaculation with that. Well, one group of people will respond very well to taking a non-drowsy antihistamine like fexofenadine, a.k.a. Allegra,

or any of the other non-drowsy, over-the-counter antihistamines, and their erectile function returns, and they don't have delayed ejaculation anymore. Other people respond to the addition of another antidepressant, so you're using a pill to counteract a pill called bupropion. And you can switch antidepressants around as well.

I have, and I'm not necessarily advocating this, so check with your primary care, but I was refractory to everything for my depression, and I'm now on ketamine, and I get it through joyous.team. They're not an affiliate or a sponsor, and it's $128 a month, and I get it through joyous.team.

and it has changed my life and you don't have any erectile dysfunction with that. I'm not advocating that, I'm just saying that there are other things out there. You've probably noticed that the Xanax decreases in effectiveness over time as your body builds up tolerance. And then if you miss a dose, the anxiety comes back. It's really your body saying, "I need the Xanax." It's not really the anxiety or it's a combination of the two.

So I would love to see you get off of that and onto something that is less habit forming and do cognitive behavioral therapy. Look for a Ph.D. cognitive behavioral therapist. That helped me as much as any medication ever did. So good luck to you. I suffered from this myself.

And if I can help in any way, feel free to email me. It's drsteve202 at gmail.com. All right. Well, it's time for your old pal to get out of here. So thanks to everyone who's made this show happen over the years. Listen to our SiriusXM show on the Faction Talk channel, SiriusXM channel 103, Saturdays at 7 p.m. Eastern, Sunday at 6 p.m. Eastern, on demand, the best way to listen to it, and other times at Jim McClure's pleasure.

Many thanks to our listeners whose voicemail and topic ideas make this job very easy. Go to our website, drsteve.com, for schedules, podcasts, and other crap. Until next time, check your stupid nuts for lumps, quit smoking, get off your asses, get some exercise, and we'll see you in one week for the next edition of Weird Medicine. Thanks for hanging in there with me this week. Next week, back to dicks and nuts. Take care, everyone.

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