Within a tiny seed, there lie secret treasures essential to our health. 
They are so fragile that, simply exposing them to light, oxygen or heat will twist their molecular structure from essential fatty acids into a poisonous substance, commonly known as transformed fatty acids.

TRANSFORMED FATTY ACIDS
In 1911, Crisco marketed the first shortening made through hydrogenation. Hydrogenation quickly became a big success because it kept oils and fats from going rancid. For the first time, manufacturers could make an oil or fat that could stay on the shelf at room temperature for months.

In the succeeding 80 years, the growing number of hydrogenated oil products has risen to make up 10% of North American caloric intake. Hydrogenated oil is now found in donuts, muffins, cakes, salad dressing, candy, soups, breads, margarine, potato chips, fried foods, mayonnaise, cheese spreads, peanut butter and most processed foods. Even the humble raisin has been coated with a layer of hydrogenated oil.

To hydrogenate an oil, hydrogen is bubbled through the oil with a nickel catalyst at more than 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. These high temperatures twist the molecules’ configuration. Trans-fatty acid is the short form for transformed fatty acid. The body does not recognize that these twisted fatty acid molecules are harmful, and innocently utilizes them. They fit into cell membranes like broken keys, stopping the cell’s proper function. An essential fatty acid molecule is curved, whereas a trans-fatty acid is straight. In the diagram on the following page, the essential fatty acid has two hydrogen atoms on the same side. These hydrogen atoms repel each other and bend the molecule. Molecules in this shape do not stick together and remain fluid-like in the blood. In the trans-fatty acid, the hydrogen atom has been forced to the other side of the molecule. The trans-fatty acid molecule straightens. Now they easily lock together, causing them to stick to cholesterol and saturated fats. This stickiness increases fatty deposits in the arteries, liver and other organs. Platelet aggregation is increased, which in turn increases the chance of blood clotting, strokes and heart attacks. A trans-fatty acid cannot correctly perform the function of an essential fatty acid, thereby causing short circuits in the electrical flow responsible for heartbeat, nerve functions, cell division and mental balance. They create free radicals that have been linked to cancer. Trans-fatty acids act like saturated fats because they increase blood cholesterol.

It has been estimated that over 200 million have died prematurely because of the trans-fatty acids in refined oils. They are a major cause of cancer, heart disease, immune system breakdown, depression, fatigue, and other disorders. Trans-fatty acids are highly toxic, appearing around tumors and other metabolic breakdowns. A diet consisting of 10% corn oil produced colon tumors in 36% of rats. 

Dr. Johanna Budwig of Germany is a foremost researcher in the area of fats. She discovered toxic polymers in tumors, the same polymers created by high temperatures used in making margarine. Realizing the danger to consumers, she decided to publish her findings. The head of the institute where she worked held patents for margarine-making processes. He knew her discoveries would severely damage margarine sales, so he tried to bribe her with money and the ownership of a drugstore to prevent publication. When she refused, she was threatened and was denied access to her laboratory. Undaunted, she later published her work.

THE BUTTER/MARGARINE WAR
In the 1980's, new scientific information regarding the dangers of saturated fats, cholesterol, and trans-fatty acids hit the press. The margarine producers denounced butter because of its cholesterol and saturated fat content. Meanwhile, the butter producers retaliated with the facts that margarine is high in saturated fat and trans-fatty acids.

Margarine is a hydrogenated oil that is a combination of trans-fatty acids and saturated fat. Dyes, salt, and other chemicals are added to make it look and smell like butter. The shift from butter to margarine, the so-called healthy heart food, has not reduced stroke or heart disease. In fact, just the opposite has happened—cancer and heart disease have increased.

Vegetable oils have the advantage of being cholesterol-free. But because the oil is hydrogenated, it causes trans-fatty acids that are more dangerous to health than the cholesterol found in butter. Butter is the better choice for your health.

RAT CANCER
There is no doubt that butter is better and more natural. If you are going to fry with small amounts of oil, butter is your best choice. It contains almost no essential fatty acids that would transform by the heat of frying. Butter does contain a generous supply of cholesterol which is fine in small amounts.

To measure the trans-fatty acid content of any food, simply look at the ingredients. Add together the polyunsaturates, monounsaturates and saturates, then subtract that from the total fat listed. The difference equals the trans-fatty acid content in fat.

POLYUNSATURATED OIL
High in polyunsaturates is labeled on products as if it were a vitamin. This is the farthest thing from the truth. Polyunsaturates may be less sticky than saturated fatty acids and remain fluid-like in the blood, but these factors do not make polyunsaturates healthy.

In super-heating oil, even the good polyunsaturates are destroyed, transforming them into trans-polyunsaturates. Processed monounsaturated oils are also health destroying. All fats or oils which have been exposed to heat, air or light contain trans-fatty acids.

CANCER
Since the start of the century, cancer has increased by 600%. In the early nineteen hundreds, one in thirty people died of cancer. Today the death rate from cancer is one in five. In 1900, cardiovascular disease killed one out of seven, now it’s killing half. Incidences of diabetes, multiple sclerosis, liver disease, and kidney degeneration have also risen drastically. With the billions spent on medical research, it is obvious that there is a dietary factor making us sick. In searching for clues to this increase, researchers discovered that these figures correlate to increased consumption of refined vegetable oils.

The body contains 55 trillion cells. The DNA of the smallest cell contains 1012 bits of information, the equivalent of 100 million encyclopedias. It is this information that guides thousands of chemical interactions in the life of a cell. If the information becomes corrupted, the cell breaks down, mutates or dies. From birth, our cells are exposed to carcinogenic substances. Everyday we produce abnormal cells. The immune system searches for them and destroys them. Yet like a mysterious biochemical clock, midnight comes and terminal cancer spreads throughout the body. Surgery and chemotherapy can only slow its course. Research strongly suggests that cancer results from a chemical or structural alteration in the DNA. Radiation, oncogenic viruses, carcinogens and heredity are considered factors in the breakdown of the DNA.

A clue to cancer may be found by looking at the fats in the cell wall. The cell carries on countless biochemical transactions as it takes in nutrients and excretes waste products.

BREAST CANCER
The cell wall controls the transport of molecules in and out of the cell. Phosphatides form the protective skin of every living cell on the earth. In the cell wall, phosphatides along with proteins become a selective barrier to regulate the flow of substances in and out of the cell. In this way, the cell protects itself from carcinogens entering the cell.

Phosphatides are made of two fat molecules linked to a phosphate group. The two fat molecules are usually a saturated fatty acid molecule and an essential fatty acid molecule. The essential fatty acid in the phosphatides molecule is important. It insures that the cell membrane is more fluid and attracts oxygen which kills bacteria and viruses.

Carcinogens are destructive only to the degree that they are able to penetrate the cell. Consuming trans-fatty acids pressures the body to use chemically-inert fat in the cell membrane. If a trans-fatty acid molecule takes up a position on the phosphatide, the protective barrier deforms and the cells start to lose their protection against cancer.

Dr. Johanna Budwig meticulously analyzed thousands of blood samples. Without exception, the cancer patients, diabetic patients, and those with precancerous conditions of the liver were deficient in one of the essential fatty acids (omega 6). Their blood was also found to be deficient in phosphatides.

With this change in diet, Dr. Budwig has observed that tumors actually dissolve. Her miraculous cures in terminal cancer patients are based on removing all toxic fats from the diet and replacing them with smaller amounts of essential fatty acids. In replenishing essential fatty acids, healthy cell membranes were able to repel the penetration of carcinogens entering through the cell wall.

HEART ATTACK
Dr. Klapper had a patient who was scheduled for by-pass surgery in the morning. When he drew the blood for analyses, floating in the test tube was a thick, greasy, white, sticky film. When the patient was asked what he had had for lunch, he replied, A cheeseburger and milk shake. The surgeon realized that what he had seen in the test tube was the fat from his patient’s lunch. During the operation on the following day, Dr. Klapper pulled a 4-inch long yellow sausage of fatty material from the man's artery, which was depriving the heart of oxygen.

Drastic measures are required in removing hardened fat from the arteries. A catheter may be pushed through the artery. This instrument balloons inside the artery to squash the plaque. A roto rooter acts as a flexible drill in the vein. Some patients actually die of a heart attack while undergoing these treatments. The surgery usually gives temporary relief, but the arteries plug up again unless there is a drastic change in diet.

Seventy-five percent of North Americans die due to disease related to fat consumption. Heart attacks and strokes often leave their victims crippled, paralyzed or blind. In filling our blood with sticky fat, we take a serious health risk.

Loma Linda University of California decided to test 24,000 people to determine mortality rates from heart disease. They found that lacto-ovo vegetarians (including dairy and eggs) had 66% fewer deaths from heart disease than their meat-eating counterparts. Pure vegetarians had an impressive 90% fewer deaths than the meat-eaters.

SATURATED FATS
A saturated fatty acid is an arrangement of carbon atoms hooked together in a chain. It is called "saturated" because all of its carbon atoms are saturated with hydrogen atoms. There are good and bad saturated fats. Good saturated fats are found in avocados and raw nuts. These fats are nutritious and easy to digest because they have been unaffected by light, air or heat.

The body stores fat for times of famine. It isn't particular about the quality of fat which it is storing. A diet high in meat, dairy products, white sugar, and refined flours causes the storage of sticky, saturated fat that increases the risk of stroke, heart attack and arteriosclerosis.

Since the turn of the century, saturated fat in the diet has increased by 1,000%. Yet, essential fatty acids have decreased by 80%. A diet, high in refined sugars and starches increases saturated fat in the blood. White sugar, white flour, white rice, pasta, corn starch, tapioca and most breakfast cereals convert easily into saturated fat. The foods overload the blood with glucose and the body turns the excess glucose into body fat!

The saturated fats which cause fatty, degenerative disease are mostly from animal sources. The long-chain fatty acids in beef, mutton, pork and dairy products are the most difficult to digest. The molecular nature of animal-source, saturated fats are sludge-like. These fats plug up the arteries and stick together, clogging, choking, and interfering with metabolism. Some heart attacks are triggered by a meal high in saturated fats.

The saturated fats created by processing vegetable oils are no better. Even though they do not contain cholesterol, they are still synthetic to the body and react the same as animal-source, saturated fats. Both types of fats drift through the bloodstream where they have a tendency to stick together and form hard plaques in the arteries. Elsewhere in the body, saturated fats stick together with proteins and cholesterol, forming deposits within the cells and organs.

The Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, Canadian Choiceness Conference on Cholesterol and the Canadian Dietetic Foundation recommended that saturated fat not exceed 10% of calories.

High cholesterol levels are followed by hardening of the arteries. This hardening raises blood pressure because the arteries lose their resilience. Cholesterol is hard, waxy, and very resistant to breakdown. The liver can excrete a maximum of 100-300 mg. of cholesterol per day. A diet high in animal foods can input 800-1,000 mg. per day. Within the body, HDL, High Density Lipoprotein carry cholesterol to the tissue and LDL, Low Density Lipoprotein carry it away. The LDL, which does the clean up, can remove only a limited amount of cholesterol. The higher the percentage of animal proteins you eat, the more the cholesterol that accumulates.

The first evidence that arteriosclerosis was caused by diet came from the soldiers in Korea. Medical autopsies showed that 77% of the American soldiers had blood vessels narrowed by arteriosclerotic deposits. On the other hand, autopsies of equally young Korean soldiers showed that their arteries were free from these deposits. Doctors theorized that genetics was the reason for the Koreans healthy arteries. This theory was dismissed when the Koreans were put on US army rations and started to develop arteriosclerosis.

From 1963 to 1965 the International Arteriosclerotic Foundation examined over 20,000 autopsied bodies from different countries. The findings were definitive. The greater the consumption of saturated fats and cholesterol in a diet, the higher the rate of heart attacks and strokes from arteriosclerotic deposits.

When the news hit the media, the meat, egg, and dairy industry financed studies to denounce this theory of arteriosclerosis. They declared that animal foods were not the only source of cholesterol, pointing an accusatory finger at coconuts, kernel oil, and chocolate which also contain saturated fats.

Scientists have researched for further evidence against the danger of a high fat diet. Dr. Wissler at the University of Chicago fed one group of Rhesus monkeys a high fat diet and a second group the same diet with less saturated fat, cholesterol, and calories. The group of monkeys that ate the standard diet had six times more arteriosclerotic deposits.

Dr. Mark Armstrong at the University of Iowa tried a similar experiment by putting monkeys on a diet high in egg yokes. Their arteries quickly became encrusted. They discovered that, unlike humans, only true carnivores could handle saturated fats and cholesterol in their diet without ill effects to health. If a dog is given a 1/2 pound of butter with its meat ration he will not develop arteriosclerosis. However, adding 2 grams of cholesterol to a rabbit's food will produce changes in its arterial wall.

The Egg Board has been taken to court for falsely advertising that eggs did not increase the risk of a heart attack. Judge Earnest G. Barns ruled: There exists a substantial body of competent and reliable scientific evidence that eating eggs increases the risk of heart attack. Our body produces less cholesterol to compensate for the cholesterol eaten, but the blood-level cholesterol will still increase. Every milligram of dietary cholesterol consumed will elevate blood cholesterol.

In July of 1985, the Journal of the American Medical Association summarized a 20-year study of diet in relation to ovarian cancer. Women who ate eggs ...three or more days each week had a three times greater risk of fatal ovarian cancer than did women who ate eggs less than once per week.

The egg has been changed by mass production. Rare is the free-range chicken who eats a diversified diet filled with plant sterols that reduce cholesterol in the egg. Because modern chicken feed is completely deficient in sterols, the cholesterol content of the egg has increased by 35%.