Health and Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs)

Essential Fatty acids are vital for health. Herbalists have recognised the use of linseed (or flaxseed oil) as a medicine many years ago. The ripe oil-rich seeds of the flax plant has been considered a superior inner cleanser and herbalists have used linseed (the oil of the flax plant) to treat illnesses like rheumatism, gout, boils and skin lesions.

The ancient Greeks and Romans used the brown shiny seeds as a natural staple of their diet, and their ancestors followed suit as they spread across Europe. Linseed oil continues to be cultivated and is regarded as a high-quality vegetable oil in many parts of the world today.

It was not realized quite how important it was to health until a German biochemist named Johanna Budwig carried out some pioneering research into the role of essential fatty acids in the 1950s.

Why Flaxseed Oil?

Flaxseed oil is a particularly rich source of omega 3 oils. The seeds themselves contain between 33-43 percent oil and when compressed the oil is created easily along with the essential fatty acids that the body needs to function well. The oil is far better for health when it hasn’t been heated, filtered and refined; the raw cold-processed oil is a rich golden yellow, amber or brownish liquid.

In its unrefined form, linseed oil contains two important unsaturated fatty acids. When correctly processed, it consists of 58 percent healthy essential fatty acids. These are converted by the body to prostaglandins.

Prostaglandins are involved in blood pressure regulating, and has potent effects on blood vessels. In Europe, raw linseed oil is used therapeutically in the prevention and treatment of:

Without essential fatty acids, we are prone to all the diseases mentioned above as they affect all systems of the body. It is important therefore that we get enough of them from our diet.

Dr Budwig's Research

Dr Budwig appears to have discovered one of the most important secrets of regaining and maintaining health. Her research revealed that when we compare a healthy heart with one that has suffered a heart attack, the diseased heart is over burdened with an accumulation of fat. An arthritis sufferer carries excessive fatty deposits in joints and muscles, but a healthy person does not.

An organ attacked by cancer commonly shows an infiltration of yellowish white fat globules and the first visible symptom of cancer is the separation of lipids (fats) from the surrounding tissue. Our over use of saturated, hydrogenated, chemically processed and hardened fats can actually act as a chemical carcinogen within the body.

Dr Budwig’s research shows that the trouble begins when the protein bound fats become separated from their protein carriers (unlike the essential oils like flaxseed oil) and end up as unhealthy deposits in various parts of the body.

Science has proved that fats play an important part in the way our bodies function, and are vital for all growth, renewal of cells, brain and nerve function, the health of sensory organs (eyes and ears) and the way our body responds to temperature changes. Our energy resources in fact are totally dependent on essential fatty acids.

Dr Budwig discovered that many of the foods we commonly eat are lacking in both essential fatty acids and amino acids. The essential amino acids are proteins that are abundant in foods such as cottage cheese, whole wheat, fish, and lean meats.

The essential fatty acids the body hungers for are found in a rich supply in crude, unrefined linseed oil, soy lecithin, egg yolks, and some vegetable oils.

The problem with most of the commercially produced processed oils on supermarket shelves is that they are heated, refined, hydrogenated, and full of chemical preservatives. Because the essential fatty acids are particularly sensitive to heat and oxidation, margarines and processed vegetable oils no longer carry their content of these EFAs that the body needs.

How do EFAs work in the body?

When essential fatty acids bind with the essential amino acids, they create lipoproteids and healthy people have an abundance of these. It has been observed however that diseased patients (especially victims of cancer) have a much reduced level of lipoproteids in their blood, or none at all.

The body that has been poorly fed and maintained over many years shows signs of neglect such as this. Harmful deposits and a residue of fats clog the inner workings of the body. However, by introducing clean essential fatty acids present in linseed oil into the diet as well as superior high quality proteins (amino acids) the body immediately goes to work to rid itself of the deposits that inhibit the way the body should work.

By continuing to feed the body with these natural healthy nutrients, the body becomes healthy again as nature intended. Needless to say, after the body has been cleansed and is free of harmful deposits, this diet should be followed for life in order to stay well.

The dangers of chemically processed fats

Johanna Budwig preached against the use of what she called “pseudo” fats. In order to extend shelf life, and provide the market with an attractive range of liquid and artificially hardened fats (margarines) manufacturers use chemical processes that make their products harmful to the body. These fats may be labeled “polyunsaturated” but they are damaging to the body just the same.

The chemical processing of healthy oils to turn them into harmful fats destroys the vital electron contained in the oils, which are important to every cell in the body. Once these electrons have been removed, these fats can no longer bind with oxygen and actually become an obstacle to the breathing process.

The heart rejects these fats and they end up as inorganic fatty deposits in the heart muscle itself. This leads to heart disease and clogged arteries. Chemically processed fats are not water-soluble when bound in protein. They end up blocking circulation, damage heart action and inhibit the renewal of cells. They also interfere with the free flow of blood and lymph fluids. The whole body action eventually slows down and can become completely paralysed.

It is hard to believe that science has not discovered the root of the problem of so much disease in modern times. The body rejects chemically processed fats because their composition has been so radically changed from what nature intended and cause untold damage to the body in the process. It is interesting to note that Russia outlawed the chemical saturation of fats to harden them artificially as long ago as 1902.

Opposition and Suppression

Unfortunately in the modern world, big business has got in the way of some of our most ancient healing traditions. Dr Budwig’s findings were met with ferocious opposition from various powers in the food industry, particularly from margarine producers. She was the first scientist to oppose the modern practice of altering oils for commercial distribution.

According to Dr Budwig, she was bribed with money to keep her from publicising her findings. When she refused the bribe she was denied the use of the research facilities of where she was working on her theories. When she tried to move to another institute to continue her research, she found her access blocked by what she felt as an industry wide conspiracy against her.

Somehow the margarine industry moguls had mobilised and found a way of keeping her from continuing her work in modern scientific laboratories. She also found herself blocked from publicizing her work in scientific journals. The only course open to her was to write books and share her information that way.

Denied research facilities, she spent more time treating cancer patients with her specialised diet of flaxseed oil and cottage cheese as the mainstay and achieved excellent results. It is unfortunate that she was not able to continue in her research, as it may have given us an even better understanding of fat metabolism and its connection with serious illnesses like cancer. Dr Budwig died after a fall at the age of 94 in 2003.

The Role of flaxseed oil in the anti-cancer diet

Since changing my diet I take flaxseed oil every day, cook with olive oil, use virgin cold pressed olive oil for dressings, and make my own mayonnaise. The diet of flaxseed oil blended with cottage cheese seems such a simple way to treat cancer and other serious illness, but sometimes the simple things are the ones that work the best!

EFAs pay such dividends in terms of health and are surely worth a try to include more of them into the diet. At the very least, it‘s definitely a step in right direction for your health to eliminate all commercially processed oils and fats from your diet.

If you want to avoid dairy foods and don’t eat any kind of cheese (small amounts of goats cheese is OK) do eat lean good quality meat in small amounts and eggs (egg yolks are in mayonnaise) and plenty of fish. These proteins contain the essential amino acids necessary to bind with the EFAs in flaxseed oil (hempseed oil is also a good source of EFAs)

Finally, the oils you use should be cold pressed, unrefined and in dark glass bottles to protect it from the light. Once opened it should be kept in the fridge and used within the use by date on the bottle.

Virgin Olive oil should be used for cooking as it can reach higher temperatures without damaging its composition. However, flaxseed and hemp seed oil should NEVER be heated.

Further reading and Resources

More about Dr Budwig’s research into her specialised diet for cancer is here.

An explanation of Dr Budwig’s diet prococol

More about superfoods for health including flaxseed oil here

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