Fearing Linoleic Acid - Just Stop Already
Let's put perspective around fear-mongering isolated ingredients.
Because I’m in the natural health space, I am frequently targeted with ads from providers in my industry. One thing I have noticed is that the natural space uses much more fear-based tactics than Big Pharma.
Big Pharma at least tries to put a positive spin on their potentially deadly medication ads with happy, smiling people enjoying their life despite the side effects of explosive diarrhea, impotence, and sudden death.
The natural world just tends to make you fearful of living because you might be exposed to XYZ isolated compound and die early. Recently, I was targeted with this one.
The premise of this well-known natural health doctor is that seed oils are bad. Because seed oils contain linoleic acid, then linoleic acid must also be bad, and you need to remove and detox it from your body…or else. Makes sense…except that it doesn’t.
The ad is designed to make you infer that linoleic acid is horrendous because it has a half-life of almost 2 years 😱. If you consume it, it will be incorporated into every cell of your body 😰. And please don’t forget about inflammation 🔥, not the inflammation.
When you identify something nutritional as good or bad within the body, you get tricked into fighting a moral health battle instead of an intelligent one. I mean, you don’t want to be on the side of evil, right? Therefore, “detoxing” and removing linoleic acid from your cells is the key to longevity and anti-aging, right? Not so fast.
Instead of asking if something is good or bad, ask “What’s the role of XYZ?” For the baby boomer population, we play this game with cholesterol. Cholesterol isn’t good or bad, it’s appropriate and has vital roles in your health expression.
Believe it or not, linoleic acid does too. Stop associating linoleic acid with the perceived evil of seed oils.
A Couple of Roles of Linoleic Acid?
The first thing to combat the fear-mongering with linoleic acid is understanding that it’s an essential fatty acid. You have to consume it to sustain life. With that said, it’s found in lots of food sources, from meats, nuts, seeds, and veggies. Does that mean those foods are evil because they contain some linoleic acid too? You can’t have it both ways.
✅ Essential Structural Component: Linoleic acid is part of your cell membrane structure, which aids in flexibility, fluidity, and permeability. Remember the fear that if you consume it, it gets incorporated into every cell of your body? IT’S SUPPOSED TO! Maybe this is why there’s an almost 2-year half-life. Because it’s essential, your body doesn’t want to readily get rid of it. You constantly need it.
✅ Modulates Inflammation: Can linoleic acid promote inflammation? Yes, but without inflammation, you don’t survive well. Inflammation is a response to either an invader (infection) or injury. Inflammation is initiated to quarantine the damaged tissue and to signal for help. Good luck fighting off an infection or healing from injury if you are deficient in linoleic acid.
The point is that linoleic acid is not the primary root of your health issues. Reminder, you need it. Can you get too much of it if you’re regularly consuming seed oils and throw off our fatty acid ratios? Yes, but who is sitting around chugging seed oils? Nobody.
If you’re getting an abundance of seed oils in your diet, then your diet is complete garbage. If you took seed oils away from all highly processed foods and replaced them with a “healthier” oil, you’re still eating highly processed foods. You’re an adult, make adult decisions with your nutrition. Stop blaming food corporations. You’re not a victim. You can choose not to consume their products, as you have in other industries like heroin, prostitution, and watching the WNBA.