Linoleic Acid Causes Diabetes : Response to Nick Horwitz and BioLayne

I made a quick video response to recent videos and appearances suggesting that maybe seed oils are fine after all. The argument goes like this:

  1. High blood levels of linoleic acid are associated with better health outcomes
  2. Short term feeding trials of seed oils in humans haven’t shown increased inflammation

Here’s what causes diabetes. The conversion of linoleic acid to arachidonic acid by an enzyme called D6D. This probably has to do with how oxygen is apportioned intracellularly – that’s my opinion. With that in mind, argument number 2 is a red herring. Argument 1 is expected behavior. When you are converting linoleic acid to arachidonic acid, blood levels of linoleic acid drop.

That is NOT consistent with the message that it is fine to consume seed oils. One way to increase flow through D6D is to consume linoleic acid.


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5.Jurado‐Fasoli L, Di X, Kohler I, et al. Omega‐6 and omega‐3 oxylipins as potential markers of cardiometabolic risk in young adults. Obesity. 2022;30(1):50-61. doi:10.1002/oby.23282

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