Chapter 3: Oil and Epiginetics

Remember how sugar hijacked your taste buds? Industrial oils did the same thing to an entire generation—but at the cellular level.

Chapter 3 — Oil & Water

(Why the Fat You Cook With Rewrites Your Future)

A bow to Deep Nutrition

Before we talk about what’s in your pan, I have to honor a book that changed how I see food forever: Dr. Cate Shanahan’s Deep Nutrition.

Her central insight is both humbling and hopeful: your genes aren’t your destiny—they’re sheet music. What you eat doesn’t just fuel today’s cells; it signals which genetic notes get played, which traits bloom or go dormant, which strengths pass to your children and even your grandchildren. Epigenetic marks—molecular bookmarks on your DNA—can echo forward for at least ten generations.

That explains why some people seem to “get away with” ultra-processed food for years while others struggle early. Part of it is inherited reserve—like living off old family money. But reserves run out. The bill always comes due, whether in your lifetime or your children’s.

The thrilling part? You can start rebuilding that reserve right now. One meal at a time, you’re either strengthening or depleting the genetic inheritance you carry and pass forward. If Dr. Shanahan could give you only two changes to protect your brain, stabilize your hormones, and fortify future generations, they’d be devastatingly simple:

1. Eliminate added sugar.

2. Eliminate industrial seed oils.

We tackled sugar. Now let’s talk about the bottle on your counter with a cheerful “heart healthy” label. It might be the most toxic thing in your house.

The Oxygen Paradox (and why your brain is listening)

Oxygen is life—and aging—in the same breath. Slice an apple and it browns. Leave food uncovered and it stales. This is oxidation—oxygen stealing electrons and breaking structures down at the molecular level.

Inside you, that same chemistry hums along every second. Normal metabolism throws off free radicals—electron-hungry “pickpockets” that nick your DNA, proteins, and cell membranes. Some oxidation is inevitable; how fast you age depends on the balance between free radical damage and your antioxidant defense.

Food tips the scale. Color-dense plants, herbs, and quality fats bring antioxidant bodyguards. Industrial oils—especially once heated—pour gasoline on the fire. Your brain is ~60% fat by dry weight, and every cell membrane in your body is built from the fats you eat. When the fat is damaged, the hardware you build—neurons, hormone receptors, mitochondria—gets built from broken parts.

If we know this is happening at the microscopic level, why wouldn’t we control what goes in the pan?

Growth mode vs. defense mode (Bruce Lipton’s gift)

Cellular biologist Bruce Lipton offers a simple toggle: every cell is always in one of two states—growth or defense.

• Growth mode: membranes fluid, signals clear, nutrients in, waste out, clean replication.

• Defense mode: membranes rigid, signals garbled, inflammation up, survival over repair.

Food, stress, sleep, and light push that switch hourly. For kids, “growth” is literal—they’re wiring brains and laying bone. For adults, it’s regeneration—how skin, joints, and blood flow behave (yes, libido is circulation too).

Bad fats + chronic stress keep cells barricaded. Good fats + nourishing inputs say: Abundance is here. You can build. You can heal.

Oil and water actually do mix (in you)

“Oil and water don’t mix” makes a cute metaphor, but in your body they’re partners. Each cell is a water world bound by a lipid membrane. That membrane must be supple—not leaky, not stiff—so hormones can dock, nutrients can enter, waste can leave, and electrical messages pass cleanly.

Good fats keep membranes responsive. Damaged fats make them sticky and confused. The oil you choose literally decides how well your cells can do their jobs.

The yellow food trap (what I saw at the ski lodge)

In a ski-lodge cafeteria, I looked around and saw a sea of yellow: chicken tenders, fries, onion rings, fish sticks, even burger patties with that uniform golden shell—everything dunked in industrial oil, often reheated, often used far past its prime.

It’s not just lodges. It’s airports, school cafeterias, food courts, most casual restaurants. If fried oils age brains at the cellular level, what are we doing to a generation raised in the yellow trap?

The NFL brain connection (you can’t outwork bad oil)

When Dr. Cate worked with the Lakers and analyzed NFL eating patterns, a pattern popped: more fried foods and sugar correlated with worse recovery and more brain injury markers. These are elite athletes with world-class care. If they can’t out-train fryer oil, why would we expect our kids—or ourselves—to do it?

Feed every child like a future astronaut, surgeon, artist, or scholar. Because they might be.

A tale of two oils: ancient wisdom vs. industrial accident

Traditional pressed oils—think extra-virgin olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil, sesame, and some nut oils—come from mechanical pressing. Minimal heat, no solvents, natural antioxidants intact. Humans used them for millennia.

Industrial seed oils—canola/rapeseed, soybean, corn, cottonseed, safflower, generic “vegetable”—are extracted with high heat and chemical solvents (like hexane), then bleached and deodorized at up to ~500°F. By the time they’re “palatable,” they’ve formed damaged fats the body struggles to handle—and they’re heavy in omega-6 polyunsaturates that oxidize easily when heated.

This is what we’re calling food. This is what we’re building brains from.

What happens when you eat industrial oils

• Membrane dysfunction: damaged fats become your membranes—rigid, leaky, less sensitive to hormones, worse at nutrient exchange.

• Oxidative stress amplification: more free radicals attacking DNA, proteins, and lipids.

• Chronic inflammation: your immune system treats oxidized lipids like invaders.

• Omega imbalance: modern diets skew ~16:1 to 20:1 (omega-6 : omega-3); human biology hums closer to ~1–4:1.

Move toward grass-fed/wild proteins, colorful produce, and traditional fats and you begin restoring the balance that supported human health for millennia.

Restaurant reality (why home cooking matters)

Most restaurants cook with canola/soy oils. In the wild, fryers might be changed daily…weekly…or, yes, monthly. Each hour of heat further oxidizes those oils, creating reactive aldehydes and off-flavors your tongue notices (even if you can’t name it).

A simple script helps: “Could the kitchen cook ours in butter or olive oil? We’re avoiding seed oils.” Choose roasted, grilled, baked over fried; ask for olive oil + vinegar instead of house dressings.

Smoke point vs. stability (the real cooking math)

Smoke point is not the whole story. Oxidative stability and fatty-acid profile matter more.

• Very high heat (400°F+): refined avocado oil, refined coconut oil, ghee, beef tallow.

• Medium heat (300–375°F): extra-virgin olive oil, unrefined coconut oil, grass-fed butter.

• No heat (finishing): EVOO, toasted sesame, walnut; flax (refrigerate).

If your oil smokes, you’ve broken it. Lower heat or switch fats.

A note on rancidity (how to tell if your oil’s already broken)

• Smell: crayons, putty, paint, old nuts.

• Taste: bitter/scratchy or weirdly flat.

• Look: darkened oil, tacky spout, gummy rim.
  Trash it. Store good oils in dark glass, tightly capped, away from heat/light. Fridge flax; cool-cupboard EVOO and nut oils.

Pantry oil change (10-minute makeover)

Retire: canola, soybean, corn, cottonseed, safflower, “vegetable oil.”
Keep: great EVOO (finishing/medium heat).
Add: refined avocado oil (sear/roast), ghee (high heat), a small jar refined coconut oil (neutral high heat).
Nice-to-haves: toasted sesame (finishing), walnut/flax (finishing).
Condiments: swap to avocado-oil mayo, olive-oil dressings.
Label rule: if “soy/canola/corn oil” is in the top 3 ingredients, pick another brand.

Omega repair (rebalance without counting)

• Twice weekly: wild salmon/sardines/mackerel or pastured eggs daily.

• Always: cook in EVOO/avocado/ghee; dodge fryer oils.

• Often: walnuts, chia, flax (finishing only).

• Choose: grass-fed/pasture-raised meats/dairy when possible.

Within months, you can shift from ~16:1 toward ~4:1 (or better).

Kids, ADHD & calmer arcs

No miracle cure claims—but parents routinely notice in 1–2 weeks: smoother energy, fewer post-school crashes, steadier mood/attention, easier sleep onset. Stabilize blood sugar, clear fryer oils, feed omega-3s and stable fats—and you remove a lot of biochemical “noise” that scrambles behavior.

Sport, concussion & recovery

Brains love: stable fats (ghee, avocado oil, EVOO, butter), omega-3s (fish/pastured yolks), polyphenols (berries, herbs, greens), and no fryer oils—especially during recovery windows.

Recipe 3: Crispy Sweet Potato Hash (with good fats)

This isn’t just breakfast—it’s cellular medicine disguised as comfort food.

Ingredients (serves 4)

• 2 large sweet potatoes, diced ½-inch

• 1–2 small purple potatoes, diced (optional but gorgeous—brain-loving anthocyanins)

• 3 Tbsp avocado oil, refined coconut oil, ghee, or grass-fed butter

• 1 large onion, diced

• 1 red bell pepper, diced

• 2 cloves garlic, minced

• 1 tsp smoked paprika, ½ tsp cumin, pinch cayenne (optional)

• Sea salt + black pepper

• 2 Tbsp chives or parsley, chopped

• Toppings: 4 pasture-raised eggs (optional), 1 avocado, lemon wedge

Method

1. Heat the pan
   Large cast-iron or heavy skillet, medium-high heat. Add chosen fat and let it shimmer (not smoke).

2. Crisp the cubes
   Add potatoes in a single layer. Don’t stir for 3–4 minutes—let a crust form. Flip, crisp another 3–4 minutes.

3. Build flavor
   Add onion; cook 5–6 minutes until translucent and potatoes nearly tender.

4. Spice + soften
   Add pepper, garlic, paprika, cumin, cayenne. Sauté 2–3 minutes until fragrant and tender-crisp.

5. Egg wells (optional)
   Season generously. Make 4 wells, crack eggs, cover 3–5 minutes—set whites, runny yolks.

6. Finish
   Shower with herbs. Serve with avocado and a squeeze of lemon.

Why it works (cell level)

• Stable fat = crisp without rancid byproducts.

• Color = antioxidants (beta-carotene, anthocyanins) guarding membranes.

• Avocado + yolk = fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, K) absorbed.

• Coconut oil (if used) = quick energy without excess free radicals.

• Ghee/butter = vitamin K2 for bones/vasculature.

Compare that to canola: you’d be building membranes from damaged parts—stiffer, leakier, more inflamed.

Sheet-pan hash (hands-off)

Toss the same potato mix with avocado oil + salt + smoked paprika. Roast 425°F for 25–30 minutes (turn once). Finish 3–4 minutes in a hot skillet with onion/pepper/garlic for extra crisp.

Savory hash waffles

Mix 2 cups cooked hash with 2 beaten eggs. Press into a well-greased waffle iron (ghee). Cook until deeply golden. Top with arugula + lemon or yogurt + chives.

60-second green drizzle

Blend ½ cup EVOO + 1 cup herbs (parsley/cilantro/basil) + 1 Tbsp lemon + 1 small garlic + pinch salt. Finish anything. No heat = antioxidants intact.

Bonus: “Fried” cauliflower cakes (hashbrown vibes)

Combine 3 cups wrung-dry riced cauliflower, 1 egg, ¼ cup almond flour, 2 Tbsp Parmesan (opt), ½ tsp garlic powder, ½ tsp salt. Form patties; sear in ghee/avocado oil on medium until golden both sides. Top with smoked salmon + dill yogurt or a runny egg.

The fries fix (air-fryer magic)

Slice potatoes (or sweet potatoes), toss with avocado oil + sea salt, air-fry 390–400°F, shaking once, until crisp. Golden brown, not fryer yellow—and your membranes stay happy.

My son loves frozen sweet-potato cubes straight from the freezer—naturally sweet and soothing. Sweet potatoes bring tryptophan (→ serotonin → melatonin), so they’re actually helpful at night.

Hydration is membrane work (why oil and water matter)

Hydration = water + minerals + fluid membranes.

• Add a thumb of fat (EVOO/avocado/yolk) to veg so A, D, E, K absorb.

• Use mineral-rich salt.

• Eat potassium-rich plants (greens, avocado, squash).

14-day oil reset (tiny, high-leverage)

Days 1–3: Bin seed oils, buy EVOO + avocado oil + ghee.
Days 4–6: Cook every hot meal in those three. One extra color per plate.
Days 7–9: No restaurant frying. Air-fry or roast for “crispy.”
Days 10–12: Add omega-3 boosters (fish 2–3x/wk or pastured eggs daily).
Days 13–14: Re-taste tomatoes/greens with EVOO + salt. Notice how big flavor feels after the reset.

Likely wins: steadier energy, fewer 3 p.m. cravings, less puffiness, calmer skin, clearer thinking.

Friendly FAQ

Is all canola evil?
It’s mostly the how: industrial extraction, heat, deodorizing, and the omega-6 load. If you must, choose expeller-pressed, high-oleic and keep it cool. But there are better everyday options.

Isn’t EVOO only for salads?
EVOO shines for finishing and medium heat. If it smokes, it’s too hot—lower heat or switch to avocado oil/ghee.

What about budget?
Invest in a good EVOO and one high-heat fat. Cook simple staples (potatoes, eggs, beans, greens). You’ll offset restaurant spend fast.

My kid only eats fries.
Win the oil swap first: air-fried wedges in avocado oil + mineral salt with a protein they like. Palates reset.

The right-now payoff (and the generational one)

Switching to real fats and cutting industrial oils isn’t a moral cleanse—it’s a cellular upgrade.

Days to weeks: steadier energy, fewer cravings, clearer head.
Months to years: resilient arteries, responsive hormones, protected neurons, calmer inflammation.
Generationally: tiny bookmarks on genes that say, We grew here. Abundance was present.

The oil and water truth

Oil and water aren’t enemies in your body—they’re a partnership. Hydrate the inner seas. Build beautiful, fluid shores with the right fats. Cook like your membranes matter. Because they do.

Your cell membranes are made from the fats you eat. Choose wisely. Every meal is a chance to build health or create dysfunction. This sweet potato hash isn’t just breakfast—it’s a practice in building a body that can thrive.

The choice is profound. And it starts with what’s in your pan.

Chapter 3 — Oil & Water (Why the Fat You Cook With Rewrites Your Future)

Recipe 3: Crispy Sweet Potato Hash (With Good Fats)

A bow to Deep Nutrition

Before we talk about what's in your pantry, I need to tell you about a book that changed how I see food forever: Dr. Cate Shanahan's Deep Nutrition.

Her central insight is both humbling and hopeful: your genes are not your destiny—they're sheet music. What you eat doesn't just fuel today's cells; it signals which genetic notes get played, which traits bloom or go dormant, which strengths pass to your children and even your grandchildren. Epigenetic marks—molecular bookmarks on your DNA—can echo forward for at least ten generations.

This explains something that used to puzzle me: why some people seem to "get away with" terrible diets for years while others struggle from the start. Part of it is genetic reserve—like living off inherited wealth. But reserves run out. The bill always comes due, whether in your lifetime or your children's.

The thrilling part? You can start rebuilding that reserve right now. One meal at a time, you're either strengthening or depleting the genetic inheritance you carry and pass forward.

If Dr. Shanahan could only give you two changes to protect your brain, stabilize your hormones, and fortify future generations, they'd be devastatingly simple:

1. Eliminate added sugar.
2. Eliminate industrial seed oils.

You already tackled sugar in the last chapter. Now let's talk about the oil sitting on your counter—the one with the cheerful label that might say "heart healthy."

It might be the most toxic thing in your house.

The Oxygen Paradox (And Why Your Brain Is Listening)

Before we dive into oils, you need to understand something fundamental about being alive: oxygen keeps you alive and ages you simultaneously.

Slice an apple and the cut surface browns. Leave food uncovered in the fridge and it goes stale faster. Metal rusts. Paint fades. This is oxidation—oxygen breaking things down at the molecular level.

The same process happens inside you every second. During normal metabolism, your cells produce free radicals—unstable molecules missing electrons, desperate to steal them from healthy structures around them. Think of them as molecular pickpockets, grabbing electrons from your DNA, proteins, and cell membranes, leaving damage in their wake.

Some oxidation is inevitable. You need oxygen to make energy. But how fast you age depends on the balance between free radical damage and your body's ability to neutralize it.

This is where food becomes either medicine or accelerant.

Antioxidant-rich foods like blueberries, dark leafy greens, and herbs donate electrons to free radicals without destabilizing themselves—like having enough spare change that giving some away doesn't hurt you. Meanwhile, processed foods and damaged oils generate more free radicals while providing zero antioxidants to buffer the damage.

When you cook with industrial oils that have already been oxidized during processing, then oxidize them again by heating them beyond their tolerance, you're choosing to age faster—not just your skin, but your brain cells, your arterial walls, your hormones, your cellular machinery.

Your brain is about 60% fat by dry weight. Every cell membrane in your body is built from the fats you eat. When you cook with damaged oils, you're literally constructing your most precious hardware—your neurons, your hormone receptors, your mitochondria—out of broken materials.

If we know this is happening at the microscopic level, why wouldn't we do everything possible to control it?

Growth Mode vs. Defense Mode (Bruce Lipton's Gift)

Cellular biologist Bruce Lipton offers a simple frame that makes all of this visceral: every cell in your body is always in one of two states—growth or defense.

Growth mode: Cells open up, absorb nutrients, repair damage, replicate cleanly, communicate clearly. Membranes are fluid. Doors swing open. Life flows.

Defense mode: Cells batten down, hoard resources, shut out signals, become rigid and reactive. Membranes stiffen. Inflammation rises. Survival trumps thriving.

Food, stress, sleep, and light push that toggle switch hourly.

For kids, "growth mode" is literal—they're building bones, wiring brains, establishing metabolic patterns that will echo for decades. For adults, "growth" shows up as cellular regeneration: how your skin and hair look, how your organs and joints function, how well your blood flows (yes, including libido and erectile function—blood flow is everything).

Bad fats plus chronic stress flood your system with oxidized particles and stress hormones—adrenaline and cortisol meant to flush out quickly after acute danger, aided by movement. Our ancestors ran from lions. We sit in traffic while cortisol corrodes our arterial "pipes" from within, all day, every day.

Good fats plus nourishing inputs tell your cells: Abundance is here. You can build. You can heal. Open the doors.

Oil and Water Actually Do Mix (In You)

The old saying "oil and water don't mix" is a cute metaphor for incompatibility. But inside your body, the right oils and water work in exquisite partnership.

Every cell is a water world bounded by a lipid (fat) membrane. That membrane needs to be fluid—not rigid, not leaky—so nutrients can enter, waste can exit, hormones can dock, and electrical signals can pass cleanly.

Good fats keep those membranes supple and responsive. Damaged fats make them stiff, sticky, and dysfunctional. The oil you choose literally determines whether your cells can do their jobs.

The Yellow Food Trap (And What I Saw at the Ski Lodge)

I'll never forget sitting in a ski lodge cafeteria, looking around at what families were eating. Everything—and I mean everything—was the same shade of yellow.

Chicken tenders. French fries. Onion rings. Fish sticks. Even the burger patties had that telltale golden coating. All of it dunked in industrial oil, heated to high temperatures, sometimes for hours, sometimes reused for days.

This isn't just ski lodges. It's airports, school cafeterias, food courts, most casual restaurants. We've built a food system where the default meal is some shade of fried yellow, especially for kids.

Here's what hit me like cold water: if fried foods in rancid oils literally age our brains at the cellular level, what are we doing to an entire generation raised in the yellow trap?

The NFL Brain Connection (Elite Athletes Can't Outwork Bad Oil)

Dr. Cate Shanahan worked as team nutritionist for the Los Angeles Lakers. When she analyzed the diets of NFL players, she found something alarming: athletes who ate more fried foods and sugar had significantly worse recovery statistics and more brain damage from impacts.

Let that sink in. These are elite humans in peak condition with access to the best medical care and training protocols money can buy. Yet the ones eating fried foods—those crispy, convenient, yellow foods—were literally damaging their brains and hampering their bodies' ability to heal.

If professional athletes can't outwork a fried-food diet, what makes us think our kids can?

Treat your child—whether they play sports or not—like the future astronaut, surgeon, artist, or scholar they might become. Feed their brain like it's precious hardware. Because it is.

The Tale of Two Oils: Ancient Wisdom vs. Industrial Accident

Not all oils are created equal. There's a world of difference between oils humans made for millennia and the ones invented in the last century.

The Ancient Way: Pressed Oils

For thousands of years, humans created oils through simple mechanical pressing. Picture stone wheels crushing olives in Mediterranean groves. Wooden presses extracting sesame oil. These traditional oils—when made properly—retained their natural antioxidants and stability because they were never subjected to extreme heat or chemical solvents.

Traditional pressed oils (when cold-pressed and unrefined):

• Extra-virgin olive oil

• Coconut oil

• Sesame oil

• Avocado oil

• Nut oils (walnut, almond)

Our ancestors didn't have the technology to damage oils—they could only extract them gently.

The Industrial Nightmare: Chemical Extraction

Then came the 20th century. The oil in most kitchens today isn't really food—it's an industrial product masquerading as nourishment.

Take canola oil, the poster child for "heart healthy" cooking. Here's what most people don't know:

Canola oil comes from the rapeseed plant, which was originally used as an industrial lubricant and to remove paint from airplanes during the World Wars. In its natural form, it contains erucic acid—a compound toxic to humans.

So scientists genetically modified the plant and renamed it "canola" (Canadian Oil, Low Acid). But even the modified version requires an industrial gauntlet to be edible:

Step 1: Extreme Heat Extraction
Seeds are heated to temperatures that immediately begin oxidizing the oil before it even reaches your kitchen.

Step 2: Chemical Solvents
Hexane—a petroleum derivative also used in gasoline—extracts the remaining oil. Most hexane is removed, but residues remain.

Step 3: Caustic Processing
Lye strips away "impurities" (which include any beneficial compounds that survived the first two steps).

Step 4: Bleaching
Clay filters and activated charcoal remove color and nutrients.

Step 5: Deodorization
Extreme heat (up to 500°F) removes the rancid smell from all this processing, creating trans fats in the process (which labeling loopholes allow companies to call "trans fat free").

Step 6: Synthetic Preservation
Chemical antioxidants like BHT and BHA are added because the oil is so damaged it would spoil immediately without them.

This is what we're calling food. This is what we're building our children's brains from.

What Happens When You Eat Industrial Oils

When you consume these damaged, oxidized fats, several devastating processes unfold:

Membrane Dysfunction
Your cell membranes incorporate whatever fats you eat. Damaged fats make membranes rigid and leaky, affecting everything from hormone sensitivity to nutrient absorption to energy production.

Oxidative Stress Amplification
Industrial oils generate free radicals that attack DNA, proteins, and cellular structures—literally aging you from the inside out.

Chronic Inflammation
Your immune system recognizes damaged oils as foreign invaders, creating chronic low-grade inflammation that underlies virtually every chronic disease.

Omega Imbalance
Most industrial oils are loaded with omega-6 fatty acids. While omega-6 isn't inherently bad, the ratio matters. Our ancestors ate omega-6 and omega-3 fats in roughly 1:1 to 4:1 ratios. Today's average? 16:1 to 20:1—a pro-inflammatory disaster.

The research is clear on optimal ratios:

• 2–4:1 ratio: 70% decrease in cardiovascular mortality

• 2.5:1 ratio: Reduced cancer cell proliferation

• 2–3:1 ratio: Suppressed inflammation in rheumatoid arthritis

When you eliminate industrial oils and choose grass-fed meats, wild fish, and traditional fats, you automatically restore the balance that supported human health for millennia.

The Restaurant Reality (Why Cooking at Home Matters)

This is why cooking at home becomes crucial for your cellular health. Most restaurants use canola or soybean oil, and the reality of commercial kitchens might shock you.

There's a telling story: college students noticed waffle fries at their local bar tasted dramatically better on certain days of the month. After investigation, they discovered this coincided with when the establishment changed their oil—only once a month.

Some high-volume restaurants change fryer oil daily. Many change it weekly. Some low-volume places only monthly. That means the oil gets more oxidized and toxic with each passing day, creating harmful compounds like aldehydes that contribute to serious health issues.

When you don't control your food preparation, you're gambling with:

• Unknown ingredients

• Mystery oil quality and age

• Cooking temperatures that may destroy beneficial compounds while creating harmful ones

That "fresh oil taste" wasn't just about flavor—it was about cellular health.

The Heat Factor: Even Good Oils Can Go Bad

Here's the crucial point: adding excessive heat to any oil can destroy beneficial compounds and create harmful ones. Even beautiful traditional oils become problematic when overheated.

Every oil has a "smoke point"—the temperature at which it begins to break down and form inflammatory compounds. When you heat olive oil beyond its smoke point, you're destroying its antioxidants and creating oxidative damage.

The Heat Hierarchy for Health:

Very High Heat (400°F+): Searing, roasting, frying

• Refined avocado oil (520°F)

• Refined coconut oil (400°F)

• Grass-fed ghee (485°F)

• Beef tallow (400°F)

Medium Heat (300–375°F): Most stovetop cooking

• Extra-virgin olive oil (350–410°F, varies by batch)

• Unrefined coconut oil (350°F)

• Grass-fed butter (350°F)

No Heat: Dressings, finishing, drizzling

• Extra-virgin olive oil

• Toasted sesame oil

• Walnut oil

• Flaxseed oil (refrigerate this one)

The difference is that some fats are naturally stable at high temperatures due to their molecular structure (saturated and monounsaturated fats), while others (polyunsaturated fats, especially omega-6-rich seed oils) should never be heated.

If your oil is smoking, you've broken it. Lower the heat or switch the fat.

The Epigenetic Legacy (Why This Matters for Generations)

The fats you eat don't just affect you—they can influence your children and even grandchildren through epigenetic mechanisms.

Research shows that fatty acid composition during pregnancy and lactation affects gene expression patterns that get passed down. Traditional cultures understood this intuitively, giving pregnant and nursing women the richest, most nutrient-dense fats available: liver, fish eggs, butter from grass-fed animals, bone marrow.

When we replaced traditional fats with industrial oils, we didn't just harm our own health—we potentially compromised the cellular health of generations to come.

The good news? Healing can be just as heritable. When you choose real fats, you're sending forward genetic bookmarks that say, "Abundance is here. We grew strong."

Recipe 3: Crispy Sweet Potato Hash (With Good Fats)

This isn't just breakfast—it's a lesson in how stable fats transform simple ingredients into cellular medicine.

Ingredients (Serves 4)

The Base:

• 2 large sweet potatoes, diced into ½-inch cubes

• 1–2 small purple potatoes, diced (optional but gorgeous—they're rich in brain-protective anthocyanins)

• 3 tablespoons avocado oil, refined coconut oil, ghee, or grass-fed butter

• 1 large onion, diced

• 1 red bell pepper, diced

• 2 cloves garlic, minced

• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika

• ½ teaspoon cumin

• Pinch of cayenne (optional)

• Sea salt and black pepper

• 2 tablespoons fresh chives or parsley, chopped

The Toppings:

• 4 pasture-raised eggs (optional, for runny-yolk "wells")

• 1 avocado, sliced

• Lemon wedge (optional finish)

The Transformation

1) Heat the pan
Set a large cast-iron or heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Cast iron retains heat evenly and develops a natural non-stick surface when properly seasoned with good fats—no industrial coatings needed.

Add your chosen fat and let it shimmer—not smoke. This is the moment when good fat becomes the medium for nourishment, not destruction.

2) Crisp the cubes
Add sweet potatoes in a single layer. Don't stir for 3–4 minutes—let a golden crust form. This caramelization creates complex flavors you simply can't achieve with industrial oils, which break down and turn bitter at high temperatures.

The stable fat conducts heat evenly while its natural antioxidants protect against oxidation, even at high heat.

3) Build flavor
Flip the potatoes and cook another 3–4 minutes. Add onion; cook 5–6 minutes, stirring occasionally, until onions are translucent and potatoes are nearly tender. The fat carries aromatic compounds throughout the dish.

4) Spice and soften
Add bell pepper, garlic, paprika, cumin, and cayenne. Cook 2–3 minutes until peppers are tender-crisp and garlic is fragrant. The stable fat extracts and distributes volatile oils from the spices without creating inflammatory compounds.

5) Egg wells (optional)
Season generously with salt and pepper. Make 4 small wells in the hash and crack eggs into them. Cover and cook 3–5 minutes until whites are set but yolks remain gloriously runny.

6) Finish
Shower with chives or parsley. Serve with sliced avocado and a squeeze of lemon. The healthy fats help your body absorb the fat-soluble vitamins from the sweet potatoes.

Why This Works (The Cellular Level)

Stable fat = crispy edges without rancid byproducts lodging in your membranes.

Color = antioxidants (beta-carotene in orange, anthocyanins in purple) that protect membranes from free radical damage.

Avocado + egg yolk = fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, K) actually absorbed instead of passing through unused.

Medium-chain fatty acids (from coconut oil) your body can use immediately for energy without creating excessive free radicals.

Vitamin K2 (from grass-fed butter/ghee) essential for bone and cardiovascular health.

Compare this to cooking with canola oil: you'd be building your cellular infrastructure from damaged, inflammatory materials. Your cell membranes would become rigid and dysfunctional, contributing to insulin resistance, hormone imbalances, and chronic inflammation.

Every bite of this hash contributes to cellular health rather than cellular damage.

The Fries Fix (Air Fryer Magic)

If you're missing regular fries, here's your bridge: slice fresh potatoes (or sweet potatoes), toss with avocado oil and sea salt, then cook in your air fryer at 390–400°F, shaking once, until crisp and golden.

You get all the satisfaction of fries with fats that actually support your cellular health—and they're golden brown, not that artificial yellow that signals industrial oil damage.

My son discovered frozen sweet potato cubes taste amazing straight from the freezer—naturally sweet and surprisingly satisfying. Sweet potatoes contain tryptophan, which helps produce serotonin and melatonin, making them genuinely great for sleep. Nature's nighttime snack!

Bonus: "Fried" Cauliflower Cakes (Hashbrown Vibes)

Mix 3 cups wrung-dry riced cauliflower with 1 egg, ¼ cup almond flour, 2 tablespoons Parmesan (optional), ½ teaspoon garlic powder, ½ teaspoon salt. Form into patties and sear in ghee or avocado oil over medium heat until golden on both sides.

Top with smoked salmon + dill yogurt, or slide under a runny egg. Crispy, satisfying, and speaking cellular healing with every bite.

Your 7-Day Oil Upgrade (Tiny, High-Leverage)

Day 1: Bin the bottle. Retire any canola, soybean, corn, safflower, or generic "vegetable" oil.

Day 2: Buy two fats—avocado oil (high heat) and extra-virgin olive oil (finishing/medium heat).

Day 3: Swap the mayo—choose avocado-oil mayo instead of seed-oil mayo.

Day 4: Pick one fryer dodge—make the sweet potato hash above or air-fry potato wedges.

Day 5: Restaurant script—"Could you cook ours in butter or olive oil? We avoid seed oils."

Day 6: Label scan habit—if a packaged food lists seed oils high on the ingredient panel, choose another brand.

Day 7: Color mandate—add one extra color to every plate. Oil + water + color = happy membranes.

For Parents & Athletes (And Concussions)

Brains recovering from impacts—or just from the daily barrage of a school day—love:

• Stable fats (ghee, coconut oil, avocado oil, grass-fed butter)

• Omega-3s (wild fish, pastured eggs, walnuts)

• Polyphenols (berries, dark chocolate, herbs)

• No fryer oils

Feed like they're in training for the life they'll live. Because they are.

The Right-Now Payoff (And the Generational One)

Switching to real fats and cutting industrial oils isn't a moral cleanse—it's a cellular upgrade.

Some changes you'll feel in days:

• Steadier energy

• Less puffiness

• Fewer cravings

• Clearer thinking

Some you bank for years:

• Resilient arteries

• Responsive hormones

• Protected neurons

• Stable inflammation

And some you send forward: Tiny bookmarks on genes that say, "We grew here. This is what nourishment looks like."

The Oil and Water Truth

Oil and water aren't enemies in your body—they're a partnership. Hydrate the inner seas. Build beautiful, fluid shores with the right fats. And cook like your membranes matter.

Because they do.

Your cell membranes are made from the fats you eat. Choose wisely. Every meal is an opportunity to build health or create dysfunction. When you cook with traditional fats that have nourished humans for millennia, you're not just avoiding harm—you're actively contributing to the vitality of every cell in your body.

This sweet potato hash isn't just breakfast. It's cellular medicine—a practice in building your body from materials that support life rather than compromise it.

The choice is profound. And it starts with what's in your pan.

Part II: CLEANSING - Removing Barriers to Health

Chapter 3: Oil and Water

Recipe 3: Crispy Sweet Potato Hash (with good fats)

🍳Breakfast bowls with a surprise... cauli cakes! (fried cauliflower *hashbrowns*)
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I know I know... how can we cook #fried foods and still be healthy? 👩🏽‍🍳
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Turns out there are ways to enjoy these foods in moderation. While cheap veggie oils actually are bad for your health, there are good oils that stand up to the heat.
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The best are:
🥥Coconut oil
🍯Butter and ghee (for pan frying)
🍶Virgin Olive oil
🥑Avocado oil
🌰Macadamia nut oil
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Truth is, high heat kills offs some vitamins. BUT Frying food may not be sooooo bad for you, if you choose the right oils, and if done in moderation. Surround it with some other good foods if you are feeling a bit too #rebellious. #keto

"The dirt on oil"

The Hidden Poison in Plain Sight

The most toxic thing in your kitchen isn't under the sink with the cleaning supplies. It's not in your medicine cabinet or garage. It's sitting right there on your counter, in a clear bottle with a cheerful label, maybe even one that claims to be "heart healthy."

The oil in your kitchen might be the most toxic thing in your house, yet we pour it freely over everything we eat.

But before we dive deeper into this story, I need to tell you something that might surprise you: this isn't about giving up the foods you love. My son eats frozen sweet potato cubes straight from the freezer like candy—they're naturally sweet, naturally satisfying, and actually great for sleep. If you miss regular fries, you can absolutely have them. Just slice fresh potatoes, toss with avocado oil, and throw them in the air fryer. This hash we're making is quite beautiful and colorful with purple potatoes and runny eggs—comfort food that actually comforts your cells.

The point isn't deprivation. It's understanding why some oils heal while others harm, so you can make choices that let you enjoy everything you love while actually building health.

The Oxygen Paradox: What Oxidation Really Means

Before we talk about oils, we need to understand something fundamental: oxidation is essentially aging in action—a molecular battle happening inside every cell in your body, every moment of every day.

Yes, we need oxygen to live, but it also deteriorates everything it touches. Think about that apple you left on the counter—the parts exposed to air turn brown first. Think about metal rusting, or food spoiling in your fridge. Oxygen transforms things, breaking them down at the molecular level.

The same process happens inside your body. During normal metabolism, your cells produce molecules called free radicals—unstable molecules missing electrons, making them desperately reactive. Think of them as molecular thieves that steal electrons from healthy cells, damaging your DNA, proteins, and cellular structures in the process.

This is where food becomes either medicine or poison.

Antioxidant-rich foods like blueberries are cellular heroes because they can donate electrons to these free radicals without becoming unstable themselves—like having enough spare change that giving some away doesn't hurt you. Meanwhile, processed foods and damaged oils work in the opposite direction, generating more free radicals while providing no antioxidants to neutralize the damage.

When you eat foods cooked in damaged oils, you're essentially choosing to age faster—not just your appearance, but your brain cells, your organs, your entire cellular infrastructure. The oxidation happens subtly, but if we know this is occurring at the microscopic level, why wouldn't we do everything possible to control it?

The Tale of Two Oils: Ancient Wisdom vs. Industrial Accident

Here's where the story gets fascinating—and where many people get confused. Not all oils are created equal. There's a world of difference between oils our ancestors made using simple, traditional methods and the industrial oils that now dominate our food supply.

The Ancient Way: Pressed Oils

For thousands of years, humans created oils through simple pressing methods. Picture ancient stone wheels crushing olives in Mediterranean groves, or wooden presses extracting oil from sesame seeds. These traditional pressed oils—when made properly—are magnificent for your health:

• Cold-pressed olive oil: Extracted without heat, retaining antioxidants and beneficial compounds

• Traditional sesame oil: Pressed from seeds, rich in natural antioxidants

• Stone-ground nut oils: Made through mechanical pressure alone

These oils retained their natural protective compounds because they were never subjected to extreme heat or chemical processing. Our ancestors didn't have the technology to damage oils—they could only extract them gently.

The Industrial Nightmare: Chemical Extraction

Then came the 20th century, and everything changed. The oil sitting in most kitchens today isn't really food at all—it's an industrial product masquerading as nourishment.

Take canola oil, the poster child for "heart healthy" cooking. Here's what most people don't know: canola oil comes from the rapeseed plant, which was originally used as an industrial lubricant and to remove paint from airplanes during the World Wars. In its natural form, it contains erucic acid—a compound toxic to humans.

So scientists genetically modified the plant and put it through an industrial process that would make your head spin:

1. Extreme Heat Extraction: Seeds are heated to temperatures that immediately begin oxidizing the oil

2. Chemical Solvents: Hexane (a petroleum derivative also used in gasoline) extracts the remaining oil

3. Caustic Processing: Lye strips away any remaining beneficial compounds

4. Bleaching: Clay filters remove color and nutrients

5. Deodorization: Extreme heat (up to 500°F) removes the rancid smell, creating trans fats in the process

6. Synthetic Preservation: Chemical antioxidants are added because the oil is so damaged it would spoil immediately

This is what we're calling food. This is what we're building our cell membranes from.

Your Brain on Industrial Oil

Here's what really got my attention as someone who values mental clarity: your brain is 60% fat. Every cell membrane in your body depends on the quality of fats you consume. When you eat industrial oils, you're literally building your brain—your most precious organ—out of damaged, inflammatory materials.

The inflammatory compounds from these oils don't just pass through your system. They lodge in your cell membranes and stay there for months, affecting everything from hormone sensitivity to nutrient absorption to cellular energy production.

Compare this to traditional fats like olive oil from ancient groves, coconut oil that's been solid at room temperature for millions of years, or butter from animals that ate grass instead of grain. When you cook with these fats, every meal becomes medicine for your brain, your hormones, and your cellular health.

The Yellow Food Trap: A Skiing Revelation

I'll never forget a family skiing trip when I sat down in the lodge cafeteria and looked around at what everyone was eating. Everything—and I mean everything—was some shade of yellow. The chicken tenders, the french fries, the onion rings, even the meat patties had that telltale golden-yellow coating that screams "deep fried in cheap oil."

This wasn't just one random ski lodge. This is everywhere now—airports, food courts, school cafeterias, most restaurants. We've created a world where the majority of available food has been dunked in industrial oil and turned various shades of yellow. It's the default American meal, especially for kids.

And here's what really hit me: if fried foods literally age our brains at the cellular level, what are we doing to an entire generation raised on this yellow food trap?

The NFL Brain Connection

Dr. Catherine Shanahan, author of Deep Nutrition, worked with the Los Angeles Lakers as their nutritionist and made a disturbing discovery that applies to all of us. When she analyzed the diets of NFL players, she found that those who ate more fried foods and sugar had significantly worse recovery statistics and more brain damage.

Think about that: these are elite athletes in peak physical condition, with access to the best medical care money can buy. Yet the ones eating fried foods—those yellow, crispy, convenient foods that taste so good—were literally damaging their brains and hampering their bodies' ability to heal.

If professional athletes can't outwork a diet high in fried foods, what makes us think we can? What makes us think our children can?

The Restaurant Reality: Why Home Cooking Matters

This is precisely why cooking at home becomes so crucial for your health. Most restaurants use canola oil in their cooking, and the reality of commercial kitchen practices might shock you.

There's a telling story that illustrates what's happening behind restaurant doors: college students noticed that waffle fries at their local bar tasted dramatically better on certain days of the month. After investigation, they discovered this coincided with when the establishment changed their oil—only once a month!

While some high-volume restaurants change fryer oil daily, many operations change it weekly, and some low-volume places only monthly. That means the oil gets more oxidized and toxic with each passing day, creating harmful compounds like aldehydes that could contribute to serious health issues.

That "fresh oil taste" those students noticed wasn't just about flavor—it was about cellular health. When you don't control your food preparation, you're gambling with unknown ingredients, mystery oil ages, and cooking temperatures that may be destroying beneficial compounds while creating harmful ones.

Breaking Free from Yellow Food

The good news? We can absolutely do better. We can create foods that satisfy those same cravings for crispy, golden, comforting textures without destroying our cellular health in the process. We can get past the yellow trap that most kids' foods fall into.

The Heat Factor: Even Good Oils Can Go Bad

Here's the crucial point that ties everything together: adding excessive heat to any oil can destroy beneficial compounds and create harmful ones. Even beautiful traditional oils can become problematic when overheated.

Every oil has a "smoke point"—the temperature at which it begins to break down and form inflammatory compounds. When you heat olive oil beyond its smoke point, you're destroying its beneficial antioxidants and creating the same oxidative damage that makes industrial oils so harmful.

This is why choosing the right oil for the right application matters so much:

For high-heat cooking (above 400°F): Use naturally stable fats like refined avocado oil or refined coconut oil For medium-heat cooking (300-400°F): Extra virgin olive oil, unrefined coconut oil, or grass-fed butter work beautifully For salads and finishing: Any cold-pressed oil shines when not heated

The difference is that some oils are naturally stable at high temperatures due to their molecular structure, while others should never be heated at all.

The Omega Imbalance: How We Broke Our Cellular Communication

Industrial oils aren't just creating oxidative damage—they're fundamentally disrupting the balance of essential fatty acids that our bodies need to function properly.

Human beings evolved eating omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids in roughly equal amounts—somewhere around 1:1 to 4:1. Today's ratio is about 16:1 to 20:1, creating a pro-inflammatory environment in our bodies.

This dramatic shift happened because we're eating massive amounts of industrial seed oils loaded with omega-6s, while simultaneously reducing our intake of omega-3 rich foods like wild fish and grass-fed animals.

Why This Ratio Matters:

• 2-4:1 ratio: Associated with 70% decrease in cardiovascular mortality

• 2.5:1 ratio: Reduced cancer cell proliferation

• 2-3:1 ratio: Suppressed inflammation in rheumatoid arthritis

The beautiful truth is that when we return to traditional fats and properly raised animals, we automatically restore the fatty acid balance that supported human health for millennia.

Recipe 4: Crispy Sweet Potato Hash (with good fats)

This isn't just breakfast—it's a lesson in how good fats can transform simple ingredients into something deeply nourishing and satisfying. And yes, it's absolutely delicious.

The Foundation:

• 2 large sweet potatoes (try mixing in some purple potatoes for gorgeous color!)

• 1 regular potato (if you miss the classic taste)

• 3 tablespoons coconut oil, grass-fed butter, or avocado oil

• 1 large onion, diced

• 1 red bell pepper, diced

• 2 cloves garlic, minced

• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika

• 1/2 teaspoon cumin

• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)

• Sea salt and black pepper to taste

• 2 tablespoons fresh chives, chopped

• 4 pasture-raised eggs (for those beautiful runny yolks)

• 1 avocado, sliced (for serving)

The Transformation:

Preparing the Canvas

Heat a large cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Cast iron is ideal here because it retains heat evenly and develops a natural non-stick surface when properly seasoned with good fats—no industrial coatings needed.

Cut your sweet potatoes (and regular potatoes if using) into 1/2-inch cubes. The purple potatoes create the most stunning color contrast against the orange sweet potatoes—like edible jewels.

The Foundation of Flavor

Add your chosen fat to the hot pan and let it melt completely, watching as it shimmers. This is the moment when good fat becomes the medium for transformation, not destruction.

Add the diced potatoes to the hot fat. Here's the key: don't stir immediately. Let them sit for 3-4 minutes to develop that golden crust we're all craving. This caramelization creates complex flavors and textures that you simply can't achieve with industrial oils, which break down and become bitter at high temperatures.

The stable fats conduct heat evenly, ensuring the potatoes cook through while developing that perfect crispy exterior that makes hash irresistible.

Layering the Medicine

Once the potatoes have a golden crust on one side, stir them and add the diced onion. The fat carries aromatic compounds throughout the dish, creating layers of flavor that penetrate each ingredient.

Cook for 5-6 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the sweet potatoes are nearly tender and the onions are translucent. Watch how the purple potatoes hold their color—they're rich in anthocyanins, the same brain-protective compounds found in blueberries.

The Aromatic Awakening

Add the bell pepper, garlic, and spices. The stable fats help extract and distribute the volatile oils from the spices without creating inflammatory compounds. Cook for 3-4 minutes until peppers are tender-crisp and garlic is fragrant.

The Final Touch

Season generously with salt and pepper, then sprinkle with fresh chives. Create small wells in the hash and crack the eggs into them—those runny yolks will become a rich, golden sauce that ties everything together.

Cover the pan and cook for 3-5 minutes, until the egg whites are set but yolks remain gloriously runny.

The Finishing Grace

Serve immediately, topped with sliced avocado. The healthy fats help your body absorb the fat-soluble vitamins from the sweet potatoes while providing additional antioxidants and anti-inflammatory compounds.

The Science of True Satisfaction

Notice how this dish satisfies you in a way that low-fat foods never could. This isn't just psychological—it's biochemical.

Good fats trigger the release of satiety hormones like CCK and leptin, which signal to your brain that you've been truly nourished. They slow gastric emptying, keeping you satisfied for hours without the blood sugar crashes that send you searching for snacks.

The fat-soluble vitamins in the sweet potatoes—vitamins A, E, and K—can only be absorbed in the presence of fat. Without adequate fat in this meal, you'd be missing much of the nutritional value, no matter how many vegetables you ate.

For the Fries Lovers: Breaking the Yellow Spell

If you're missing regular fries, this hash bridges that gap beautifully. Or try this simple swap: slice fresh potatoes, toss with avocado oil and sea salt, then cook in your air fryer until crispy. You get all the satisfaction of fries with fats that actually support your cellular health—and they're golden brown, not that artificial yellow that signals industrial oil damage.

My son discovered that frozen sweet potato cubes taste amazing straight from the freezer—naturally sweet and surprisingly satisfying. Sweet potatoes contain tryptophan, which helps produce serotonin and melatonin, making them genuinely great for sleep. Nature's nighttime snack!

The goal isn't to eliminate crispy, golden foods from our lives—it's to make them with ingredients that love us back. When you use stable fats like avocado oil or coconut oil, you can achieve beautiful golden colors and satisfying textures without the cellular damage that comes from industrial oils heated to extreme temperatures.

The Membrane Medicine

Every bite of this hash contributes to your cellular health rather than undermining it. The coconut oil provides medium-chain fatty acids that your body can use immediately for energy. The butter (if from grass-fed animals) supplies vitamin K2, essential for bone and cardiovascular health.

These good fats become part of your cellular structure, making your cell membranes more fluid and functional. This improves insulin sensitivity, hormone responsiveness, and cellular energy production.

Compare this to cooking with industrial oils: you're literally building your cellular infrastructure from damaged, inflammatory materials that contribute to dysfunction and accelerated aging.

Making the Switch: A Revolutionary Act

Transitioning away from industrial oils is one of the most powerful things you can do for long-term health:

For High-Heat Cooking: Replace canola, vegetable, and corn oils with refined avocado oil or refined coconut oil

For Medium-Heat Cooking: Use extra virgin olive oil (keeping it under 350°F) or unrefined coconut oil

For Salads and Finishing: Choose extra virgin olive oil or cold-pressed oils instead of industrial seed oil-based dressings

Read Labels: Avoid processed foods containing soybean, canola, corn, safflower, or sunflower oils

Cook at Home: This gives you complete control over oil quality, temperature, and freshness—something you can never guarantee when eating out

The Ripple Effects of Real Nutrition

As you make this switch, you'll likely notice several changes:

Stable Energy: Good fats provide sustained energy without crashes Clearer Skin: Cell membranes heal and inflammation decreases
Better Mood: Your brain gets proper building materials for neurotransmitter production Enhanced Satiety: You feel satisfied longer with fewer cravings Improved Sleep: Stable blood sugar and reduced inflammation support better rest

The Generational Gift

The fats you eat don't just affect you—they can influence your children and even grandchildren through epigenetic mechanisms. Traditional cultures understood this intuitively, giving pregnant and nursing women the richest, most nutrient-dense fats available.

When we replaced traditional fats with industrial oils, we didn't just harm our own health—we potentially compromised the cellular health of generations to come.

The Oil and Water Truth

Your cell membranes are made from the fats you eat. Every meal is an opportunity to build health or create dysfunction. When you cook with traditional fats that have nourished humans for millennia, you're not just avoiding harm—you're actively contributing to the vitality of every cell in your body.

This sweet potato hash isn't just breakfast—it's cellular medicine, a practice in building your body from materials that support life rather than compromise it. Every golden, crispy bite contributes to membrane health, hormone function, brain vitality, and the kind of deep satisfaction that comes from truly nourishing your body.

The choice is profound: you can build your body with damaged industrial materials that accelerate aging, or nourish it with traditional fats that have sustained human health for thousands of years. Your cells—and future generations—will reflect whichever path you choose.

Choose wisely. Your cellular health depends on it.

——-

Old: The Hidden Poison in Plain Sight

The most toxic thing in your kitchen isn't under the sink with the cleaning supplies. It's not in your medicine cabinet or garage. It's sitting right there on your counter, in a clear bottle with a cheerful label, maybe even one that claims to be "heart healthy."

The oil in your kitchen might be the most toxic thing in your house, yet we pour it freely over everything we eat.

But before we dive deeper, we need to understand something fundamental: what oxidation means, and why it's so devastating to our health.

The Oxygen Paradox: Understanding Cellular Warfare

Oxidation is essentially aging in action—a molecular battle happening inside every cell in your body, every moment of every day. Yes, we need oxygen to live, but it also deteriorates everything it touches. Think about that apple you left on the counter—the parts exposed to air turn brown first. Think about metal rusting, or food spoiling in your fridge. Oxygen transforms things, breaking them down at the molecular level.

The same process happens inside your body, but the science behind it is more fascinating and frightening than most people realize.

The Free Radical Chain Reaction

Here's what's actually happening at the cellular level: Your body naturally produces molecules called free radicals during normal metabolic processes—they're simply byproducts of converting food into energy, like molecular "sparks" created when your cellular engines burn fuel. Free radicals are molecules missing electrons, making them desperately unstable.

Think of them as molecular thieves. When free radicals can't find what they need, they steal electrons from healthy cells in your body. When they do this, those previously stable molecules become unstable themselves, creating a devastating chain reaction of cellular damage.

This process damages the fats in your cell membranes, the proteins that make your tissues function, and even your DNA itself. The damage accumulates over time, leading to everything from wrinkled skin to organ dysfunction to chronic diseases like cancer, diabetes, and Alzheimer's.

Eating foods cooked in damaged oils is essentially the number one way to age faster—not just your appearance, but your brain cells, your organs, your entire cellular infrastructure. When oils oxidize in your brain—caused by these damaged fats under high heat—they cause brain cells to break down. It's subtle, but if we know this is happening at the microscopic level, why wouldn't we do everything possible to control it?

The Antioxidant Defense System

This is where foods like blueberries become cellular heroes. They're called "antioxidants" because they literally slow this aging process. Antioxidants are stable enough to donate one of their electrons to a rampaging free radical, neutralizing it without becoming unstable themselves. Think of blueberries as tiny cellular bodyguards, standing between your DNA and the oxidative forces that would break it down.

But antioxidants do more than just neutralize individual free radicals. They enhance your body's own defense systems by boosting the production of protective enzymes like superoxide dismutase, catalase, and glutathione peroxidase. They help your cells repair damage and prevent future harm.

Meanwhile, processed foods work in the opposite direction. They provide calories that create free radicals during energy production, but contain no antioxidants to neutralize the damage. It's like pouring gasoline on a fire while removing all the firefighters.

The Mitochondrial Error Rate

Here's where the science gets really fascinating: During normal energy production in your cells' powerhouses (mitochondria), a 1-5% error rate occurs in transferring electrons between cellular components. These "energy production errors" create superoxide free radicals. When you're under stress—whether from poor diet, environmental toxins, or emotional stress—this error rate increases significantly.

Antioxidant-rich foods provide the materials your mitochondria need to minimize these errors and neutralize the free radicals that do form. Processed foods increase the workload on your mitochondria while providing no protective compounds. The cumulative effect determines whether your cells age rapidly or maintain their function over time.

The Great Oil Deception: Traditional vs. Industrial

Here's where the story gets interesting—and where many people get confused. Not all oils are created equal. There's a world of difference between oils our ancestors made using simple, traditional methods and the industrial oils that now dominate our food supply.

The Ancient Way: Pressed Oils

For thousands of years, humans created oils through simple pressing methods. Picture ancient stone wheels crushing olives in Mediterranean groves, or wooden presses extracting oil from sesame seeds. These traditional pressed oils—when made properly—are magnificent and highly healthy:

• Cold-pressed olive oil: Extracted without heat, retaining antioxidants and beneficial compounds

• Traditional sesame oil: Pressed from seeds, rich in natural antioxidants

• Stone-ground nut oils: Made through mechanical pressure alone

These oils retained their natural protective compounds because they were never subjected to extreme heat or chemical processing. Our ancestors didn't have the technology to damage oils—they could only extract them gently.

The Industrial Nightmare: Chemical Extraction

Then came the 20th century, and everything changed. The oil sitting in most kitchens today isn't really food at all—it's an industrial product masquerading as nourishment.

Take canola oil, the poster child for "heart healthy" cooking. Here's what most people don't know: canola oil is a completely man-made substance that was originally created to remove paint from airplanes during the World Wars. Its real name is rapeseed oil, and in its natural form, it contains erucic acid—a compound toxic to humans.

So scientists genetically modified the rapeseed plant and put it through an industrial gauntlet that would make your head spin:

1. Extreme Heat Extraction: Seeds are heated to temperatures that immediately begin oxidizing the oil, creating free radicals before it even reaches your kitchen

2. Chemical Solvents: Hexane (a petroleum derivative also used in gasoline) extracts the remaining oil

3. Caustic Processing: Lye strips away any remaining beneficial compounds

4. Bleaching: Clay filters and activated charcoal remove color and "impurities" (often nutrients)

5. Deodorization: Extreme heat (up to 500°F) removes the rancid smell from all this processing, creating trans fats in the process

6. Synthetic Preservation: Chemical antioxidants like BHT and BHA are added because the oil is so damaged it would immediately spoil without them

This is what we're calling food. This is what we're building our cell membranes from.

The Science of Food-Induced Aging

Recent research has revealed the precise mechanisms by which certain foods accelerate the aging process while others protect against it:

Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs)

When refined carbohydrates integrate with proteins in your body, they create Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs)—essentially "caramelized" proteins that become stiff and dysfunctional. This process literally ages your tissues from the inside out.

Sugar and high-heat cooking are the primary drivers of AGE formation. Foods like fried potatoes, baked goods made with refined flour, and anything cooked at high temperatures in damaged oils create these aging compounds that accumulate in your skin, blood vessels, and organs.

The Ultra-Processed Food Problem

Ultra-processed foods accelerate aging through multiple mechanisms:

• Nutrient Depletion: They provide calories without antioxidants, forcing your body to use its own antioxidant reserves to process the energy

• Inflammatory Compounds: High-temperature processing creates toxic compounds that increase oxidative stress and inflammation

• Gut Microbiome Disruption: Processing destroys beneficial fiber and nutrients while adding chemicals that promote harmful bacteria

• Chemical Load: Preservatives, emulsifiers, and artificial additives interfere with cellular function and hormone regulation

Studies show that people consuming more than 14% of their calories from ultra-processed foods experience accelerated biological aging—their bodies age faster than their chronological age would indicate.

The Membrane Medicine Connection

Your cell membranes are made from the fats you eat. When you consume damaged, oxidized fats, your cell membranes become rigid and dysfunctional, affecting:

• Nutrient absorption and waste removal

• Hormone sensitivity and cellular communication

• Energy production and cellular repair

• Inflammatory response and immune function

This cellular damage can even be passed down through generations via epigenetic mechanisms, meaning the industrial oils consumed today could compromise the health of children not yet born.

The Heat Factor: Even Good Oils Can Go Bad

Here's the crucial point that ties everything together: adding excessive heat to any oil can destroy beneficial compounds and create harmful ones. Even those beautiful traditional oils can become problematic when overheated.

Every oil has a "smoke point"—the temperature at which it begins to break down and form inflammatory compounds. When you heat olive oil beyond its smoke point, you're destroying its beneficial antioxidants and creating the same oxidative damage that makes industrial oils so harmful.

This is why choosing the right oil for the right application matters so much:

• For high-heat cooking: Use naturally stable fats like coconut oil, grass-fed butter, or avocado oil

• For medium-heat cooking: Extra virgin olive oil works beautifully

• For salads and finishing: Any cold-pressed oil shines when not heated

The difference is that some oils, like coconut oil and grass-fed butter, are naturally stable at high temperatures due to their molecular structure. Others, like delicate seed oils, should never be heated at all.

The Epigenetic Legacy: Why This Matters for Generations

Here's perhaps the most sobering truth: the oils you consume don't just affect you—they can influence your children and even your grandchildren through epigenetic mechanisms. Research reveals that if we focused on just two changes—removing sugar and canola oil from our diets—our entire gene pool would improve dramatically, along with our life expectancies and vitality.

The fatty acid composition of your diet can alter gene expression patterns that get passed down to future generations. Traditional cultures understood this intuitively, giving pregnant and nursing women the richest, most nutrient-dense fats available—liver, fish eggs, butter from grass-fed animals. They understood that these fats were building blocks for developing brains and nervous systems.

The Inflammatory Cascade: When Good Systems Go Bad

When you consume oxidized, industrial oils, several devastating processes unfold:

Membrane Dysfunction: Damaged fats get incorporated into cell membranes, making them rigid and leaky. This affects everything from nutrient absorption to hormone sensitivity to cellular energy production.

Oxidative Stress Amplification: Industrial oils generate free radicals that attack DNA, proteins, and cellular structures—literally aging you from the inside out while depleting your antioxidant reserves.

Chronic Inflammation: The immune system recognizes damaged oils as foreign invaders, creating a state of chronic low-grade inflammation that contributes to virtually every chronic disease.

Endocrine Disruption: Chemical residues from processing interfere with hormone production and signaling, affecting everything from thyroid function to reproductive health to insulin sensitivity.

Recipe 4: Crispy Sweet Potato Hash (with good fats)

This recipe demonstrates how traditional fats can transform simple ingredients into cellular medicine—food that actively contributes to health rather than damage.

The Foundation

• 2 large sweet potatoes, diced into 1/2-inch cubes

• 3 tablespoons coconut oil or grass-fed butter

• 1 large onion, diced

• 1 red bell pepper, diced

• 2 cloves garlic, minced

• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika

• 1/2 teaspoon cumin

• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)

• Sea salt and black pepper to taste

• 2 tablespoons fresh chives, chopped

• 4 pasture-raised eggs (optional)

• 1 avocado, sliced (for serving)

The Transformation

Preparing the Canvas: Heat a cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Cast iron retains heat evenly and develops a natural non-stick surface when properly seasoned with good fats—no industrial coatings needed.

Add coconut oil or butter and let it melt completely, watching as it shimmers. This is good fat becoming the medium for nourishment, not destruction.

Building the Foundation: Add sweet potatoes to the hot fat. Let them sit for 3-4 minutes to develop a golden crust. The stable fats conduct heat evenly while their natural antioxidants protect against oxidation, even at high temperatures.

Unlike industrial oils that break down and become bitter when heated, coconut oil and grass-fed butter maintain their beneficial properties, actually enhancing the nutritional value of the vegetables.

Layering the Flavors: Add onion and cook 5-6 minutes. The fat carries aromatic compounds throughout the dish while helping extract fat-soluble vitamins from the vegetables.

The Aromatic Awakening: Add bell pepper, garlic, and spices. Cook 3-4 minutes until peppers are tender-crisp. The stable fats help extract and distribute volatile oils from the spices without creating inflammatory compounds.

The Final Touch: Season with salt, pepper, and chives. Create wells for eggs if using, cover, and cook 3-5 minutes until whites are set but yolks remain runny.

The Finishing Grace: Serve with sliced avocado. The healthy fats help your body absorb fat-soluble vitamins while providing additional antioxidants and anti-inflammatory compounds.

The Science of Cellular Nutrition

Every bite of this hash contributes to cellular health rather than cellular damage. Here's what's happening at the molecular level:

Antioxidant Protection: Sweet potatoes provide beta-carotene and other carotenoids that protect cell membranes from free radical damage. The stable cooking fats ensure these antioxidants aren't destroyed during cooking.

Membrane Medicine: Coconut oil provides medium-chain fatty acids that your body can use immediately for energy without creating excessive free radicals. Grass-fed butter supplies vitamin K2, essential for bone and cardiovascular health.

Anti-Inflammatory Action: The combination of antioxidant-rich vegetables cooked in stable fats creates compounds that actively reduce inflammation rather than promote it.

Sustained Energy: Good fats trigger satiety hormones and slow gastric emptying, providing steady energy without blood sugar spikes that create oxidative stress.

Compare this to cooking with industrial oils: you're literally building your cellular infrastructure from damaged, inflammatory materials that contribute to dysfunction and accelerated aging.

The Hidden Restaurant Reality: Why Cooking at Home Matters

This is precisely why cooking at home becomes so crucial for your health. Most restaurants use canola oil in their cooking, and the reality of commercial kitchen practices might shock you.

In college, some of my friends noticed that waffle fries at their local bar tasted dramatically better on certain days of the month. After some investigation, they discovered this was when the establishment changed out their oil—only once a month! The connection between oil freshness and taste quality reveals a deeper truth about what's happening in commercial kitchens.

Restaurants typically change their fryer oil weekly, but high-volume establishments often need to replace it daily, while some low-volume operations may only change it once a month. That means the oil gets more oxidized and toxic with each passing day.

The Regulatory Reality: While the USDA provides guidelines for safe deep frying temperatures (between 340-355°F), there are surprisingly few federal regulations specifically requiring restaurants to change fryer oil at set intervals. The decision of when to change oil is largely left to restaurant management, with guidelines suggesting they monitor for signs like darkening color, smoking, foaming, or off-flavors.

What This Means for Your Health: As oil breaks down over time, it creates unpleasant smells, affects food quality, and can impact the safety of the cooking process. Frying at higher temperatures makes oil go bad quicker, creating harmful substances like aldehydes, which could cause serious health issues, including cancer.

When you don't control your food preparation, you're gambling with:

• Unknown ingredients and whether they're organic

• Mystery oils that could be heavily processed and oxidized

• Oil age that could range from fresh to weeks old

• Cooking temperatures that may be destroying beneficial compounds

That "fresh oil taste" you noticed wasn't just about flavor—it was about cellular health. Fresh oil maintains better temperature stability, creates less smoke, and doesn't form the harmful compounds that develop in degraded oil.

The Smoke Point Science: Choosing Your Oils Wisely

Many people focus on smoke points as the primary factor in oil selection, suggesting that oils with higher smoke points (like grapeseed oil at 421°F) are automatically better. But the science reveals a more nuanced truth.

High-Heat Champions (Above 400°F):

• Refined Avocado Oil: 480-520°F - The clear winner for high-heat cooking, with a neutral flavor and beneficial monounsaturated fats

• Refined Coconut Oil: 400°F - Stable saturated fats that resist oxidation

Medium-Heat Heroes (325-400°F):

• Extra Virgin Olive Oil: 350-410°F (varies by batch) - Despite the moderate smoke point, olive oil has excellent thermal stability due to its antioxidants and monounsaturated fat content

• Unrefined Coconut Oil: 350°F - Perfect for medium-heat cooking while retaining beneficial compounds

The Temperature Sweet Spot: Your instinct about 350°F for olive oil is spot-on. Olive oil and coconut oil should be used at temperatures below 350°F to prevent oxidation and preserve their beneficial compounds.

Why Smoke Point Isn't Everything: While grapeseed oil has a high smoke point, it's high in inflammatory omega-6 fatty acids and has poor thermal stability, making it inferior to oils like olive oil despite the lower smoke point. Olive oil, coconut oil, and avocado oil are considered the healthiest cooking oils due to their beneficial fatty acid profiles and antioxidant content.

The Heat Hierarchy for Health:

1. For high-heat cooking (above 400°F): Refined avocado oil or refined coconut oil

2. For medium-heat cooking (300-400°F): Extra virgin olive oil, unrefined coconut oil, or grass-fed butter

3. For low-heat or finishing: Cold-pressed oils like extra virgin olive oil, flaxseed oil, or walnut oil

Making the Switch: A Revolutionary Act

Transitioning away from industrial oils is one of the most powerful things you can do for cellular health:

For High-Heat Cooking: Replace canola, vegetable, and corn oils with refined avocado oil or refined coconut oil.

For Medium-Heat Cooking: Use extra virgin olive oil (keeping it under 350°F) or unrefined coconut oil.

For Salads and Finishing: Use extra virgin olive oil, avocado oil, or other cold-pressed oils instead of industrial seed oil-based dressings.

Read Labels: Avoid processed foods containing soybean, canola, corn, safflower, or sunflower oils.

Choose Quality: Buy cold-pressed, unrefined oils from reputable sources that haven't undergone chemical processing.

Cook at Home: This gives you complete control over oil quality, temperature, and freshness—something you can never guarantee when eating out.

The Ripple Effects of Real Nutrition

As you make this switch, you'll likely notice several changes at the cellular level:

Stable Energy: Good fats provide sustained energy without the crashes associated with high-carb, low-fat meals that create oxidative stress.

Better Skin: Cell membranes heal and inflammation decreases, leading to clearer, more supple skin.

Improved Mood: Your brain gets proper building materials for neurotransmitter production and healthy neural membranes.

Enhanced Satiety: You feel satisfied longer and have fewer cravings for processed foods that create oxidative damage.

Better Nutrient Absorption: Fat-soluble vitamins are absorbed more effectively, improving overall antioxidant status.

The Antioxidant Army: Foods That Fight Back

While eliminating damaged oils is crucial, actively including antioxidant-rich foods amplifies your cellular protection:

Vitamin C powerhouses: Broccoli, blueberries, bell peppers, and citrus fruits provide compounds that directly neutralize free radicals and regenerate other antioxidants.

Vitamin E sources: Almonds, avocados, and leafy greens protect cell membranes from oxidative damage.

Polyphenol-rich foods: Berries, dark chocolate, and green tea contain compounds that enhance your body's own antioxidant enzyme production.

Carotenoid providers: Orange and red vegetables supply beta-carotene and other compounds that protect against UV damage and support cellular repair.

The Oil and Water Truth

Your cell membranes are made from the fats you eat. Choose wisely—every meal is an opportunity to build health or create dysfunction. When you cook with traditional fats that have nourished humans for millennia while including antioxidant-rich whole foods, you're not just avoiding harm—you're actively contributing to the health of every cell in your body.

This sweet potato hash isn't just breakfast—it's cellular medicine, a practice in building your body from materials that support life rather than compromise it. Every golden, crispy bite is contributing to membrane health, antioxidant status, hormone function, and brain vitality.

The choice is profound: you can build your body with damaged industrial materials that accelerate aging, or nourish it with traditional fats and antioxidant-rich foods that have sustained human health for thousands of years. Your cells—and the cells of future generations—will reflect whichever path you choose.

The science is clear: food isn't just fuel—it's information that tells your cells whether to age rapidly or maintain their vitality. Every meal is a chance to choose cellular medicine over cellular damage, health over dysfunction, vitality over accelerated aging.

Choose wisely. Your future self will thank you.

Older: Chapter 4: Oil and Water

Recipe 4: Crispy Sweet Potato Hash (with good fats)

The oil in your kitchen might be the most toxic thing in your house, yet we pour it freely over everything we eat. Industrial seed oils—canola especially- but also those beloved vegetable oils- were never meant to withstand high heat. They often become oxidized before they even reach your pantry, then oxidize further every time they're heated.

Before we get too deep, we have to explain something. What does oxidization mean, and why is it so bad? Oxidation essentially causes aging. Yes- we need oxygen, but it also deteriorates things. We need in managed correctly, under perfect temperatures. Think about that food you put in your fridge overnight- the stuff that touches oxygen is what ages faster. It tastes weird, and gets moldy faster. It starts to become part of the environment- transformed into something else- just by touching air. The foods we eat cause this oxygination process to happen faster or slower. Eating fried foods is essentially the number 1 thing to eat if you want to look older- sooner. But it is more than looks. Oxygenation in the brain- still caused by these oils under high heat- causes our brain cells to break down. All this is very subtle, but if we know this is what it does, on microscale, why not do our best to control it?

So these oils are creating inflammatory compounds that lodge in your cell membranes and stay there for years. Your brain is 60% fat; your hormones are made from fat; every cell membrane in your body depends on the quality of fats you consume. This isn't about avoiding fat—it's about choosing fats that heal rather than harm, fats that have nourished humans for millennia: olive oil pressed from ancient groves, coconut oil that's been solid at room temperature for millions of years, butter from animals that ate grass instead of grain. When you cook with good fats, every meal becomes medicine for your brain, your hormones, and your cellular health.

Chapter 4: Oil and Water

Recipe 4: Crispy Sweet Potato Hash (with good fats)

The Hidden Poison in Plain Sight

The most toxic thing in your kitchen isn't under the sink with the cleaning supplies. It's not in your medicine cabinet or garage. It's sitting right there on your counter, in a clear bottle with a cheerful label, maybe even one that claims to be "heart healthy."

The oil in your kitchen might be the most toxic thing in your house, yet we pour it freely over everything we eat.

Industrial seed oils—canola, soybean, corn, safflower—are oxidized before they even reach your pantry, then oxidize further every time they're heated, creating inflammatory compounds that lodge in your cell membranes and stay there for years. These oils undergo processing so intense, so far removed from anything resembling food, that they require chemical solvents to extract, deodorizers to make them palatable, and synthetic antioxidants to keep them from going rancid on the shelf.

Your brain is 60% fat. Your hormones are made from fat. Every cell membrane in your body depends on the quality of fats you consume. When you eat industrial oils, you're literally building your body—your brain, your hormones, your cellular infrastructure—out of damaged, inflammatory materials.

This isn't about avoiding fat—it's about choosing fats that heal rather than harm, fats that have nourished humans for millennia: olive oil pressed from ancient groves, coconut oil that's been solid at room temperature for millions of years, butter from animals that ate grass instead of grain.

The Great Fat Deception

Somewhere in the mid-20th century, we made one of the greatest nutritional mistakes in human history. We decided that the fats our ancestors had eaten for thousands of years—animal fats, olive oil, coconut oil—were dangerous, and that newly invented industrial oils were somehow healthier.

This wasn't based on solid science. It was based on a combination of flawed studies, industrial influence, and the seductive appeal of technological solutions to biological problems. The same mindset that gave us margarine instead of butter, artificial sweeteners instead of honey, and processed foods instead of real food.

The tragedy is that this switch from traditional fats to industrial oils coincided perfectly with the rise of chronic diseases that had been rare throughout human history. Heart disease, diabetes, obesity, autoimmune conditions, mental health disorders—all skyrocketed as we replaced the fats that had sustained human health for millennia with oils that required factories to create.

But the food industry had invested billions in these new oils, and admitting they were harmful would have meant admitting to one of the greatest public health disasters in modern history. So instead, they doubled down, funding studies that showed correlation without causation, creating marketing campaigns that convinced us that "light" and "processed" were somehow better than "rich" and "natural."

The Anatomy of Industrial Oil

Let's talk about what canola oil actually is, because the story reveals why some oils are problematic while others aren't.

Canola oil comes from the rapeseed plant, which was originally used as an industrial lubricant and pesticide. The oil from wild rapeseed contains high levels of erucic acid, which is toxic to humans. So scientists genetically modified the plant to reduce erucic acid levels and rebranded it as "canola" (Canadian Oil, Low Acid).

But even the modified version requires extreme processing to be edible—and this is where it differs from traditional seed oils that our ancestors made through simple crushing methods.

Traditional seed oils like sesame oil, walnut oil, or flaxseed oil were made by crushing seeds and pressing out the oil. These oils, when made through cold-pressing, retain their natural antioxidants and remain stable at room temperature. They've been used for thousands of years without industrial processing.

Industrial seed oils like canola require a completely different process:

Step 1: Seeds are heated to extremely high temperatures, which begins the oxidation process before the oil is even extracted.

Step 2: The oil is extracted using hexane, a petroleum-derived chemical solvent that's also used in gasoline. While most of the hexane is supposedly removed, residues remain.

Step 3: The oil is refined using caustic soda (lye) to remove impurities, which also removes any beneficial compounds that might have survived the first two steps.

Step 4: The oil is bleached using clay filters and activated charcoal to remove color and more impurities.

Step 5: The oil is deodorized using high heat (up to 500°F) to remove the rancid smell that results from all this processing. This step creates trans fats, even though the label will say "trans fat free" due to labeling loopholes.

Step 6: Synthetic antioxidants like BHT and BHA are added to prevent further oxidation, because the oil is so unstable it would go rancid immediately without them.

The key difference is that rapeseed/canola oil is inherently unstable and requires all this processing just to be edible, while traditional seed oils can be safely consumed when made through simple crushing methods—though many become unstable when heated to high temperatures.

The Heat Problem: Even good oils can become problematic when overheated. Each oil has what's called a "smoke point"—the temperature at which it begins to break down and form harmful compounds. Traditional oils like sesame or walnut oil are wonderful for salad dressings or low-heat cooking, but become inflammatory when heated beyond their smoke point.

This is why choosing the right oil for the right application matters so much—and why some oils, like coconut oil and grass-fed butter, are better choices for high-heat cooking due to their naturally stable structure.

This is what we're calling food. This is what we're using to cook for our families, what we're putting in our children's bodies, what we're building our cell membranes from.

The Inflammatory Cascade

When you consume industrial seed oils, several things happen in your body that create long-term health problems:

Membrane Dysfunction: Your cell membranes incorporate whatever fats you eat. When you eat damaged, oxidized fats, your cell membranes become less fluid, less permeable, less able to function properly. This affects everything from hormone sensitivity to nutrient absorption to cellular energy production.

Oxidative Stress: Industrial oils are prone to oxidation, especially when heated. When you cook with these oils, you're creating compounds that generate free radicals in your body—unstable molecules that damage DNA, proteins, and other cellular structures.

Inflammatory Imbalance: Most industrial oils are extremely high in omega-6 fatty acids. While omega-6 fats aren't inherently bad, the ratio matters. Our ancestors ate omega-6 and omega-3 fats in roughly equal amounts. Today, most people consume 10-20 times more omega-6 than omega-3, creating a pro-inflammatory environment in the body.

Endocrine Disruption: Many industrial oils contain compounds that interfere with hormone production and signaling. This can affect everything from thyroid function to reproductive hormones to insulin sensitivity.

The Traditional Wisdom

For thousands of years, humans thrived using traditional fats:

Olive Oil: Cold-pressed from olives, rich in monounsaturated fats and antioxidants, stable at moderate cooking temperatures, associated with longevity and reduced disease risk in Mediterranean populations.

Coconut Oil: Extracted from coconut meat, rich in medium-chain fatty acids that are easily metabolized for energy, naturally antimicrobial, stable at high temperatures.

Animal Fats: Butter, lard, tallow from healthy animals, containing fat-soluble vitamins and cholesterol (which your body needs for hormone production), stable for cooking, deeply satisfying.

Avocado Oil: Cold-pressed from avocado fruit, high in monounsaturated fats, stable at high temperatures, rich in antioxidants.

These fats don't require industrial processing. They don't need chemical extraction or deodorization. They're stable, nutritious, and have sustained human health for millennia.

The Omega Imbalance: How Modern Diets Disrupted Our Cellular Balance

Industrial oils aren't just creating oxidative damage—they're fundamentally disrupting the balance of essential fatty acids that our bodies need to function properly. Understanding the omega-3 and omega-6 ratio reveals another layer of why food choices matter so much for cellular health.

What Are Omega-3s and Omega-6s?

Both omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids are essential polyunsaturated fats—your body can't make them, so you must get them from food. They're called essential because without them, you develop deficiency and become sick. But here's the crucial part: these fats have opposite effects in your body.

• Omega-6 fatty acids serve as precursors for pro-inflammatory compounds. While some inflammation is necessary for healing and immune function, too much creates a chronic inflammatory state.

• Omega-3 fatty acids serve as precursors for anti-inflammatory compounds. They help resolve inflammation, support brain health, reduce cardiovascular disease risk, and maintain cellular function.

The Traditional Balance vs. Modern Disaster

Human beings evolved eating omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids in roughly equal amounts—somewhere around 1:1 to 4:1. The ratio today is about 16:1 to 20:1, much higher than what people are genetically adapted to.

This dramatic shift happened because Western populations are eating large amounts of processed seed and vegetable oils loaded with omega-6s. The technology to process these oils didn't exist until about 100 years ago, and people have not had time to genetically adapt to the high amounts of omega-6.

Why This Ratio Matters

Excessive amounts of omega-6 and a very high omega-6/omega-3 ratio promote the pathogenesis of many diseases, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, and inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, whereas increased levels of omega-3 exert suppressive effects.

The science is clear on optimal ratios:

• 2-4:1 ratio: Associated with 70% decrease in cardiovascular mortality

• 2.5:1 ratio: Reduced cancer cell proliferation

• 2-3:1 ratio: Suppressed inflammation in rheumatoid arthritis

• 5:1 ratio: Beneficial for asthma (while 10:1 had adverse consequences)

Where These Fats Hide

High in Omega-6:

• Industrial seed oils (canola, soybean, corn, safflower, sunflower)

• Processed foods containing these oils

• Conventionally raised meat, eggs, and dairy

• Nuts and seeds (in moderation, these are healthy)

High in Omega-3:

• Fatty fish (salmon, sardines, mackerel, anchovies)

• Grass-fed meat and dairy

• Flaxseeds, chia seeds, walnuts

• Algae oils

The Animal Feed Connection: How Grass vs. Grain Changes Everything

Here's where the story gets really interesting: what we feed our animals dramatically changes the fatty acid profile of their meat, milk, and eggs. This is why grass-fed and wild-caught foods aren't just marketing terms—they represent fundamentally different nutritional profiles.

Grass-Fed vs. Grain-Fed Cattle

Grass-fed beef consistently shows higher concentrations of omega-3 fatty acids compared to grain-fed contemporaries, creating a more favorable omega-6:omega-3 ratio. The average ratio in grass-fed beef is 1.53:1, while grain-fed beef jumps to 7.65:1.

Why? Grass contains alpha-linolenic acid (omega-3), whereas grains, corn and soya (which are now fed to animals) are high in linoleic acid (omega-6). This imbalance in omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids is a new phenomenon that was never part of human evolution.

The numbers are striking:

• Grass-fed beef contains up to five times as much omega-3 as grain-fed beef

• Grass-fed beef contains about twice as much conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) as grain-fed beef

• Some premium grass-fed beef achieves omega ratios as favorable as 1:1—similar to wild fish

Wild vs. Farmed Fish: The Aquaculture Problem

The same principle applies to fish. Wild fish eat algae, plankton, and smaller fish that are naturally rich in omega-3s. Farmed fish? They're fed pellets made from grain-based feeds.

Replacing traditional marine ingredients with sustainable alternatives of terrestrial origin, devoid of EPA and DHA, presents a significant challenge. Farmed salmon from 2006 to 2015 showed terrestrial fatty acids significantly increased alongside a decrease in EPA and DHA levels, requiring double portion sizes compared to 2006 to satisfy recommended omega-3 intake levels.

The result: Although both farmed and wild fish contain omega-3s, wild fish provided much more usable omega-3 (33% more). The reason is that both omega-3 and omega-6 use the same enzymes for conversion into usable form. When farmed salmon has high levels of omega-6, they use up available conversion enzymes to produce pro-inflammatory agents while preventing usable omega-3 from being produced.

How to Fix the Omega Imbalance

The US average ratio is 30:1 (omega-6 to omega-3), while a ratio of 3:1 may prevent inflammation, and a 1:1 ratio may reduce inflammation.

Step 1: Eliminate Industrial Oils The most important thing you can do to reduce omega-6 intake is to eliminate processed vegetable oils from your diet, as well as the processed foods that contain them.

Step 2: Choose the Right Animal Products

• Grass-fed meat and dairy: Higher omega-3s, better ratios

• Pasture-raised eggs: Higher omega-3s than conventional eggs

• Wild-caught fish: Superior omega-3 profile to farmed fish

Step 3: Add Omega-3 Rich Foods

• Fatty fish (wild-caught when possible)

• Flaxseeds, chia seeds, walnuts

• Cold-pressed oils high in omega-3

The Generational Impact

This balanced ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 is critical to human development during pregnancy and lactation, in the prevention of chronic diseases, and in normal growth and development. What mothers eat affects not just their own health, but the omega fatty acid profiles passed to their children.

The beautiful truth is that when we return to traditional farming methods—grass for cattle, natural diets for fish—we automatically restore the fatty acid balance that supported human health for millennia. It's not just about avoiding industrial oils; it's about choosing foods from animals that were fed their natural diets, creating a cascade of cellular health that flows from soil to plate to cell membrane.

Recipe 4: Crispy Sweet Potato Hash (with good fats)

This recipe is more than breakfast—it's a lesson in how good fats can transform simple ingredients into something deeply nourishing and satisfying.

The Foundation

• 2 large sweet potatoes, diced into 1/2-inch cubes

• 3 tablespoons coconut oil or grass-fed butter

• 1 large onion, diced

• 1 red bell pepper, diced

• 2 cloves garlic, minced

• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika

• 1/2 teaspoon cumin

• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)

• Sea salt and black pepper to taste

• 2 tablespoons fresh chives, chopped

• 4 pasture-raised eggs (optional)

• 1 avocado, sliced (for serving)

The Transformation

Preparing the Canvas Heat a large cast-iron skillet or heavy-bottomed pan over medium-high heat. Cast iron is ideal here because it retains heat evenly and develops a natural non-stick surface when properly seasoned with good fats.

Add the coconut oil or butter and let it melt completely. Watch as it shimmers—this is the moment when good fat becomes the medium for transformation.

Building the Foundation Add the diced sweet potatoes to the hot fat. Don't stir immediately—let them sit for 3-4 minutes to develop a golden crust. This caramelization process creates complex flavors and textures that you simply can't achieve with industrial oils, which break down and become bitter at high temperatures.

The coconut oil or butter not only prevents sticking but also helps conduct heat evenly, ensuring the sweet potatoes cook through while developing that perfect crispy exterior.

Layering the Flavors Once the sweet potatoes have a golden crust on one side, stir them and add the diced onion. The fat carries the aromatic compounds from the onion throughout the dish, creating layers of flavor that penetrate each ingredient.

Cook for another 5-6 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the sweet potatoes are nearly tender and the onions are translucent.

The Aromatic Awakening Add the bell pepper, garlic, and spices. The fat helps extract and distribute the volatile oils from the spices, creating a fragrant base that will infuse every bite.

Cook for another 3-4 minutes, until the peppers are tender-crisp and the garlic is fragrant but not burned.

The Final Touch Season generously with salt and pepper, then sprinkle with fresh chives. If you're adding eggs, create small wells in the hash and crack the eggs into them. Cover the pan and cook for 3-5 minutes, until the egg whites are set but the yolks are still runny.

The Finishing Grace Serve immediately, topped with sliced avocado. The healthy fats in the avocado will help your body absorb the fat-soluble vitamins from the sweet potatoes and other vegetables.

The Science of Satisfaction

Notice how this dish satisfies you in a way that low-fat foods never could. This isn't just psychological—it's biochemical.

Good fats trigger the release of satiety hormones like CCK and leptin, which signal to your brain that you've been nourished. They slow gastric emptying, which means the food stays in your stomach longer, keeping you satisfied for hours.

The fat-soluble vitamins in the sweet potatoes—vitamins A, E, and K—can only be absorbed in the presence of fat. Without adequate fat in this meal, you'd be missing much of the nutritional value.

The stable fats in coconut oil and butter don't break down into inflammatory compounds when heated, unlike industrial oils. Instead of creating oxidative stress, this meal is actually providing your body with antioxidants and anti-inflammatory compounds.

The Membrane Medicine

Every bite of this hash is contributing to the health of your cell membranes. The coconut oil provides medium-chain fatty acids that your body can use immediately for energy. The butter (if from grass-fed animals) provides vitamin K2, which is essential for bone and cardiovascular health.

These good fats become part of your cellular structure, making your cell membranes more fluid and functional. This improves insulin sensitivity, hormone responsiveness, and cellular energy production.

Compare this to what happens when you cook with industrial oils: you're literally building your cellular infrastructure out of damaged, inflammatory materials. Your cell membranes become rigid and dysfunctional, contributing to insulin resistance, hormone imbalances, and chronic inflammation.

The Generational Impact

The fats you eat don't just affect you—they can affect your children and even your grandchildren. Fatty acid composition can be passed down through epigenetic mechanisms, meaning the industrial oils you consume today could influence the health of future generations.

Traditional cultures understood this intuitively. They gave pregnant and nursing women the richest, most nutrient-dense fats available—liver, fish eggs, butter from grass-fed animals. They understood that these fats were building blocks for developing brains and nervous systems.

When we replaced these traditional fats with industrial oils, we didn't just harm our own health—we potentially compromised the health of generations to come.

Making the Switch

Transitioning away from industrial oils doesn't have to be complicated or expensive. Start with these simple swaps:

For Cooking: Replace vegetable oil, canola oil, and other industrial oils with coconut oil, grass-fed butter, or avocado oil.

For Salads: Use extra virgin olive oil instead of industrial seed oil-based dressings.

For Baking: Use butter, coconut oil, or avocado oil instead of vegetable shortening or margarine.

Read Labels: Avoid processed foods that contain soybean oil, canola oil, corn oil, safflower oil, or sunflower oil.

Choose Quality: Buy fats from reputable sources. Cold-pressed, unrefined oils retain more nutrients and have undergone less damaging processing.

The Ripple Effects

As you make this switch, you'll likely notice several changes:

Stable Energy: Good fats provide sustained energy without the crashes associated with high-carb, low-fat meals.

Better Skin: Your skin will likely become clearer and more supple as your cell membranes heal and inflammation decreases.

Improved Mood: Your brain needs good fats to produce neurotransmitters and maintain healthy neural membranes.

Enhanced Satiety: You'll feel satisfied longer and have fewer cravings for processed foods.

Better Absorption: You'll absorb fat-soluble vitamins more effectively, improving overall nutritional status.

The Oil and Water Truth

The phrase "oil and water don't mix" has become a metaphor for incompatibility, but in your body, the right oils and water work together beautifully. Good fats help your body absorb water-soluble vitamins, support cellular hydration, and maintain the integrity of barriers that keep water where it belongs.

Industrial oils, on the other hand, create dysfunction at the cellular level, compromising your body's ability to maintain proper hydration and nutrient balance.

When you cook with good fats, every meal becomes medicine for your brain, your hormones, and your cellular health. You're not just avoiding harm—you're actively building health with every bite.

This sweet potato hash isn't just breakfast—it's a practice in cellular nutrition, a way of nourishing your body with the kinds of fats that have sustained human health for millennia. Every golden, crispy bite is contributing to the health of your cell membranes, the function of your hormones, and the vitality of your brain.

The choice is simple: you can build your body with damaged, industrial materials, or you can choose the traditional fats that have nourished humans for thousands of years. Your cells will thank you either way—one with dysfunction and inflammation, the other with vitality and health.

Your cell membranes are made from the fats you eat. Choose wisely—every meal is an opportunity to build health or create dysfunction. When you cook with traditional fats that have nourished humans for millennia, you're not just avoiding harm, you're actively contributing to the health of every cell in your body.