A Conversation with Udo Erasmus
(The complete Flip interview, with only minor edits, not found in the book)

Udo Erasmus, Ph.D. (www.udoerasmus.com), introduced to the world the importance of essential fatty acids (EFAs) derived from organic flax seeds.  He pioneered methods for producing unrefined oils made with health in mind; these methods are still used today by manufacturers of flax and other oils.  His groundbreaking book, Fats That Heal, Fats That Kill, became the industry’s bible on fats.  Udo’s contribution to the fields of health and nutrition, along with his pioneering work to establish standards of quality for oil manufacture, will continue to benefit humanity for decades to come.

We wondered how he got his start.  “My two missions in life are peace and health.  Peace, because I am a war baby from Europe and I buzzed around the Peace Movement in the sixties.  I also practice inner peace, and that has really changed the way I look at that whole topic.  People often define peace as the absence of war, but the reverse is truer – and much more powerful.  Peace is a presence.  In fact, it is a feeling, an inner contentment.  And when it is present, war is impossible.

“Similarly, the United Nations defines health as ‘physical, mental, and social well-being,’ not merely the absence of disease.  That’s very powerful, too.  But in practice, the medical profession largely regards health as the absence of disease.  The problem with that approach is that it makes disease out to be the presence and health the leftovers.  When, in fact, health is a presence, and disease begins with the absence of health. 

“If you define health as wholeness, then you have to look at the heart, the body, the mind, and the surrounding environment.  Each one has a different nature.  Each has a different function.  Each needs a different kind of attention on a regular basis.  And each responds to a different kind of intervention.

“Humans have a very evolved genetic program.  Its purpose is to keep us alive and healthy.  But our genetic program is only good as a program for health if we live in line with the natural system that created it.  Every step we take away from that natural system is going to cost us something in health down the road.  And every step we take to realign ourselves with that natural system buys us something back in health.

“I was trained in biochemistry and genetics,” Udo recalls, “but I left genetics when geneticists began to talk about cloning people.  Because I am German, I’m allergic to those kinds of ideas.  I decided that I didn’t want to go in that direction.  I got married and had three kids and took a job as a pesticide sprayer.  I knew better.  But I was not thinking straight.  After three years of doing that, I got poisoned.  And the doctors couldn’t help me.  At that point, I got really focused on my health.  I was confident that I could figure it out.  My view is that if you have a problem, and you figure out the steps that led up to it, then all you have to do is reverse those steps.  That should fix the problem.  It’s a simplistic approach, but it works.  I started digging through the research and I got hooked on fats as my first step because, I knew that fats and cancer have a relationship; about 60 percent of the pesticides we spray may cause cancer.  So I thought I needed to know the connection between fats and cancer, and I started studying fats.”

Udo would soon be surprised by two discoveries from his research.  “The first was how much damage is done to our oils by the processing that turns what’s in the seed into a colorless, odorless, tasteless cooking oil.  These oils get processed, then they get treated with Drano (sodium hydroxide), window washing acid, or phosphoric acid – all very corrosive chemicals.  Then they’re bleached, which turns them rancid.  Then they smell and taste bad, so they’re heated in a process called ‘de-odorization’ to get rid of the rancid odor.

“Along with that, I learned that when you do all that to an oil, anywhere from 0.5 to 1 percent of the molecules are changed from something natural that the body recognizes to something that has never existed in nature – that your digestive system doesn’t know what to do with – and that is therefore toxic in the body.  In fact, there is an association of processed cooking oils with increased inflammation, increased cardiovascular disease, and increased cancer.  Why?  I did the math on it and figured out that if an oil is damaged 1 percent, then in one tablespoon of that oil, you will get a million toxic molecules for every one of your body’s sixty trillion cells.  A million toxic molecules per cell, in just a tablespoon, is a lot.  Most people use maybe two or three tablespoons a day.  My conclusion was that we ought to be making oils with health rather than shelf life in mind.”

In 1983, Udo had devised a method for minimum processing of unrefined oils that allow them to retain their healthy properties.  “That’s really my claim to fame – figuring out how to protect the oils from light, oxygen, and heat, because those are what damage them most rapidly.  We maintain that protection during filtering and filling, and store them refrigerated at the factory and at the stores.  We recommend they be refrigerated in the home or frozen for long shelf life, and to use them in all food preparation except frying.  You can put them in hot soup, on steamed vegetables, in yogurt and cottage cheese, protein shakes, fruit juice, vegetable juice, mashed potatoes, pasta sauce, and so on, but not for frying.  When you put oils in a frying pan, you damage them with light, oxygen, and heat.  The light produces free radicals, which produce chain reactions and a lot of molecules get changed.  The oxygen makes the oil go rancid, and high temperatures cause a number of damaging effects, including twisting molecules into trans-fatty acids.  Heat also multiplies the effect of the destructive reactions caused by light and oxygen.

“When you turn food brown, you’ve changed molecules.  And those molecules have carcinogenic and other toxic effects in the body and increase inflammation.  One hundred years ago, a big oil industry did not exist and most people cooked their food in water, so they steamed, poached, boiled, and pressure cooked.  Even olive oil, which is now recommended for frying, was not used for frying.

“What people can do if they’re health conscious and cook food in a wok, is put water in first, because then the oil won’t overheat. Or put their vegetables in first and add oil afterwards.  But I don’t recommend even going near a frying pan with oil, simply because it’s such a bad habit – better to break it cold turkey.”

Why not give up oils altogether?  “Two substances come from fat that the body requires but cannot manufacture,” cautions Udo.  “Those are the essential fatty acids Omega 3 and Omega 6.  Omega 3 deficiency is our single most widespread nutrient deficiency today; it affects almost 100 percent of the population.  Research shows that an increase of Omega 3s in the diet will improve virtually every major degenerative condition of our time.  Dry eyes, irregular heartbeats, arthritis-like pain in finger joints and thin, papery skin are some classic Omega 6 deficiency symptoms.  These days, most people get ‘enough’ Omega 6 from the cooking oils – but in the damaged form with the million toxic molecules per cell, per tablespoon.   We need to re-establish a balance between Omega 3 and Omega 6 and both of them need to be made with health in mind.

“Flax oil is the richest source of Omega 3s that we have.  Flax is about four times richer in Omega 3 than Omega 6, and that ratio is actually too high.  I developed a blend where Omega 3 and Omega 6 are properly balanced at about 2-to-1.  You will not become deficient in Omega 6 at that ratio, and that’s where we see optimum results.”

Udo also recommends that people should minimize the use of plastic in their food storage.  “Plastic leaches into water,” he reveals, “and I found out that oils swell plastics and make that leaching easier.  So I get my water in glass and I’ve thrown all the plastic out of my kitchen.  Oils don’t swell glass, and glass doesn’t leach. We don’t know everything that’s in plastic; we don’t know what it does to the human body.  All we know is that plastic is a synthetic material that has never been in the environment.”

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The Flip, by Jared Rosen and David Rippe, illuminates a clear path to a vibrant enlightened world where millions of people already live and thrive. It describes in vivid detail and real examples evidence of an upside down world in decay and a Right Side Up world of authentic beings bright with possibility.
The Flip is an owner’s manual for the twenty-first century full of insights, conversations with recognized experts, thought leaders, and visionaries, and actionable exercises and tips you can use to begin your own personal flip.

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