November 01, 2023

Oils and Fats with industrial chemist Mike Newton | S5E33

27 minutes

Welcome to Living Well with MS, where we are pleased to welcome Mike Newton as our guest! Mike is an industrial chemist and follows the Overcoming MS Program. He lives in Australia and has been following the recommendations of Dr Roy Swank and Professor George Jelinek for 25 years. He talks to Geoff about the difference between saturated and unsaturated fats, heating oils and his Overcoming MS journey.

Watch this episode on our YouTube here. Keep reading for the key episode takeaways.

Topics and Timestamps:

01:13 Defining oils, fats, triglycerides and lipids from a cooking and chemistry perspective.

07:35 Fats to avoid and include in your diet.

12:54 What’s the difference between plant, animal and fish triglycerides or fats?

16:44 Why do we want to increase our Omega-3s and decrease Omega-9s?

19:24 The difference between monoglycerides and diglycerides is in the melting point, lower melting points are better for brain health.

22:50 Overcoming MS and Dr Roy Swank

Selected Key Takeaways:

Defining Oils and Fats

01:40 “Triglycerides are the encompassing description of all oils and fats, whether they are from plants or animals, and whether they are liquid or solid. The terms oil and fat are more for the layman and the cooking man. Oil is a liquid at room temperature, and fat is a solid at room temperature.”

Hydrogenated fat in commercially produced foods

16:09 “The reason that they use hydrogenated fats is to give the [food] structure so that they can make a pie that you can eat with ease without it all collapsing around you while you're eating it. So, it's purely done for your mouthfeel and structure, so you can eat it (more easily).”

Roy Swank’s theory on fat and MS

24:27 “Swank took the theory that the brain is made of a very high percentage of fat and cholesterol. If [your brain] is rock hard like this candle, then when it's rattling around in your head, the lesions in your brain will be scraping against your skull or another very hard piece of brain, causing more symptoms than that you would get if your brain was fluid and malleable.”

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