Revolutionizing Brain Health with the Power of Oils | Shawn Stevenson EP 512

0:00Hi, my name is Lewis Howes and welcome to the Daily Motivation Show.

0:10what would you say the three oils we should try to eliminate from our diet and then three healthier oils that may even have some benefits so one of the studies that i shared in the new book in the east mortar family cookbook looks at olive oil and researchers at albert determining that olive oil can actually help to reduce inflammation in the brain and help to heal the blood-brain barrier. That's astronomically powerful. Why does it have such a resonance with the human brain and nervous system? That's amazing. This is more monounsaturated fatty acids, by the way. And also, if it's treated right, it's going to be bottled in dark glass because it's sensitive to light and heat.

0:49And so even using it, by the way, we want to make sure that we're not using it on too high of heat. And also, traditionally, maybe finishing your dishes with it, right? So your plates, your food, or using it for salad dresses, pour on some olive oil. And so that would be one in the healthy category. By the way, none of these are 100 % across the board for everybody. All right. We've got to keep that in mind. The future of nutrition and health is personalization. For some people, olive oil is not your thing. You might have background genetics that don't metabolize this particular oil a certain way or small amounts or whatever the case might be.

1:26So you got to keep that in mind. So we've got nutrigenomics and nutrigenetics are going to be some of the leading fields of science. Looking at how what you eat influences your genetic expression and also your set of genes, how it's catering towards certain things being better for you versus other things, right? Versus your friend, versus your wife, versus your brother. Everybody has our unique cascade of genes. And on top of that, microbial genes, all right? So all the genes that make up your microbiome, all the bacteria that make up your microbiome, they have their own genes. If we go gene for gene in the human body, 99 % of your genes are bacterial.

2:02It's the little critters, their genes. And so now where we're at today with science, we're looking at how our bacteria's genes are affecting our human gene expression. All right, so we can go down the rabbit hole. Sure, sure, sure. But just circle this back to another oil for us to look at would be avocado oil. Avocado oil is hot out here in the streets. We like it. You'd want that to come in a dark bottle. It's higher in monosaturated fats. And it's coming from a real food, all right? An avocado. It's a lot more close touch than trying to process corn and make it into an oil. There's a caveat here.

2:39So this category of seed oils, which that end of itself, unfortunately, is going to invoke some controversy. And what I want to implore everybody who is really about that life and nutrition, let's come together. Let's have healthier conversations. and not become so black or white or dogmatic about a certain thing. So seed oils in general, the majority of these seed oils out here on the streets that are riddled in processed foods, I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about hemp oil, flaxseed oil, chia oil. That's cold processed, that's stored in shelf-stable ways. It's generally going to be in a refrigerated section.

3:17You can find some really valid benefits here that's backed up with peer-reviewed data. There's a plant form of omega-3s that can be utilized as an energy source by the body pretty efficiently and also can get converted into some of the omega-3s, DHA, and EPA to help to fuel your brain and nervous system. Now, your conversion process is going to depend on you. It's going to depend on your genes, your microbiome, your overall metabolic health. So I don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater with seed oils just being all bad. The important thing is they cannot be exposed to very much heat at all or they're going to become oxidized and rancid.

3:55And as far as the ones to avoid, absolutely avoid vegetable oil, quote vegetable oil. It's not made from vegetables, by the way. All right. It's the framing because it sounds healthy. You throw this is called health washing, throwing the label on a thing and making it sound like it's healthy. And marketers are using this like crazy now. Right. So you can get a box of Cheerios. It's like it's heart healthy. Right. Honey Nut Cheerios. Lower cholesterol. Lower cholesterol. They actually had to change that. Really? Yeah. Because they finally face some backlash. But also now it'll say gluten-free. Right?

4:29Gluten-free. Oh, you're a gluten-free diet. Or like they're just fat-free. Right? They're still throwing these catchphrases onto things with an ultra-processed bowl of crap. But by the way, vegetable oil, I put this study in the book as well. This was published in the journal Inhalation Toxicology. So it's a top journal looking at how inhaling different things, fumes and things like that, creates toxicity in the human body and other animals as well. What the researchers found was that just smelling vegetable oil during cooking can damage your DNA.

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5:56Again, have an amazing day, and I'll see you tomorrow with another episode of the Daily Motivation Show.