The Seed Oil Problem — How Linoleic Acid Fuels Heart Disease (Cardiovascular Disease Part 2)
Welcome to Part 2 of our deep dive into cardiovascular disease on The Dr Kumar Discovery Podcast.
Episode Highlights
- Why the diet-heart hypothesis ignored the role of seed oils
- How linoleic acid becomes a pro-inflammatory trigger inside LDL particles
- What the Sydney Diet Heart Study and Minnesota Coronary Experiment really found
- Why seed oils are chemically unstable—and how they’re made using petroleum solvents like hexane
- The evolutionary mismatch of modern seed oil consumption
- The mechanism linking oxidized LDL to foam cell formation and atherosclerosis
- What traditional diets and historical studies in India reveal about saturated fat and heart health
- Practical steps to reduce seed oils and restore inflammatory balance
Show Notes
In this episode, Dr. Kumar challenges the mainstream narrative that saturated fat causes heart disease—and presents a compelling alternative: that it’s not the fat itself, but the type of fat that matters most.
Seed oils like soybean, corn, and safflower are rich in linoleic acid, an omega-6 polyunsaturated fat highly susceptible to oxidation. When linoleic acid accumulates in LDL particles, it becomes a time bomb—ready to ignite inflammation and initiate atherosclerosis once it enters the endothelial wall.
We examine:
- The biochemistry behind linoleic acid’s oxidation into OXLAMs
- How this disrupts cholesterol transport and immune function
- The role of historical and global case studies, including Dr. Malhotra’s work in India
- Why modern LDL may be more dangerous because of its contents, not its presence
Dr. Kumar also explains why seed oils are everywhere in our food supply, how they’re made using hexane (a neurotoxic petroleum solvent), and what you can do to avoid them without becoming obsessive.
This is the episode you’ll want to share with anyone serious about preventing heart disease.
Resources Mentioned
- Sydney Diet Heart Study Re-Evaluation (BMJ 2013)
- Minnesota Coronary Experiment Re-Evaluation (BMJ 2016)
- DiNicolantonio & O’Keefe Paper on Linoleic Acid and CHD
- Linoleic Acid Trends in Human Adipose Tissue
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