ABOUT DR UDO
For almost two decades Dr Udo Erasmus has dedicated his
time to understanding the effects of fats and oils on human
health, as well as the nature of health itself.
Most of his more recent days have been spent on the road,
spreading the message about this largely misunderstood, but
vitally important, subject. He has written two ground
breaking books: Fats and Oils, and Fats That Heal Fats That
Kill, and has recently completed his third, The Right Fat
Diet.
Udo Erasmus received his B. Sc. degree in Honors Zoology with
a major in Psychology, followed by graduate studies in
Biochemistry and Genetics at the University of British
Columbia. While he studied Genetics at UBC, one of his
research papers was published in the peer reviewed journal,
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, in 1967, and
two more of his papers were published in the peer reviewed
journal Mutation Research, in 1971.
In 1980, life for Udo took a significant turn when he was
poisoned while carelessly working with pesticides. When
medicine was unable to provide help, he concluded that health
was his own responsibility and sought the answers he needed
by burying himself in research literature on nutrition and
health. He gave special attention to the least understood
arena: the effects of fats and oils on human health. This
meant finding and perusing thousands of original research
studies, many which were inaccessible to the public and were
therefore unknown. Several years of collecting and reviewing
this data culminated in his landmark Canadian best-seller
Fats and Oils. This book also became his thesis and earned
him a Ph.D. in nutrition in 1986. The book is now available
in expanded, revised, updated form as Fats That Heal Fats
That Kill.
In 1988, he received his MA in Counseling Psychology from the
Alfred Adler Institute of Chicago (now called the Adler
School of Professional Psychology). More than 15 years
of exploring the practical aspects of fats has earned Udo
Erasmus authoritative status in the field, as well as the
nicknames "The Fatman" and "His Royal Oiliness".
He pioneered technology for pressing and packaging fresh oils
under exclusion of light, heat, and oxygen - three main
factors which can transform nutritious oils into toxic ones.
Until that time, oils were highly processed by destructive
methods, sacrificing health benefits in order to attain long
shelf life. Originally, he worked with flax oil, and later
added sunflower, sesame, and other oils to address the main
shortcoming of flax oil - its high omega 3 and poor omega 6
fatty acid content, which can result in omega 6
deficiency.