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.