Udo Erasmus tells Theresa Judge his oil blend will deliver health benefits within a month
Udo Erasmus is keen to explain why people should consider using an oil blend he has formulated that is designed to supply the correct balance of Omega 3 and Omega 5 fatty acids and to correct deficiencies in the modern diet.
From the leaflet available in health food shops it would appear the oil is something of a magic formula that can have a whole range of health benefits from improving cardiovascular health and giving relief from arthritis to increasing energy and stamina.
But haven't people lived healthily into old age without ever even knowing what an essential fatty acid is, let alone purchasing special oil that costs €25 for a three-week supply?
"Let me tell you why you should [ use it] - 99.9 per cent of the population do not get enough Omega 3s, and Omega 3s are essential," says Erasmus.
"And the research says that when you increase Omega 3s in your diet, you improve virtually every major degenerative condition of our times." He says he bases his arguments on a vast number of international research studies.
"And on a personal level, what we've noticed consistently, is . . . skin becomes nicer, they have more energy, and they often notice that their mood is better - that's why people like the stuff."
Erasmus is in Ireland this week to give a series of seminars, the first of which took place in Dublin last night. A Canadian, he originally studied zoology and psychology and later biochemistry and genetics before getting a PhD in nutrition with his 1994 book Fats that Heal, Fats that Kill, which sold some 200,000 copies.
The 63-year-old says he started studying nutrition after he was poisoned by pesticides and was looking for ways to improve his health. He spent about six years studying all the main research findings on fats and tried "to figure out the contradictions".
He says he then "developed methods for making oils with health rather than shelf life in mind, because I learned about how much damage is done to oils in processing".
The oil he formulated, sold in health shops as Udo's Choice Ultimate Oil Blend, is made from organic flax, sesame, sunflower and evening primrose seeds and from rice and oat germ. It is sold in glass bottles refrigerated and has quite a short shelf life. It is also sold in capsule form.
Erasmus points out the problems with getting Omega 3 from other sources. The amounts in green vegetables are very small and he calculated he would need to eat 123lbs of green vegetables every day to get the optimum amount.
While there are Omega 3 derivatives in fish, he decided not to use fish because of increasing pollution. "Dioxin levels in fish have gone up and to get them out, the fish oils have to be processed in very destructive ways, and so what happens is you create toxicity in the fish oil molecules trying to get out the industrial toxins that come in the fish. And that's an issue that I think will become more prominent in the years to come."
He uses seeds grown without pesticides, saying "you can isolate a piece of land but you can't isolate a piece of ocean", although he accepts "you can't do that perfectly either". The other point he stresses about seeds is that they require much less processing than fish, because it simply involves squeezing them.
"The less processing, the closer something is to the way it was in nature, the better the body is able to use it to build healthy structures. Oils damaged by processing are behind a lot of our inflammatory and degenerative diseases."
When he's asked what he would recommend for people who cannot afford the €8 a week for his oil, he replies: "I would say get the seeds - unroasted and unsalted - and grind them up, use flax, sunflower and sesame and then use them in your food."
Erasmus says that this will provide benefits but that to get the optimum benefit "you would need to eat more seeds than it's possible to do", adding that he once tried this as an experiment on himself.
He mentions that many top class athletes have used his oil and reported success and he insists that people who try it will feel health benefits after only a month.
He says the purpose of his seminars "is to give people information that they can use to improve the quality of their life" and that he talks about essential fatty acids generally. Publicity material promises that he speaks about what "the margarine companies do not want you to hear".
Information on his talks in Ireland - Cork tonight, Limerick tomorrow and Galway on Thursday - can be obtained from www.naturallife.ie. The cost is €10.