Dr. Chris Knobbe is an ophthalmologist and Associate Clinical Professor Emeritus, formerly of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, in Dallas, Texas. He is also the founder and president of Cure AMD Foundation, a nonprofit organisation dedicated to the prevention of vision loss from age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
Dr. Knobbe has a deep interest in general nutrition, particularly as it relates to chronic degenerative disease, though his primary area of expertise is with the disorder AMD. AMD is the leading cause of irreversible vision loss and blindness in people over the age of 65, currently affecting approximately 196 million people worldwide.
Dr. Knobbe’s research efforts and revolutionary hypothesis for the nutritional basis of AMD have resulted in a published scientific paper, a book – Ancestral Dietary Strategy to Prevent and Treat Macular Degeneration – a website, CureAMD.org, and a second book currently in the making. Knobbe’s current research focuses substantially on omega-6 seed oil consumption as a major unifying driver of the chronic degenerative diseases of civilization, including AMD.
67 responses to “Dr. Chris Knobbe – ‘Diseases of Civilization: Are Seed Oil Excesses the Unifying Mechanism?’”
Wow, I got rid of the “vegetable” oils when I started LCHF without realizing how bad they actually are, I always hear that they promote inflammation but this takes them to a new level of toxicity.
@TB1M1 canola is higher in omega 6. Made from gmo crops. Its gross.
It’s agonizing trying to convince my family to eat differently. My parents grew up when vegetable oils were pimped out and heavily promoted as healthy. My sister is a busy modern-day momma. My mom is in remission for cancer, my father is diabetic, my sister had a minor heart attack ( at 32!) after the delivery of my nephew! I always talk about carbs (especially wheat), sugar, and quality of fat intake and it seems to fall on deaf ears. The sweet calling of convenience foods is like a siren’s call to death… it’s hard.
@theinngu The costs of medicine and hospitalization are a lot more expensive than healthier foods.
You can’t change people, they must do it themselves. I feel your pain, but people are gonna do do what people are gonna do. It’s not something for you to take personal. With men it is impossible but with God all things are possible. I keep telling my bro to fix his diet but he kept eating candy and had to go back to the dentist recently now him and my cousin were joking that I was saying you can regrow your teeth with raw milk, lol it’s gonna take a bit more than drinking some raw milk bro you’re gonna have to fix your whole diet. They just don’t listen. My advice, first pray. But you’re probably gonna watch as everyone kills themselves with their own foolish decisions. I too am watching my loved commit suicide by their foolish ways. An evil tree will be hewn down. If they don’t care they won’t live long, the earth will instead be inherited by those that chose wisdom instead of folly. Find your soul tribe just because you’re related doesn’t mean you’re connected. Namaste
Make it hard for them to buy unhealthy food by making is easier to by healthy food. What I mean is applying the ‘out of sight is out of mind’ principle with unhealthy food.
same here. though my family members aren’t on cancer yet
Put your immediate family and yourself on a Proper Human Diet (see Dr. Ken Berry) and let them and you be the example for them. Once they see your success and hopefully read up on how to reverse diabetes and manage cancer and other diseases, maybe they will come to terms with their diets and change their way of eating to a more sustainable one (keto/ketovore/carnivore).
My mother died three weeks ago on Christmas evening due to colon cancer. She was obese most of her life. She dieted constantly but always returned to sugar, wheat and processed foods. I’ve struggled myself yet am eating clean presently. My plan is develop healthy habits then healthy results will appear.
Bless you doctor 🙏🏻
Sorry for your loss
How do you watch this video and still blame the wheat and sugar. It’s mainly the vegetable oils that are doing the damage.
@Cheyenne Sage Substitute lard for shortening in your baking, for one. It makes for some really delicious pie crusts. Experiment with coconut oil and other natural fats and see what you can substitute. There is keto bread although it’s not quite as good as regular bread—I guess you can’t have everything. Seems like the most important thing to worry about here is those seed oils. And you can find alternatives that are surprisingly good. I’ll never forget the first time I cooked with lard. I was shocked at how yummy it made my food.
@RPGmario64 I don’t think sugar is very helpful either. The less of that the better.
@Cheyenne Sage Save that stuff for special occasions. It won’t hurt you once in a while. It’s the constant eating of starches and sugars that’s the problem.
Thank you for a truly amazing, informative video! Back in October of 2020 I stumbled upon videos from doctors Berg, Berry, Mason and yours of course (among others), and have been awakened to the truth of proper eating. I am horrified at how the food conglomeration, including the government bureaucracies, mislead consumers whether intentionally or unintentionally! So much suffering and death because of the crap that has been laid on the table before us! I was diagnosed with type two diabetes back in 2014. In October 2020 I began following the advice of the doctors I mentioned earlier, and now my blood sugar is normal without any medication’s or insulin. I’m staying away from the bad fats as you have mentioned, and hopefully it’s not too later to save my butt from an early death. Thank you Sir!
4:57 – History
6:05 – Timeline for Heart Disease
7:42 – Timeline for Cancer Death
8:36 – Timeline for type 2 Diabetes
9:00 – Timeline for Obesity
9:41 – Macular degeneration
10:47 – Timeline for processed food
12:17 – The Newer Knowledge of Nutrition
12:39 – Rats
15:39 – Hight pufa oils
15:54 – Vegetable oil consumption
19:00 – LA consumption from 1865 to 2008
20:47 – Maasai Tribe
22:52 – Tokelau Islands – 48 % saturated fat
24:19 – Omega – 6 in Adipose Tissue US 1959 – 2008
29:00 – Toxic
33:47 – Type of Fats vs Weight Gain in Rats
36:30 – Heart Failure Study
40:52 – Vegetable oil and cancer
@Kathleen Kores it’s just a table of contents type thing
I have Parkinson’s disease and diabetes’ peripheral neuropathy and high bpi think that i will change the fats i eat and get-more well
Thanks !!
Kraciviy PFP brat
@Daniel Wilson Switch to a 80/20 fat/ protein carnivore diet or at least a high fat moderate protein keto/ketovore diet and most of your problems will be better or resolved.
Even as a teenager, I knew diet soda’s, marginerine, and processes foods/oils were very bad for us. I’m nearly 50 and in better shape than people in their 20’s. I’m taking my health even further now by starting my own food forest and growing my own produce. I hope my neighbor’s get into it once they see the benefits. We’ll be able to trade like our ancestors did. I thank the Most High for giving me the instincts to have known all this without ever being a scientist.
Prople in their 20s now, are 20 lbs heavier than boomers in their 20s
Margarine* sodas* 😊👍
This is one of the most profoundly inportant talks on the science of healthy fats that I have ever heard! My wife was raised eating healthy fats like butter,lard etc.She has a healthy heart!
@silverado why?
That’s because most heart disease is caused by inflammation
@David Regi it contains the same PUFA that vegetables oils too, in high quantities, because pigs are fed soy/ corn. And before you ask, its different for ruminants, the fat they store is not as directly attached to their diets
@Design Studio …；
This presentation will save millions of lives. The doc is gifted at getting to the bottom of the problem. I’m so glad I got to see it!!
My friend from India was always warning me and others about seed oils. And as the cases of diabetes rose, his concerns became clearer! Great video Dr. Knobbe and keep up the great work!
That’s weird. My friend reversed his diabetes by cutting sugar out of his diet. So, who’s correct?
@Goorie Henkel By him cutting sugar, he probably also cut alot of processed foods, processed foods made with seed oils. He could have unintentionally removed seed oils as well
I am 67 and improving my former Metabolic Syndrome through low carb, fasting and so on. Your approach is clear, scientific based, powerful and certainly help me to have a clearer health picture. Certainly aiming for a Massai warrior health and physique!! Hahaha. Very grateful Dr Knobbe for teaching me a powerful information.
As a retired dietitian, I shutter to thing of the harm done by what we taught in good faith. Thank you. The video is so clear and I will be sharing it.
@J – That’s not entirely fair. Remember that any given medical professional isn’t acting entirely alone; they are part of a system that expects compliance. There is a book available on Amazon titled “The Dietitian’s Dilemma” that discusses this to some degree. The author describes her years working as an acute-care dietitian in a hospital where she was required to give diabetic patients high-carb sugary drinks just to keep their calories up. When she asked her superiors if it was really a smart idea to give diabetics this and then have to treat the result with insulin, she was told that advocating for low-carb was “dangerous and unethical.” The implication seems to be she could have been professionally disciplined if she did not do as was accepted by the wider medical community.
There’s an entire medical system that needs to change in tandem with our food supply. Without the weight of the medical community’s authority behind the push, it will be very difficult to get people to accept that our modern diet (including things currently considered “healthy”) is poison.
Shudder, not “shutter” .
@João Garcia We found the white knight.
@Marlene Gold Those with Type 2 Diabetes are also advised to eat a high carb low fat diet!!!
My father had 3 heart attacks in his late 40s. I pulled all seed oils away from him completely, replaced it with butter and animal fats and, guess what, he didn’t have any more heart attacks much to the utter amazement of the local medical community. He went 32 years that way.
@Rolando Manuel this is your mind on “””propaganda”””” everyone.
@Rolando Manuel
Animal proteins and fats are not the cause of heart disease, carbohydrates are, particularly sugars and starches (which means grains and grain oils).
@Alf Free Not nearly as harmful. You would have to eat much more than you are able to for the amount of oil you are ingesting to be equal to a small amount of oil. On top of that, it’s not processed like seeds oil sold in the store is.
What kind of butter? What do you recommend like I can’t believe it’s not better or actual unsalted or unsalted butter
@Rolando Manuel did you even listen to the lecture?
Incredible presentation. I’m shocked by what I’ve learned in this video, and impressed with all the data that support this hypothesis.
Dr. Knobbe has done the hard work of bringing all of this together for the layman in this very easy to understand, yet concise talk.
The best 45 minutes I have ever spent!
Thank you, George Collins!!!
Thank you, Dr Knobbe, for contributing to my continued education (I am 70 years old and never too old to learn). I have changed my diet over the past few years to one of more healthy eating and I intend to be around for a long time yet. Your presentation was an inspiration.
Eliminating seed oils from my diet has improved my health in so many ways. I now cook exclusively with butter, beef tallow, ghee/clarified butter, and duck fat and have noticed an improvment in every aspect of my health. Thank you to all those bold Dr.’s and researchers that stood up and challenged the Big Agriculture and Big Agri-chemical companies that are behind the pervasive health myths.
@Linda Thompson They are ok. Monounsaturated fats found in olive oil is ready to be burned like the fatty acids in animal fats. They are also packed with antioxidants as well. Coconut oil is also healthy. I haven’t done much research on avocado oil though, although at first glance it appears to be safe as well.
@Joe A. Seems like it would be, but really, if you have coconut and olive oils plus butter and/or lard, nothing else is really necessary, seems to me. Eat the avocados, though. They’re always yummy.
@EpicVidz yes, they should be good, especially olive oil. Vegetable oils use a 17 step industrial process to make; olive oil is super easy to make.
Is olive oil virgin bad to cook with?
You forgot to mention the AHA, FDA, and ADA, among others.
I just.moved to Colorado and discovered Dr. Knobbe while researching macula degeneration. His presentation on diet and disease and processed oils is outstanding. I’ve been a health conscious person my whole life and still learned more from his speech. Incredible!!!
I’m in the process of convincing my Mayo Dr that I will reverse all the conditions I’m currently being medicated for. In 7 wks, near normal blood glucose level, high blood pressure normal, arthritis pain diminished, respectable wt loss. I’m actually looking forward to my next Dr visit in 4 months. All being accomplished with low carb, moderate protein, 7 cups leafy greens per day, high fat, 18/6 intermittent fasting. No seed oils, no processed food, no grains, cravings gone, brain fog gone, depression gone, energy back. I will not, cannot go back. If only I knew this 20-30 years ago. Even at 72 I don’t think it’s too late for me to be healthy and happy.
@Free Indeed Kevin my man, hit the nail on the head – no sugar- no processed food – no seed oils – only organic coconut 🥥 oil, butter 🧈 and ghee for cooking 👨🍳👍👍👍
@Cool 7055 coconut oil for cooking virgin olive oil for 🥗 salad
@Preeti Bandesha Yeah, that’s Eric Berg for ya. 10 cups of leafy green salad a day is what he recommends. He thinks that’s easy to do. Bleh!! I can’t eat one cup of raw leafy greens!
@Durgesh Bailoor Olive oil is perfect for cooking.
@Cool 7055 Coconut oil, palm oil, and olive oil. All of them are great for cooking with.
My first clue that vegetable oils were bad was when I was seasoning my first cast iron pan and the veg oil left a nasty glue-like jello substance on the pan that took me an hour to wash off.
No more vegetable oils. They go into the tank of my diesel now, not into the tank of my stomach.
Lol, not every country has a trash food production…
@Julia B would you consider olive oil trash food? This video seems to indicate that it is. When we talk trash about fast food burgers, we don’t realize that the beef patty is likely the most healthy thing you can consume.
lmao
@Chris I virtually live off of 80/20 grass fed beef from Walmart. At 55 I’m the same weight as in my 20’s, and I can eat the whole 1lb package at a time.
We are dying for the profit margins of food industries. The food industries and the “scientists” they employ are 100% responsible for the erroneous assumptions that people make about nutrition and health. I am sick and tired of corporate interests poisoning us!! Thank you Dr. Knobbe, you are doing essential science.
WHOA!!!!! Absolutely mind blowing. Everyone needs to watch this. I cut out PUFAs from my diet some time ago but was unaware of just how harmful they are. Thank you 🙏