More from Bonnie:

Dr. Johanna Budwig, a German M.D. and researcher, carried out most of the early research on fatty acids in the 1940s and 1950s. Her techniques were the first to separate and identify fats from a drop of blood. She was also the first to warn the public about trans-fats although that term was not yet coined. Over ½ a century ago, while she was Germany’s Senior Consultant Expert for Fats, she investigated the high temperature treatment of fish oils (for the purpose of making them keep longer and killing their fishy taste), that were used in making margarine by the margarine industry. She came to the conclusion that these oils do great harm to the entire internal glandular system, as well as to the liver and other organs and are therefore not suitable for human consumption. This was her official verdict prepared for the German Ministry of Foods in 1951. In 1955 she received the following answer from the Ministry of Foods: "Banning these heat-treated fish oils is ‘being considered’ as tests in other institutes have now shown that these fish oils are very harmful to both humans and animals, as they disrupt the functioning of the glands and poison the liver, which rapidly leads to death." (Today, these fats are still used in the manufacture of margarine!)

Dr. Budwig tells a story that I will never forget: "When, after 50,000 tons of the above mentioned fats had been bought by the margarine industry and selling this amount of these fats became difficult, a cattle-feed firm was quickly called into being for the production of so-called ‘high energy feed cakes’ for fattening pigs. These feed cakes contained large amounts of edible barley, heat-treated fish oils, together with bone meal. Later, 50% of the pigs fattened on the feed cakes turned blue and died on the way to the slaughterhouse.

"Furthermore, I also know of farmers whose young cattle have been harmed or have even died through such ‘high-energy feed cakes.’ I know that many butchers who are real experts at their job, are themselves aware of the fact that the meat, in the condition it often reaches them nowadays, is no longer fit for human consumption. If we, then, by the indirect method of such unbiologically fattened livestock, ourselves ingest these harmful substances which act as inhibitors of our fat metabolism, it should come as no surprise that this behavior, based on a greedy addiction to ‘getting rich quick’ boomerangs on us and we, ourselves, destroy our life-nerve." [Source: Flax Oil as a True Aid Against Arthritis, Heart Infarction, Cancer and Other Diseases, Johanna Budwig, 1992, Apple Publishing Co., 220 E. 59th Ave., Vancouver, B.C., Canada V5X 1X9, Phone (800) 668-2775.]