Notes on "The Park Avenue Diet Show: Oil and Water"; July 11, 2010

My lecture on "Oil and Water" has been popular for many years. I first did it on "Vital Signs", my fondly remembered WEVD program sponsored by The Atkins Center, then recycled it for several lectures.

Oil and water don't mix (they are immiscible), as anyone who has repaired his or her own car knows very well. Oil and water don't mix in milk either, as it eventually separates into curds (fat) and whey (water-soluble protein). When you eat dietary "oils" (fats) like butter, cream, cheese, or salad oil, a separate liquid, bile (which is made in the liver and stored in the gall bladder), is needed to allow their byproducts to flow through the intestines and become absorbed into the circulation.

Once in your bloodstream, the oils take the form of cholesterol, triglycerides, and similar chemicals, and they travel as somewhat isolated molecules (for our convenience these are simplistically named HDL, LDL, VLDL etc...but the constituency of these is very complex.)

Oils have a place in the lungs..."lubricating" the air sacs (alveoli) so that they never collapse fully. We were taught at Maimonides Medical Center that this is partially why chicken soup is so soothing during flu season---the chicken fat makes the lung tissues more compliant, less "dehydrated."

But oil in the wrong place is a bad bad thing, just like butter staining your clothing when it squirts out of Chicken Kiev. Allergic reactions are usually due to oils--the most notorious, diet-wise, is peanut oil. The most notorious, skin-wise, is the plant that causes urushiol-induced contact dermatitis...poison ivy.

Overflow oil (triglycerides, particularly) in the liver causes what I used to refer to as "The Pate Syndrome"--"fatty liver", properly temed steatohepatitis. Oil inflames the tissues, just like "poisonous" plants inflame the skin, and the eventual result can be cirrhosis. Just as a reminder--- it is predicted that young obese diabetics who continue to neglect their diet and weight might need liver transplants in the future (in their 40's) for this entirely preventable condition.

And now, the piece de resistance...oil (cholesterol molecules) in the walls of coronary arteries--very similar to "pimples"--are hidden pockets of inflammation, calcium deposition, and blood clots. These can eventually rupture, just like a pimple, except that the rupture of a coronary artery is the initial event in most heart attacks. Oil in the walls of coronary arteries is "immiscible" in the water-based environment of bodily fluids and tissues. Here, the abnormal collision of oil and water can be fatal.

This is why anti-inflammatory agents (such as low-dose aspirin) are used to prevent strokes and heart attaks. They "soothe" the interface between oil and water...but if there are too many lesions, "something's got to give."

Oil and water----they need to get along somehow in many of your bodily organs. But if you're neglecting your weight and diet...and therefore your health...the collision between oil and water might be explosive !