# PUFA (polyunsaturated fatty acids)

Category: Foods & Substances

Also known as: PUFA, polyunsaturated fatty acids, pufa, polyunsaturated fatty acids, pufa, polyunsaturated fatty acid, PUFA, polyunsaturated fatty acid, polyunsaturated fatty acids

Polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs) are fatty acids with many double carbon bonds (double bonds link four electrons, versus the usual two). PUFAs contain double bonds because they lack several hydrogen atoms. This is why they are referred to as “unsaturated.” Remember from the last…

11 passages · 2 authors · 2007–2022 · Most-cited: [Ray Peat](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/voices/ray-peat/index.md)

Canonical page: https://bioenergeticoracle.com/concepts/pufa-polyunsaturated-fatty-acids

## Synthesis

**PUFA (polyunsaturated fatty acids)** are fatty acids whose molecular structure contains multiple double carbon bonds, a configuration that makes them chemically unstable and highly susceptible to oxidative damage. [Source 1] Peat argued that these fats are not essential nutrients but are instead fundamentally toxic, acting as a primary driver of degenerative disease. [Source 2, 7] He traced the widespread acceptance of their essentiality to a deliberate campaign by the seed oil industry, which revived a defunct scientific claim to market industrial byproducts as food. [Source 7] The double bonds, while stronger than single bonds, are *more reactive to oxygen*, causing the fats to spontaneously generate free radicals that initiate a chain reaction of cellular damage. [Source 1]

The toxicity of PUFA is inseparable from its systemic hormonal and metabolic effects. Peat described a vicious cycle in which PUFA stored in fat tissue are liberated during stress, and unlike saturated fats which inhibit the stress response, free PUFA directly stimulate the release of **ACTH**, **cortisol**, **adrenaline**, and **prolactin**. [Source 1] This creates a self-amplifying loop where stress releases more PUFA, which in turn amplifies the stress reaction, impairing mitochondrial energy production. [Source 1, 5] Dinkov has extended this by noting that PUFA's effects are *almost indistinguishable from estrogen*, capable of reproducing the effects of estradiol in experimental animals even without directly binding to the estrogen receptor, partly by activating the body's own estrogen synthesis. [Source 8] Peat observed that PUFA lower metabolic rate and body temperature, a principle demonstrated by their role in inducing hibernation in animals and lowering body temperature in non-hibernating species like lizards. [Source 6]

PUFA accumulate selectively in tissues over the lifespan because the body preferentially oxidizes saturated fats for fuel, storing the more toxic unsaturated fats. [Source 3, 9] Peat noted that a newborn's brain is almost free of PUFA, but the concentration increases steadily with age, with old animals and humans exhibiting highly polyunsaturated brain tissue. [Source 4, 9] This progressive accumulation is linked to the **lipofuscin/age pigment theory of aging**, in which a toxic, indigestible material composed of cross-linked PUFA, proteins, and metals builds up in cells. [Source 5] The peroxidation of these stored fats produces the protein damage often misattributed to sugar, with lipid peroxidation of PUFA causing this damage roughly *23 times faster* than simple sugars. [Source 6] This accumulation is accelerated by estrogen and, in turn, increases estrogenic activity, contributing to a declining metabolic rate and increased inflammation with age. [Source 6]

The pathological consequences of PUFA accumulation span virtually every major degenerative condition. Peat directly implicated them in **arthritis, cancer, dementia, wrinkly skin, susceptibility to sunburn**, and retinal degeneration, noting that they act as an *antenna for ultraviolet light*, exciting electrons that spread inflammatory damage. [Source 4, 10] In the brain, PUFA promote an excitatory, glutamatergic nervous state while impairing the quiescence essential for learning, contributing to seizures and excitotoxicity. [Source 5] Peat highlighted that alcoholic cirrhosis occurs specifically in the presence of PUFA, and that saturated fats can reverse the condition even with continued alcohol consumption. [Source 4] Dinkov summarized that the chronic low-grade inflammation driven by PUFA is the common denominator in cancer, cardiovascular disease, and neurological diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. [Source 8]

The body possesses a natural anti-inflammatory system that operates optimally in the absence of dietary PUFA. When carbohydrate is consumed, the body synthesizes its own saturated fats and produces the **omega-9** series of fats, including *mead acid*, which have genuine anti-inflammatory effects. [Source 11] Peat recommended minimizing PUFA intake by using coconut oil and butter, which contain only 1-3% PUFA and can exert an antioxidant effect that helps clear previously stored unsaturated fats from tissues. [Source 9, 11] He noted that the toxicity of ingested PUFA depends heavily on total calorie intake, as fats burned immediately for fuel cause relatively less harm than those placed into long-term storage, where they decompose and exert lasting damage on fat and brain tissue. [Source 11]

## People also ask

### How does PUFA accumulation relate to the aging process?

Peat argued that PUFA progressively accumulate in tissues with age, forming a toxic, indigestible material called lipofuscin that cross-links with proteins and metals, driving the cellular damage central to the age pigment theory of aging.

### Why did Peat consider PUFA more harmful than sugar?

Peat observed that the lipid peroxidation of PUFA causes protein damage roughly 23 times faster than simple sugars, meaning the damage often blamed on sugar is actually driven by the oxidation of stored unsaturated fats.

### What dietary fats did Peat recommend to counteract PUFA toxicity?

Peat recommended using coconut oil and butter, which contain only 1–3% PUFA, because their saturated fats can exert an antioxidant effect that helps clear previously stored unsaturated fats from tissues.

## Related concepts

- [Essential fatty acids (EFA)](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/essential-fatty-acids-efa/index.md)
- [Age Pigment (Lipofuscin)](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/age-pigment-lipofuscin/index.md)
- [Lactic acid](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/lactic-acid/index.md)
- [Metabolic Rate](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/metabolic-rate/index.md)
- [Adrenaline](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/adrenaline/index.md)
- [Albumin](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/albumin/index.md)

## Cited passages

Passage numbers match the `[Source N]` markers in the synthesis above.

### Source 1 — Glossary

Ray Peat · Glossary

> PUFA, polyunsaturated fatty acid/acids
>
> Polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs) are fatty acids with many double carbon
>  bonds (double bonds link four electrons, versus the usual two). PUFAs
>  contain double bonds because they lack several hydrogen atoms. This is
>  why they are referred to as “unsaturated.” Remember from the last chapter
>  that saturated fatty acids have only single bonds and are fully “saturated”
>  with hydrogen atoms. Double bonds, although stronger, are more reactive to oxygen than single bonds, making them unstable and susceptible to
>  oxidative stress.
>
> Oxidative stress occurs within the body when oxygen reacts with food to
>  create energy (metabolism) and produces by-products called free radicals.
>  (Free radicals are molecules that have an unpaired electron in the outer shell
>  and are looking to “gain or lose” an electron.) Since PUFAs are unstable,
>  once they are exposed to oxygen, free radicals are created. These free
>  radicals “steal” electrons from other molecules, creating more unstable
>  molecules. Over time, this creates a chain reaction of free radical damage
>  that can cause accelerated aging, hormone imbalance, cancer, and immune
>  disorders. Yikes!
>
> When an oil is saturated that means that the molecule has all the hydrogen atoms it can hold. Unsaturation means that some hydrogen atoms have been removed, and this opens the structure of the molecule in a way that makes it susceptible to attack by free radicals.
>
> In good health, especially in children, the stress hormones are produced only in the amount needed, because of negative feedback from the free saturated fatty acids, which inhibit the production of adrenalin and adrenal steroids, and eating protein and carbohydrate will quickly end the stress. But when the fat stores contain mainly PUFA, the free fatty acids in the serum will be mostly linoleic acid and arachidonic acid, and smaller amounts of other unsaturated fatty acids. These PUFA stimulate the stress hormones, ACTH, cortisol, adrenaline, glucagon, and prolactin, which increase lipolysis, producing more fatty acids in a vicious circle. In the relative absence of PUFA, the stress reaction is self-limiting, but under the influence of PUFA, the stress response becomes self-amplifying.

### Source 2 — Fats and degeneration

Ray Peat · Article · 2013 · https://raypeat.com/articles/articles/fats-degeneration3.shtml

> Through the 1970s, this sort of information about the harmful effects of the PUFA was being slowly assimilated by the culture, though many dietitians still spoke of "the essential fatty acids, vitamin F." By 1980, it looked as though responsible researchers would see the promotion of cancer, heart disease, mitochondrial damage, hypothyroidism and immunosuppression caused by the polyunsaturated fats as their most important feature, and would see that there had never been a basis for believing that they were essential nutrients.
>
> But then, without acknowledging that there had been a problem with the doctrine of essentiality, fat researchers just started changing the subject, shifting the public discourse to safer, more profitable topics.
>
> The fats that had been called essential, but that had so many toxic effects, were no longer emphasized, and the failed idea of "essentiality" was shifted to different categories of polyunsaturated fats.
>
> The addition of the long chain highly unsaturated fats to baby food formulas was recently approved, on the basis of their supposed "essentiality for brain development." One of the newer arguments for the essentiality of the PUFA is that "they are needed for making cell membranes." But human cells can grow and divide in artificial culture solutions which contain none of the polyunsaturated fats, and no one has claimed that they are growing "without membranes." The long chain fats found in fish and some algae don't interfere with animal enzymes as strongly as the seed oils do, and so by comparison, they aren't so harmful. They are also so unstable that relatively little of them is stored in the tissues. (And when they are used as food additives, it's necessary to use antioxidants to keep them from becoming smelly and acutely toxic.) When meat is grilled at a high temperature, the normally spaced double bonds in PUFA migrate towards each other, becoming more stable, so that linoleic acid is turned into "conjugated linoleic acid." This analog of the "essential" linoleic acid competes against the linoleic acid in tissues, and protects against cancer, atherosclerosis, inflammation and other effects of the normal PUFA.
>
> Presumably, anything which interferes with the essential fatty acids is protective, when the organism contains dangerous amounts of PUFA.
>
> Even the trans-isomers of the unsaturated fatty acids (found in butterfat, and convertible into conjugated linoleic acid) can be protective against cancer.

### Source 3 — Email Exchanges — PUFA

Ray Peat · Email · 2015

> # PUFA
>
> The main way they [PUFA] are detoxified is by attaching glucuronic acid, making them water soluble, so they leave in the urine. Keeping the free fatty acids low in relation to albumin, they will largely be carried bound to the albumin to the liver.
>
> They [polyunsaturated fats] are more water soluble, so are easier to release [from adipose tissue]. The fat cells themselves preferentially oxidize saturated fatty acids, so the stores tend to become more unsaturated with age.

### Source 4 — Ask the Herb Doctor: The Ten Most Toxic Things In Our Food

Ray Peat · Interview · Sep 1, 2009 · https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS3hGHHjeMQ

> ## Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids (PUFAs)
>
> **Andrew Murray:** Let's mention PUFAs, the polyunsaturated fatty acids. That's a pretty big problem.
>
> **Ray Peat:** In natural foods, I think there are two or three naturally occurring substances that account for some natural disease and possibly all of the major degenerative diseases. Those are polyunsaturated fats, starches, and sometimes an excess of iron. If you ate liver every day accompanied by orange juice, you would absorb a toxic amount of iron. But just over the period of several years, you can see the accumulation of polyunsaturated fats in the tissue. Old animals have highly polyunsaturated brain tissue. Long-lived animals that are remarkable for living longer than you would expect are unusually saturated in their fats.
>
> **Andrew Murray:** You'll find these polyunsaturates in corn oil, soy oil, and fish oils to some extent. These are used as frying oils for chips or french fries. Dr. Peat, mention some of the conditions that they can lead to.
>
> **Ray Peat:** Arthritis, cancer, dementia, wrinkly skin, and susceptibility to sunburn. An article that just came out two months ago looked at the pigment epithelium in the retina. They found that linoleic acid in particular, but all of the polyunsaturated fatty acids, created an inflammatory process that basically accelerates the degeneration of the retina. A new article showed that stearic acid or saturated fatty acids don't do that. For many years, researchers on alcoholic liver disease have been showing that it's the polyunsaturated fats which cause cirrhosis and hepatitis when people drink alcohol. In India, alcoholics who are in the butter, ghee, and milk-eating regions don't get cirrhosis.

### Source 5 — Suitable Fats, Unsuitable Fats: Issues in Nutrition

Ray Peat · Article · 2007 · https://raypeat.com/articles/articles/unsuitablefats.shtml

> The belief that the PUFA are essential nutrients has influenced the way cellular excitability thresholds are being interpreted. Anxiety and panic may be interpreted as alertness, calmness may be interpreted as stupidity. Specifically, long-term potentiation (LTP) may contribute to seizures, senility, and excitotoxicity, as well as to learning, but many titles and conclusions equate increased LTP with "improved LTP," implying that it has biological value to the animal. The ability of nerve cells to become quiescent after excitation is essential to learning and perception. This ability is lost with aging, as the functional balance in the brain shifts away from GABA-ergic to glutamatergic nerves. The polyunsaturated fatty acids promote the excitatory nervous state. The combination of respiratory inhibition with excitation can produce excitotoxic cell death. If the doctrine of "essentiality of PUFA" hadn't been so influential, different interpretations of excitatory thresholds, energy metabolism, and even cell structure would have been allowed to develop more fully.
>
> The concentration of polyunsaturated fats in the brain has led many people to say that the "nutritionally essential fatty acids," especially the omega-3 fatty acids, are essential for brain development (for the formation of nerve cell membranes), and for the formation of synapses, and that increasing the amount of those fats in the diet would be desirable. The types of argument they use simply ignore the real evidence: Cells can multiply indefinitely in culture dishes without the essential fatty acids, insects can multiply for generations on diets without the unsaturated fats, forming normal synapses and brains, and mammals fed diets with extremely small amounts of the unsaturated fats grow with perfectly normal--possibly superior--brains.
>
> One of the fats in the omega-9 series, that the human body can synthesize, nervonic acid, is a major constituent of brain tissue, but its important functions in brain development have hardly been investigated. Unlike the unsaturated fatty acids oleic acid, linoleic acid, and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), nervonic acid isn't associated with the "coronary risk factors," and it has been suggested that it might be used in adults to prevent obesity-related diseases. (Oda, et al., 2005).

### Source 6 — Unsaturated fatty acids: Nutritionally essential, or toxic?

Ray Peat · Article · 2008 · https://raypeat.com/articles/articles/unsaturatedfats.shtml

> In a certain cold climate, the PUFA are essential for hibernation, but under other conditions, the rodent would be able to continue gathering food and eating, instead of hibernating.
>
> The direct effects of the PUFA on the endocrine and nervous systems, as illustrated by the hibernating squirrel, interact with their effects on intercellular communication (including the formation of prostaglandins and related substances), and the effects of their oxidative breakdown products, such as acrolein. But the people who claim that they are absolutely, rather than conditionally, essential, base their argument on the idea that they are needed for the formation of prostaglandins and cell membranes. The fact that cells can replicate in fat free conditions shows that the argument from membranes is unfounded. The argument from prostaglandins is more complex, but has no firmer foundation.
>
> When a dose of PUFA is administered to a lizard, which isn't a hibernator, the lizard's body temperature is lowered by several degrees. There are probably many ways in which the PUFA produce that effect, besides increasing serotonin and decreasing thyroid. The PUFA are increased by estrogen, and they increase estrogen, and have some directly estrogen-like effects. Estrogen itself tends to lower body temperature and shift metabolism away from oxidative energy production.
>
> Aging, like estrogen, increases the body's content of the PUFA : Linoleic, linolenic, dihomo-gamma-linolenic, docosahexaenoic and docosapentaenoic acids are increased by age, and the longer chain acids increase more rapidly in women than in men (Bolton-Smith, et al., 1997). (Women are apparently relatively protected by progesterone, which inhibits lipolysis and prostaglandin formation, and protects the brain, thymus, and other tissues from lipid peroxidation and other effects of the PUFA.)
>
> Aging involves a decreasing metabolic rate, an increased tendency toward inflammation, and a decreased ability to synthesize proteins. Inflammation contributes to the decreasing ability to use oxygen, and the slowed renewal of proteins combined with lower ability to produce energy impair the organism's ability to control peroxidative damage and inflammation. The fragments of deteriorating PUFA combine with proteins and other cell materials, producing immunogenic substances.

### Source 7 — One Radio Network: Ray Peat with Patrick Timpone — February 21, 2022

Ray Peat · Interview · Feb 21, 2022

> **Ray Peat:** Oh, yeah. You can just look up fatty acid composition. of different foods.
>
> **Patrick Timpone:** I see. And is any PUFA not just stay away from it or low or what's your...
>
> **Ray Peat:** Yeah, since the food oil industry tried to convert the population to eating stuff that they've been selling for making paint because of the petroleum innovation of making paint more cheaply. the seed oil industry, dug up a defunct science of George Burr, whose claim that the PUFA are essential fatty acids. They revived that even after it had been many times disproved. Twenty years after it was disproved, they convinced the public that it PUFA is an essential nutrient. And contrary to all of the evidence since the 1930s, they have convinced the public that PUFA is a nutrient rather than a hormone disruptor.
>
> **Patrick Timpone:** And it just isn't. It's a hormone disruptor. And again, so if I'm clear, any PUFA you just stay away from, even low, low on some oils?
>
> **Ray Peat:** Yeah, small amounts you can handle unless you're overeating in general.
>
> **Patrick Timpone:** I see.
>
> **Ray Peat:** And when you overeat in general, PUFA tends to be the part that gets stored to gradually increase your body PUFA content.

### Source 8 — Health, Diet and Maximizing Masculinity With Returning Guest Georgi Dinkov | Fireside Chat 190

Georgi Dinkov · Interview · Sep 9, 2021

> **Brian:** And speaking of PUFA, so for people who don't know, PUFA stands for polyunsaturated fatty acids. Is that right? What is PUFA? What does that mean? And just like phytoestrogens, why should we avoid it? Is it even true that we should avoid it? I think it is, right? Yeah.
>
> **Georgi Dinkov:** So PUFA structurally is a highly unsaturated chemical structure. And I wanted to kind of link it with the phytoestrogens. If you look at their structure, they contain one or more phenolic rings and those benzene rings. And they're also highly unsaturated. They have double bonds in them. So anything with more than two or let's say three double bonds is likely to even to act, to have an estrogenic overall effect, even if it doesn't directly bind to the estrogen receptor. One of the biggest tricks the devil ever pulled was convince people that he didn't exist. I don't know if you've seen the movie, The Usual Suspects. So in the medical world, one of the biggest tricks the medical industry pulled is convince people that if something doesn't act through a receptor, it is inactive. That's not true. PUFO is a great example of a substance that does not directly bind to and activate the estrogen receptors, yet its effects are almost indistinguishable from estrogen when it's fed in a sufficiently high amounts. And they have so-called in vivo tests or estrogenicity, such as growth of mammary glands and growth of uterus in experimental animals. PUFA can reproduce 100% with 100% overlap the effects of giving these animals estradiol. So if you have two groups, one of them given estrogen, the other one given PUFA, depending on how much PUFA you give them, you can achieve the exact same estrogenicity of effects. that estradiol does. And there are multiple mechanisms through which this can be done. PUFA activates the synthesis of estrogen in the organism in which it is given. PUFA is a precursor to inflammation. As soon as you have inflammation, there is a signal to the body that it needs to repair itself. So it adaptively increases also.

### Source 9 — One Radio Network: Top Contrarian on Health

Ray Peat · Interview · Dec 17, 2019

> ## PUFA Accumulation in the Brain
>
> **Ray Peat:** Butter and coconut oil have about 3% bad fats (PUFA). Chronically, you accumulate and store these PUFAs because you preferentially oxidize saturated fats—they are safer and don't destroy mitochondria. You store PUFA in your tissues. A newborn's brain is almost free of polyunsaturated fats. By age 10 or 12, the brain shows high accumulation. After age 20, when growth stops, the concentration of PUFA increases steadily for the rest of your life. They are preferentially stored and built into the brain tissue. They tie up cholesterol, making it insoluble. It's like ashes or clinkers building up in your brain throughout the lifespan.
>
> **Patrick Timpone:** What are the popular PUFAs?
>
> **Ray Peat:** Fish oil, safflower, cottonseed, corn oil, soy oil. All the things that make good paint and varnish.

### Source 10 — Cancer, Asthma, Hair Growth & More

Ray Peat · Interview · Mar 4, 2022

> **Jodelle Fitzwater:** I agree. I mean, I would love, like you said, ideally, I would love all of my clients to spend as much time outside that they can, but it's just, it seems like I can't get people to do that. So the next best thing is like, I find a good quality vitamin D to get them on. And yeah, like you said, myself included, I don't burn. Also, I think that's due to low PUFAs. I have found that Eliminating PUFAs a long time ago, I don't burn. And I think that has a lot to do with the body's inflammatory response with the sun too, would you say?
>
> **Ray Peat:** Yep. Polyunsaturated fatty acids act as an antenna. Ultraviolet light excites those molecules, causes them to have excitatory, excited electrons that then spread inflammation to other less sensitive substances. So they're like the antenna to spread ultraviolet damage. If you have a rabbit experiment years ago, they shaved rabbits and exposed them to ultraviolet similar to sunlight. And the ones, the rabbits that had a PUFA-free diet, didn't get wrinkly skin, the ones on a high polyunsaturated fatty acid diet got very wrinkled after exposing their skin to sun, to radiation, ultraviolet.

### Source 11 — The Science Behind The Dangers of Polyunsaturated Fats - East West Healing and Performance Interview (hosted by Josh and Jeanne Rubin)

Ray Peat · Interview · 2011 · https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AK-uiCWZPk

> **Josh Rubin:** Ray, with all the diets available, can you give us 5 keypoints on why you feel that PUFAs are so dangerous. And then maybe some alternative fats that are much more beneficial for our bodies?
>
> **Ray Peat:** Olive oil is pretty safe because it has a great variety of antioxidants, even though it's 10% PUFA. I recommend not eating more than maybe a couple teaspoonfuls per day, just because of that PUFA content that eventually can build up. But the toxicity of the PUFAs will depend on your total calorie intake, because if you use it for fuel as fast as you eat it, then it's going to have relatively small harmful effects. It's when you put into storage and let it really decompose and have its long range effect on your fat tissue and brain tissue, that's when it becomes most harmful. Coconut oil has only around 1-2%, depending on the temperature where it grows, of the Polyunsaturated fats, and so Coconut oil and Butter can actually have an antioxidant effect, blocking the effects of these other breakdown products of the PUFAs, and can help to clean your tissues of the fats you ate previously. Sugar, from whatever source (but especially from fruit, because of the minerals that help to stabilize and organize the metabolism) is naturally turned into saturated fats and we immediately create an Omega -9 type of fat when we synthesize fat from sugar. And this mead acid is produced from any fat that we make ourselves. And these go on to make the multiple polyunsaturated fats that are used in a few places. And they have an anti-inflammatory effect. So, by avoiding the toxic anti-inflammatory effects, we're allowing our bodies to produce the natural anti-inflammatory mead acid series of fats (or omega -9).

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