Brain Composition and Food Science Insights

You didn't know that you didn't know part nine.

Seventy-five percent of the mass of a human brain is

made up of a substance called myelin,

and myelin is made up one hundred percent by

cholesterol.

I'll leave it there.

On a separate and completely unrelated subject, Alzheimer's

disease is a neurodegenerative brain disease

which destroys brain cells.

Now, Alzheimer's never existed until 1979, and

yet now it is one of the leading causes of death in Western

societies.

On a separate and completely unrelated subject, margarine was

first invented in 1869 because Napoleon

wanted a cheaper and longer-lasting fat for

his armies to travel with.

Um, it didn't gain popularity until the Second

World

War when butter and other animal fats were scarce.

Grew in popularity in the '50s,

uh, but by the '70s,

the animal fats in it had been re-replaced with vegetable oils

because obviously animal fats contain saturated fat

and a lot of cholesterol, so they wanted to offer a lower

cholesterol alternative.

I'll leave it there.

On a separate and completely unrelated subject,

margarine is one molecule away from being plastic.

Now, as any chemist will tell you, one molecule can make a huge difference to

the finished compound. Take ethanol and methanol, for example.

Um,

one molecule difference, but very, very, very different results

when ingested into the human body, right?

So I'll leave it there.

On a separate and completely unrelated subject,

a simple experiment to do at home is to take a slab of butter,

a slab of vegetable margarine with no animal fats in, and a

slab of plastic, and stick them all outside in your garden

and have a

look what happens.

Uh, very quickly,

all the wildlife in the area is going to be attracted to

that butter from

the flies and the beetles and the mini-beasts through the birds, the

rodents, all the way up to the apex predators,

foxes, badgers,

bears.

If there happens to be no other wildlife around, then bacteria

and mold will very, very quickly consume it because it's

easily digestible for all organic life forms.

The margarine and the plastic will sit there for

weeks. Nothing in nature will touch them. Try it.

I'll leave it there.