Hydrogenated vegetable oils, sold under names such as margarine, Crisco, safflower oil, and countless other commercial fat substitutes, are not food according to Aajonus Vonderplanitz. They are plastic. This is not metaphor. According to Aajonus, the molecular structure of a hydrogenated vegetable oil is identical to the molecular structure of plastic. The two substances are chemically indistinguishable at the molecular level. Hydrogenated vegetable oil does not nourish. It does not lubricate. It does not support cellular regeneration. It congests, crystallizes, hardens, blocks, and poisons every system it enters in the human body.

Aajonus described these oils as the single greatest assault on the lymphatic system in the history of human nutrition. He said that 90% of all oils that people consume today are hydrogenated, and that 99% of all oils used to fry foods, regardless of what they are marketed as, are trans-fatty acids, meaning plastic oils, because they have an indefinite shelf life of potentially 100 years or more. Nothing alive exists in them. No bacteria can feed on them. No bacterial digestion, which Aajonus stated constitutes 99% of all digestion, can process plastic oil. It is therefore not digested at all. It accumulates. It clusters. It hardens inside the body over four to five years and eventually forms masses that cannot be broken.

Aajonus argued that the term "trans-fatty acids" should be permanently stricken from all vocabulary and replaced with the plainly descriptive and accurate term: Plastic Oil. He repeated this demand across multiple seminars and in his written materials, stating that the obfuscatory scientific terminology hides the lethal reality of what these oils are from the public.

Beyond hydrogenated versions, even raw, non-hydrogenated vegetable oils are problematic in the human body, for reasons Aajonus explained in extensive biochemical and physiological detail. The human body temperature of 98.6°F and below is simply too cool to keep vegetable oils fluid. They crystallize inside cells and tissues, causing hardening of the arteries, multiple sclerosis, hardening of the heart, hardening of the liver and pancreas, and a full constellation of degenerative diseases that have been fraudulently blamed on animal fats.

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Aajonus explained the process of hydrogenation in consistent, specific terms across all of his seminars. Hydrogenation subjects an oil to oxidization under heat. This oxidization and heat combination, applied to any oil, whether petroleum-based, mineral-based, or vegetable-based, produces plastic. The longer the oil is subjected to this process, and the higher the heat, the harder the resulting plastic becomes. Margarine, which is a softer plastic, is hydrogenated to a shorter duration and lower temperature than industrial plastics used in manufacturing. But the molecular structure is identical. Margarine is plastic. The difference is only degree of hardness, not chemical category.

Aajonus told the origin story of plastic's discovery multiple times with consistent details: A worker was assigned to monitor the hydrogenation and heating of vegetable oil, responsible for controlling the temperature and duration of the process. He fell asleep. Depending on the account, he was asleep for three hours, or six hours. When he woke up, the oil had been subjected to a far longer and more complete hydrogenation process than intended, and it had turned into hard plastic. He was fired because the oil was intended for food. He could not eat it, it was plastic. But that accident gave birth to the entire plastics industry. Aajonus placed this discovery in the late 1940s, with experimentation continuing through the 1950s as scientists learned that adding other chemicals to the process produced even harder materials. Full-scale marketing of margarine as healthier than butter began in 1960 and 1961.

When the newly formed plastics first emerged, they could not be commercialized immediately because they would mold within nine months to a year. Fungus and mold organisms would grow in the plastic regardless of how hard it was made. This posed an enormous commercial problem for any plastic product. The solution was to develop the most powerful antifungal agents science could produce, agents so toxic they would prevent any biological organism from feeding on or growing in the plastic. This deliberate effort to create substances capable of killing all biological activity in plastic resulted in the creation of dioxins and PCBs, which Aajonus described as purposely engineered, the most poisonous and the most carcinogenic substances on the planet. All of this was done so that plastic could be manufactured commercially. The damage to the planet from these antifungal compounds, dioxins, PCBs, is, in Aajonus's words, "extraordinary."

Aajonus stated unequivocally and repeatedly: the molecular structure of hydrogenated vegetable oil is identical to plastic. Not similar. Not analogous. Identical. This is not a rhetorical device. He made clear that this identity is the reason the body cannot process these fats. No biological process in the human body, not enzymatic digestion, not bacterial breakdown, not cellular incorporation, can work with plastic molecules. Bacteria, which conduct 99% of all digestion, have no mechanism for feeding on plastic oil. Therefore, when hydrogenated oils are consumed, they are not digested. They pass into the body and accumulate.

He made the same point about mineral oils: petroleum-derived mineral oils are refined, cleaned, and then hydrogenated, producing the same molecular structure as plastic in liquid form. He stated that 90% of what is sold as olive oil is not olive oil but rather mineral oils, oils made from petroleum, diluted with a small amount of actual olive oil or no olive oil at all. More on this in the sourcing section.

Aajonus explained at great length why even non-hydrogenated, raw vegetable oils are problematic specifically for humans, and why they do not pose the same problem for herbivores.

An herbivore, any animal that eats vegetation and has evolved to digest it, has a body temperature of 101 to 105 degrees Fahrenheit. At this temperature, vegetable oils remain fluid inside the body. They do not crystallize. The herbivore also has a vastly longer digestive tract, specific anaerobic bacteria suited to breaking down vegetable oils and cellulose fats, and a large array of enzymes specifically designed to break down cellulose-based fats. All of these biological tools together allow the herbivore to utilize vegetable oils without harm.

The human body temperature is 98.6°F and lower. This is critically below the threshold at which vegetable oils remain fluid in the cellular environment. When a human eats vegetable oil and the body attempts to incorporate that oil into cell structure, and the body produces approximately 10 million cells per day, all of which require fat, the vegetable oil that becomes part of the cellular membrane or internal structure begins to crystallize and harden. The human body is never, except briefly during fever, warm enough to reliquefy that crystallized vegetable oil. And a fever, Aajonus stated, is never long enough to accomplish meaningful liquefaction.

The progression he described: first, the oil inside the cell takes on the consistency of refrigerated margarine or refrigerated butter, it turns solid. Then the water in the cell separates from the solidified oil. Then it becomes a fully crystallized substance. If the body has used this oil as its primary fat supply, the cells themselves harden. They block. The lymphatic system cannot move through the blocked connective tissue to feed cells or remove waste. The skin, through which 90% of toxins are supposed to exit the body, becomes blocked. This creates a catastrophic failure of detoxification.

Aajonus compared raw vegetable oil that has been incorporated into the earth with animal fat to illustrate: if you take raw vegetable oil and mix it with dirt and let it sit for one year, you have rock, a solid mineral mass. If you take animal fat and mix it with dirt, it molds and returns to earth, feeding the soil. He used this as evidence that the fundamental nature of vegetable oil is to crystallize and harden in any temperature-ambient environment, whereas animal fat is biologically compatible with living systems at ambient temperatures.

He further compared vegetable oil to tree resin and amber: amber is the fat (sap/resin) of a tree that has crystallized over time into a gemstone-hard rock. This is the nature of plant fats. They are designed to become hard, to protect seeds and plant structures. They are not designed to remain fluid at mammalian body temperatures below 101°F.

When vegetable oils are hydrogenated, they do not merely crystallize as raw vegetable oils do, they are oxidized into something categorically different: liquid plastic. Aajonus stated that this plastic, once consumed and incorporated into the body over time, does not simply harden gradually. The body dries it out, and actual plastic molecules, very small, finite particles, collect and adhere together. He cited a case study of a woman who, following a significant cold, flu, and bladder infection (all of which he described as cleansing processes), passed what she thought were several large particles of salt or stones. She took a hammer to them and was unable to crush them. They were completely hard rubber, couldn't be dented, couldn't be broken. These were plastic molecules that had accumulated, clustered, and hardened inside her body from years of consuming hydrogenated oils, expelled through the cleansing process.

He specified the timeline: vegetable oil that the body attempts to use in cellular construction will harden four to five years after incorporation into the body, because the molecular exchange in those cells stops happening. Especially with hydrogenated molecules, which are already plastic, this hardening is essentially permanent from the body's perspective.

Aajonus also explained the process by which the body attempts to handle plastic molecules: it tries to manufacture mutant bacteria to break them down, digesting them only slightly. This response is inadequate and generates its own problems.

Aajonus listed the following conditions as directly caused by vegetable oils, and especially hydrogenated vegetable oils:

• Hardening of the arteries / arteriosclerosis, the primary and most-cited consequence
• Heart disease / hardening of the heart, he stated this was essentially non-existent before the introduction of margarine and processed vegetable oils. Heart attacks 200 years ago were described as a rare occurrence, confined mainly to extremely thin, dry workers in coal mines or smoldering factories who had simply dried out internally. Heart attacks became the leading killer only after vegetable oils and margarine dominated the food supply.
• Multiple sclerosis (MS), directly attributed to vegetable oil crystallization in the nervous system
• Cirrhosis of the liver, from vegetable oil hardening
• Hardened pancreas
• Congested lymphatic system, the trans-fatty acid / plastic fat molecules jam and block the lymphatic system, which is supposed to dissolve dead cells, transport nutrients to every cell, and move waste to the skin for perspiration
• Lymphoma and other cancers, from lymphatic congestion caused by plastic fats, which Aajonus described as "relatively non-removable"
• Psoriasis and eczema, from the progressive hardening and crystallization of fats in the skin and connective tissue
• Congested, hardened arteries and membranes, from crystallized oils blocking every channel
• Congested lymphatics leading to tumor formation, he stated that tumors always occur when the lymphatic system is not fed the fats it needs to make biological solvents to dissolve dead cells, and that most blockages causing tumors are from hydrogenated vegetable oils
• Sexual dysfunction, he noted that plastics, including hydrogenated liquid plastic oils, damage sex drive and sexual function. He drew a parallel to BPA/phthalate research with frogs and rabbits: males became feminized, females became masculinized, and both eventually became sterile. He said this is why Viagra became a massive industry, the widespread consumption of plastic fats (and plastic food packaging) essentially destroyed normal sexual function.
• Hardened connective tissue throughout the body
• Bone spurs, from crystallized vegetable oil particles that can grow
• Kidney stones (the hammer-proof stones described above, which he characterized as plastic not mineral stones)
• Blocked skin pores, since the lymphatic system cannot dump toxins through the skin when congested with plastic, the toxins reroute to the intestines, which is "not the healthy route"
• Misfiring of neurological synapses, ganglion, axons, contributing to psychological and neurological dysfunction, including, Aajonus suggested, interpersonal aggression and irritability
• Accumulation of toxic industrial chemicals in the body facilitated by plastic oil congestion

He made a repeatedly cited epidemiological observation: tribes anywhere in the world that subsist only on cooked animal fats, in Borneo, New Guinea, and elsewhere, including historical cannibals, have zero heart disease and zero arteriosclerosis. Even 50% of the vegetarians who came to him for consultation came to him with cancer. 90% of them had plaque throughout their arterial systems even though they ate no meat. He attributed this entirely to vegetable oils in the vegetarian diet.

Aajonus made a specific and critical biochemical argument about why hydrogenated oils are uniquely indigestible. He stated that 99% of digestion is bacterial. Bacteria are the primary agents of breaking down all food in the body. Bacteria cannot feed on plastic. There is no bacterial species, in the human digestive system or anywhere in nature, that can consume plastic oil as a food source. Therefore, when plastic oil enters the body, it bypasses all normal digestion. It is absorbed as a foreign material directly into the tissues and lymphatic system, where it then lodges, accumulates, and over years hardens into the masses and blockages described above.

He noted that because nothing alive exists in plastic oil, no bacteria, no enzymes, no living biological material whatsoever, these oils have nearly eternal shelf life. 100 years. Possibly longer. This is why food manufacturers use them: infinite shelf life means infinite profitability. The food does not decay. It cannot decay, because nothing alive can feed on it.

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Aajonus described a spectrum of severity:

Raw, cold-pressed vegetable oils (non-hydrogenated, pressed below 96°F): Even at their most benign, vegetable oils in the human body will crystallize over time if incorporated into cellular structure, because human body temperature at 98.6°F and below is insufficient to keep them fluid. However, raw, cold-pressed oils at least have some biological activity. They are about 90% solvent-reactive, meaning the body uses them primarily as cleansers to dissolve toxins, dissolve dead cells, dissolve arterial and lymphatic plaque and congestion, and break down internal adhesions including scar tissue and benign or malignant tumors. They do NOT lubricate. They do NOT restore. They do NOT protect. They cleanse and dissolve. Aajonus used the analogy of soap, pressed oils function as biological soaps or solvents. He cautioned that they can cause dry and acrid conditions in the body when overused, because they do not replace what they dissolve.

Heated/cooked vegetable oils (non-hydrogenated but heated above 96°F): Once a vegetable oil is heated above 96°F during processing, it begins to lose its beneficial solvent properties and becomes increasingly toxic. The precise threshold of harm varies with temperature. Oils heated to 120°F, 150°F, 160°F, 250°F, and higher represent progressively worse products.

Hydrogenated vegetable oils: These are no longer food in any sense. They are plastic, liquid plastic. The molecular structure is identical to petroleum plastic. They have no nutritive value, no solvent value useful to the body, no lubrication value. They are poison. They harden four to five years after incorporation into the body, create permanent or near-permanent blockages in the lymphatic system, and are extremely difficult to remove from the body.

Mineral oils hydrogenated (petroleum-derived): These are even more definitively non-food and are being used in massive quantities to adulterate what is marketed as vegetable oil and especially olive oil. They are refined from petroleum deposits, purified, and then hydrogenated, yielding liquid plastic identical in molecular structure to plastic made from vegetable oil. Because there is nothing alive in them, they have infinite shelf life. They cost far less to produce than pressing actual vegetable oils.

Aajonus stated specifically that marshmallows are styrofoam, not metaphorically, but literally. When you take an oil and hydrogenate it, you get the same molecular structure as styrofoam, which is a form of plastic. Marshmallows combine hydrogenated oil with sugar and corn syrup to create styrofoam in edible form. Ice cream manufacturers similarly used hydrogenated vegetable oils to replace dairy in their products, meaning consumers were eating styrofoam in their ice cream.

Aajonus briefly noted that even distilled essential oils and aromatic oils are processed at temperatures that turn them into a form of plastic. He cited a well-known natural health advocate whose oils, though better than standard commercial aromatics, are still distilled at 257°F, far above the threshold of 96°F, at which point he stated the product "turns into plastic" and has a toxic vaporous reaction. The old method of extracting flower essences, laying flowers on lard or animal fat, then setting them in the sun, was described as superior precisely because no heat processing was required.

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Aajonus described what he considered one of the most widespread food frauds in the current market: the adulteration of olive oil. He stated that 90% of all olive oils on the planet are only 10% actual olive oil, with 90% being hydrogenated mineral oils, petroleum-derived oils, not even vegetable oils.

He explained why this is inevitable: there are simply not enough olive trees in the world to supply the demand for olive oil that arose once consumers became aware of the dangers of margarine and hydrogenated vegetable oils and began seeking olive oil as an alternative. He stated there are enough olive groves in the world to feed approximately 30 million people, at roughly two quarts of olive oil per person per year. The global population demanding olive oil vastly exceeds this capacity. Therefore, manufacturers take mineral oils derived from petroleum, clarify and purify them, hydrogenate them, and mix them with a small percentage of actual olive oil to create products that are sold as olive oil. The consumer believes they are avoiding hydrogenated oils. They are in fact consuming hydrogenated petroleum-based liquid plastic.

He also noted that coconut oil has the same supply problem: there are not enough coconut groves to supply global demand, creating similar opportunities for adulteration.

Aajonus documented a specific legal and commercial deception regarding trans-fatty acid labeling. He stated there is a categorical falsehood operating across all packaged foods: labels claim the food does not contain trans-fatty acids (plastic oils), but if the food was fried, this claim is a lie. The deception works as follows: the food manufacturers themselves do not hydrogenate their oils. Instead, they purchase oils that were already hydrogenated from oil manufacturers. Because they did not perform the hydrogenation themselves, they can legally claim their product contains no trans-fatty acids. Yet the oil used to fry the food is already fully hydrogenated, it is already plastic before it enters the manufacturing process.

As a result of this mechanism: nearly every donut, chip, French fry, and fried food in every market, including health food stores, is fried in plastic oil. They are replete with plastic oils and plastic fat.

He also noted that some manufacturers have developed new processing methods that do not technically constitute "hydrogenation" but produce a molecular structure that is still a form of plastic, just given a different name. The substance is renamed and remarketed, but remains plastic.

Aajonus noted that New York City officially outlawed trans-fatty acids, an acknowledgment that these substances are harmful, but stated the terminology remained confusing because the public does not understand what "trans-fatty acids" means. He said the ban was meaningful but the terminology must be replaced with the honest term: plastic fats.

Aajonus named the following specific findings regarding commercially available oils:

• Peanut oil: As of the time of his statement, no peanut oil was available pressed below even 150°F. He stated there was "nothing available" in terms of acceptable peanut oil.
• Olive oil (pressed): He had been working with stone-pressed or cold-pressed olive oil below 80°F. He stated virtues diminish if heated above 96°F. He was investigating Living Tree Community Foods' California Heritage Olive Oil, raising concerns about pesticides and herbicides in California olive country, and about whether solvents might be used in separation of oil from pulp even if the company claims cold processing. He requested written confirmation from the chief chemist (not merely an executive), noting that most company executives are not reliable sources.
• Living Tree olive oil: Their president confirmed via email it is raw, unfiltered, unheated, unpressed, produced in a water-jacketed centrifuge at room temperature, certified organic, without chemicals or solvents. Aajonus noted this was promising but still wanted the chief chemist to confirm.
• Living Tree flaxseed oil: Cold-pressed without chemicals or solvents, below 120°F, certified organic. Aajonus noted 120°F is higher than the ideal threshold of 96°F and expressed ongoing concern.
• Barleyens flax oil: Described as the best available flax oil because they press it the day before they ship it, pressed between 82°F and 86°F.
• Spectrum: He identified Spectrum as one of the only companies pressing oils below 96°F (peanut oil and olive oil specifically).
• Flax oil: Generally pressed at about 82°F to 86°F.
• Sesame oil: Cannot be obtained pressed below 160°F. He stated it is not acceptable.
• Borage oil: Described as nothing other than cottonseed oil under a different name, very toxic, makes animals very sick.
• Green Pastures cod liver oil: He helped formulate this product and noted that flavored versions use distilled process oils, which he considered problematic. He stated that for people on a fully raw diet, cod liver oil made no measurable difference in outcomes. It was only useful for people eating conventionally cooked food.

Aajonus stated categorically that oil should never be processed above 96°F. At 96°F and above, oils begin causing harm to the liver and begin losing their biological integrity. This is the hard limit for any oil he would consider acceptable. He noted that no coconut oil or butter is produced under 118°F (46°C) regardless of what any label claims.

He also stated that oils build temperatures during processing, even a machine that appears to be operating at low temperatures can generate friction-based heat significantly above the ambient setting. Therefore, the actual temperature the oil reaches at all points during processing and bottling must be confirmed, not just the stated setting. Many producers label oils as cold-pressed while temperatures reach as high as 250°F due to machine speed and friction.

He addressed whether plastic containers leach into coconut oil: rinsed plastic containers do not leach into coconut oil unless subjected to temperatures above 40°C (104°F). Below that threshold, the plastic does not degrade into the oil.

Aajonus stated that 95% of all packaged goods on any store shelf contain hydrogenated vegetable oils. There is no decay in these products because there is nothing alive in hydrogenated oil. Hundreds of years of shelf life are possible. He noted that even companies claiming to produce organic food do not necessarily avoid hydrogenated oils in their ingredient supply chain, they buy substances from processors who use hydrogenated oils, then assemble those ingredients into "organic" products.

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Aajonus did not describe a mandatory pairing protocol specifically for consuming hydrogenated oils, because his recommendation was the complete elimination of all hydrogenated oils. There is no safe or mitgated way to consume them.

However, for removing plastic oil from the body, he described animal fats, particularly raw butter, raw cream, and raw meat fats, as the appropriate biological tools. Animal fat is the only fat that can circulate through the lymphatic system, lubricate it, and provide the solvents and biological activity needed to begin moving accumulated plastic molecules out of tissues. Raw fats support the lymphatic system's natural function, while plastic fats jam it.

For the effects of even raw pressed oils (non-hydrogenated), he consistently paired them with animal fat, particularly butter, to counteract the drying and acrid effects that pressed oils create. In the context of vegetable soup containing cooked vegetable oils, he specifically said he adds butter with the soup, noting this counteracts the crystallization tendency of the cooked vegetable fat.

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Aajonus stated: "If I can't eat it, I don't put it on my skin." This was his general rule. For topical fats, he preferred raw animal fats, butter, meat fats, coconut cream, over any pressed vegetable oil.

He specifically cautioned that putting oil on the skin smothers it and makes the body very hot. Pressed oils applied to the skin function as solvents, they dissolve things. This is not always desirable topically, particularly for fragile or damaged skin.

For essential oil and aromatic applications, he noted that the old method, laying flowers on lard or animal fat and letting them absorb the essence in the sun, was far superior to any solvent or heat-distilled extraction, because no processing temperatures were involved.

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There is no acceptable dose of hydrogenated vegetable oil. Any amount represents consumption of plastic that will lodge in the body, accumulate, and eventually block the lymphatic system. Aajonus never once suggested a "safe" level of hydrogenated oil consumption. The only protocol is complete avoidance.

Even for raw, cold-pressed vegetable oils (non-hydrogenated, pressed below 96°F), Aajonus recommended strict moderation due to their 90% solvent-reactive nature and their tendency to cause drying and acrid conditions:

• Maximum: one tablespoon per day of pressed oils is the upper limit the body can reasonably handle and process. He stated: "The body can only handle a tablespoon a day of those pressed oils."
• Four-day recovery: If consuming four tablespoons of pressed oil in a sauce, he stated it will take four days for the body to process that oil, to make it into solvents, clean the body with it, and fully process it. Therefore no additional pressed oils should be consumed for four days after a four-tablespoon serving.
• Frequency: No more than once a day or every other day. He recommended consuming oils mainly with one meat meal.
• Hemp oil: He described as "almost similar to castor oil" and a poison in quantities beyond one tablespoon per day maximum.
• Coconut oil (pure, separated): Still 90% solvent-reactive as a pressed oil, mainly detoxifying rather than nourishing. The cream form of coconut is preferable.
• Flax oil: Acceptable in small amounts if truly raw and cold-pressed. The body uses it as a solvent/cleanser.

He stated the natural concentration of oils in food provides context: in a coconut, the oil content is 7-8%. In a leaf, approximately the same, 6-8%. In nature, fats and oils do not appear as concentrated isolates. The pressed oil is an artificially concentrated product, which is why it behaves like a powerful solvent rather than a nourishing food.

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Aajonus was explicit that he did not use vegetable oils in his own food preparation. He used:

• Lard, for high-temperature cooking if it must be done (historically correct: doughnuts were properly fried in lard, not vegetable oil)
• Butter, for nearly all fat applications in savory foods
• Coconut cream, as a fat addition to sauces and preparations, recommended at no more than one tablespoon when pressed oil is also in the recipe
• Olive oil, in very small amounts for meat preservation (enough to coat and fill the spaces between meat slices in a preservation jar, not large quantities), and for certain sauces. He stated that bacteria does not grow well in olive oil, making it useful as a preservative medium.

Aajonus described preserving meat in olive oil: 1. Place a small amount of olive oil (approximately half a cup) in the bottom of a jar. 2. Begin packing meat slices tightly into the jar. 3. As you pack, olive oil will begin rising up the sides between the meat. 4. Add a small additional amount of olive oil as needed. 5. Continue packing until the oil covers the top of the meat. 6. The amount of olive oil is minimal, just enough to fill the spaces between the slices. 7. Seal with beeswax. 8. He described eating 10-year-old deer meat preserved this way and finding it acceptable. 9. He noted this method does not require large amounts of oil, the oil simply prevents bacterial colonization in the interstitial spaces.

He noted that peanut oil also worked well for meat preservation and that meat in peanut oil or olive oil was "absolutely delicious." He contrasted this with jerky, meat without oil, which does not last as long and does not have the same nutritional holding capacity.

Aajonus specifically clarified that when he recommends eggs with vegetable juice, he has never said to blend the egg into the vegetable juice. He said: hand-whip the egg. You must add at least some cream (approximately three tablespoons of cream with six eggs) along with honey, then hand-whip. The cream coats the mixture and prevents oxidizing.

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Margarine is the flagship commercial product of hydrogenated vegetable oil and Aajonus devoted extensive commentary to it as the primary symbol and vehicle of the plastic fat catastrophe.

Aajonus made a specific historical claim: the King and Queen of England were responsible both for World War II and for the promotion of margarine. He stated they owned 70% of all the vegetable oil industry. Through their commercial interests, margarine was promoted as superior to butter beginning in the early 1960s, with the false claim that margarine relieves heart disease while butter causes it. Aajonus stated this is the exact reverse of the truth.

Aajonus described what he called "the greatest crime, and it is criminal" in food marketing: that margarine and vegetable oils have been sold as healthy and better-for-health than butter and other animal fats. This claim is, in his words, "completely fraudulent." The specific inversion is:

• What we were told: Animal fats (butter, lard, cream, meat fat) cause heart disease and arteriosclerosis. Margarine and vegetable oils prevent it.
• The truth: Hydrogenated vegetable oils (margarine, Crisco, all commercial oil substitutes) are the primary cause of heart disease, arteriosclerosis, multiple sclerosis, and most other chronic degenerative diseases. Animal fats, even cooked, do not cause these conditions in any human population.

Aajonus consistently reminded audiences that before the 1940s and early 1950s, everyone used butter or lard. The generation raised on margarine was his generation, the first to grow up with this industrial product normalized. Everything up until the 1940s was butter. Butter, everybody used butter or lard. The promotion of margarine as the healthy alternative began after the plastic industry discovered it could sell the public on eating its manufacturing byproduct.

Aajonus directly stated that the plastics industry and the margarine/vegetable oil food industry are the same thing. The same industrial process, hydrogenation of vegetable oils with heat, produces both consumer plastics and food-grade margarine. The difference is only duration and temperature of processing. By selling the public on eating margarine, the industry was literally selling them plastic, and doing so by telling them it was health food. He noted that as the plastics industry expanded and found countless other commercial applications (carpet, clothing, cars, packaging), the pressure on the public to consume margarine specifically may have eased somewhat, since the industry no longer needed to sell its product exclusively through food channels.

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Aajonus documented the creation of the entire plastics industry as a direct outgrowth of vegetable oil processing. A factory worker fell asleep during the hydrogenation and heating of vegetable oil, intended for food. He slept for three to six hours (Aajonus varied slightly across accounts). When he woke, the oil had become hard plastic. He was fired. The oil was ruined as food. But the incident demonstrated that hydrogenated vegetable oil, subjected to sufficient time and heat, becomes solid plastic. This discovery launched the plastics industry, beginning in approximately 1957, with experimentation through the late 1950s to produce harder materials by adding other chemicals.

The same industry that created the food product (margarine) also created consumer plastic, which is now the number one industry in the world. Aajonus stated this connection as a deliberate and knowing one.

When early plastics molded within nine months to a year due to fungal growth, because no biological organism had yet been eliminated from the plastic, scientists were tasked with creating the most powerful antifungal agents possible to kill all biological life in plastic. This effort, Aajonus stated, purposely created dioxins and PCBs, the most carcinogenic and most poisonous substances on the planet. He described the damage done to the planet by these compounds as "extraordinary." They were created not as an accident or industrial byproduct but as the deliberate solution to a commercial manufacturing problem: how to keep plastic from molding.

Aajonus stated multiple times, in slightly varied forms, that the systematic promotion of vegetable oils and the suppression of animal fats was part of a deliberate population control strategy, "again, to control the population." He did not elaborate extensively on the mechanism of that control in these passages, but the repeated framing of it in those terms suggests he viewed the entire vegetable oil promotion as coordinated rather than simply mistaken.

Aajonus briefly mentioned that hydrogenated oils are used to manufacture vitamin D supplements, framing this as another layer of the same industrial complex delivering plastic fat under the guise of a health product.

Aajonus dated the most damaging phase of the campaign to 1960-1961: "Margarine is better than butter" became the official commercial and medical message immediately after the accidental creation of plastic in the late 1950s. This was the beginning of the mass introduction of plastic fat into the general food supply under the banner of health promotion. He stated that until then, everything up through the 1940s, butter was universal. The transition from butter to margarine in one generation produced the epidemic of heart disease, arteriosclerosis, MS, and cancer that characterized the second half of the 20th century.

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