The #1 Most Ignored Anti-Inflammatory Food in the World
Dr. Berg’s Healthy Keto and Intermittent Fasting Podcast
Dr. Eric Berg
4.7 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 22 August 2025
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When people think of snake oil, they often think of the snake oil salesman. In the 1800s, people would sell “snake oil” for pain, arthritis, and digestive issues, and developed a bad reputation for peddling products that were fraudulent or didn’t actually work.
Clark Stanley is one of the most well-known sellers of snake oil for arthritis. The government tested his snake oil, and it was found that it didn’t contain any snake oil at all. This gave other natural remedies a bad reputation.
Real snake oil was shipped from China, where railroad workers used it for arthritis. It was derived from a specific type of Chinese water snake.
Health scams like those of the snake oil salesmen of the past seem to still be going on! Big Pharma has been involved in numerous criminal fraud cases, resulting in 100 billion dollar settlements! Many drugs are considered safe and effective, but are suddenly found to be dangerous.
The benefits of drugs are exaggerated, and the side effects are minimized. In some cases, as with vaccines, Big Pharma is not liable for harm or negative side effects. So it seems, Big Pharma is the new snake oil salesman!
Real snake oil is one of the richest sources of omega-3 fatty acids, specifically EPA. EPA can change pro-inflammatory factors into anti-inflammatory factors. Snake oil benefits include the following:•Potent anti-inflammatory properties •Natural anti-depressant •Decreases risk of heart attack by 25% •Decreases risk of fibrosis •Increases insulin sensitivity •Decreases risk of autoimmunity •Decreases tumors
Snake oil can also be used topically!
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Did you realize that snake oil is the number one most ignored superfood? |
| 0:04.9 | That's right. |
| 0:05.5 | Wait till you hear what real snake oil can do for your body. |
| 0:08.9 | But I first want to dive into the snake oil concept that's been pushed out there for over 100 years, |
| 0:15.1 | especially in relationship to snake oil salesmen. |
| 0:17.9 | When people think of that, they think of health fraud. But let's do a little deep |
| 0:22.7 | dive into this topic because it has a very interesting history. Back in the 1800s, there was a lot |
| 0:27.3 | of people out there selling all sorts of things in them that weren't natural, selling them for |
| 0:31.9 | arthritis and pain and digestive issues and all sorts of things. And they got a bad rap because some of them, |
| 0:39.6 | not all of them, had some ingredients that weren't legit. Like for example, this gentleman here, |
| 0:44.9 | Clark Stanley, he was selling snake oil for arthritis, but then when the government tested his |
| 0:50.5 | snake oil, they found there was no snake oil in there. And so he got in trouble. |
| 0:54.7 | And his fine was, I think, back then it was $20. Nowadays, if he'd probably be about $600. |
| 1:00.2 | So he got a slap on the wrist. He's like the poster child of the snake oil salesperson. |
| 1:04.9 | And they got branded anything natural at the time. Because right about that time, there was a bit |
| 1:10.3 | of competition between |
| 1:11.4 | this new drug industry and natural remedies, herbs, etc. There was a shift towards more new |
| 1:20.0 | pharmaceutical drugs. But in reality, back then, snake oil was shipped from China. For the Chinese |
| 1:25.6 | that were working on the railroad all day long, they had to |
| 1:28.2 | use some remedy that was really good for arthritis and pain, and that's what they used back then. |
| 1:33.2 | But of course, some people that sold it didn't really have the legitimate snake oil. And that snake oil |
| 1:38.7 | back then, they used, was a very specific Chinese water snake. It wasn't an American rattlesnake. |
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