Linoleic Acid in grains for chickens

Today's Dr. Mercola article talks about not eating chicken because it has too much linoleic acid from being fed grain.  He says "Animals typically develop cancer once the LA in their diet reaches 4% to 10% of their energy intake,depending on the cancer."  He goes on to talk about how LA in vegetable oil is very hard on your health and to limit chicken.

 https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/12/13/linoleic-acid-health-effects.aspx?ui=d96bb4b9115ced4abe04405527bdf0257bf7ddb052040ea3b987b26cbb9e1e41&cid_source=dnl&cid_medium=email&cid_content=art1HL&cid=20201213_HL2&mid=DM746090&rid=1033667619


I am soaking and fermenting my grain and am not sure if that reduces LA in the grain or if sprouting it would reduce it more.  Not sure how to reduce their intake to 4 to 10% of feed, especially in the winter!

Interesting article and questions! I've felt for a long time chicken wasn't good for me, wonder if this is why? Seems there's some conflicting research on this issue with some studies saying linoleic acid is awful and others saying it helps (in humans). One study I found said that it might be genetic whether LA is good or bad for you and that's why all the contradictory findings. I always think experimenting for yourself and finding what works for your body is best when it comes to food. But I digress. Am I right in thinking that you are worried not just about LA in your diet, but about the overall health of your chickens, since it sounds like too much is bad for them also?

I don't know if sprouting would help. This would seem to suggest not so much? But I am tired and could be misreading/missing something.
"In waxy wheat, sprouting did not significantly affect FA composition of both free and bound lipids as well as the content of essential FAs (linoleic and linolenic acids) during 48 h of germination [40]. Sprouting had a significant effect on FAs composition of 9-day old wheat seedlings, as observed by Ozturk et al. [63]: the linolenic acid (18:3 n3) content increased, while the amount of cis-18:1 and cis,cis-18:2 FAs decreased. Conversely, after 3 days of germination the FAs more represented in wheat sprouts were palmitic acid, linoleic acid and oleic acid [64]." Sprouted Grains: A comprehensive review

Reducing their intake of grains below that does seem a little tricky, depending. Are they free ranging or in an enclosure?
I'd think some sort of chicken composting system or something that generates lots of bugs would be the thing. Maybe some occasional suet from pastured animals could be part of a picture? Or roadkill in colder times, if you're not squeamish and your setup permits?
I'm no expert on chicken nutrition though. Hopefully some other folks have thoughts.

I'm no chicken expert, just a person trying to read up on linoelic fatty acid, but from what I've read high-linoleic acid seeds are mainly a problem when they're refined into oil because it exposes them to oxidization, creating "oxams' - oxidized linoleic acid metabolics.

I think the concern may be large-scale chicken farms adding vegetable oils into their feed for chickens. Do people do that with chickens? I saw this place is putting vegetable oils in their goat formula, for instance. I don't know-- I have no experience in livestock. I saw the same claims about chicken potentially having too much linoleic acid and found this forum trying to learn more.

https://mtcapra.com/knowledge-base/linoleic-acid-content-in-various-oils/

I don't know for sure but based on what I've read so far, it doesn't seem like unprocessed seeds are anywhere near as harmful as the oils.

I’ve been pondering how to keep linoleic acid content down in non-ruminants(ruminants can convert it, so I’ve heard) over winter. It makes me consider harvesting all chickens each year before grain would be needed.

I’ve been feeling a lot better since avoiding seed oils. Crohn’s disease(which I have) is associated with higher levels linoleic acid:
Elevated concentrations of linoleic acid in erythrocyte membrane phospholipids in patients with inflammatory bowel disease

Linoleic acid, but not oleic acid, upregulates the production of interleukin-8 by human intestinal smooth muscle cells isolated from patients with Crohn's disease

Paul Saladino mentioned some study showing that wild birds had significantly less linoleic acid than domesticated birds. If I remember correctly, it sounded like these “wild” birds were probably near farms and therefore I wonder how much grain they might have picked off.

If I understand correctly, Dr. Mercola is saying 4-10% linoleic acid, and you are talking about getting grain consumption down to 4-10%. Not all the fat is linoleic acid though. I also wonder how much of a chicken’s fat is made from the fat eats. Since carbohydrates can easily be turned into fat in humans.

Cereal grain lipids

All of this makes me think we could get away with a decent amount of grain possibly. And if it’s true that seed oils are being fed to those chickens, that would give me even more confidence that a decent amount of grain could be used.

Also, I think I read that geese do a better job foraging in winter and don’t need as much supplementation. Is this true?  If so, that would really help keep the linoleic acid content down in geese.

This may be a silly thought, but for someone who only has a small number of birds, maybe have a greenhouse that can supply some fresh food in winter?