How to Be Healthy

 Experts now estimate that 95% to 99% of the U.S. population is not obtaining enough omega 3 essential fatty acids for good health.  Just as importantly, they are failing to consume the correct ratio of omega 3 fatty acids to omega 6 fatty acids.  Unfortunately, the oils they are using have been damaged by processing the oil product and during food preparation when they are typically used and add to the toxicity problem in humans.  This situation is a major contributor to our unprecedented epidemic of chronic disease.  Supplementing with the correct types of oils is vital; however, there is widespread confusion regarding which kinds to take, in which amounts, and why they are needed. 

  Fatty acids serve as energy for the muscles, heart, and other organs, as building blocks for cell membranes, and as energy storage for the body.  Those fatty acids not used up as energy are converted into triglycerides.  A triglyceride is a molecule formed by attaching three fatty acids onto a glycerol compound that serves as a backbone. Triglycerides are then stored in the body as fat (adipose) tissue.  Triglycerides are used as fuel, however too much fuel, stored as fat, increases cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and arthritis.  As societies leisure time increased and with the increased use of and dependence on labour saving devices, we need less fuel to carry out our daily activity.  It’s no wonder that we are becoming overweight as a nation.  Added into this mix is the nutritional predicament we have created for ourselves by changing our traditional diet.  Given that humans have been here for several hundred thousand years and during that time frame ate a diet of seeds, nuts, tubers and grains, fish and animals, the so called Paleo Diet, the advent of farming, cities and a regular food supply has been part of human existence for a very short period of time; perhaps one percent of the total time we have existed.  We have not had the time to develop the digestive and metabolic capacity to take full advantage of our new diet.  One result of this would be the explosive levels of diabetes in the West since the introduction of sugar and starches into the general diet.  In addition, a lack of physical activity, increased fuel intake, steadily declining nutrient levels in the foods eaten, increased toxin load from processing, pollution and industrialization of the food chain and you have a recipe for disaster.  The end result is premature death for 70% of the population from cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes.  With an oil deficiency epidemic of the magnitude we are experiencing, it should not be a surprise that in May of 1996 the American Psychiatric Association announced that ninety percent of our population have measurable brain abnormalities probably due to the lack of essential fatty acid content in diet.  Our brains are after all are primarily constructed of essential fatty acids.

  At this time in history when antidepressants such as Prozac are being sold at an unheard of rate; when we seem to have an epidemic of adult and childhood attention deficit with Ritalin as the perceived proper treatment, all we really need to do is ensure that the population of North America has access to the proper kinds and ratios of essential fatty acids, especially the widely inadequately supplied omega 3 fatty acids.  By using this proven and vital nutrient, individuals suffering from the top three causes of death, heart disease, cancer and stroke may all have tremendous benefits.  They probably all need the same supplementation; the proper amount and assortment of essential fatty acids.  An adequate supply of the proper assortment of oils is absolutely essential to human health.  Since Americans consume too much of the wrong oils and too little of the right oils, we must make a conscious effort to avoid the bad oils found in everyday food products.  Bad oils include virtually all the oils in a supermarket and those found in processed foods such as those foods packaged in jars, bottles, cans, tubs and boxes; in other words processed foods.  By simply reading the ingredient labels on everything that goes in your mouth and avoiding everything that has trans fatty acids or hydrogenated oils, you can dramatically reduce your overall consumption of these deadly fats.  Even major processed food manufacturer are getting on the anti trans fatty acid band wagon.  Better late than never.

  How many times have we heard “Eat a low-fat, low-cholesterol diet.”  Most of us have heard this simple recommendation so often over the past two decades that we can recite it in our sleep.  Touted as a way to lose weight and prevent cancer and heart disease, it’s no wonder much of the population and food producers hopped on board.

  Unfortunately, this simple message is now largely out of date.  Detailed research, much of it done at Harvard, shows that the total amount of fat in the diet, whether high or low, isn’t really linked with disease.  What really matters is the type of fat in the diet.  Bad fats increase the risk for certain diseases and good fats lower the risk.  The key is to substitute good fats for bad fats.

 Think of fats as building bricks.  The better the bricks, the stronger the building you can build.  If there are only broken or damaged bricks available, the contractor will use them, but the house won’t be as strong and eventually there will be problems.  Good fats are the naturally-occurring, traditional fats that haven’t been damaged by high heat, refining, processing or other man-made tampering such as ‘partial hydrogenation’. The best of these kinds of fats are found in fish, nuts, avocados, seeds and, believe it or not, fresh creamery butter. Essential fatty acids (EFA’s) are the most important of the good fats and are as important as other essential vitamins and minerals.  EFA supplementation can help with diverse common health conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, eczema, diabetes, high blood pressure, PMS, depression, ADD/ADHD, Alzheimer’s and more.  Certain essential fats such as omega 3 fatty acids (found in oily fish) and the occasional omega 6 fatty acids (found in evening primrose oil) have been used to treat everything from bipolar depression to skin problems.  Some can even benefit us in weight-loss programs. 

  In the past 100 years, the American diet has shifted away from the diet of our human ancestors which included wild plants and game, including fish, which is rich in omega 3 fatty acids to one relying on mass-produced and highly processed food.  By reducing our consumption of omega 3 fatty acids in favour of another fat called omega 6 fatty acids found in vegetable oils such as corn and soy, we have upset a delicate balance between the two essential fatty acids that may contribute to the increasing rate of depression and other chronic diseases in contemporary American society.  In cross-national studies comparing diet, scientists found that in countries where fish is still a large part of the diet, such as in Taiwan and Japan, rates of depression were lower than in American and many European populations.  The balance between these two EFA families, omega 3 fatty acids and omega 6 fatty acids, is very important to proper human functioning and well-being.

  The two families are not interchangeable.  For example, if you eat foods high in omega 6 fatty acids fatty acids, your body composition will change over to have higher levels of omega 6 fatty acids fatty acids.  If you eat foods high in omega 3 fatty acids fatty acids, your body tissues will eventually develop a higher proportion of omega 3 fatty acids; however this condition is rare as the body burns omega 3 fatty acids as fuel so the levels most often do not increase dramatically as they are used almost as quickly as they are put in the system.   

  Why are omega 3 fatty acids fatty acids so important?  Of the omega 3 fatty acids fatty acids, two are especially biologically important; one is EPA, eicosapentaenoic acid.  EPA is a very important, biologically active molecule that keeps platelets in the blood from coagulating or clotting.  When EPA gets into white blood cells, it helps reduce inflammation and immune responses.  EPA affects the body in many other ways such as regulating sleep patterns, hormones and serving as a modulator.  The other is DHA, decosahexaenoic acid.  In a nutshell, DHA is very biologically important because it is highly concentrated in the brain, particularly in the synapses, enabling brain cells to communicate with one another.  DHA is also one of the important fats that make up the walls of all cells as well as being vital for vision and sperm formation.  Given the opportunity, the body can produce EPA and DHA from seed oils rich in basic omega 3 fatty acids (ALA) but not very effectively.  95 to 99% of the North American population do not get enough dietary omega 3 fatty acids.  The beneficial effects of omega 3 fatty acids have been shown in the secondary prevention of coronary heart disease, hypertension, type II diabetes, and in some patients with renal disease, rheumatoid arthritis, ulcerative colitis, Crohns disease, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. 

  Development and increases in occurrence of chronic diseases such as heart disease is directly parallel to the developments made in the seed oil industry and with the increased consumption of omega 6 fatty acid rich oils.  With each new modern development or processing innovation that inevitably reduced the nutritional value of these essential nutrients, increases in degenerative and chronic disease followed.  The ratio of consumption of omega 3 fatty acids to omega 6 fatty acid oils is as important as the quality of them.  The most practical ratio to address modern dietary fat derangement conditions is 2:1; two parts omega 6 to 1 part omega 3.  It has been estimated that current ratios can be as much as 30:1 to as high as 50:1 in the majority of the population.

  All essential fatty acids have one thing in common.  The more they are manipulated through processing, the more damaged they become and the less valuable they are for human health.  In order to have the best quality nutritional oils, they must be extracted under the most stringent conditions.  They must be made under air excluded conditions, in the dark and pressed at low temperature to ensure that the resultant oil is of the highest quality and nutritive value.