Fatty Acids

Food supplementation fads come and go like the seasons as various industries manipulate the popular imagination by touting their products as the latest solution to whatever health ailment has been identified as the newest “epidemic” to afflict us.

Fish oil supplements containing omega-3 fatty acids illustrate one of the more recent campaigns to win the hearts, minds, and paychecks of consumers. The omega-3 fatty acids cannot be produced by the human body but are necessary for our mental and physical functioning. They have gradually been replaced in the average human diet by omega-6 fatty acids from unhealthy sources such as meat, corn oil, and other cooking oils.

One result of our omega-3 deficiency has been an upsurge in the incidence of depression. Though we can get our omega-3s from healthy sources such as walnuts and dark leafy vegetables, if we consume enough of them, manufacturers of fish oil supplements have promoted their products as the primary antidote to the omega-3 shortage in our foods.

Many health concerns and problems are associated with this fish oil campaign and need to be exposed. But first here is a little more background on the role omega-3 plays in our lives.

The research on essential fatty acids (EFAs) like omega-3 continues to attest to their complexity and essential role in human health and development. Not only are they shown to support immune function, cardiovascular health, vision, memory, and mood stabilization, but they are also essential for optimum fetal growth.

Two categories of essential fatty acids, omega-6 and omega-3, are not made in the body and must be obtained through the diet for health. These fatty acids are necessary to maintain cell membranes, transport fats in the body, and aid in the production of prostaglandins.

Omega-3 fatty acids are needed for the health of our brain, nerves, skin, and circulatory and immune functions. Studies have shown that omega-3s are helpful in preventing or treating health conditions such as arthritis, cancer, heart disease, multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, weight gain, ADD/ADHD, Alzheimer’s, allergies, depression, strokes, diabetes, skin problems, and many other concerns.

Clinical evidence indicates that omega-3 can help improve our health and prevent diseases. For example, omega-3 may be useful in the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer’s by preventing Alzheimer’s brain lesions. The USDA has updated the Food Guide Pyramid to include omega-3 in the “healthy fats” section, while revising outdated and inaccurate charts that promote large quantities of meat and dairy products. Guidelines from the various heart associations have also been revised to include omega-3 oils.

The three most nutritionally important omega-3 fatty acids are alpha-linolenic acid, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). Alpha-linolenic acid is one of two fatty acids classified as essential. The other essential fatty acid is an omega-6 fatty acid called linoleic acid. Both are classified as essential because the human body is unable to manufacture them on its own and because they play a fundamental role in vital physiological functions. Therefore, we must be sure our diet contains sufficient amounts of omegas.

There are plenty of dietary sources of omega-3 fatty acids to choose from. One of the most popular sources is now animal flesh, which we do not recommend at all. Here is why. For starters, there are many good vegetable sources of omega-3s: chia seed, raspberry seeds, pumpkin seeds, walnuts, hemp seeds, flax seeds, sprouts, algae, and dark green leafy vegetables such as kale.

Essential fatty acids (EFAs) like omega-3s are necessary fats that humans cannot synthesize, so they must be obtained through our diet. EFAs support the cardiovascular, reproductive, immune, and nervous systems. The human body also needs EFAs to manufacture and repair cell membranes, enabling the cells to obtain optimum nutrition and expel harmful waste products.

A primary function of EFAs like omega-3 is to regulate body functions such as heart rate, blood pressure, blood clotting, fertility, and conception. They help immune function by regulating inflammation and encouraging the body to fight infections. EFAs like omega-3s are also needed for proper growth in children, particularly for neural development and maturation of sensory systems. Fetuses and breast-fed infants also require an adequate supply of EFAs derived from a healthy mother.

Omega-3 deficiency or imbalance is linked with serious health conditions – heart attacks, cancer, insulin resistance, asthma, lupus, schizophrenia, depression, postpartum depression, accelerated aging, stroke, obesity, diabetes, arthritis, ADD/ADHD, and Alzheimer’s disease, among others.

It is though by many health professionals that the epidemic attention deficit disorder (ADD) is in large part due to omega-3 (DHA) deficiency in children. It is absolutely crucial for fetuses and infants to ingest it for proper brain and nerve development arthritis pain and even cancer can result from the repeated unchecked circulation of stress-related toxic biochemicals as well as from free radicals and other toxins. Omega-3s help reduce the buildup of these toxins, thereby reducing the risk of serious diseases.

Omega-3s are found in green and blue algae, chia seed, flaxseed oil and meal, raspberry seeds, primrose oil, hempseed oil, hempseeds, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, Brazil nuts, sesame seeds, avocados, dark leafy green vegetables like kale, spinach, mustard and collard greens, and a wide variety of germinated seeds, nuts, and grains.