Omega-3's

[Gonad the Barbarian]

Here's a good article on Omega-3's. It covers their benefits and, always my personal favorite, how they've been stripped from our food supply through processing.

http://health.msn.com/nutritio...id=100245164&gt1=31036

This is all too simple to be true, you might say. But arriving at this understanding was anything but simple. In the 1930s, the first family of essential fats was discovered and mapped by George and Mildred Burr at the University of Minnesota. These were the omega-6s. It was another 40 years before omega-3s were also found to be essential, by a researcher at Hormel named Ralph Holman. A great deal happened to our food supply in those decades. Due to farm subsidies, the acres of soybeans, for example, grown in the United States exploded from about 4 million to 70 million. Oil processors like Archer Daniels Midland mastered the process of extracting oil from these and other seeds, and vegetable seed oils?thought to be healthy?began to dominate our food supply as they were added to the foods that make up the center aisles of the grocery store.

At the same time, food chemists discovered that rancidity in packaged foods was caused by the oxidation of some minor but pesky fats: omega-3s. Scientists extended the shelf life of processed foods such as cookies, chips, cakes, breads and spreads by removing omega-3s?a nutrient that no one thought mattered. Health agencies, like the AHA, and the U.S. government also promoted omega-6s, because seed oils are low in saturated fat and free of cholesterol. So omega-6 oils, such as corn and soybean, they thought, were good for the heart.

 

[Titan]

Well I'm not deficient in Omega-3's but I prepare all my meals from real food.

I take 4 ounces of chia seeds a day amounting to 500 calories which is mostly omega-3 fats. I really like the chia seeds, a good natural source of calcium and phosphorus, a great source of soluble fiber, and they help slow digestion down to increase nutrient absorption. I like that compared to flax I don't have to grind them or worry about spoilage, I just find them for about 6 bucks a pound online.

Also I use hemp seed oil sometimes. When I do whey shakes I mix some in, though I've cut out the shakes recently as they aren't "real food." Hemp oil has the "correct" balance of omega 6:3 ratios (2:1). Really the more you look at hemp is seems like a miracle plant. The proteins are balanced, it has great oil, and it doesn't ravage the earth. Also probably explains why I've heard some pot growers complain about how everything animal in nature eats it.

For the record I have never smoked weed in my life. But hemp being illegal is stupid.

 

[darkxshade]

As much as I'd like to get my nutrients from food, I find it a lot easier just to take fish oil and not worry about lack of EFAs in my diet.

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

rancid cookies sound pretty awful if you ask me.

 

[Kipper]

The n-3 (omega-3) that matters most is DHA, and this article glosses over that importance. The actual conversion to DHA in the human body from precursors is miniscule (2-3%, at best?) and almost doesn't matter so you can clog your gut full of flaxseeds and see no real benefit.

So the bottom line is: eat fatty fish, particularly mackerel, sardines, and salmon. Naturally, all have to be wild to see any benefit...and the smaller they are (e.g. sardines vs. salmon), the lower on the food chain, so you get the benefit of n-3 with less carcinogen/heavy metal toxicity risk.

 

[KingGheedora]

what do rancid cookies have to do with omega-3's?

 

[magomago]

Originally posted by: Kipper
The n-3 (omega-3) that matters most is DHA, and this article glosses over that importance. The actual conversion to DHA in the human body from precursors is miniscule (2-3%, at best?) and almost doesn't matter so you can clog your gut full of flaxseeds and see no real benefit.

So the bottom line is: eat fatty fish, particularly mackerel, sardines, and salmon. Naturally, all have to be wild to see any benefit...and the smaller they are (e.g. sardines vs. salmon), the lower on the food chain, so you get the benefit of n-3 with less carcinogen/heavy metal toxicity risk.

Like wild vs farm raised? Or do you mean fresh?

 

[Titan]

Originally posted by: Kipper
The n-3 (omega-3) that matters most is DHA, and this article glosses over that importance. The actual conversion to DHA in the human body from precursors is miniscule (2-3%, at best?) and almost doesn't matter so you can clog your gut full of flaxseeds and see no real benefit.

So the bottom line is: eat fatty fish, particularly mackerel, sardines, and salmon. Naturally, all have to be wild to see any benefit...and the smaller they are (e.g. sardines vs. salmon), the lower on the food chain, so you get the benefit of n-3 with less carcinogen/heavy metal toxicity risk.

What besides fish provides a good source of DHA? I find it hard to believe everybody needs fish oil as a nutritional requirement.

I am curious to know and am doing more research.

From a philosophical standpoint, I'm guessing a lot of our ancestors rarely ate fish. They were more likely to get omega 3's from nuts and seeds, along with other plant sources.

What I've read says it's inconclusive how much DHA we need. Our body can make it from ALAs found in things like flax and chia seeds. I feel more inclined to say that if my body can make it from the basic elements I give it, it will make what it needs.

To take the approach of "this is what your body ultimately needs" seems faulty to me. That's the same attitude with sugar. People are like "all you cells need sugar so sugar is good." To me that's short-circuiting nature and evolution. Yes food ultimately turns into sugar, so who should I shortcut it? My body will make all the sugar it needs from the basic things I give it, like protein and fat.

I know it depends a lot on genetic ancestry, but I doubt my ancestors evolved getting loads of fish every single day. I could be wrong though. It just doesn't fit into my philosophy at this point.

 

[spamsk8r]

The problem is more the ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3 in our diets. Grass-fed beef and cage free chicken eggs have a much higher ratio of Omega 3s than the factory farm raised stuff. If we cut out vegetable oils and only consume grass-fed meats, there wouldn't be a need for Omega 3 supplementation. Otherwise, take your fish oil

 

[Redfraggle]

Since I got pregnant this issue has become of greater importance to me. I can't stand fish oil (pregnant women have slow digestion and, trust me, nobody wants to burp fish oil for hours -- it's awful). We did find a good vegetarian (algae based) pill that's just as effective and less awful. Eating fatty fish is important -- our ancestors have eaten a lot of fish, just from different sources.

It's a bit disturbing to me how some manufacturers just throw omegas in and make claims that it's healthy -- it's not.

I'd be interested to learn if our bodies store it like we do aminos until we have everything for a complete protein. It took science a while to figure that one out.

 

[Titan]

Originally posted by: Redfraggle
Since I got pregnant this issue has become of greater importance to me. I can't stand fish oil (pregnant women have slow digestion and, trust me, nobody wants to burp fish oil for hours -- it's awful). We did find a good vegetarian (algae based) pill that's just as effective and less awful. Eating fatty fish is important -- our ancestors have eaten a lot of fish, just from different sources.

It's a bit disturbing to me how some manufacturers just throw omegas in and make claims that it's healthy -- it's not.

I'd be interested to learn if our bodies store it like we do aminos until we have everything for a complete protein. It took science a while to figure that one out.

That is interesting. I did some research trying to find out where DHA comes from, and I guess it's the algae fish eat. Some manufacturer has cultivated the algae and extracted the DHA into a food-quality stable form for adding to other foods.

I've used the pharmaceutical grade fish from Natural factors and never had any fishy taste. But most fish oil is nasty I have to agree.

 

[Kipper]

Originally posted by: Redfraggle
Since I got pregnant this issue has become of greater importance to me. I can't stand fish oil (pregnant women have slow digestion and, trust me, nobody wants to burp fish oil for hours -- it's awful). We did find a good vegetarian (algae based) pill that's just as effective and less awful. Eating fatty fish is important -- our ancestors have eaten a lot of fish, just from different sources.

It's a bit disturbing to me how some manufacturers just throw omegas in and make claims that it's healthy -- it's not.

I'd be interested to learn if our bodies store it like we do aminos until we have everything for a complete protein. It took science a while to figure that one out.

The answer is no in both cases. There is no storage medium for amino acids. Your body does not "wait" until you have the correct proportion of amino acids, it can either make X protein or it cannot. Incompletely formed proteins are broken down again for their amino acid content. Granted, it does hang onto amino acids and can synthesize or re-synthesize a number of them, but eventually they are excreted or used for other purposes (energy, glucose synthesis, fat synthesis, etc.). If we stored protein as we do fat we'd be MUCH larger physically than we actually are - it requires a tremendous amount of H20 (example: muscle is majority water).

And EFAs are preferentially catabolized over other fats for energy, so we don't exactly hang onto them for the longest time, etither. There is very little, if any, long-term storage. Simply because it's a type of fat is meaningless.