Essential fatty acids are so-called because they are essential to our lives. These vital fats are used by our bodies but not manufactured inside our bodies, thus we must obtain them from our food. These fats are used as building blocks for important hormones and hormone-like substances that mediate all kinds of processes. We need to acquire two basic types of fats from our diets: omega-6 fatty acids and omega-3 fatty acids.
The most common dietary sources of omega-6 fatty acids are corn, cottonseed, sunflower, safflower, peanut, soy, and canola oils. These oils provide us with linoleic acids which are converted in the body to arachidonic acid and then prostaglandin E2. Prostaglandin E2 contracts or relaxes smooth muscles (such as in blood vessels) and performs other necessary functions in the body. Too much prostaglandin E2 leads to inflammation and creates fibrosis, pain, degenerative joint disease, vascular disease, and immune system dysfunction. Prostaglandin E2 is the number two cause of free radicals in the body which facilitate the speed of aging and the development of cancers. Animals such as cows, pigs, chickens, and fish fed corn and soy as major components of their diets instead of the green food nature meant them to consume, conveniently convert the omega-6 fatty acids right into arachidonic acid so when we eat meat from them, we are one short step and a few cox enzymes away from this inflammatory molecule. Typical of our western approach, rather than fix the problem at the source, we have developed a number of cox-inhibitor drugs to stem the tide of inflammation production in our bodies and hopefully reduce the effects as well – pain and heart disease, for example.
The most common sources of dietary omega-3 fatty acids are flax, hemp, and walnut. These alpha-linoleic acids are converted in the body to eicosapenataenoic acid, or EPA. EPA is a powerful anti-inflammatory. EPA is further converted in our bodies to docosahexaenoic acid or DHA. Both EPA and DHA build brain synapses and increase the production of serotonin and dopamine. These fats help are known as the "feel good" fats because they alter our chemistry toward a pleasant mood.
It used to be that we could pretty much eat food and acquire a balance of essential fatty acids, not so anymore. We have interfered so much with the growth and production of what we like to call "food" that while it sometimes still looks like the old-fashioned real thing, it often bears little internal chemical resemblance.
According to clinical tests, most Americans have an omega-6:omega-3 fatty acid ratio of greater than 10:1 – and in many cases, much greater, while experts agree that to be healthy, we should have ratios of 3:1. To get our fats back in balance and hence lose weight, decrease or eliminate chronic pain, and lessen the chances of heart disease, cancer, arthritis, and Alzheimer's, we need to drastically cut our consumption of "6's" and radically increase our consumption of "3's." Your dog or cat should do the same to manage degenerative conditions if they already have them, or prevent them if they don't.
How to in a nutshell: Cut OUT all factory farmed meat, poultry, milk, and eggs. Find and choose instead local farmers raising animals on grass. Organic is nice, but corn and soy can be grown organically and animals fed this will still fill you full of arachidonic acid. Eat less red meat from any source. Eat less period; more calories consumed correspond with more work for the body and more free radical production, hence quicker aging and more degenerative disease. Eat a full complement of colorful veggies and some fruit every day – dark green kale, zucchini, yellow squash, red bell pepper, purple cabbage, blueberries, carrots, and sweet potatoes. Nature has given us clues – each attractive color provides a vitamin, a mineral, or an anti-oxidant we need. We don't need to know all their names; we do need to eat all those veggies.
Eat wild-caught cold water fish. No farmed fish – they live in sewer-like conditions and eat, you guessed it corn and soy meal. (Or if its shrimp farmed in China, chicken cages are stacked above the shrimp ponds; guess what the shrimp eat.)Tilapia we get is farmed – much in Central America – and has more pro-inflammatory arachidonic acid than any other meat, nearly twice that of pork and ten times higher than hamburger. You might want to give it a miss next time you eat out.
Cut, cut, cut the consumption of carbohydrates. Those you do eat, make them whole, not processed. This will dump less insulin into your system which also effects the conversion of omega-6 fatty acids into Prostaglandin E2.
Finally, when all is said and done, we still need to supplement with high quality fish oil and antioxidant vitamins. It's impossible to make good choices about food all day every day surrounded by tasty junk food. Give yourself a leg up and just swallow some darned capsules.
After two failed eye surgeries with doctors who put their hands up and shrugged, I remembered healing really is an inside job. Whether its weight or diabetes, arthritis or cancer, each of us holds the most power to change our own outcomes. For the past month and a half, I've been feeding myself as carefully as I did with Nicholai and I choke down three handfuls (and I mean full) of supplements per day. I feel great. Better yet, at my last eye appointment the doc didn't see any worrisome areas of scar tissue.
Wow. Maybe this anti-inflammatory stuff really matters. Happy eating!
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