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N-3, So Essential the body requires it for life and for health
Here is what we need to know about the importance of n-3 to health:
- ONE: N-3 (alpha-linolenic acid) is 'essential'. This word is important. 'Essential' means that the body requires it for life and for health cannot make it from anything else we eat, and must therefore obtain it from foods. 'Essential' also means that too little leads to degenerative symptoms due to n-3 deficiency, and too little for too long shortens life by resulting in death. The good news on 'essential' means that return of sufficient n-3 to a deficient diet leads to reversal of n-3 deficiency-based degenerative symptoms, and re-establishment of health.
- TWO: N-3 intake is down to 16% of what people got 150 years ago, and in 1850 people were not getting optimum amounts of n-3. That makes n-3 deficiency the most common essential nutrient deficiency in the diets of affluent people around the world. About 95-99% of the population is affected by n-3 deficiency, and suffers degenerative symptoms as a result. (The next most common deficiencies are magnesium at about 85%, and vitamin B6 at about 80% of the population.)
- THREE: Every cell, tissue, gland, and organ in the body requires n-3 for its structure and its functions, and therefore deficiency symptoms affect all parts of the body. Most doctors are untrained in nutrition. And most doctors therefore cannot tell you that your heart attack, stroke, or embolism were caused by n-3 deficiency, or that your arthritis, inflammatory condition, or auto-immune problem comes from not getting enough n-3 in your diet. Or that your weak bones, low energy, dry skin, overweight, obesity, or type II diabetes (insulin resistance) are the result of n-3 deficiency. Or that depression and poor focus (attention deficit) can be from too little n-3 consumption. Or that hormone imbalance, poor healing, mental fatigue, poor ability to deal with stress, and symptoms of mental illness (including schizophrenia, bipolar, obsessive-compulsive, anxiety) and Alzheimer's can be signs of insufficient n-3 in the diet.
- FOUR: FACT - all of the conditions listed above readily improve when the intake of n-3 is increased. What this means is profound. It means that all of the above conditions are largely caused, at least in part, by too little n-3 in the diet. If they were not caused by n-3 deficiency, then increased n-3 intake would not reverse them. This truth about n-3 deficiency-caused degenerative diseases is inherent in the definition of 'essential'.
N-3 deficiency is the single, most widespread, most health-damaging physical cause of degenerative diseases in our time.
It is extremely easy to address this cause of Health challenge by simply increasing and optimizing n-3 consumption.
How trans fats play into this story is that trans fats interfere with n-3 (as well as n-6) functions, and make n-3 requirement for good health even higher, and the health damage (degenerative deficiency symptom) consequences of getting only 16% of 1850 levels in the diet even more serious.
The letter from the Executive Office of the President of the U.S. underscores the fact that there are Fats That Heal and Fats That Kill. My book by that title has been out for 10 years and sold about 200,000 copies. Its predecessor was published in 1986 and sold over 30,000 copies. My inquiry into the research that led me to this conclusion began in 1980. That year, pesticides poisoned me, and doctors were unable to help.
The letter from the Executive Office of the President of the U.S. also underscores my contention that there should be a bottle of good oils in every fridge in the nation, and on every table at every meal. They are so important to health and optimum physical and mental function that they should be in front of the bread and milk. We can live without bread and milk, but we cannot live without essential fats or n-3 fats.
The foundational research that underlies my and the EOP's conclusions is published in the most reputable research journals.
- The Internet search engine PubMed Medline lists 597,453 published research articles on 'lipids', the scientific name that covers all fats, good and bad. It takes 29,873 pages just to list the titles, 20 to a page.
- Under 'essential fatty acid', there are 29,980 published research articles. The listing of titles is 1,449 pages long.
- Under 'n-3', there are 3,974 published research articles, 199 pages of titles.
- Under 'alpha-linolenic acid', the long name of the n-3 fatty acid, there are 1,516 published research articles; 76 pages of titles.
Clearly, there exists a very large body of studies that has consistently, for a long time, pointed to the importance of good n-3 fats and bad processing-damaged fats to human health and function.
By 1983, I was so convinced of their importance that I gave up all my other career opportunities and developed methods for making oils with health in mind.
This seemed important to me because oils were usually made with shelf life in mind, and damage was done to oils by the processing required to accomplish the desired long shelf life.
Health benefits were sacrificed, and toxic molecules were created.
Healing fats become killing fats by changes that occur in fat molecules during the harsh processing used, and by exposure of good oils to light, air, heat, and time.
If I have cause to be proud of myself, it has to based on three efforts:
- The work I did to understand the relationship of fats to health;
- The conviction to develop methods for making oils with health rather than shelf life in mind; and
- The foresight to develop 10 years ago an n-3 rich, trans fat free, all-in-one oil blend that provides everything we need from fats: n-3, n-6, antioxidants, phytosterols, lecithin and 'minor' ingredients with major health benefits and nothing that we should avoid.
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