Eat Fish or DIE an early and painful death.
It seems that Omega-3 Fatty Acid has made the news again and it’s here I tell ya, here to save us all from the ills created by a hustle bustle instant dinner, fast food, no carb lifestyle. Omega-3 will cure all your ills and help keep your body well oiled for a long and healthy life.
This simple oily elixir will prevent Dementia, Allergies, Stroke, Dyslexia, Dropsy, Depression, Senility, Heart Disease, Obesity, Alzheimer’s, Asthma, Arthritis, High Blood Pressure and Ingrown Toe Nails! Alright, I added in Dropsy and the Ingrown Toe Nail bit, but if it was the 1890’s I’d feel like I was a Snake Oil sales man.
A news story in BestLife by Taras Grescoe republished on MSNBC.com demonstrates how our reliance on processed foods has reduced the amount of natural Omega-3’s that once was a big part of our diets. It is thought that it’s this reduction in natural Omega-3 fatty acid from our diet and the replacement of Omega-6 (it’s nemesis) which is wreaking havoc on our minds and bodies.
Diets took a wrong turn
Western diets have focused on cutting fat and emphasized increasing the amount of protein and cutting carbohydrates. Everything is FAT FREE, but the problem is fats are essential for life you Fat Head! Did you know that 60% of your brain is FAT! The key to good nutrition and health is not cutting out all fats, but supplying your body and brain with the best possible fats. The right kind of fats. There is a growing consensus that Omega-3’s are those good fats.
It reminds me of the movie, Lorenzo’s Oil in which a young boy’s rare brain disease was put in check by treating the boy with a specifically altered olive oil. Not sure how he ended up. Very sad movie, but the oil helped. There you go.
It’s Not your Granddad’s Beef
Your not eating the same beef and chicken your grand daddy ate. 
That’s part of the problem. You see Omega-3’s aren’t just in fish, they are also plentiful in grasses, clover, millet and sweet grass, you know, the type of plants cows used to lazily graze out in the back 40 for four of five years before they became Hamburger Helper.
Chickens used to run around the farm pecking away on grasses, grubs, purslane (a leafy grass) and loaded up on Omega-3’s.
Our beef and chicken and their by products such as eggs, milk, cheese used to be rich in Omega-3 fatty acids. The American diet naturally contained lots of Omega-3’s without having to load up on Salmon.
Today Cows and chickens are raised on grains and corn. Cows are ready for slaughter in less than a year and chickens become chicken wings heading for Hooters 6 weeks out of the egg.
So what’s the problem?
Our meat went from growing up eating grassy leafy stuff to being raised on corn, soybeans and other seed oils….and we did too. The fats contained in these cheaper grains and seed oils are Omega-6’s instead of Omega-3’s.
Omega-6 oils are more rigid fatty acids that give our cell membranes structure while omega-3’s are more fluid, kinda squishy and help our bodies fight inflammation.
Grandma and Grand dad had an Omega-3 to Omega-6 ration of 1:1. Today’s Western diet has a ratio of 20:1 with the Omega-6’s winning by a long shot…and that’s the bad news.
Blame it on the Go Go ‘60’s
Research in the 1960’s linked saturated fats and trans fats to fat guys dying of heart attacks and the anti-fat craze started. Food processors jumped on the band wagon and began using soybean oil which is rich in omega-6 as an alternative to animal fats. Soybeans once only used in Asia for tofu and soy sauce have now become the second biggest cash crop in the U.S.
Check around your kitchen or read the labels at your grocery store and you’ll notice soybeans and soybean oil in nearly all processed foods from salad dressings to processed cheese to granola bars. Twenty percent of of American’s calories now come from soybeans.
Eat like an Eskimo
Changing diets have been studied all over the world and when ever a culture changed their diet that was naturally high in omega-3’s to a more westernized diet rich in omega-6’s the result in 20-30 years was always the same; heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and rates of cancer all increased. It didn’t matter if you lived in Okinawa the home of the longest living humans or an American Indian or an Eskimo, or an Israeli once the diet changed so did the incidence of western maladies.
dem Soybeans, dey makin us Crazy
"There has been a thousandfold increase in the consumption of soybean oil over the past hundred years," says Joseph Hibbeln, MD, acting chief of the section on nutritional neurosciences at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. The levels of omega-3’s in American’s bloodstreams is very low.
"We have changed the composition of people’s bodies and brains," says Dr. Hibbeln. "A very interesting question, to which we don’t yet know the answer, is to what degree has the dietary change altered overall behavior in our society?"
Plenty of studies from all around the world are demonstrating the physical and mental benefits of increased omega-3’s in our diet. One study on 231 inmates medicated with fish oil resulted in assaults decreasing by 30%. When homicide rates are compared across countries higher rates of omega-6 correlated with a hundredfold higher murder rate except for in the United States where we seem to kill each other more than any other place on earth no matter what we eat.
A 2007 study by the National Institutes of Health found a positive correlation between mothers’ consumption of omega-3s during pregnancy and the fine motor skills and verbal IQs of their children. A higher intake of omega-3 has been shown to positively affect ailments as diverse as stroke, allergies, dementia, and dyslexia.
"Men in their forties and fifties can nearly reverse their risk of dying from sudden cardiac death by eating fish at least three times a week," says Dr. Hibbeln. "And if they want to live longer and happier lives, there’s substantial data that they should increase their body composition of omega-3s."
In other words, our cod-liver-oil-loving grandmothers had it right: Fish really is brain food. And our disastrous decision to replace the omega-3s in our diet with omega-6s might be all the proof anybody needs that, as a species, Homo sapiens are getting demonstrably dumber.
Thank God….there is Hope!
Those fish oil capsules have been available in the vitamin section of the grocery store for years. Apparently you aren’t buying enough of those because we are all still fat,dumb and dying. Now technology is to the rescue.
There is a company called Ocean Nutrition in Nova Scotia that has produced a new microencapsulated fish oil. This stuff looks like powder and it’s starting to show up in foods like Wonder Bread and Danone liquid yogurt. Just what we need…another powder to mix into our food. But wait, this is good fishy powder. They make the micro fish oil powder from real fish they catch and squish into oil then use a special process turning the oil into a powder so it can be used as a food additive that doesn’t taste or smell fishy. You can bet that you’ll soon see more products professing the added value of being omega-3 enriched.
Best Best - Eat the old fashion way
While omega-3 enriched foods may help a somewhat, your best bet is to make an effort to eat a good old fashioned diet of vegetables, fruits and of course fish. You can take fish oil tablets, but actually eating fish provides additional nu
trients and minerals.
So after all that I guess we are back to the basics we’ve heard over and over again. Eat a diet with lots of fruits and vegetables which are full of nutrients and anti-oxidants and eat fatty fish like salmon and nuts like walnuts and almonds to build up the levels of omega-3’s in your bloodstream. That way you will live a long and healthy life free of Alzheimer’s and dementia so when you’re 102 you’ll know the diet worked!
Get Fishy!
The week of Dec. 14th –20th I ran a total of 13.95 miles. Yea!
