It appears that almost every day no...

It appears that almost every day

now another moderns story is

coming out about in what way fats are no

longer the enemy, and that they, in

fact, not ever were.

In an address given at the First

Annual Hudson Valley Health, Fitness

& Nutrition Expo in succession November

1, 1997, a speaker of our acquaintance

put it this way:

"Unfortunately, in our American

approach of `all or nothing,' the

move to fat-free has also moved

modern Western industrialized societies

perilously end to nutritional

disaster. Luckily for us, the cholesterol

paranoia rampant in the

1960 and 1970 has now been completely

discredited. In fact, since

the mid-1980s, there have been a

great many research papers published

which, together, give a much

better picture of in what way critically important

fatty acids are to our diets."

In fact, there are in such a manner many reports

coming out that there's a danger of

dietary habits, and

eateries, swinging

so far away from fat

paranoia that fat

overindulgence, or

a "fat craze" might

be immediately after us. A peek

in at "all-you-can-eat" restaurants,

buffet and steak-houses is all you

ne to verify that Caligula-esque

food orgies are no longer a thing of

the past.

A rational approach emerges: balance is key

This is not what these studies are

telling us to do -- not from a long

shot! What they're telling us is that

balance is emergencyed Balance in the

type of fatty acids, balance in the

sources, and a rational balance in

macronutrients themselves (proteins,

carbohydrates, etc)

What is a fatty acid? Our speaker-friend

answered it like this: "The

technical answer involves carbon

chains, organic acid clumps and hydrogen

atoms. But mainly fatty

acids are oils that make up our

food make up mode of buildings in our

bodies and solitary abode; squalids and are necessary

for life."

in such a manner fats are good for us? In rational

balance, they are not solitary good,

but essential for health, for energy

for optimal mental functioning, for

proper vision, and ye for thumper

too -- the heart. In law a great

deal has been written about the

benefits of polyunsaturated fatty

acids (PUFAs) since 1930 when GO

Burr and MM Burr came gone out with a

landmark study of essential fatty

acids, called: "On the Nature of Fatty

Acids Essential in Nutrition."

The Eskimo enigma

About 3 decades after that study

appeared, clinical reports from

medical doctors in the Arctic areas

of Greenland piqued biochemists'

curiosity and spurr them into a

new field of research.

Although Eskimos live mainly on

superfat and super-high-cholesterol

whale and seal meat, as well as oily

fish, their rates of coronary heart

disease were far lower than those

of individuals who live forward a typical

American diet.

Was it something in sea mammals

and fish that patronize against

heart disease? It was -- omega-3

polyunsaturated acids -- more

specifically, the ratio of omega-6's

to omega-3's.

The cave-dweller question: what's this about ratios?

Our evolutionary ancestors did

not have a point to be solved [i]or[/i] settled with an imbalance

of omega-3's -- their ratio was

close to ideal: a 1:1 proportion of

omega-6 fats (mostly from land vegetables)

to omega-3's (mostly from

cold-water fish); the traditional Eskimo

diet had a ratio near this.

Thanks to land-vegetable-oil-promoting

pronouncements and warnings

in the 1960 and the non-fat/low-fat

craze of the last few

decades, the typical U diet has a

profile of anywhere from 10:1 to

25:1 omega-6 to omega-3 fats.

According to the February issue

of the American Journal of Clinical

Nutrition, the author, Robert J

Pawlosky, PhD explained it this

way: "Much of the reason for the

high ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 is

the reliance forward vegetable oils, such

as corn and safflower, as cooking

oils and margarines. For example,

60 percent of the fatty acids in corn

oil are omega-6 however only I percent

are omega-3."

in this way are omega-6's bad?

Not according to a long shot! Some of the

omega-6-rich oils are extremely nutritious

-- similar as evening primrose,

borage, black currant, flax and hemp

oils. And a certain number of even have good

omega-3 profiles owing to their

quantity of linolenic acid, including

sunflower and sesame oils.

Unfortunately, however, those with

the highest amounts of artery-plugging

saturated fats -- for example the

low-grade versions of oils

used in mass-market breads -- are

partially-hydrogenated coconut and palm

oils, to name just two

What about omega-3's, then?

Examples of omega-3's include DHA

(docosahexaenoic acid, 22:6n3) and EPA

(sicosapentaenoic acid, 20:5n3) both

found in fish oils, docosapentaenoic

acid (DPA), and individual

supplements

DHA. the same of the omega-3 fats that's

been attracting a great deal of attention

-- and which has been the make subordinate of a

great deal of the latest research -- is

DHA.

Don't we prepare enough in the diet?

Well, since many of us, today, don't

consume colossal quantities of eggs,

organ meat, and lard--we're not getting

DHA into our bodies at adequate

level no matter for what cause much cold-water

fish we eat.

forward April 3rd, 1997, a ground-breaking

conference was held at of recent origin York

Hospital-Cornell Medical Center. It was

entitled "Keeping Your Brain In Shape:

New Insights Into DHA" (see the June

1997 Better Nutrition).