Health and Fitness
Reuters
By Terri Coles
TORONTO (Reuters) – Breakfast might not be where you expect to get your daily dose of omega-3s, but the healthy fats used to be naturally found in foods like bacon and eggs, said the author of a book about how to get them back in the foods you eat every day.
As we’ve moved from eating animals who grazed on grass to ones commercially farmed and grain-fed, we’ve ended up with a diet deficient in omega-3 fatty acids, and we’re paying the price with our health, said Susan Allport, the author of “The Queen of Fats: Why Omega-3s Were Removed from the Western Diet and What We Can Do to Replace Them,” released in paperback on Feb. 8.
Omega-3 fats are most commonly associated with fish like salmon, but they originate in the chloroplasts in the green leaves of plants, where they play a role in photosynthesis, the process by which plants convert sunlight into oxygen and carbohydrates. When animals eat those leaves, the fats accumulate in their bodies; when we eat those animals, the fats accumulate in ours.
Omega-3 fats then get into every cell in our bodies, Allport said, where they compete for position in the cell membrane with another fatty acid, omega-6s, which are more commonly found in plant seeds. “They basically affect the activity of every call in our body,” Allport said. The American Heart Association recommends eating fish at least twice a week as a source for omega-3 fatty acids. People who should avoid excessive fish consumption because of concerns about mercury contamination should get omega-3s through supplements, the Association says.
Both types of fatty acids are essential to health — the omega-3s speed up activity in the cell membrane, and the omega-6s slow it down. Animals use that difference in the fatty acids’ function to deal with the changing of seasons, Allport explained — eating the omega-3 fats found in leaves during times of activity and reproduction, and the omega-6 fats found in seeds during times of hunkering down and survival.
We’re just beginning to learn about how the balance of fats works in humans, she said, but it’s clear that maintaining that balance is for human health. In “Queen of Fats” Allport outlines how our food supply has changed to favor omega-6 fats over omega-3s, which she argues has contributed to an increase in ailments like heart disease and other inflammatory disorders.
“We’ve changed our food supply so much that Americans and populations in other Western nations now eat a diet that’s extremely rich in those slower omega 6 fats year round,” Allport said, “and that’s resulting in these chronic diseases.”
Studies done so far have associated omega-3s with reduced inflammation and the prevention of conditions like heart disease and arthritis, and the fatty acid is thought to be essential in brain function and may play a role in depression. Omega-3s have also been tied to improvements in or prevention of stroke, blood pressure and eye disease.
There have been two big changes regarding food supply that have affected the balance of omega-3s to omega-6s in our bodies, Allport said. We’ve replaced plant-based oils and fats like butter and lard with seed-based oils, which are richer in omega-6 fatty acids; we are also eating more seeds and grains than plants. As well, livestock are more commonly fed seeds and grains now than grasses, she said, which means that our diets have a higher concentration of omega-6 fats and a lower concentration of omega-3 fats.
Though both fats are needed in the cell, omega-6s function differently than omega-3s, and produce prostaglandins that have inflammatory properties and are more likely to lead to blood clotting.
Eggs are a good example to illustrate how our diets and food system have changed the omega-3 concentration in what we eat, Allport said. “Eggs used to be as rich in omega-3 fats as fish,” she said. “Chickens put those omega-3s into the eggs for the same reason that omega-3s are concentrated in the breast milk of nursing women: for the brain development of the next generation.”
The ideal balance of omega-6s to omega-3s in the diet and the human body is not yet know, Allport said, but right now a four-to-one ratio of omega-6s to omega-3s in the diet, which results in about a 50-50 ratio in cell membranes, is thought to be ideal.
That is the ratio the Japanese have in their diets and membranes, she said, and that country displays some of the world’s lowest rates of many chronic diseases and highest longevity.
Fish, particularly salmon, are most commonly associated with omega-3 fats, but Allport explained there are other ways to include the fats in your diet. Fish are a great source because they’re one of the few organisms we consume that still eat greens.
But terrestrial animals were also once a good source of omega-3 fats, she said, and those that consume a greens-based diet, such as grass-fed beef, still are. Switching cooking oils from those rich in omega-6s — safflower, peanut, soybean and sunflower oil — to those rich in omega-3s — olive and canola oil — is an easy change, she said. Omega-3 enriched eggs, along with greens themselves, are also dietary sources of omega-3 fatty acids.
Though some foods like milk and orange juice are now available with added omega-3 fats, encapsulation can sometimes be imperfect, Allport warned. You might be able to taste the fish oil in the food, or the fatty acids could be so strong that they pass right through the body. Some processed foods contain natural sources of omega-3s, such as cereals with added flax, but in general, encapsulation is less than ideal, she said.
“I think it’s important to understand how we got into this pickle regarding the two families of essential fats,” Allport said, “and to make some better changes to the food supply so that it’s not just those people who are extremely aware of the issue who are going to be getting adequate amounts of omega-3s, but it’s the population in general”
