I realize now that there are a few more things which need mentioning regarding essential fatty acids.
How Much Good Fat do we Need in Our Diet?
According to studies done on each of these essential fats we need about 2% of daily calories should come from omega 3s and 1 – 2% omega 6s in order to be free of degenerative illnesses caused by the lack of these nutrients. The average North American diet provides for roughly 0.4% of calories. No wonder there are so many sick people in North America.
Sensitivity
Essential fatty acids are very chemically reactive, which is what makes them so valuable in our bodies. But this also means they’re sensitive to destruction by several factors. Light is the most destructive to fatty acids because of the formation of free radical chain reaction. Light is a thousand times more reactive than the next most destructive element: oxygen. Oxygen destroys fatty acid by the formation of peroxide, which creates rancidity. High temperatures also destroy fatty acids. Keep good oils in a dark tinted glass container with a good lid, in the refrigerator.
Non-Essential Fatty Acids
Saturated fats
The hard fats which come from animal sources includes all the fat from dairy sources as well. A lot of people, influenced by excellent advertising campaigns over many years, believe that dairy is good for you. The conventional ‘wisdom’ is that dairy is a good source of calcium. It may be – if you’re a baby cow. Dairy milk is the perfect food for a baby cow. But it is a very difficult food for a human being to properly digest and utilize. There are very many other excellent sources for calcium, one doesn’t have to resort to dairy, which causes more problems than it solves. I should say here, that all oils and fats contain non-essential fatty acids: olive oil contains about 8% essential fatty acids, which means that the other 92% is non-essential; almond oil is 83% non-essential, peanut is 71% non-essential, safflower is 25% non-essential, flax 20% and pumpkin seeds are 25% non -essential fatty acids. Another source of non-essential fatty acids is all calories in excess of what the body uses up in daily functioning. The excess calories could come from protein, fats or refined carbohydrates. Whole grains and other complex and fiber-rich carbs are broken down into sugar (glucose) at about the rate the body needs for energy, and therefore don’t produce excess calories. The dangerous sources come from sugars of all types and refined carbs such as white flours and refined starches (like white pasta). Sugar requires almost no digestion and is therefore absorbed very rapidly into the bloodstream, flooding it and causing a toxic condition. To correct this the body must make lots of insulin, created by the pancreas to take up the excess sugar. This absorbed sugar is then converted into non-essential fatty acids and cholesterol.The most dangerous nutritional combination is cholesterol combined with saturated fatty acids. Both are hard at room temperature and therefore tend to be hard in the body.
Cholesterol melts at 148C or 300F
16 carb saturated fatty acids melt at 63C or 145F
18 carb saturated fatty acids melt at 71C or 160F
in contrast:
LA melts at -5C or 23F ALNA at -12C or 10FEPA at -55C or -67F DHA at -45C or -49FThe essential fatty acids and their derivatives help to liquefy the hard fats and cholesterol and make them easier to move in the bloodstream and back out of the deposits in arteries and other tissues.
A Word About Animal Fats
If you feel you absolutely can’t live without animal flesh in your diet, consider wild meat as an alternative. Red meats from moose, deer or wild cattle contain only 1 – 3% fat. Mutton is 25 – 40% fat, whereas wild sheep are about 5%. Wild pig is 1.3% fat, compared to domestic pig at 35 – 60%. Being more lean, wild meat contains far more of the essential fatty acids than do the domestic meats, which are fattened up for market.
Trans Fatty Acids
Trans fats are formed by frying, deodorization and hydrogenation of oils. Trans are the ‘twisted sister of essential and unsaturated fatty acids. They are found in margarines, shortenings, shortening oils, partially hydrogenated vegetable oils and fried and deep fried oils. Their shapes have been altered by rotation and they are harder than the fatty acids from which they were made. They now constitute 15% of all the fats we consume, beginning from nearly 0% in 1911. They are closely associated with the rise in cancer rates over the past 90, nearly 100 years.
Therapy with Oils
Based on the assumption that if we supply the body with the essential fats it needs we improve health, the four main oils used are flax seed oil, evening primrose oil, fish oils and black current seed oil.
Flax seed oil – contains both essential fatty acids and is especially rich in omega 3s
Evening primrose oil – very rich in omega 6s
Fish Oils – for omega 3s
Black Current seed Oil – contains both omega 3s and 6s (if properly made).
This is the essential information I’ve learned about fats. There’s a ton of information about fats that kill you. Trans fats are at the very top of the list. Perhaps I’ll write a future post about bad fats, but I feel there’s more information on this subject than there is what we should be eating. Because there’s so much information about bad fats now, lots of folks are trying to avoid fat altogether, and this is a very bad idea. Be careful what sort of fat you eat, but you must have essential fats for good health. I hope this entry as well as the one earlier help clear up misunderstandings about fats in the diet.
