Omega-3 Good for You
Feb. 24th, 2009 11:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
helwen... which I expect most folks know, actually.
But this article at MSNBC was good (yes, even MSNBC can have something useful) had some bits I didn't know about, but make sense if you think about it:
Omega-3 article
Typically the advice on getting enough Omega-3 (to balance Omega-6 in the diet) is to take fish oil, liquid or gel cap or mixed into foods, or flax oil and/or ground flax.
Did you know it's also in the meat and eggs of grass-fed, free-range chickens? Did you know it's in the milk products of grass-fed cows? It's also in beef, but only if the cows have been allowed to feed mostly on grass for 4 or 5 years. Grain-fed beef cattle can be fattened up in one year -- wrong diet and too short a time for the Omega-3s to be there.
...
We do need some Omega-6 in our diets, just not in the large amounts typical of a lot of folks' diets.
I was a little puzzled by the knock on soybeans, because they can be a healthy part of a diet as far as I know. But it could be the way it's being used, much like some other foods, it's better as a whole food than in isolated components. One of the problems with it though seems to be that it's used in feed for animals, much like corn and other grains, for quickly fattening animals for slaughter. Yet another reason industrial meat is unhealthy (both for the animal and for the human).
Nuts can be a problem that way too -- in small amounts they're great, but in large amounts not-so-much.
Some other things relatively high in Omega-3 are mustard oil and ocean fish (as long as it isn't primarily grain fed).
*** Effects ***
Also is starting to be shown to help with depression, and with violent tendencies (British study at a prison, where they gave some of the inmates fish oil). Given how much of both are rampant these days, makes you wonder what would happen if people's diets changed for the better.
And it could be a factor in weight gain/loss, as Omega-6 is apparently quite good at helping one gain weight. Makes sense, since that's essentially what the food industrial complex is doing with chickens, cows, pigs, etc. -- feeding them lots of Omega-6 rich foods to fatten them up quickly for market. I'm personally more concerned with heart health and not getting cancer than with losing weight, but if reviewing our diet to make sure we're getting a better balance of the Omegas helps me drop a few pounds, I'm good with that (my knees would appreciate it).
***
Anyway, it's a long article and I haven't finished reading it as of posting this, but there's lots of interesting stuff in there. I'm about to read about how not all Omega-3 sources are created equal...
But this article at MSNBC was good (yes, even MSNBC can have something useful) had some bits I didn't know about, but make sense if you think about it:
Omega-3 article
Typically the advice on getting enough Omega-3 (to balance Omega-6 in the diet) is to take fish oil, liquid or gel cap or mixed into foods, or flax oil and/or ground flax.
Did you know it's also in the meat and eggs of grass-fed, free-range chickens? Did you know it's in the milk products of grass-fed cows? It's also in beef, but only if the cows have been allowed to feed mostly on grass for 4 or 5 years. Grain-fed beef cattle can be fattened up in one year -- wrong diet and too short a time for the Omega-3s to be there.
"Now, an ever-growing body of research is showing that the epidemic of diseases associated with the Western diet — cancer, heart disease, depression, and much more — might be curtailed simply by restoring something we never should have removed from our diets in the first place: omega-3 fatty acids."
...
Our ancestors ate a ratio of dietary omega-6s to omega-3s of approximately 1:1. The Western diet (the modern American and European eating pattern characterized by high intakes of red meat, sugar, and refined carbohydrates) has a ratio of about 20:1.
We do need some Omega-6 in our diets, just not in the large amounts typical of a lot of folks' diets.
I was a little puzzled by the knock on soybeans, because they can be a healthy part of a diet as far as I know. But it could be the way it's being used, much like some other foods, it's better as a whole food than in isolated components. One of the problems with it though seems to be that it's used in feed for animals, much like corn and other grains, for quickly fattening animals for slaughter. Yet another reason industrial meat is unhealthy (both for the animal and for the human).
Nuts can be a problem that way too -- in small amounts they're great, but in large amounts not-so-much.
Some other things relatively high in Omega-3 are mustard oil and ocean fish (as long as it isn't primarily grain fed).
*** Effects ***
A higher intake of omega-3 has been shown to positively affect ailments as diverse as stroke, allergies, dementia, and dyslexia.
Also is starting to be shown to help with depression, and with violent tendencies (British study at a prison, where they gave some of the inmates fish oil). Given how much of both are rampant these days, makes you wonder what would happen if people's diets changed for the better.
And it could be a factor in weight gain/loss, as Omega-6 is apparently quite good at helping one gain weight. Makes sense, since that's essentially what the food industrial complex is doing with chickens, cows, pigs, etc. -- feeding them lots of Omega-6 rich foods to fatten them up quickly for market. I'm personally more concerned with heart health and not getting cancer than with losing weight, but if reviewing our diet to make sure we're getting a better balance of the Omegas helps me drop a few pounds, I'm good with that (my knees would appreciate it).
***
Anyway, it's a long article and I haven't finished reading it as of posting this, but there's lots of interesting stuff in there. I'm about to read about how not all Omega-3 sources are created equal...
