Copyright 2006 Genesan3Have you heard of omega-3s? Probably. Today you see them
everywhere on all kinds of food products advertising ?rich
in omega-3s?. What are omega-3s anyway, and do you really
need them? The answer to the second part of that question
is, ABOLUTELY. But why do we hear about omega-3s all the
time? The answer to that is because most people today don?t
get enough. Before I get into why that is, let?s look at
what they do.
Omega-3s are one type of polyunsaturated fat that are
called ?essential fatty acids? that you must get from your
diet or supplements because your body can not make them.
Another type of essential fats are the omega-6s. What is
very important is the ratio that you get between omega-3s
and omega-6s. You really need to be eating these in about
the same amounts for your body to function optimally.
This is because these two types of fats have opposing
functions and compete with each other in many physiological
processes. For example omega-6s lead to inflammatory
reactions, needed to turn your immune system into high gear
when it detects and infection and omega-3s are
anti-inflammatory, needed to turn the immune response off
when it?s done. So these are kind of like the yin and yang
of your physiology and must be kept in balance.
Unfortunately, today?s western diet has about 15 to 30
times more omega-6s in it than omega-3s. This means that
inflammatory processes can get out of check and this can
aid the development of many different chronic degenerative
diseases, like cardiovascular heart disease and some types
of cancer. Many studies have also found that a deficiency
in omega-3s can contribute to depression.
So why are our diets so out of whack when it comes to the
omega-3 to omega-6 balance? It?s really only been over the
past 50 years or so that this has become a serious problem.
We have simply stopped eating many of the foods that are
high in omega-3s, like fatty fish and some nuts and started
eating more foods high in omega-6s like corn oil. In fact
many of the processed foods that we eat are extremely high
in omega-6s and lacking omega-3s.
Many researchers, including me, believe that this is an
underlying factor in the increased rates of several chronic
degenerative diseases that we see so prevalent today. This
is why foods that are high in omega-3s advertise it. The
manufacturers know that we are lacking in them and that we
need to eat more omega-3 rich foods.
There are really two kinds of omega-3s that are useful to
the body. One kind you can get from plants, especially
flaxseed oil and walnuts, and the other kind you can get
from animals, especially fish (mackerel is the highest).
You can also get either of these from supplements, usually
a fish oil extract capsule.
The one thing that you need to monitor when getting your
omega-3s from fish or fish oil capsules is the amount of
heavy metal contamination (like mercury) that you are also
ingesting. Various studies have shown different safe levels
of fish and some types of fish are higher in mercury than
others. There are many good articles out there that you can
read on this subject. When it comes to fish oil capsules
you need to make sure that the manufacturer uses a
purification process that guarantees removal of heavy
metals. Don?t just take cheap fish oil capsules without
doing some homework on this.
So that?s the bottom line on omega-3s. Yes, they are
extremely important and you should be proactive at trying
to get more of them. If you just go with the flow in
western society you will likely get way too much of the
inflammatory omega-6s and not enough anti-inflammatory
omega-3s and that can cause problems if left unchecked for
long periods of time.
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Dr. Simon Evans is an academic research scientist with an
interest in helping people improve their physical, mental
and social health. To get FREE information from Dr. Evans
health website and information on safe omega-3s visit:
http://www.genesan3.com
