| The scoop on Omega-3s involves two types of fat: Omega-3 and Omega-6. They are both EFAs - essential fatty acids - and essential refers to the fact that they are essential for life and our bodies can't make them. What is most important about your consumption of these fats isn't so much the quantity of each but the ratio of Omega-3 to Omega-6 because they compete within your body. Omega-6's tend to come from seeds, Omega-3's come from greens and leaves.
Back in the good ol' days, animals ate more greens. Cows grazed. Other animals ate table scraps and grasses too. Now, we feed them corn. A seed. Omega-6's instead of Omega-3's. Fish still have their Omega-3's (if they are wild or fed wid fish) because they never changed their diets. Little fish eat algae, big fish eat little fish.
The problem in our society goes to what Michael Pollan calls "nutritionism." Several decades ago we figured out that saturated fats and cholesterol were bad. So we wanted unsaturated fats. We swapped out butter and lard for vegetable oils (from seeds) full of omega-6's. And, we partially hydrogenated them - which means we removed the Omega=3's that the oils contained and left the Omega-6's remaining. Those are the now hated trans fats.
A good question for which we don't have the answer is: was the problem the partial hydrogenation itself, or was it just the lack of omega-3's in relation to the high quantity of omega-6's we were eating in those oils? Because the answer matters. We're currently replacing partially hydrogenated oils with other oils that ALSO have bad Omega-3:Omega-6 ratios. If that's the problem, our solution won't help.
Another good question has to do with red meat. Is it red meat itself that's bad? Or is it factory farmed grain fed red meat that's bad? Corn fed beef is full of omega-6's. Grass fed beef has more omega-3's. Is the problem the beef or the corn?
Same question for eggs. I once read dietary advice for heart disease patients recommending no more than 4 eggs per week. Well, that assumes eggs from chickens that ate corn. What if the chickens were TRULY free range and got to eat a more normal chicken diet? The radio podcast said that truly free range eggs (not the expensive stuff with a "free range" label at the grocery store, but from a chicken you raise your backyard) have TEN TIMES as many Omega-3's as a "conventional" egg.
I don't know the answers to these questions. I am going to read the book though. I hope others do as well, although after I read it I'll certainly write up what I learn here. But from this information alone it seems clear that our dietary advice is very wrongheaded. And it also speaks to something that's been bothering me for a while - the fact that our "current science" about nutrition can be wrong. Remember when margarine was the "healthy alternative" to butter? And now we find out that's not the case. It really bothers me that we can screw up that badly. Because it makes me wonder what we're screwing up now.
I think here's the lesson: We need to trust nature and follow nature's ways (and then do the science to find out why nature's ways work) instead of trying to outsmart nature. I realize that we all want food that's as tasty, healthy, profitable (or cheap, for consumers), and convenient as possible - but the "short cuts" we've been finding over the last half a century usually end up hurting us more than they help. |
