Re: Omega 6 vs Omega 3 Research Study - Which Fats/Oils to use

Hi Nancy (and everyone else),

 

This is a long email... you are warned :>)

 

This email is in response to your question about eating/cooking oils. Sorry the reply is so late, but I've been struggling with how to answer you as well as doing research so that I can provide URLs that may be of interest. I sent out an email earlier answering Laurie's question about what the Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids are. This email will build on that information.

 

To start with, I believe that many nutritional "facts" that we have been told are simply not true, or only partly true. Old facts, that may have been true in earlier years, but have been found to be wrong because of newer science, are not finding themselves into the public - or even to physicians. There are many, many problems with scientists, physicians, pharmaceutical companies, government involvement, nutritional 'experts', the media - the list goes on and on. The book "Good Calories, Bad Calories" by Gary Taubes, is excellent and one that I highly recommend to understand some of these issues and the politics involved, at multiple levels, and by different groups, everywhere in the nutritional/health areas.

 

Nutritionally, I believe in "PALEO" style eating - eating meats (grass fed preferably), fish, eggs, dairy (limited), vegetables, and limited fruits - and not eating grains and sugars. Paleo is basically looking at the kinds of foods and frequency of eating that human beings have eaten for the millions of years prior to today, and trying to optimize that style to the benefit of our health and well being. Even though I believe this, I find executing it to 100% perfection is difficult and I still find myself eating in ways that don't follow my own paleo guidelines - but that doesn't mean that the principles are wrong. Like most of us, I stuggle with my personal weight, health, and diet issues (and failings) daily. There are several paleo websites that I follow, but one that you can go to (that has links to other like-minded websites) and provides good balanced information is Mark's Daily Apple, at: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/. Sign up to get his emails (or RSS feed) if you want to learn more (I also have his book, which also has interesting information).

 

Some of the other things I believe are: 

• Insulin 'spikes' are not good for us - over many years it causes us to have many age-related diseases associated with type II diabetes.
• Carbohydrates cause insulin spikes and therefore should be kept low in the diet
• The 'conventional' diet, promulgated by our government and medical associations, has too many carbohydrates in it - the pyramid is wrong.
• Fructose is not good for us in quantities - and should only come from raw fruits in small quantities - not juices, drinks, or HFCS.
• "Leaky gut" causes problems - it allows proteins and micronutrients into the body that are not meant to be there.
• We all have leaky gut to some extent and to different degrees at different points in our life - less as a child, more in old age.
• Grains have lectin proteins that get thru a leaky gut - they aggrevate/cause autoimmune symptoms/diseases.
• Grains were never eaten (as a basis of food) until man started farming and manufacturing - the human genome has not adapted to it yet.
• There is no problem with saturated fat - it is okay to eat; grain oils, in general, are not good for us.
• Grain oils are modern inventions - chemical concoctions created by a convoluted process that is supported by agribusiness.
• Grain oils have a lot of Omega-6 - the western/modern diet has too much of this fatty acid, regardless of the ratio with Omega-3 in the oil.
• Preferable Oils, if they are eaten, are 'cold pressed' oils - ones that do not need chemicals and heat in their manufacturing process.
• Polyunsaturated Oils oxidize and become rancid - scientists are concerned about them causing inflammation in our bodies.

The link that you provided to Dr. Sears' website shows that he and the other physicians on the site (wife and two sons?) are 'conventional wisdom' doctors who are saying exactly what the government/associations espouse, on many issues. I don't believe it all - and have serious problems with some of it!

 

This is the way I would rank fats based on my "paleo" leaning and research:

 

Best: Saturated fats - such as lard, coconut oil, palm oil, beef tallow, etc.

 

Better: Pure, pressed virgin Olive Oil (its mostly monounsaturated fat).

 

Okay: Other pressed oils from nuts and certain other vegetables/grains (if you must) - the lower O6:O3 Ratio (higher O3) the better.

 

Worst: All grain (vegetable) oils that are manufactured through a chemical, heating, deoderizing process (no matter what the O6:O3 ratio is).

 

As you can see, the fact that I have listed saturated fats as the preferable fat automatically puts me in conflict with mainstream medical community thinking and the list that you provided from Dr. Sears' website. He states that people should minimize their saturated fat, and placed it at the bottom of the list - which is not what I believe.

 

As an aside: Why did man create these manufactured processed oils to start with? Answer: Mostly as an alternative to the saturated fat scare that was started in the 70s and is still being pushed today - and it is poor/wrong science. Man never ate these grain oils in his history until only recently (olive oil is an exception, but it is a fruit to start with - not a grain).

 

The question you should ask yourself at this point is should I listen to Carl or should I listen to what my doctor and the other 'conventional wisdom' doctors and agri-oil manufacturers tell me (Dr. Oz and most other TV docs and media nutritionists, are in conflict with me also!). However, in my defense, there are a lot of scientists, research studies, doctors, skeptic/thinkers, and media people that do believe in alternative views of the nutritional world. In the end it is your decision, but the more that you can become knowledgeable, the better, more informed you will be.

  

 Okay, here are some references for more information and some to support my beliefs:

1. The Fats of Life website: http://www.fatsoflife.com/index.php looks very interesting. It says that it is a "Science-Based Site About the Health Effects of Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids (PUFAs)" I have not had time to really look at what is on the site.
2. Dr. William Lands is a preeminent researcher and has a lecture (to the military) that is provided on YouTube in four-parts (about 35 minutes total). I have watched them and it is excellent. He tells of the research that he and others have done that show that we are eating too much Omega-6 and that it is in competition with Omega-3 in our bodies. This imbalance causes many of modern mans medical problems. The first video is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgU3cNppzO0. Watch the other three in the series also.
3. Stephen Guyenet, PhD in neurobiology, is one of my favorite blog sites. In this article, "Omega Fats and Cardiovascular Disease", he talks about the n-6 to n-3 ratio and its importance. One of the interesting graphs that he uses is from Dr. Lands' showing the incidents of CHD increases with an increase in n-6 in the diets. http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2008/09/omega-fats-and-cardiovascular-disease.html
4. Another blogger I follow is Kurt G. Harris, MD. This blog article, "Sat Fat or PUFA - which one do you Fear?", he argues that PUFA Oils are unnatural (from an evolutionary standpoint), and dangerous. http://www.paleonu.com/panu-weblog/2010/3/18/sat-fat-or-pufa-which-one-do-you-fear.html. Another article on his site, titled "Fats and Oils" is also interesting: http://www.paleonu.com/panu-weblog/2009/6/22/fats-and-oils.html
5. Dr. William Davis, MD, is cardiac specialist that I follow. This article, "The Omega-3 Index: The Higher, the Better?" discusses the ratio of n-6 to n-3 fatty acids and the fact that there is a fingertip blood test that will tell you what your fatty acid ratio is (along with other information) - it is called the Omega-3 Index. It shows that the higher the blood ratio of n-3 to n-6, the less cardiac death occurs.  http://heartscanblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/omega-3-index-higher-better.html
6. This paper, titled "Unhealthy Vegetable Oils?, Does Food Industry Ignore Science Regarding Polyunsaturated Oils? Implications for Cance, Health Disease", by CJ Puotinen, discusses many of the issues some scientists have with vegetable/grain oils. http://www.thescreamonline.com/essays/essays5-1/vegoil.html
7. This article, titled "Refined Vegetable Oil" is on the Healthy Eating Politics website and discusses the manufacturing process used to produce commerically refined vegetable oil. http://www.healthy-eating-politics.com/vegetable-oil.html. Very interesting stuff.
8. Soy, as a vegetable and as an oil, is not good and should be avoided (unless eaten in its fermented state - tofu, etc). This "Soy Alert" webpage highlights some of the major issues with soy as a human food. http://www.westonaprice.org/soy-alert.html.
9. The National Institute of Health maintains this site for the "Essential Fatty Acids" Education. This site is maintained by Dr. Lands (above video) and his researchers. It also has a downloadable application (that he shows in the video url above) that allows a person to calculate how much Omega-3 to Omega-6 there is in the foods eaten. http://efaeducation.nih.gov/

That is probably way too much information! But - if you read any of these blogs/articles, you might want to also read some of the comments by the public - very interesting discussions, many by other scientists/doctors/PhDs. The other articles discussed on these sites can provide you with a lot of other information, too - very interesting stuff.

 

I think that little-by-little there will be a "sea-change" made in the nutrition world. But, it will take a long time. There are a lot of competing audiences that have to rethink or give up their current positions. It is very difficult to say "Oops, I made a mistake - What I have been telling you for years is no longer valid". (I know that I have a hard time "eating crow" when I've said something and then have to retract it - ask my wonderful wife, Nancy (smile)).

 

My hope is that I will always be able to change my position when new data is provided that I believe is correct and passes my 'skeptic' filter.)

 

I hope I haven't bored everyone too much with these ramblings ...

 

What do you think?

 

Love, Carl