Why Omega 3 Fatty Acids Are the Healthiest Fats for Us.
Types of Fats and Their Characteristics.
"omega 3 is and ESSENTIAL Fat, meaning it is essential for our health"
Omega 3 fatty acids are our answer to not only a better overall health and higher energy but to prevent a bunch of diseases like, heart disease, arthritis, cancer, depression and Alzheimer’s. Perhaps you also want to treat rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, ulcerative colitis, Raynaud's disease and a host of other diseases.
You are about to read this page where we talk about the different types of fats, their characteristics, what trans fats are and why it is important to avoid them and save your health, why saturated fat may not be as bad as we have been told, why omega 3 is our perfect fat.
Fat
Fat is one of the three type of foods our bodies can digest: proteins, carbohydrates and fats. Everything we eat is one of the above, there are no more.
To understand fats, which is just an organic compound, we could take a look to this simple graphic:
A Fatty Acid is an
Essential Fatty Acid
if the elimination from our diet creates any type of unbalance in the body. It has to come from the diet, it can not be synthesized by the body.
Omega 3 Fatty Acids
These are divided in three, Docosahexaenoic acid, or DHA, Eicosapentaenoic acid, EPA, and Alpha Linolenic Acid, ALA. Each one has a different structure but our body can make EPA and DHA from ALA, that is from flaxseed and some other few vegetables. That is why you see products that are advertised as containing Omega 3 fatty acids, coming from a vegetable source.
The problem here is that the conversion of ALA to EPA and DHA, which is the only way our body can use it, is very inefficient, about a 10-15%. That is also the reason why the majority of Omega 3 fatty acids consumed, EPA and DHA, come from animal sources, mainly fish. Fatty fishes are specially rich in omega 3 fatty acids.
Best Dietary Sources of EPA and DHA:
Herring.
Mackerel.
Sardines.
Pilchards.
Salmon.
Trout.
Tuna.
Krill.
New Zealand green lipped muscles.
Warning: many of these fishes are contaminated with mercury, very toxic element that is behind many of our modern life maladies, specially illness related to our brain, like Parkinson’s. See my
These fatty acids come from vegetable origin. Basically all grains, even whole grains, grain oils, cereals are Omega 6 fatty acids. That is wheat, corn, rice, oat etc.
Saturated Fat
These come from animal source and have been seen as the bad guys of fats. Basically, the prevalent theory for the last 50 years is that saturated fat is one of the major contributors of heart disease and it should be avoided. It rises
cholesterol
.
Nevertheless, in the last years some other scientists believe that maybe they are not so bad, after all. Otherwise, it could be very difficult to explain how humanity evolved during millions of years basically eating raw animal food and a few vegetables until the discovery of agriculture- a few thousands years ago- without evolutionary significance-, with no heart disease.
Apparently, heart disease appeared after agriculture was discovered, and specially after the 19th century, when it became commercially available to the general public.
This theory aims to explain that our diet evolved within a balance of Omega 6 Fatty acids and Omega 3 fatty acids, a ratio of 2/1. In the 20th century that changed to a ratio of 20 - 50/1, that is an enormous misbalance that make our cells cry for less omega 6 and more omega 3 fatty acids.
It is correct folks, we need to eliminate mostly all grains , cereals and grain oils if we are overweight, have hypertension or diabetes, in order to bring back the balance to our body. Watch out, I said eliminate most grains, not carbohydrates. We need cabos, not from grains but from all vegetables and fruits. Go to my page
The dieting
.
So the bottom line is not to let any conventional "experts" give you any nonsense about saturated fat. You can refer them to this landmark article and show them that saturated fats are essential parts of all body tissues and are:
A major part of the phospholipid component of cell membranes
The preferred fuel for the heart
Used as a source of fuel during energy expenditure
Actually increases HDL concentrations
Modulator genetic regulation and prevent cancer (butyric acid)
Useful antiviral agents (caprylic acid)
Effective as an anticaries, antiplaque and anti fungal agents (lauric acid)
Useful to actually lower cholesterol levels (palmitic and stearic acids)
Beneficial effects on thrombogenic and atherogenic risk factors (stearic acid).
In short, Omega 6 fatty acids promotes, inflammation, thrombosis, arrhythmia, high triglycerides, high blood pressure, etc. Omega 3 fatty acids balance its effects, with good
eicosanoids
. This is very important to remember.
Best Time to Take Omega 3
Trans Fatty Acids
These are the real bad guys of fats. They damage all our circulatory system-see
heart disease
-, elevates total and LDL cholesterol-see
cholesterol
-.,cause major clogging of arteries, type 2 diabetes and other serious health problems
We create it in our kitchens. That is right, in our kitchens when we overheat oil, cook at high temperatures all those fried foods we love. Every time you fry something you are poisoning yourself. Remember that….When cooking any food do it at low temperatures, eat it as raw as possible. I know it is difficult, the texture and taste is not the same. But It is also a habit, and if you have children their taste buds will be used to it when they grow up.
We also produce Trans Fats in our factories. We add hydrogen to vegetable oils to create margarines that have very nice characteristics, like long shelf life and are easy spreaded on other foods. They taste good and are very cheap.
All bakery products, cookies, cakes, doughnuts, etc are all full of grains, omega 6, but also of trans fats. Try to eliminate them from your diet. Typical french fries have about 40 percent trans fatty acids and many popular cookies and crackers range from 30 percent to 50 percent trans fatty acids. Doughnuts have about 35 percent to 40 percent trans fatty acids. For more information go from Omega 3 Fatty Acids to
Bad Fat or Good Fat.
It's likely that you... like most of us, take dietary supplements of one type
of another. But, do you really know if you are receiving the benefits that you
expect? So many of the supplements on the market are ineffective either due to
low potency levels, or, they simply do not contain what is stated on the label.
Even worst, many supplements can have dangerously high levels of contaminants
due to relaxed regulatory regulations governing the manufacture of dietary
supplements. There is some interesting information available on this subject. If
you take supplements we would recommend you check out this info by clicking
here.
Don’t forget your daily fish oil for your entire family. You can find omega 3 fish oil, molecularly distilled, free of impurities sent anywhere in the World at low reasonable price, Click here
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