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"In the matter of fats, we truly are what we eat and what we eat truly matters."

- Susan Allport, from The Queen of Fats: Why Omega-3's Were Removed From The Western Diet and What We Can Do To Replace Them

The 20th and 21st century industrial food system changed the way all of us eat food. Cows, who once roamed the prairies feeding on Omega-3 rich grasses, were reduced to Omega-6 rich grains. Chickens, pigs, and even fish have undergone this change in their diets. Yet food companies have assured people that these new forms of meat are safer and healthier. Though, all of us continue to suffer greater risks to diseases and cancers. We pay more for food in the age of cheap food production. We continue to give the FDA and privately funded research our trust ( who are made to give positive results to private profits). The pattern is obvious; our food is determining our health. Pharmaceutical Companies want us to pay for supplements we should be getting from nutrients in locally grown food. We lose to industrially sourced foods who have stripped nutrients and put in additives to increase shelf-life. These patterns may not be as simple as Omega-3's versus Omega-6's. But my logic shows that if a fish from the wild in Lake Erie is full of Omega-3's while a fish from a farm in Alaska is full of Omega-6's, and an Omega-3/Omega-6 balanced diet promotes a healthy body in contrast to an Omega-6 one, I'm throwing back the farmed fish.

The research concludes: individuals of a western industrial food diet have higher intakes of Omega-6's, and very low intakes of Omega-3's. This high concentration of Omega-6's in our diets is said to be the cause of Heart Disease, certain types of Cancer, Type-2 Diabetes and stronger inflammations. Susan Allport and leading nutritional scientists believe a balance of Omega-6's to Omega-3's in a 2.3:1 ratio is ideal for preventing, and in some cases curing, these century old problems of the american industrial food diet.

Omega-3's function--"to permit animals to think and see... enable nerve cells to send their rapid signals", says Allport, which further allows succinct cellular communication. Plant seeds, the "edible oil", have high concentrations of Omega-6's, but convert this into Omega-3's upon germination and during photosynthesis. The western industrial food diet relies heavily on extraction of seed oils for foods.

Newborn diets from an industrial model of over-processed seed-based oil formulas will likely have high concentrations of Omega-6's, which is said by research to decrease brain development and vision acuity. Michael Crawford, a biochemist who currently heads The Institute of Brain Chemistry and Human Nutrition at the London Metropolitan University, flew to FDA conferences in the 1980's & 90's and argued, "It's no longer up to the scientific community to justify why DHA should be in infant formula. It's up to the infant formula company to justify why it isn't." DHA, or docosahexaenoic acid, is a principle metabolite in the Omega-3 fatty acid chain and is found in the breast milk of mother's with a balanced Omega-3 and 6 diet.

So, why does a company choose Omega-6's over Omega-3's? The answer is: Shelf Life. Omega-6's are found to take longer for oxidization, the process by which foods break down and become spoiled. Yet again, we find a company is willing to risk the shelf-life of a person to the shelf life of a product. In this case, Susan Allport had a telephone interview with Bob Brown of Frito-Lay who said linolenic acid (Omega-3) "is ten times less stable than linoleic acid", or Omega-6. The USDA agrees with this position, but reality has shown our bodies do not.

Susan Allport's book found pharmaceutical companies answering, "There's no way to make money from nutrition". Food companies replied to a hired consultant--William Lands--like passive observers at a food crisis they had no control over -- "Bill, we sell foods that people ask for... We don't tell the people what to eat. If you convince the public that our food should have a different balance, we'll change it." This reasoning, using the 'personal responsibility' of a consumer versus the billions spent in advertising, is a companies tactic to externalizing the health costs of their foods onto the public. It is the common tactic to keeping a cost of business low enough, so that the profits out perform any legal liability a company may have to pay for its products deficiency. Reformulations just cost too much.

Common sense goes a long way in deciding on what to eat in favor of an Omega-3 intake. In the instance of chicken eggs, Artemis Simopoulos's research shows eggs from chickens who feed on plants and insects will have rich increases in Omega-3 fatty acids, while factory raised chickens, fed primarily corn, have a tenth of the Omega-3's than its counterpart. "For Simopoulos (replying to why Industry hasn't acted in these facts), 'It's a question of economics. The edible oil industry is a very powerful lobby and soybeans and corn are some of our major commodities.'"

Scientist, Tony Hubert remarks on the situation:"People are going to look back on this time--when we've flooded our food supply with Omega-6's--like they do the Irish potato famine... as the unforeseen of too heavy an emphasis on a single type of food." Simopoulos sees it as, "a human experiment of enormous proportions."

The FDA doesn't distinguish between the two fatty acids, but clumps them into one polyunsaturated fat. This may be reason enough to call into question our governments interests. Are they unqualified or without the funds to make substantial claims about fatty acids, or is it simply not economical for them to do so? The financial meltdown did not see it economical for government to let the economy run its course to experience the fall of corrupted major investment banks acting to make money off of immoral policies set to deceive mortgage loans. Letting the economy reformulate on food issues would, simply, be too costly for businesses. And, it may result on people looking closer to home for food. It may, cause large groups of people to source diversified foods from a local Farmer and less from the local retailer. Some may already be doing this!

Cooking and Salad Oils - Ratio of Omega-6's to Omega-3's

Flaxseed or linseed 0.2:1

Canola 2:1

Canola (for light frying) 3:1

Walnut 5:1

Soybean 7:1

Wheat germ 8:1

Butter 9:1

Lard 10:1

Olive 12:1

Hydrogenated Soybean 13:1

High Oleic Sunflower 19:1

Corn 46:1

Palm 46:1

Sesame 137:1

Less than 60% linoleic Sunflower 200:1

Cottonseed 259:1

Source: USDA Nutrient Data Laboratory. Found within "The Queen of Fats".

Reference

"The Queen of Fats" (University of California Press in September of 2006) by Susan Allport

Questions to the Author

On Tue, Oct 14, 2008 at 7:44 AM, The Erie Wire <eriewire@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Susan Allport,

I have a few questions regarding your fantastic book, "The Queen of Fats".

Q: Is an over-consumption of Omega-3's a possibility? Was this addressed by any of the scientists you consulted with?

Q: If butter and lard are sourced from grain fed animals, (besides crisco) what other alternatives exist for cooking?

In Good Soil
Joshua

Hi Joshua, Yes, I think that omega-3s can be overconsumed and that an individual's metabolism can go into overdrive. This isn't often considered since it would be unlikely in today's food culture -- but it is possible. Remember: moderation in everything (including moderation).

Besides butter and lard from grass fed animals, canola and olive oil are great choices for cooking. Olive oil doesn't contain many omega-3s but neither does it contain many omega-6s. So it's a neutral framework for a diet rich in other sources of 3s, as was the traditional Mediterranean diet.

Thanks for the questions, Susan

--
Susan Allport Howell
333 Hook Rd.
Katonah, NY 10536

914-232-8687

http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/10264.html
www.susanallport.com