Omega-3 Fatty Acids
July 4th 2006 01:15
Omega-3 Fatty Acids
I watched a BBC documentary on SBS on Sunday night called Could Fish Make My Child Smart? and thought Id share with you some interesting facts about the wonderful fatty-acid, Omega-3. Omega-3 encompasses 10% of the brain which is almost 80% fat. It can be found in oily fish such as tuna, sardines, mackerel and anchovies as well as in leafy vegetables, tofu and pumpkin seeds.
It was once thought that all fats were bad fats and they could all cause heart disease. But in the 1940s Hugh Sinclair discovered that the diet of the Inuit, which was primarily of fish, and hence a lot of omega-3 fatty acids, correlated to low cases of heart attacks. So, Hugh Sinclair performed an experiment on himself where he followed the Inuit diet by eating nothing but oily fish for 100 days. During the experiment he cut himself on the arm periodically and found that the time it took for his blood to clot increased from 2 to 50 minutes whilst on this diet. The fish diet was effectively thinning his blood, lowering the chances of heart failure due to internal thrombosis the formation of blood clots.
According to this documentary, there have been many other links between Omega-3 fatty acids and better health:
* The people of Crete in Greece were found to have very low cases of heart disease, cancer and lived the longest due to the Omega-3 they obtained from the purslane plant.
* A global correlation was found between rates of murder and depression, and low ingestion of Omega-3. The fatty-acid has since been used to treat depression, with promising results and brain scans showing an actual increase in brain size.
* Another study has shown that children who took Omega-3 as babies had better vision and language comprehension as they became toddlers.
* Omega-3 is vital for brain development of the foetus during pregnancy.
We now know that Omega-3 has been proved to be beneficial to your health in a number of ways, but studies have shown that we are now ingesting way too much Omega-6. There was once a balance between the two substances but now omega-6 is taking over in the form of processed foods, vegetable oils and animal fats, and preventing omega-3 from working properly. Increased intake of Omega-6 leads to higher water retention, raised blood pressure and raised blood clotting. Like omega-3, omega-6 is an essential fatty-acid, meaning the body cannot make it and we must ingest it though our diets. And like omega-3, we need omega-6 for brain function; ideally we need a 50-50 balance of the two fatty-acids.
Image 1 part of the Public Domain. ommes-1.jpg" target="_blank">Image 2 part of the GNU Free Documentation License
I watched a BBC documentary on SBS on Sunday night called Could Fish Make My Child Smart? and thought Id share with you some interesting facts about the wonderful fatty-acid, Omega-3. Omega-3 encompasses 10% of the brain which is almost 80% fat. It can be found in oily fish such as tuna, sardines, mackerel and anchovies as well as in leafy vegetables, tofu and pumpkin seeds.
It was once thought that all fats were bad fats and they could all cause heart disease. But in the 1940s Hugh Sinclair discovered that the diet of the Inuit, which was primarily of fish, and hence a lot of omega-3 fatty acids, correlated to low cases of heart attacks. So, Hugh Sinclair performed an experiment on himself where he followed the Inuit diet by eating nothing but oily fish for 100 days. During the experiment he cut himself on the arm periodically and found that the time it took for his blood to clot increased from 2 to 50 minutes whilst on this diet. The fish diet was effectively thinning his blood, lowering the chances of heart failure due to internal thrombosis the formation of blood clots.
Tuna, full of Omega-3.
According to this documentary, there have been many other links between Omega-3 fatty acids and better health:
* The people of Crete in Greece were found to have very low cases of heart disease, cancer and lived the longest due to the Omega-3 they obtained from the purslane plant.
* A global correlation was found between rates of murder and depression, and low ingestion of Omega-3. The fatty-acid has since been used to treat depression, with promising results and brain scans showing an actual increase in brain size.
* Another study has shown that children who took Omega-3 as babies had better vision and language comprehension as they became toddlers.
* Omega-3 is vital for brain development of the foetus during pregnancy.
You'll find omega-6 in fried food such as hot chips.
We now know that Omega-3 has been proved to be beneficial to your health in a number of ways, but studies have shown that we are now ingesting way too much Omega-6. There was once a balance between the two substances but now omega-6 is taking over in the form of processed foods, vegetable oils and animal fats, and preventing omega-3 from working properly. Increased intake of Omega-6 leads to higher water retention, raised blood pressure and raised blood clotting. Like omega-3, omega-6 is an essential fatty-acid, meaning the body cannot make it and we must ingest it though our diets. And like omega-3, we need omega-6 for brain function; ideally we need a 50-50 balance of the two fatty-acids.
Image 1 part of the Public Domain. ommes-1.jpg" target="_blank">Image 2 part of the GNU Free Documentation License
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Comment by RachDegab
Don't worry Edward, it's never to late to start getting into the fish...
Rach.