Nutrition and Weight Loss Ideas

What’s All This About Good Fats - Bad Fats?

Back to our work on fats — what’s good and what’s bad for your nutrition and weight loss program.

So far we’ve covered the “good” fats — Monounsaturated fats and the Omega-3 fatty acids. (There are more details about those in yesterday’s article.)

Now, let’s take a look at the “iffy” fats — those that might be good or that might be not so good.

The first one to talk about is Alpha Linolenic Acid or ALA. This is actually an Omega-3 found in flax seed oil and in some other foods, which is converted by your body into EPA and DHA.

(Oh boy, here we go again with a couple of those things with some more 3-letter codes.) Here’s the hard to understand part of what that is …

EPA and DHA are essential fatty acids. Those letters stand for docosahexaenoic acid and eicosahexaenoic acid. EPA and DHA is/are found in cold water fish.These polyunsaturated fats play a very important role with the function of our bodies. They are vital nutrients which help to maintain healthy function of the brain and retina. They are also important in regulating cell activity and healthy cardiovascular function.

And there’s more ….

Human Growth and Intellectual Development - DHA plays a very important role during fetal development, early infancy, and old age. High concentrations of DHA are found in the brain and increases 300-500% in an infant’s brain during the last trimester of pregnancy. Adding DHA to a pregnant mothers diet may be beneficial for the fetus’s brain development. Elderly people should also take EPA and DHA, because as we get older, our bodies form less DHA and EPA, which may cause less mental focus and cognitive function. Taking EPA and DHA may also help with mental abnormalities, such as Alzheimers Disease and Dementia.

There are other benefits to taking EPA and DHA because they also play a role as a source of energy, they insulate the body against heat loss, prevent skin from drying and flaking, and cushion tissues and organs. The American Heart Association recommends eating ALA rich foods including soybeans, canola, walnut and flaxseed.

But here’s the kicker … the extent to which your body converts ALA to EPA and DHA is limited. And some studies have linked Alpha Linolenic Acid (ALA) with rapidly progressing prostate cancer and macular degeneration — (yikes) — which is why I put this Omega-3 on the “iffy” list.

And, there’s one more “iffy” that I need to mention, although I haven’t been able to find out enough about it to give you any good advice. This is …

Omega-6 fatty acids. Like Omega-3s, Omega-6s are “essential” fatty acids — meaning your body needs them but can’t manufacture them. So, they have to be obtained from eating food. (Just to make things more confusing, the most common Omega-6 is linoleic acid which is NOT the same as alpha lenolenic acid. Common sources of linoleic acid include vegetable oils, meats, grains, seeds and vegetables.)

So far that doesn’t sound so awful .. but the problem comes in because we seem to get too much of the Omega-6s in our diet. There is supposed to be a balance between Omega-6s and Omega-3s. The average North American diet provides 10 times the necessary amount of Omega-6.

Compared to Omega-3, most people have way too much of it. The ratio between the two should be 1:1 and no more than 1:4 (4 times as much Omega-6). The typical North American diets are in the range of 1:11 all the way up to 1:30. If you’re taking an Omega-3 supplement, your chances of a good balance are greatly increased. If you’re not — or if you don’t eat enough of the Omega-3 foods, the imbalance can contribute to the development of long-term diseases such as heart disease, cancer, asthma, arthritis and depression.

And, another recent study showed that Omega-6 acids accelerate the growth of human prostate tumors. Some researchers suspect that there is a link between the increase in prostate cancer and the increase in Omega-6 in our diets.

The question in my mind, and probably yours as well, is — what are the foods that are giving us this excess of Omega-6? Why is this true in North America and not elsewhere? Or, is it just that we don’t eat enough of the Omega-3s?

Dietary sources of Omega-6 fatty acids include cereals, eggs, poultry, most vegetable oils, whole-grain breads, baked goods, and margarine. I’m guessing that it’s maybe too much of the eggs, the wrong kinds of vegetable oils (like the kind that frenchfries are soaked in) the baked goods and the margerine. And I’d be willing to bet that the other side of that equation is that we don’t eat enough of the Omega-3 foods to increase that side of the ratio and give us a better balance.

Think about it.

There’s another “iffy” fat that I need to tell you about, but let’s save that one for the next article. I should be back here with more to help you with your nutrition and weight loss goals either tomorrow or the next day. I’ll skip one of those days since it is a weekend.

Until then, remember to follow a good-fat — good-carb diet and stay with your regular exercise.

Here is some information about the nutritional supplements I add to my nutrition and weight loss program.

Have a great day. I’ll be back tomorrow with some more nutrition and weight loss thoughts for you.

And give the South Beach Diet a try. That’s what I follow. Here’s where to go to learn more:

Shanti,

Ron
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