“How Your Low-Fat Diet May Be Killing You”

What follows is my own synopsis of a recent article by Al Sears, MD about the importance of essential fatty acids in the diet. This synopsis is done without his permission but with full attribution. I invite you to visit Dr. Sears’ website for more of his articles, for his free newsletter and to see some of his products: http://www.alsearsmd.com/. By the way, we have no business association. I don’t make anything from what you may buy from him. I think it’s only fair to cite him when I quote him.

Background

Essential fatty acids (EFA), as the name implies, are essential to life. EFAs include omega-3s and omega-6s. As is typical in nature, balance is essential. For eons, the ratio of omega-6s to omega-3s in the human diet was about 2:1. In the past couple of generations, as a result of the proliferation of grain-fed beef and fish, vegetable oils and processed foods, the ratio of omega-6s to omega-3s in the typical American diet has risen to 20:1. These days, our diets contain way too many omega-6s and way too few omega-3s. Moreover, since the body can’t make the essential omega-3s on its own, certain unhealthful conditions have skyrocketed: heart disease, stroke, diabetes, obesity, arthritis, depression, macular degeneration, skin disorders, etc.

The health “gurus” of the 1970s and ‘80s mistook the culprit in rising rates of heart disease to be red meat, because they only considered grain-fed commercial cattle, which have an unnaturally high, 20:1 ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 essential fatty acids. But they couldn’t explain why people in native cultures, who ate meat from grass-fed animals, had virtually no heart disease. In other words, the culprit was not the fat in the meat; it was the environment in which the meat was raised. When the cattle ate grains (an unnatural activity that changed their physiology), they lost their omega-3s. By eating their meat, we took on the same problems.

With farm-raised fish, it’s the same story. Farm-raised salmon, like grain-fed beef, have high levels of arachidonic acid, an omega-6-family fat that is highly inflammatory. And inflammation is one of the leading causes of illness and chronic disease. Inflammation has been directly linked to the following maladies:

obesity
diabetes
heart attack
chronic fatigue syndrome
allergies
age-related frailty
arthritis
cancer
depression
kidney disease
macular degeneration
periodontal disease
skin disorders
asthma
Alzheimer’s disease
atherosclerosis
congestive heart failure
dementia
inflammatory bowel disease
lupus
osteoporosis
stroke

The Benefits of Omega-3s

Supplementation with omega-3s boosts:

1- Heart health: raises HDL (“good” cholesterol) and lowers triglycerides (blood fat).
2- Joint health: eases swollen, painful joints and increases mobility and strength.
3- Bone health: reduces bone loss and improves calcium absorption and bone density.
4- Mental health: relieves anxiety, improves mood and problems with hyperactivity and attention-deficit.

What You Need To Do

1- Reduce your consumption of omega-6s, by eliminating or restricting your use of processed foods, grain-fed beef, farm-raised fish and vegetable oils. Insist on wild-caught fish and grass-fed animals. Eat real, organic produce. Use ultra virgin olive oil, instead of vegetable oils.

2- Unless you’re eating wild-caught fish several times per week, supplement your diet with fish oil capsules, available at most health food stores. Get the ones that are kept cold and store them in your refrigerator. Choose a fish oil that’s made from wild-caught small fish, and take enough to get a total of 2000 mg per day of EPA and DHA. In other words, read the label!

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