Secretlife, sweet lady that she is, subscribed to this blog and leaves me
kind comments regularly so forgive me if I have a special spot in my
heart for her.  One of her comments concerned fish oil pills and how
she felt they'd do me worlds of good and as I am pleased she reads my
blog and lets me know it, I'm going to focus on those things that
interest her if I can.

    Fish oil pills are the big to-do lately because deep water fish is filled to the gills (hehehe) with "omega-3's". 
   Omega 3's refer to omega 3 fatty acids.  There are also omega 6's and
omega 9's,  The omega number refers to which set of carbons have a
double bond between them.  That is, the two carbons that have only one
hydrogen attached rather than 2 and instead of having that second
hydrogen, share the set of electrons they would otherwise be sharing
with the hydrogen atoms.  Cool, huh?   Yeah, I know.  Not even close,
nerd-boy. 
Very well, if you ARE enraptured with biochemistry, knock your socks off at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essential_fatty_acid
to find out some cute little tidbits about essential fatty acids.  I'll give you the relevant stuff here.

   Secretlife clued me in to Omega-9 fatty acids and I was a littler taken aback as I hadn't heard of omega 9's.  She suggested
taking a vitamin supplement that included omega 3, 6, and 9's.  The
article explained why I'd been unfamiliar with them.  The 9's aren't
ESSENTIAL fatty acids.  Essential vitamins (and fatty acids) are those
that your body cannot make from other nutrients.  The very word
supplement means "adding to".  In this case, it's adding to a diet, one
that is not sufficient for good health, one presumes.  The problem with
using omega-9's in a diet supplement is that, biologically, it is
superfluous.  Our bodies make omega-9's any time they are needed using
omega-6's and 3's as building blocks.  The nutrition industry, I
suppose wants to make it seem as though you need more than you do.  One
of Dr. Mirkin's favorite turns of phrase is "...you get all you need
from a diet of whole grains, beans, nuts, seeds, and vegetables."  This
is 20x the case with Omega-9's but if one supplement claims it on the
label and the others don't, perhaps the customers figure they're
getting a more "complete" supplement.  One they are willing to pay more
for.

   
From the web site:
http://www.vrg.org/journal/vj2001sep/2001sepomega3.htm


"The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends a n6:n3 ratio of 5-10:1,
Sweden recommends a ratio of 5:1, and other groups recommend 2.3:1. The
literature suggests that the typical American diet has a n6:n3 ratio of
9.8:1. This means that we consume 9.8 grams of n6 for every one gram of
n3. The main sources of omega-6 fatty acids in our diets include corn
and safflower oils, and processed foods made with these oils. In order
to improve your ratio, you would want to choose cooking oils with a low
n6:n3 ratio (see table), and incorporate more high omega-3 foods into
your diet"

The pricier foods tend to be the ones high in omega 3's so it isn't
surprising the average American's diet pulls in 10:1 Omega 6's to 3's. 
That's AVERAGE.  For every healthy guy like me, there's some fast food
junky out there pulling 15:1.  Flaxseed, canola and walnut oils are at the 5:1 ratio Sweden says "Ja" to.  Soybean is close at 7:1, but corn
oil has 58 TIMES AS MUCH omega 6's as 3's!!!!!  Safflower has over 350
TIMES as much!!!!    We might all do rather well trying to steer
ourselves to Canola and soybean whenever possible when cooking.

Omega 3's are a big deal because their consumption has been associated
with lower rates of heart disease.  Mirkin mentioned that studies have
shown not all omega 3's are created equal.  Fish oil omega 3 appears to
have more potent health benefits than plant omega 3's.  I don't believe
a reason for it has been found, but if I hear about it, so will you.


*DM

 

Blood Pressure:  135/72  (well above baseline, but normal)  7-2007