Return to Balance™!

Return to Balance™!

With Omega-3 Synergy From Land And Sea By Mark Swanson, N.D. The essential and vital importance of omega-6 and omega-3 essential fatty acid (EFAs) in the human diet has been a major focus of scientific research for over 30 years. The EFAs constitute the two highly unsaturated fats (HUFA) - linoleic acid (LA, n6) and alpha linolenic acid (ALA, n3) respectively. Collectively, they make up a vastly complex area of human nutrition. Only recently has the average consumer come to understand that EFAs are as important to their health as vitamins and minerals. Getting the right balance of these from food and supplements is a key element for the prevention of disease and promoting good health and longevity.

There is no single age group that the EFAs are more important for. From the moment of conception, throughout pregnancy and over ones entire lifespan, the EFAs play major regulatory roles for thousands of cellular functions and are vital to life. Most recently scientists have concluded it is the essential balance between the EFAs that is most important to maintain in the diet, not whether one EFA should dominate over the other.

This is especially true for omega-3 because of its critical role for human growth and development, normal brain function, and healthy vision. It is also equally important for the prevention of inflammatory-linked disorders such as coronary heart disease, cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, arthritis, IBD / colitis, and auto-immune disorders. Omega-3 is the most fluid-like in cell membranes and is a potent an anti-inflammatory EFA, whereas omega-6 is less fluid-like and is pro-inflammatory. However, this does not suggest that omega-3 is always the “good fat” and omega-6 is a “bad fat”. This is quite the contrary as both are good fats and essential to a person’s diet. Thus, EFAs have a highly complex synergism. If the essential balance between each EFA in the diet falls outside our ancestral dietary EFA profile, which is genetically imprinted in every cell of modern humans, then genetic expression (our regulatory on /off switches) that keeps us healthy become short circuited.

This has been the case with the typical modern diet since within the last 150 years. During this brief time in history, the greatest challenges to the nutritional stability of the human diet and the EFA ratio have taken place. The most significant has been the abrupt increase of refined omega-6 vegetable oils and partially hydrogenated oils (trans fats). The health fallout of this is a dangerous suppression of the required EFA metabolism that is the most genetic to human beings. This in turn has led to unprecedented rates of cardiovascular disease, hypertension, obesity, Type-2 diabetes and cancer, which is now epidemic and plaguing much of the modern world.

From a historical perspective, we now have a good understanding about our EFA dietary patterns over the last 40-100,000 years from our hunter-gather ancestors. From this we have learned that our genetic make-up and adaptation is identical to our ancestors of 40,000 years ago, and has established an optimal EFA ratio. Most scientists are now in agreement that our early ancestors prior to 10,000 years ago consumed a diet that supplied an EFA ratio of near 1:1 between omega-6 and omega-3. In other words, the diet was evenly balanced between the two EFAs. With the beginning of the agricultural era about 10,000 years ago, this ratio began to rise slowly to near 3-4:1. It would be reasonable that this slightly higher EFA ratio due to the introduction of whole grains would still be within a genetically adapted range. This is in stark contrast to the average modern diet which now has a genetically challenging omega-6 / 3 ratio in excess of 20:1! The source of this excess omega-6 is attributed to refined vegetables oils and trans fats (partially hydrogenated oils).

What is reaffirmed by a modern diet with an EFA ratio maintained in its natural essential balance is the simple understanding that what was then, is still the best now. To reduce the omega 6 / omega-3 ratio below 4:1, which would be a healthier goal for most individuals, a dietary Return To Balance would be required. Namely, this would be consuming much less omega-6 while increasing more omega-3. It is a fact that omega-3 from both plants and fish sources are grossly under-consumed in comparison to our ancestral diets leaving this most biologically active EFA in short supply. Therefore, taking omega-3 supplements such as flax oil and fish oil can increase and help maintain adequate levels and reduce the EFA ratio closer to our ancestral profile.

Organic whole flax seed, cold milled flax seed meal, bottled and encapsulated flax oils are one of the most popular health food / supplement items. Flax oil supplies a powerhouse of omega-3, which averages 50-55% of the oil. My most recommended products are certified organic, unrefined omegaflo® Flax Oils and Essential Balance® Oil Blend from Omega Nutrition. After almost 20 years, the omegaflo® flax oil manufacturing method continues to the set industry standard. Their product quality is superb, uncompromising and also the best tasting. They offer fresh pressed flax products in bottles with several natural flavors, in capsules, or as ground Cold Milled Flax Seed.

It is the “essential balance” between omega-6 and omega-3 that is the most important vs. the absolute amount of one over another, or the misconception that one source of omega-3 is better than another. Therefore, one should not have to decide whether to take fish oil or flax oil. The human diet is genetically adapted to omega-3 synergy - from land and sea.

To achieve a healthier Return To Balance, the diet should include a synergy of omega-3 foods both from land and sea. These include flax, walnuts, soy, legumes, etc., and fish. Some are claiming fish oil provides pre-formed EPA and DHA, thus is healthier and lowers disease risks more favorably than flax oil. This is grossly misleading. These advocates ignore the fact that plant derived alpha-linolenic acid has been the most abundant source of omega-3 in the human diet for the last 40,000 years. The fish vs. flax advocates seem to lack the basic and critical understanding for the need and urgency to begin rebalancing the EFA ratio towards the genetically adapted profile of less than 4:1. It’s more accurate to say that fish and flax share a unique collective commodity for total health maintenance and protection from disease. It is only with the realization of “omega-3 synergy” that a new dietary framework for a healthy Return To Balance can take place.

To help illustrate this, the diets of wild game have significantly more omega-3 than grain feed raised beef, pork, or chicken. This is reflected by the high percentage of alpha-linolenic acid in wild game tissues that they obtain from foraged wild plants. Eggs from chickens allowed to free range in the barnyard are healthier because they contain more omega-3 in the yolk. The adult human brain has an EFA ratio of 1:1, with DHA being regarded as the primary omega-3 “brain fat”. DHA is preferentially needed for fetal and infant brain and neurological development. Although flax oil and other dietary sources of ALA have minimal conversion to DHA by comparison to fish oil, infants from omega-3 adequate vegetarian mothers do not generally become DHA deficient because increased amounts are produced from ALA during fetal development due to the effects of estrogen. In omega-6 dominated vegetarian diets, it is possible to become deficient in DHA if the omega-6/3 ratio is so grossly omega-3 suppressed that almost no DHA becomes available. Therefore, it is simple and prudent for pregnant and lactating mothers to supplement with DHA from either fish oil or a vegetarian algae source, in addition to taking flax oil. In situations where immediate access to EPA and DHA is intended, such as specific medical therapy, fish oil may be preferred. Recently, arctic krill oil has become available and may prove to be superior to fish oil for its therapeutic applications, due to its superior bioavailability, greater anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. However, for long-term health maintenance in general, supplementing with flax is always sensible and highly recommended. The bottom line is that ALA is equally important to the diet as preformed EPA/DHA. The optimum omega-3 balance should ideally come from different sources rather than a single one.

When considering dietary genetics, a rich supply of plant ALA has been consumed as a primary omega-3 source since early humans began their migration across large land expanses and continents. Prior to this, living along lakes and seashores provided pre-formed DHA from fish. The modern examples of this ancestral dietary profile are the present day traditional diets of people living in Crete and Japan, which have the lowest disease risk indexes in the world. Both diets are vastly different, yet they share a common dietary link -- namely a high intake of ALA from plant omega-3. In Crete, this equates to a 75% less risk of heart disease compared to American and Canadian diets. The reason? They consume 7-10 times higher amounts of omega-3, the majority being ALA! This is reflected in their average dietary 6/3 EFA ratio of 3-4:1. This is our closest living example of a modern society consuming a near ancestral EFA ratio.

So intriguing has this been to scientists, the Crete diet was the subject of the landmark Lion Heart Study, which compared the effects of a Mediterranean ALA-rich diet with a diet similar to the prudent American Heart Association (AHA) guidelines in 605 patients who have already survived a first heart attack. After 27 months of follow-up there were 16 deaths in the AHA control diet and only 3 in the ALA-rich treated diet. There were 17 non-fatal heart attacks in the AHA group and five in the ALA-rich diet. Overall, there were 20 all-cause deaths in the control group and eight in the treated group. The health benefits of the ALA-rich diet became so compelling that the study was stopped early because it was deemed unethical to continue the investigation. This is a remarkable study showing that simple real world dietary changes that more closely resemble our ancestral and genetically adapted EFA profile achieved greater reductions in risk of all-cause and coronary heart disease deaths than clinical trials involving cholesterol lowering. Similar studies involving fish oils have not been shown to be as protective as a diet containing high amounts of ALA. One reason is that ALA itself is a potent anti-inflammatory fatty acid and most likely has additional health benefits not shared by EPA and DHA.

Can adding more flax oil to the diet help you Return to Balance? Absolutely! It’s one of the very best health maintenance options you can make. We all should set a dietary goal for achieving an EFA ratio of 4:1 or less like the Crete diet. This was recently shown in a scientific study that approximately 4 grams (4000 mg) of omega-3 added to the diet provided by ground flax seed for one year achieved an impressive lowering of the EFA ratio. This was the equivalent to only about 1 teaspoon of flaxseed oil per day. The initial result was an impressive 28% reduction in the omega-6 / omega-3 ratio (7.9 to 5.7). This ratio was reduced in a linear fashion throughout the study and eventually reached its lowest point of 4.12 at month twelve. If the study were carried out a few months longer, it’s likely a 50% reduction in the EFA ratio could be achieved. This study demonstrated that a small amount of flaxseed added to the diet could have a profound effect on lowering the EFA ratio. To achieve the Return To Balance goal, a simultaneous avoidance of refined vegetable oils and foods containing them, margarine, vegetable oil spreads, etc., is equally important. In exchange, limit LA sources to eating raw nuts and seeds and using small amounts of organic unrefined vegetable oils. Like the Crete diet, replace vegetable oils with a high quality extra virgin olive oil, and pour it on! Olive oil can be an important partner for maximizing omega-3 synergy from flax and fish. Why? It provides and effective buffer for omega-3 against oxidation and free radicals and increases the efficiency of its uptake into the cell membrane. For baking or frying, unrefined coconut oil offers a healthier choice because it contains no trans fats and is the most stable against heat and oxidation. Because it is a medium chain triglyceride (vs. short chain) the body uses coconut oil more efficiently for energy needs rather than being stored as fat.

I urge everyone to consider the health benefits gained from adopting the fatty acid wisdom from Crete, Northern Japan and other traditional diets around the world in which ALA has remained at it’s ancestral level and is the most abundant omega-3 staple in the diet. For people living in the US and Canada, flaxseed is the logical solution for supplementing our ALA needs. It is the most unrefined organic vegetarian source of omega-3 readily available. For the most complete omega-3 spectrum, combine flax with complimentary amounts of pre-formed EPA/DHA from marine sources. By adopting a healthier Return to Balance,™ you are much more likely to enjoy lasting good health. After all, omega-3 synergy is in our genes!

For daily omega-3 health maintenance, I recommend taking 1-2 tsp (or 2-4 capsules twice daily) of Omega Nutrition omega® Flax Oil or Essential Balance® at meals. You can also “mix and match” with a few tablespoons of ground Cold Milled Flax Seeds or simply grind your own flax. For optimal omega-3 synergy, take between 1-2 g of EPA/DHA daily from a stabilized molecularly distilled fish oil supplement or 500-1500 mg of krill oil to fulfill the need from land and sea. With omega-3 synergy, it’s much more likely you’ll benefit by the enjoyment of higher energy, clearer thinking, less overall health risks, and graceful disease free aging.

© 2006 The Good Doctor, Inc. www.omeganutrition.com