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The Vanishing Youth Nutrient
By Susan Allport, Prevention
Prevention

When Lisa Kepp (her name has been changed to protect privacy) was 2 years old, she was diagnosed with a neurological condition. She had not said a word in her short life—and it wasn't for want of trying. Lisa was so frustrated at not being able to form the words she clearly wanted to say that she flew into temper tantrums four or five times a day. The family was on pins and needles waiting for the next time the little girl would explode.

A pediatric neurologist diagnosed verbal apraxia, a speech disorder, and recommended that she receive intensive speech therapy. He suggested no other treatment. Lisa's mother had heard, though, about studies linking omega-3 fatty acids to intelligence and healthy brains, and she thought she'd give them a try. She purchased a bottle of Nordic Naturals' Children's DHA in liquid form and began putting half a teaspoon in her daughter's orange juice every morning. Within a week, the young girl was babbling and her tantrums stopped. Amazed, her mother spoke to the doctors, but none of them would engage her, as she puts it, in a conversation about omega-3s. So Lisa continued speech therapy—and her omega-3s—for a year and will be starting preschool this fall with her peers.

A happy anecdote, to be sure. Ask any scientist, though, and he will admit that without testing, we can't be certain that omega-3s fueled Lisa's recovery. But he can point to a growing body of scientific literature that touts the benefits of omega-3 supplementation. Studies show that these special fatty acids accumulate in the brain and can aid children with learning disabilities, reduce violence in prison populations, and even improve everyday mood.

We can only obtain these fats through our diet. They are essential to the development of healthy brains and other metabolically active tissues. Indeed, research from the world's top universities shows that these fats do much more than regulate our brains: They can also lower risk of heart disease, arthritis, and cancer. They even help fight wrinkles and may block fat-cell formation.

See how a diet rich in omega-3s might help you live longer.

How could omega-3s possibly be this powerful? Scientists believe it's because Americans are suffering from a widespread deficiency. A recent study conducted by Dariush Mozaffarian, M.D., of the Harvard School of Public Health, found that the absence of these fatty acids in our diet is responsible annually for up to 96,000 premature deaths in this country. Scientists, however, are learning that fixing this nutritional deficiency is a bit more complicated than simply telling people to eat more fish.

Our collective omega-3 deficiency ...

Every once in a while, a discovery comes along that changes everything about the way we see the world. In the early 16th century, Nicolaus Copernicus had such a moment when he discovered that Earth was not the center of the universe. Our new understanding of essential fats is that kind of discovery, and I was lucky enough, as a science writer, to make a small-yet-key contribution. While researching a book on omega-3s, I realized that the essential fats—the omega-3s and their close cousins, the omega-6s—change with the seasons. It might sound like a small idea, but it may soon fundamentally change the way you think about food.

First, let's start with omega-3s, what I'll call the spring fats. These are likely the most abundant fats in the world, but they don't originate in fish, as many believe. Rather, they are found in the green leaves of plants. Fish are full of omega-3s because they eat phytoplankton (the microscopic green plants of the ocean) and seaweed. In plants, these special fatty acids help turn sunlight into sugars, the basis of life on Earth. The spring fats speed up metabolism. They are fats that animals (humans included) use to get ready for times of activity, like the mating season. They're found in the highest concentrations in all the most active tissues: brains, eyes, hearts, the tails of sperm, the flight muscles of hummingbirds. Because fish have so many of these fats in their diets, they can be active in cold, dark waters. These fats protect our brains from neurological disorders and enable our hearts to beat billions of times without incident. But they are vanishing from our diet, and you'll soon understand why.

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... And our omega-6 surplus

Next up are the omega-6s, what I'll call the fall fats. They originate in plants as well, but in the seeds of plants rather than the leaves. The fall fats are simply storage fats for plants. Animals require both—omega-3s and omega-6s—in their diets and their tissues. But omega-6s are slower and stiffer than omega-3s. Plus, they promote blood clotting and inflammation, the underlying causes of many diseases, including heart disease and arthritis. Omega-3s, on the other hand, promote blood flow and very little inflammation, which may prevent things like heart disease. The proper mix of these two fats helps create tissue with the right amount of blood flow and inflammation. But because they're in constant competition to enter our cells, if your diet consists of too many omega-6s, your body will be deficient in omega-3s. And that is what's been happening to us as we've been eating more and more seed fats in the form of soybean, corn and other vegetable oils.

Since 1909, according to the USDA, Americans have more than doubled their daily intake of omega-6s—from about 7 grams to around 18. One hundred years ago, heart disease was much less common in this country. Over the past century, though, heart disease has risen in tandem with our increasing intake of these seed fats, or omega-6s, according to the American Heart Association (AHA). So have neurological disorders like Lisa's, as well as depression, arthritis, obesity, insulin resistance and many cancers. While other dietary factors such as increased consumption of calories, trans fats and sugar undoubtedly contributed, our essential fatty acid imbalance is a key player in most of these illnesses.

Over the same time period, omega-3s began disappearing from our food supply. Cows used to be raised on grass and other greens, producing meat, milk and cheese with much higher concentrations of omega-3s. These were the animal products that our grandparents and great-grandparents grew up on, before industrial feedlots replaced family farms. Now these livestock are fed corn and soy, and their tissues are swamped with omega-6s. Chickens, too, used to eat grass and grass-eating bugs. Those chickens produced eggs and meat that were high in omega-3s, but now they're full of omega-6-rich fall fats.

We are now eating a diet that is supposed to fatten us up for winter, when weather is harsh and calories are scarce. But today food is never scarce for the average American. The base of our food supply has shifted from leaves to seeds, and this simple change means our bodies are storing more fat, leading to obesity and all its associated diseases.

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How we got here

This is all too simple to be true, you might say. But arriving at this understanding was anything but simple. In the 1930s, the first family of essential fats was discovered and mapped by George and Mildred Burr at the University of Minnesota. These were the omega-6s. It was another 40 years before omega-3s were also found to be essential, by a researcher at Hormel named Ralph Holman. A great deal happened to our food supply in those decades. Due to farm subsidies, the acres of soybeans, for example, grown in the United States exploded from about 4 million to 70 million. Oil processors like Archer Daniels Midland mastered the process of extracting oil from these and other seeds, and vegetable seed oils—thought to be healthy—began to dominate our food supply as they were added to the foods that make up the center aisles of the grocery store.

At the same time, food chemists discovered that rancidity in packaged foods was caused by the oxidation of some minor but pesky fats: omega-3s. Scientists extended the shelf life of processed foods such as cookies, chips, cakes, breads and spreads by removing omega-3s—a nutrient that no one thought mattered. Health agencies, like the AHA, and the U.S. government also promoted omega-6s, because seed oils are low in saturated fat and free of cholesterol. So omega-6 oils, such as corn and soybean, they thought, were good for the heart.

Scientists have known since the early 1970s, however, that omega-6s also promote blood clotting and inflammation, two immediate and direct causes of heart disease. But because omega-6s were essential, doctors thought you had to take the good with the bad. By the time they learned that omega-3s protect our hearts and fight inflammation, omega-6s were already the foundation of our modern food supply.

Then, in the 1980s, epidemiological studies published in prestigious journals like the New England Journal of Medicine showed that fish-eating populations in Greenland and Japan are much less prone to heart disease. Omega-3s became associated with fish (rather than with green leaves), and that became the method recommended by such organizations as the AHA for us to obtain our omega-3s. The only problem is that eating more fish isn't a sustainable solution, as many of the world's fisheries are at the brink of collapse, according to a major study recently published in Science. Literally, there aren't enough fish in the world's oceans.

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Obesity's real cause?

It wasn't until Australian researchers showed a clear difference between membranes full of omega-3 fats and ones full of omega-6 fats—a clear metabolic difference—that I explored the seasonal aspects of these two fats. When Tony Hulbert, Ph.D., at Australia's University of Wollongong, determined that the metabolism of a species—every species on the planet—is a function of the amount of omega-3s in its tissues, I began to connect the dots.

It is probably no coincidence, I realized, as I researched my book The Queen of Fats, that leaves are the most metabolically active tissues in plants, and brains and eyes are the most metabolically active tissues in animals: They are both full of omega-3 fats. Omega-3s speed up the activity of cells.

It is no coincidence, I realized, that omega-6s are simply a storage fat for plants. Both omega-6s and omega-3s play many vital, essential roles in animals, as I cannot emphasize enough. But in plants, the only role of omega-6s is to serve as a storage fat. Omega-6s are also the main polyunsaturated fat in the storage fat of animals: white adipose tissue—the belly fat of every overweight American.

It is no coincidence that hibernating animals such as the yellow-bellied marmot of Colorado do not go into hibernation when their diet is full of omega-3s, as it is in the spring and summer. Their diet must change to one rich in omega-6 seeds before these animals will slow down for the winter.

It is no coincidence that animals that migrate long distances—like the semipalmated sandpiper, which flies from Nova Scotia to South America—fill up on omega-3s for their long journey. These birds know what human athletes are just starting to learn: High omega-3 concentrations in muscle membranes lead to improved performance.

So it is no coincidence that as America shifted its diet—from one based on green leaves to one based on seeds—we became fatter and fatter and sicker and sicker. Our hibernation diet is exposing us to epidemics of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and brain disorders. Even infants, according to the Child and Family Research Institute of the University of British Columbia, are getting fatter—long before they could ever be accused of overeating—when they are fed formulas high in omega-6s. Sure, America's seed-based foods are remarkably cheap, but we spend the lowest percentage of our income on food and more on health care than any other country in the world.

Since publishing The Queen of Fats, I've continued to comb the literature for studies that shed light on the role that the essential fats play in nature. I came across one not too long ago in the journal Lipids about the African kudu and impala, showing that these animals also experience a shift in the amounts of omega-3s and omega-6s in their diets over the course of the rainy and dry seasons—rather than our seasons based on day length. It made me realize that these shifts are universal signals, experienced and interpreted by animals all over the planet—at least until we humans came along and devised a way of eating a diet rich in seed fats all year long.

There's a solution to our imbalance, but change is difficult, and we must first accept that polyunsaturates—omega-3s and omega-6s—are not one big happy family; rather, they are two competing families—spring fats and fall fats—with very different effects on cells and health. Once we've accepted that, making the necessary dietary improvements is relatively easy.

Find more heart-healthy food choices for your family here.

3 easy ways to increase omega-3s

The competition of omega-3s and omega-6s is happening all the time, not just when we take our fish oil capsules. The best way to ensure you have a healthy balance of essential fats is to have a source of omega-3s—and not too many omega-6s—at every meal.

Eat More Greens: Leafy greens, legumes and potatoes have a better balance of omega-3s to omega-6s than most seeds and grains. Omega-3s live in leaves as the omega-3 ALA (alpha-linolenic acid). Animals (like us) convert ALA into even more dynamic omega-3s: EPA and DHA. This conversion is somewhat inefficient, however, and that's why the next steps are so important.

Eat Healthier Meats: Cows raised on grass produce meat, milk and cheese with many more omega-3s than their corn- and soy-fed counterparts. Chickens fed a diet rich in flax and greens produce eggs that are as high in EPA and DHA as many species of fish. Some would argue that grass-fed meats are more expensive than grain-fed, but the former come without the very steep medical price tag of a diet high in omega-6s.

Eat Fish: Fish can also be a sustainable part of our new diet, as moderate fish consumption will be more effective when our diet has fewer omega-6s. Try to eat at least two meals of fish per week. Fish oil supplements can also help, as toddler Lisa's mother found, though they're not a long-term solution to this widespread nutritional deficiency.

10 easy ways to reduce omega-6s
Very simply, we must decrease our consumption of omega-6 oils. Snacking on seeds, edamame, and whole foods is still healthy. But cut back on processed foods, which are high in omega-6-laden seed oils. At home, cook with oils and fats with a healthy balance of omega-6s to omega-3s. A few oil seeds—canola and flax, for instance—have a very favorable ratio of the two families of essential fats, and they can be used by themselves (canola) or in combination with other oils (flax) to change the balance of omega-3s to omega-6s. Mix flax and canola with any of the other seed oils (corn, safflower, etc.) to produce a healthy blend. If you're curious about olive oil, it's still fine to use, as it's not high in omega-3 or omega-6s; it's fairly neutral. Other steps:

1. Replace processed cereal with cereal or oatmeal that contains flaxseed.
2. Make your own salad dressing with a mix of canola and olive oil.
3. Eat less fast food because it's all very high in omega-6 seed oils.
4. Look for potato chips that are fried in canola oil rather than cottonseed, soy, safflower, or sunflower oil.
5. Substitute walnuts for other nuts when you can because they're a seed that's high in omega-3s.
6. Make your own baked goods, replacing half the butter with canola oil.
7. Check food labels to avoid hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils.
8. Avoid omega supplements that contain both omega-3s and omega-6s. You'll see these labeled with terms like "Complete Omega."
9. Choose grass-fed pork, chicken, beef or bison whenever you can.
10. Avoid farmed fish because they are often fed corn and soy.

Provided by Prevention

URL: http://health.msn.com/nutrition/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100245164&gt1