Essential Food for Thought

When I came up with my list of 10 books for my Red Pill Bookshelf, my primary focus was to provide links to free, online copies of all the books on the list. While many readers made excellent suggestions to add to the list of "red pill" reading, more than a few of them don't exist as free downloads.

Yesterday, I came across another free online book that is extremely important to understanding red pill truths while googling through the vast expanses of teh Interwebz: The Queen of Fats: Why Omega-3's Were Removed From the Western Diet, and How What We Can Do to Replace Them.

I've mentioned this book a few times before, but I never had the chance to read it until yesterday (i.e. I waited until I could find it online for free.) Up until this point, I could only reference reviews, small excerpts and an interview with the author herself (pdf). That interview was one of the watershed moments I experienced while researching the topic of diet and health.

We finally began to understand that the omega-3s are predominantly concentrated in the green leaves of plants and the omega-6s are concentrated in the seeds of plants, and that basically what we’re talking about here is two families of fats that allow us animals to prepare for the changing seasons, to either speed up, get ready for times of activity and reproduction when green leaves are available and abundant — or to slow down, hunker down, get ready for times of survival — when the fats of seeds are more prevalent.

It’s really a cool system. Plants use the changing light as the Earth makes its orbit around the sun — they adapt to the changing light, and then we adapt to the change in plant food. It really is an amazing thing, but it’s not generally understood.

That made intuitive sense to me when I first read that...especially when you consider that most oils found in the Western food supply is made from grains aka seeds. So is most of the feed fed to all the factory farmed animals that make up a part of the Industrialized feed industry. We have an abundance of Omega-6 rich food and a dearth of Omega-3 food that is a part of the Western diet. The results speak for themselves. When you look out at the landscape of obesity and ill health that plagues the denizens of our Brave New World Order, what you are actually seeing is human animals eating diets for a perpetual winter!

These two families of fats compete for enzymes, for positions in our cell membranes, which don’t care whether they get loaded up with omega-6s or omega-3s. They don’t care for a reason — because they’re built that way so that they can change with the changing seasons and the changing food supply. They’re meant to go through these seasonal changes, slight seasonal changes. The reason we’ve run into problems is because we eat this high omega 6 diet year round.

In the book, Allport dedicates an entire chapter on what we can do to personally address our own Omega 6 to Omega 3 fatty acid imbalance that is the root cause of so many illnesses and disease. I don't agree with all of her recommendations - she advocates the consumption of soybean oil and canola oil - but she does offer a simple enough perspective for people to follow to realize the benefits of having a balanced essential fatty acids ratio in your overall diet. The important thing one needs to consider is that Omega 6's and Omega 3's compete for the SAME enzymes in every cell in your body. To experience the health benefits of Omega 3 fatty acids, you cannot simply consume more Omega 3 fatty acids...you also have to reduce your consumption of Omega 6 fatty acids in your diet:

"...a simple piece of nutritional advice on which all the omega-3 researchers agree.“You have to reduce your omega-6s if you want to get any benefit from omega-3s,” warns Alexander Leaf. Bill Lands echoes his sentiments: “Eat more omega-3s and less omega-6s. That’s a direction you can go in with certainty.” - p.123

In other words, you cannot simply keep eating all the normal S.A.D. foods rich in Omega 6, and eat some fish or pastured eggs and think that will be enough. You have to also stop eating all the foods rich in Omega 6 fatty acids - namely processed foods and foods cooked in "vegetable" oil.

Not only does The Queen of Fats point out the role the Omega fatty acids play in our bodies, she also goes into the history of essential fatty acid research and the researchers who discovered and named these substances that are the primary determinant on human health and well being.

Her primary conclusion as to why Omega 3 fatty acids have been removed from the Western diet is because they go rancid quickly, while Omega 6 fatty acids are much more stable and have a longer shelf life (but wreaks havoc on human health). But she mostly offers the conjecture that the food manufacturers simply where looking for ways to make food products last longer before going rancid, and that they did not know how bad of an effect it would have on human health.

Again, I would disagree. The Big Agricultural Corporations responsible for the production of all the Omega 6 rich feed are the same folks who also make all the Pharmaceutical medications designed to treat the symptoms of the illness and disease that result from the long term imbalance. I'm not the only one to think this, either. Consider one scientist she interviewed in the book:

"The scientists who work with omega-3s have different ideas as to why it is taking government and health organizations so long to digest this new information about fats. For Simopoulos, “It’s a question of economics. The edible oils industry is a very powerful lobby and soybeans and corn are some of our major commodities.” 

Yes, and the Pharmaceutical corporations who produce the drugs to deal with all of the health problems from the are all connected to the Agricultural corporations that produce the Omega 6 rich feed. THEY profit, while we the sheeple suffer and die.

When I asked Alexander Leaf if his finding that DHA could prevent fatal arrhythmia, the tendency of heart cells to develop abnormal rhythms, was readily accepted, he replied, “Oh, hell no! I had a terrible time getting those papers even published though no one had any criticisms about their methodology. The cardiologists and pharmaceutical industry don’t like to hear this. They have a multi-billion dollar business going on and they don’t want someone coming along and saying, ‘All you have to do is change what you put on your plate a little bit and you can avoid all these problems.’” - p.123-124

Note that the American Heart Association recommends a diet rich in Omega 6 fatty acids. Most cardiologists support the recommendations for folks to avoid cholesterol and to eat the low or cholesterol free vegetable oils.

Gotta make sure Cardiologists have a never-ending supply of patients.

“We’ve changed our foods and we know how to change them back,” says Norman Salem. Let’s all hope so. Otherwise we will remain tethered to pharmaceutical and medical industries that can only fix this dietary problem badly — and at huge costs to society and the individual." - p.145

I would revise that statement to more accurately reflect our current reality:

“THEY have changed our foods and THEY know how to change them back,” But THEY don't want to, so that we the sheeple will remain tethered to pharmaceutical and medical industries that profit mightily from "treating" our sickness and disease."

Think I exaggerate?

Consider this advisory released by the AHA, which urges people to eat more Omega 6 rich foods in their diets:

In summary, the AHA supports an omega-6 PUFA intake of at least 5% to 10% of energy in the context of other AHA lifestyle and dietary recommendations. To reduce omega-6 PUFA intakes from their current levels would be more likely to increase than to decrease risk for CHD.

Now why would they be motivated to recommend that? Have a look at the disclosure tables at the end of the advisory, and you'll see what I mean. One Doctor had a significant research grant from Monsanto, and is also a paid consultant and/or a member of the advisory board of both Monsanto and processing food giant, Unilever. Several others received research grants and/or are members of the advisory boards or consultants of various Pharmaceutical giants like GSK, Merck, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Abbot Labs and Merck/Schering Plough. Think all this funding and relationships with Big Ag and Big Pharma entities might have something to do with the issuance of this advisory?

Nahhhhhh.....couldn't be.

Of course these folks don't want the Sheeple to switch their diets and stop consuming all that Omega 6 oils....it would cut into the profitability of these various companies medication portfolios. As Allport concludes in The Queen of Fats:

"Once you switch to a high omega-3, low omega-6 diet, you can expect to see significant changes in your blood almost immediately, paralleled by a rapid improvement in heart function and mood, as experienced by Dale Jarvis and others who have supplemented their diets with large amounts of omega-3s. Other benefits, such as a speedier metabolic rate, will take much longer(two to three years, depending on how much adipose tissue you carry) but are worth waiting for.
 

The one thing readers shouldn’t expect is any surprises. If you are eating a typical fast-food diet, your cells will be full of omega-6s. If you are avoiding processed foods and partially hydrogenated fats and are eating a lot of greens and fish, your cells will have a good balance of omega-3s and omega-6s. In the matter of fats, we truly are what we eat and what we eat truly matters." - p.151

Yes, it most certainly truly matters, in a lot more ways then one would initially think with regards to just physical health.
 

 
I've become a regular reader/lurker over at Athol Kay's MMSL forums. Athol and his crew of forum members are doing some mighty fine work in helping out marriages in severe trouble. The people they've helped and the stories they tell have been fascinating to say the least. Athol deserves all the success he's experienced as an author, and now as a  life/relationship coach. I hope he becomes a millionaire doing this sort of work.


Have a look through the 911 Relationship ER posts and you'll find post after post from Husbands and Wives all struggling with diet related issues that compound and exacerbate all of the relationship problems they are trying to find help for from Athol and company.

I find it over and over and over again in all the various stories of troubled marriages and families I've read up on over there...the common thread of poor health and nutrition and all of the marital problems it can contribute to. Depression. Anxiety. Post-Partum Depression. BPD. OCD. Low Testosterone. Erectile Dysfunction. Obesity. Wild and uncontrollable children. Short tempers and episodes of uncontrolled rage (which many forum members refer to as "BSC" or Bat Shit Crazy).

While I have read and reviewed the Married Man Sex Life Primer, I haven't read Athol's newest book, The Mindful Attraction Plan...but I'm fairly positive he addresses the importance of diet in the new book as he did in the old book. And many of these problems could be addressed by changing the dietary intake of Omega 6 and Omega 3 fatty acids.

Consider the following:

Dietary Omega-6 Increases Risk of Depression

Study quote: "The current study provides strong evidence that diets rich in omega-6 fatty acids may enhance the risk of depression among general population".

Comment: Experimental studies show that eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), the omega-3 fat associated with mood improvement, is reduced in the cells, as a consequence of eating a diet high in omega-6 fat.

Low omega-3 index in pregnancy is a possible biological risk factor for postpartum depression.

"In this study population, a low omega-3 index in late pregnancy was associated with higher depression score three months postpartum."

Increased risk of postpartum depressive symptoms is associated with slower normalization after pregnancy of the functional docosahexaenoic acid status.

"From this observation it seems that the availability of DHA in the postpartum period is less in women developing depressive symptoms. Although further studies are needed for confirmation, increasing the dietary DHA intake during pregnancy and postpartum, seems prudent."

Lipids, depression and suicide

"POLYUNSATURATED FATTY ACID AND DEPRESSION: In major depression, all studies revealed a significant decrease of the polyunsaturated omega 3 fatty acids and/or an increase of the omega 6/omega 3 ratio in plasma and/or in the membranes of the red cells. In addition, two studies found a higher severity of depression when the level of polyunsaturated omega 3 fatty acids or the ratio omega 3/omega 6 was low."

Adolescent Behavior and Dopamine Availability Are Uniquely Sensitive to Dietary Omega-3 Fatty Acid Deficiency.

Understanding the nature of environmental factors that contribute to behavioral health is critical for successful prevention strategies in individuals at risk for psychiatric disorders. These factors are typically experiential in nature, such as stress and urbanicity, but nutrition-in particular dietary deficiency of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFAs)-has increasingly been implicated in the symptomatic onset of schizophrenia and mood disorders, which typically occurs during adolescence to early adulthood. Thus, adolescence might be the critical age range for the negative impact of diet as an environmental insult.

Essential fatty acids and psychiatric disorders.

"The literature shows that ω-3 fatty acids provide numerous health benefits and that changes in their concentration in organisms are connected to a variety of psychiatric symptoms and disorders, including stress, anxiety, cognitive impairment, mood disorders, and schizophrenia."

 There's a lot more where that came from, but I think that should suffice for now. To reiterate Allport's conclusion: "In the matter of fats, we truly are what we eat and what we eat truly matters."