Omega 3 fatty acids from fish

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E-Pao! Essay - Omega-3 fatty acids from fish for your Healthy Heart and Body

Omega-3 fatty acids from fish for your Healthy Heart and Body
(A review by Ingochouba Lukram specially for the People of Manipur)

By Ingochouba Lukram *

Why are they the "good" fats?

Well, they are not necessarily good, in fact. There are several types of fatty acids and you need to understand them, at least in outline, otherwise enthusiastic supplementation will make your health worse.

Here is a simple tutorial that will clear away the confusion. It does away with the tendency to explain it all in excruciating detail, so that it becomes too much for the layman. Start by dividing essential fatty acids (EFAs) in your mind into 3 groups:

the omega-3 fatty acids
the omega-6 fatty acids
"the rest"

Then it gets easy because we can:

1. Drop "the rest" (omega-9s and stuff - you can make special enquiries if you are interested).
2. State that everyone is getting far too much of the omega-6 fatty acids and you should not supplement them at all, unless you are already on a really tip top diet. 3. Talk about urgent supplementation of omega-3s, which is one of the biggest and most disastrous nutritional shortages in our civilized world.

You see, essential fatty acids are just what they are named: "essential." (Don't worry about why they are fats or why they are called acids.) In a sense these fatty acids are like vitamins; your body cannot make them but needs them for optimal health.

Lack of essential fatty acids, we now know, can lead to premature ageing, cancer, arthritis and a host of other ills. Fatty acids are essential for maintaining healthy cell membranes and that means they have impact on all aspects of out health. But probably the most important organ is the brain, which is approximately 40% fats and needs to be maintained properly.

A proper balance of fatty acids means the right proportion of the group called omega-3s to the omega-6s. Suffice it to say that omega-6s are very common and are present in excessive quantities in most manufactured foods. They come from a variety of sources but certainly grain seeds, which are used as wheat and corn flour in literally hundreds of thousands of propriety food products.

The typical American diet feeds the individual an omega-6 to omega-3 ratio of anything up to 50:1. It should be 1:1. Corn oil, which gushes with omega-6 fatty acids, is one of the most widely distributed food ingredients there is and its effect is dire.

Why? You ask, when omega-6 I've already said is "essential." Because of the matter of balance. If you get too much omega-6 then this squeezes the omega-3s, which then go into a relative deficiency state.

The consequences of low levels of omega-3 fatty acids are very bad. They include at least the following: hardening of the arteries, hypertension, increased blood clotting (risk of heart attacks), diabetes, cancer, obesity, arthritis and other degenerative diseases, premenstrual tension, infertility and more.

Doesn't this begin to sound like this is a list of civilized society's diseases? Well it is! All because we eat junk, loaded with omega-6 fatty acids and very low amounts of the vitally necessary omega-3s. Now why you have to dump the omega-6 supplements right away. Omega-6 supplementation will make your health much worse until you have corrected the chronic deficiency of omega-3s!

How to avoid unnecessary omega-6s?

You are advised to avoid sunflower, corn, soy, safflower, canola, or products that contain these oils. That means no hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated fats, no margarine, no vegetable oil, no shortening. These oils are chock full of omega-6 fats and will only worsen your omega 6 to omega 3 ratio.

It's blunt but easy to understand. The trouble is there is many ignoramuses out there telling you different and telling you need omega-6s. Often these are the people who are selling omega-6 products of course, like oil of evening primrose, borage, star flower and the like.

How to know the imbalance of omega-6 to omega-3 in your body?

If you've tried these oils and found your hair and nails became brittle and poor, this imbalance of omega-6 to omega-3 is the reason; you made things worse. There are many misguided products on the market, which attempt to address the problem comprehensively by combining omega-3s with omega-6s in the same package.

This still won't work, because it does not address the all-important ratio of omega-6 to omega-3. These are OK for people who have been on the health kick for years, have corrected their EFA imbalances and now require to supplement both in the correct ratio (about 2:1 is right, twice as much omega-6 as omega-3).

This is compulsory for you?

Everyone else needs to take omega-3 entirely alone. (I'm not saying you don't need any omega-6s but that you can get enough to be going on with from a good nutritious diet, with healthy fresh food - I'm talking here about supplementing.)

You need to aim at an intake ratio of about 1:1 for the first six months. The only way you are going to achieve that is by taking lots of solely omega-3 supplements.

A diet rich in antioxidants and high in omega 3 essential fatty acids is generally anti-inflammatory and there are a lot of good theoretical reasons for this. The twin nutritional approaches of enhancing intakes of antioxidants and omega 3 essential fatty acids could be particularly helpful

Where do you get omega-3s?

Well, that's part of the problem, because they are not widespread in nature. The best source was fish oils. You will read lost of good stories about the benefits of fish and seafood, such as the Eskimo diet. I am utterly convinced by the scientific soundness of the findings that such a traditional diet is enormously beneficial.

But keep in your mind that the fermented fish "Ngari" use by people of Manipur may be a good source of these omega-3 fatty acids. The trouble today is that fish is very polluted, with mercury, PCBs and other pesticides.

It's no longer a natural foodstuff. I'm not saying don't eat fish - eat lots, it's good for you. But when it starts being processed, which concentrates pollutants, and then it can become dangerous. Some health food manufacturers have had to be warned that their EFA EFA products contain illegal levels of DDT, DDE and so forth.

If you choose to take fish oil capsules make sure they are guaranteed free of pollutants. Make sure they have balanced EPA and DHA (the technical names for the constituents of omega-3). Take one capsule per 10 kilogram's of body weight a day. That could mean 8-12 capsules for some people, which may be expensive.

Omega-3 in plants

That leaves us with vegetable sources. All plants contain omega-6 and omega-3 fats. But some are noted for high levels of one or the other. The best source of omega-3s in the plant kingdom is the seed of the flax plant (flax seed, also known as linseed). Take pure flax seed cold-pressed extract in the same quantities you would a fish oil. Other sources of omega-3s are: extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, avocados, and organic butter, or better yet grass-fed organic butter.\

But, surprise! The best possible source of omega-3 is beef! (Information from a study at Iowa State University in August 2001). Not the fatty stuff from your ordinary supermarket meat counter, for sure. But grass-fed free-ranger beef is found to have an omega-6 to omega-3 ratio of 1:1. Or to turn that around, free-range beef has 10 times more omega-3 than it has omega-6, which is ideal for correcting years of chronic deficiency.

So get grinding that chuck steak and eat plenty of homemade burgers! Beware though: food suppliers always try to trick you. Of course all beef is grass fed - for part of its life. But the ordinary commercial beef animals are switched to grains for fattening up in the final months. Eating this degraded beef will worsen your omega6:omega3 ratio.

The only way you can be sure you are getting truly grass-fed free-range meat is to have a guaranteed supply and that means either an organic healthy food supplier you trust, or phoning the farmer direct and asking the questions. Vegetarians and even more so vegetarians, of course, must work extra hard to correct their omega-6 to omega-3 ratio.

The advantages for peoples in Manipur dose who are taking fish

The main food of Manipuri peoples is fish and rice. The advantage is that the most of fish available here is coming from well culture system, I mean from farms of southern states of Manipur. As well as the chance of pollution is also very low in the Manipur because of our state is not an industrial state. On the other hand the tribal brothers in Manipur take beef as a main food more than the fish.

You might have learnt from the above information that both fish and beef are good because of their high contains of Omega-3 fatty acids. So I am very happy because of our traditional foods that we are taking fish as a main food or supplementary one. For example the different fish like Ngamu (Channa punctatus), Ngakra (Clarias species), Ngachik (Heteropneustes fossilis), Ukrabi (Anabas testudineus), Porong (Channa striatus) and so on etc and the carps like catla, rohu, mrigala, silver carps, common carps etc.

Although long-chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (Ln-3 PUFA), which are abundant in fish, have shown protective effects on colorectal cancer in laboratory studies, epidemiological studies to date have not been consistent. Not only this the another most important valuable fish product the fermented fish called the "Ngari", which is also one of the main important daily food rich in protein and enzymes use by "Meetei's" (the people living in the plain valleys of Manipur ) also contain some amounts of this omega-3 fatty acids. So my last suggestion is that more you eat the fish the more health heart and sharp brain.

Cod Liver Oil another readymade source

Cod liver oil is a rich source of several nutrients in which most people are deficient. These nutrients include EPA (EicosaPentaenoic Acid), DHA (Docosahexaenoic acid), and natural vitamins A and D. Deficiencies are a major contributing factor in the development of nearly all of the illnesses that plague human beings eating refined foods.

Often when a person starts taking cod liver oil, the body basically says, "Where have you been all my life." Things may start to change quickly. Medicinal Values and research in Omega-3 around the world and its findings:

The omega-3 fatty acids (EPA and DHA) influence prostaglandin's that regulate every system, every cell, in the body. Natural vitamins A and D, found only in animal sources, have their own profound effects. Everything may be affected, from the immune system to the brain, from skin problems to depression or PMS. A diet rich in antioxidants and high in omega 3 essential fatty acids is generally anti-inflammatory and there are a lot of good theoretical reasons for this.

Three studies reported in 2003 indicate that this strategy is also helpful for people suffering from allergies. It was found that a high intake of food rich in omega 3 fatty acids and vitamin C reduced the risk of hay fever. If you like to increase your intake of omega 3 fatty acids then you can increase by eating oily fish and/or taking a fish oil supplement.

Years ago, many extensive studies involving cod liver oil demonstrated clearly that amounts far greater than those discussed in this paper were not only perfectly safe, including in pregnancy, but were indeed highly beneficial for optimal health and as an aid in recovering from chronic disease. Cod liver oil may indeed be as close to an elixir as we'll ever find.

But there is not so much necessary for people who are taking fish as a main food, because cod liver oil available in market is costly and you know fish will solve the problem by giving a taste in your mouth with full stomach.

Ingochouba (Chou) Lukram, a research scholar at Aquaculture Lab, Department of Zoology, University of Delhi, writes regularly to e-pao.net
He can be contacted at [email protected]
This article was webcasted on May 04, 2005.

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