Chia seeds

(The following popular article originally appeared on an older version of this web site. Re-posting here for your convenience and reading pleasure…)

Since researching omega-3 and 6 for the past two years I have learned some amazing facts about them both. I have also seen with my own eyes what the effects of returning omega-3 to the diet in a larger quantity can do to ALL who take it. I feel it in my own body and see and hear about it from my customers all the benefits it has made in their lives.

This blog is one man’s point of view (mine), one man’s say in the matter and what matters to me and what I have discovered in this learning experience about essential fatty acids omega-3 & 6. I will not try to sell anything on this blog only inform and help put into simple terms the real difference between the two. I also intend to expose companies that are labelling their foods as omega-3 just to get the consumer to buy what they think is good for them when in fact what they’re really doing is misleading them and causing more harm than good. I will also look at the different sources for omega-3 companies are currently using to say they have it in their products.

Omega 3 and omega 6 explained

The essential fatty acids of omega-3 & 6 are two fats our body cannot make out of what we eat so we have to get it from the foods we eat. They are essential to our health and well-being. Now at this point in talking about omega-3 & 6 most people go off talking about it in a way only a hand full of people know what the hell they’re talking about. I will not because I want you to know why they are good for you not just know they are good for you.

It’s very simple when its explained in a way people can understand. Omega-6 makes our blood thick and sticky and our cell walls ridged and too much of it causes heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and many other diseases associated with Coronary Heart Disease along with a host of other things. Omega-3 makes our blood thin and slippery and our cells soft and pliable and too much of it would make our blood too thin and we would bleed a lot at the slightest scratch or even mosquito bite. Since that doesn’t happen its not a problem - our society has a great abundance.

Now these two essential fatty acids, Omega-3 & Omega-6 both compete for the same enzymes that do the same jobs in our body. So for the body to be healthy we need to have these two essential fatty acids in even amounts. Our current diet has about 10 parts omega-6 to 1 part omega-3 and in some cases a lot higher thus causing the many problems associated with too much omega-6. It’s like playing basketball, if one team has 5 people on it and the other has 20 who do you think is going to win? Same with the omegas 3 & 6, they are both playing basketball inside our bodies and the teams need to be even for our health to win.

That’s all there is to it? Yes, in a nutshell but if I explained it all you would be confused all over again and not know any more than you did when you started reading this article.

Products and their claims

Now I’d like to say a word about all the products on the market that say they have Omega-3 in them. They put it in bold letters on the front so everybody can see it and spend millions advertising them so everyone knows their product has Omega-3 in it making their product look healthier than the rest. Ready for the truth?

The products do have omega-3 in them that much is true. Some use fish oil to get that omega-3 in and some use other oils, the most used oil is canola oil. This will add omega-3 in the product but it also adds way too much omega-6.

Canola oil

Lets take a look at canola oil when it is the source of omega-3. Canola oil is rapeseed oil with some of the dangerous acids genetically removed. This was done in Canada and the name is derived from it, Canadian Oil Low Acid and it sounds a lot better than “rape”seed oil. I think they should go back to that word because in MY opinion that’s what they’re doing to the public when they add that oil in food. Here is what 100 grams of canola oil has as far as the different fatty acids are concerned.

Saturated Fat: 7.1g

4000mg is palmitic acid

1800mg is stearic acid

700mg is arachidic acid

400mg is behenic acid

200mg is lignoceric acid

Monounsaturated Fat: 58.9g

200mg is palmitoleic acid

56097mg is oleic acid also called omega-9

1700mg is gadoleic acid

600mg is erucic acid

Polyunsaturated Fat: 29.6g

20,302mg is linoleic acid also known as omega-6

9301mg is linolenic acid also known as omega-3

There is more than twice the amount of omega-6 to omega-3 in canola oil. We’re trying to get more omega-3 in us and less omega-6 right? Doubling our intake of omega-6 defeats the purpose of using canola oil as an omega-3 source and advertising that it has omega-3 in it just to cash in on the omega-3 need in our diet is flat out wrong! Mothers and fathers are now feeding their kids more omega-3 labelled food thinking they’re doing right by them when if fact they are not. The companies are not lying to the public they’re just not telling the whole truth. They don’t even put how much omega-6 is in the food. It’s listed as polyunsaturated fat. There are other sources to use but it all comes down to cost. They charge extra for saying omega-3 but when using canola oil there is no need. Canola is cheap enough and if you look at their other products you’ll see its in there already so why the extra cost? No need, just greed!

That is one source companies are using for omega-3 now for the next, fish oil.

Fish oil

Fish oil is a great source for omega-3 and the part of omega-3, DHA and EPA. These two omega-3s have very long names and it is why we use the abbreviated letters. Our own bodies make the DHA and EPA that are in fish oil when the omega-3 source is plant based. Some say not enough is made but there is a lack of studies to show it one way or the other. I do know that even when we use fish oil our bodies still make DHA and that supplementing it doesn’t stop the body’s production. Also vegetarians that don’t eat fish have enough DHA in their systems. And too much EPA can harm the natural protectors of our cells. I feel our bodies make what we need from what it’s given. There can only be so much of this omega-3 source added to foods before it takes on the fishy taste so high amounts of omega-3 is not achieved using this source. The oil also goes rancid very fast and needs antioxidants to stabilise them. They are starting to micro encapsulate fish oil to place in more food sources to avoid the fishy taste. What this means is fish oil is placed in very small gel caps and put in food products. So small you can’t see, feel or taste them. What is wrong with this? Well again this is only MY opinion and has been reached only by the facts of the studies I have done in the past two years. Here we go:

Fish is a very good source for getting omega-3 DHA and EPA in the diet and we should eat fish every day to achieve this. Squeezing a fish for the oil that’s in it is a lot different than squeezing a seed for the same oil. Fish populations have severely decreased because of the need for omega-3 in our diet. When someone says omega-3 we automatically think “fish oil”. Only certain types of fish are the best source of omega-3 and the increased demand for fish oil has seen it coming from just about any fish they can net large scale. (No pun intended.) There are concerns over the pollutants and heavy metals in fish. Some of the bottles of fish oil in the stores say, “Tested for mercury”, but they don’t say if they found any! Farmed fish need to be fed an omega-3 source themselves to obtain the levels of omega-3 we need from them. Not to mention the antibiotics fed to keep them healthy while confined in an unnatural environment. Placing fish oil in things like milk, bread, yoghurt and oven chips or French fries just doesn’t seem right. Now when the fish oil is encapsulated we can’t tell if it has enough antioxidants to keep the oil from going rancid. Even if it has enough in it once it’s in the body it can oxidise, because oxidation occurs when oxygen is present and we all hope we have enough of that in our bodies. What happens when it oxidizes in our body? The omega-3 is deteriorated and you are not getting what you thought you were. The most damaging thing I can see from us using fish oil as an omega-3 source is what happens when we run out of fish for fish oil? We know that will happen and studies have already shown that industrialised fisheries typically reduce fish populations by 80 percent in as little as 15 years.

Flax seeds

Flax seed is a good source for omega-3 but it is as unstable as fish oil and more so needing refrigeration. It can only be added in small amounts as well. History tells us flax was used as a fibre for cloth and its seed is toxic and should be detoxified chemically before human use. Because of the omega-3 in the seed it is being used more and has been modified to not be as toxic. It’s very unstable and needs the antioxidants to help keep it from going rancid like fish oil and can oxidise in our body the same as fish oil. It is not a good additive to enrich food with omega-3. If you’re putting flax seeds in your diet and using them whole you’re not getting anything but fibre from using it. Our body doesn’t break down many of the seeds we eat but they are a good broom to sweep out the nasties.

Alternatives?

There are other sources out there and in the beginning of this I said I wasn’t going to use this to sell my products but for another source that I feel is perfect in all ways look around at my site. It’s very easy to tell what source I’m talking about there…

Specific products

Now I’d like to show you some of the companies that are using the omega-3 need that is currently on the minds of so many people these days. What I mean by “using” I mean taking advantage of the consumer. Again this is MY opinion derived solely on factual research done by myself.

Soy milk

We’ll start with soy milk. I know soy products have been getting hit hard as of late but there are good reasons why and I won’t go into them here. If you want to know just Google “soy milk” and you’ll find it. The first soy milk I looked at was one I bought for my family when we ran out of the good whole bean organic kind we get from Aldi’s. It said that it was a “Good source of Omega-3″ on the front of the package. I looked at the nutritional panel as I normally do and seen it had 225mg of omega-3 and though “good amount now what’s the source” and looked at the list of ingredients. I saw it had no fish oil, so I liked that much, then I saw what could be the only source there and that was canola oil. So I looked back up at the nutritional panel and saw no omega-6 listed but polyunsaturated fat and knew it was the omega-6 and it said 4.3g and if I didn’t know better I would think that’s ok. But that was in grams and the omega-3 was in milligrams. The numbers were higher in the omega-3 listing so it must be good unless you’re really looking and paying attention to what’s in it. That equates to 4300mg of omega-6 and 225mg of omega-3 per 250ml serving. What did they do wrong? Nothing but use milligrams and grams to make it look good to the average consumer and hide the omega-6 under the listing polyunsaturated fat. Now look at the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3. Over 19 to 1. That’s not a good ratio to be feeding the family especially from a source that says its “A Good Source of Omega-3″. Who was this company, you ask? So Natural and the milk was Original. I looked at their other milk as well and it’s all the same thing just in different levels and not good ones either.

Bread

Now I work closely with a bakery in town here (Port Macquarie) that uses my product to add omega-3 to their bread and I did some bread checking as well and the same thing has happened in all the breads I checked. In fact I went to Tip-Top’s website to have a look to see if they had a nutritional panel there and was disappointed they didn’t. They did say that omega-3 is good for you and that the DHA and EPA are good for heart health and they also said canola oil was a good source of omega-3 as well. So this inclines me to think they use fish and canola oil as omega-3 sources and I checked their nutritional panel at the store and I was right. Well what about the omega-6 we’re trying to get less of? It’s still in there and in large amounts! Doing the families good? I don’t think so.

Now the bread at the local bakery has more omega-3 than omega-6 in his omega-3 bread the way it should be. And just for pointing out facts it has 1100mg omega-3 and 600mg omega-6 per 100g not to mention all the other good stuff that’s in there and is done so, naturally. I like his bread, stone ground organic flour makes my day!

Oven chips / fries

Another new thing to hit the freezer section is McCain’s omega-3 crispy oven chips, French fries or what ever you want to call them. I went to check on what was in them and there was only one bag left! I bet they’re very happy with the ad company that got them on every TV 3 and 4 times a night. Now, how many mothers and fathers out there are thinking they’re doing a good thing feeding the family omega-3 chips? I bet a lot are. I bought the bag and it cost more than the others did. Is this because it has Omega-3 on the label? The clerk at the checkout seemed to think so because I asked about the high price. Now putting fish oil in chips seems sort of OK you know “fish ‘n’ chips all in one” but that’s not what it said on the label. It has some fish oil in there and the omega-6 laden canola oil as the main omega-3 source. What’s that you say? How much? These figures were taken from the nutritional panel on the back of the bag of chips.

Total fat: 6.4g

Saturated fat: 0.6g or 600mg

Trans fat: 0.1g it says (less than) which is 100mg of this very bad fat

Polyunsaturated fat: 1.9g or 1900mg

Omega-3 358mg

Omega-3 EPA 6mg (fish oil omega-3)

Omega-3 DHA 27mg (fish oil omega-3)

Monounsaturated fat: 3.8g or 3800mg

Now to find out how much omega-6 is in the product you have to add up all the omega-3 polyunsaturated fat and subtract it from the total polyunsaturated fat, which comes to 1509mg of omega-6. That’s just fewer than 4 times more omega-6 than omega-3. Now that’s a lot closer to what it should be but it’s still not there. The trans fat in there I don’t like in any amount.

To be continued…..

Tags: canola, fish oil, flax seeds, omega 3, omega 6

This entry was posted on Monday, November 17th, 2008 at 5:50 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.