According to at least one popular diet web site, millions of dieters around the world may be using the wrong oil on their salads, or taking the wrong omega-3 dietary supplement pill.
For years, millions of people have been pouring flax seed oil over their salads, adding it to recipes and menus, and taking big capsules of it on a daily basis. The idea was to get something called EPA, DHA, and GLA from the essential omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids it contains. The problem is that to get GLA, EPA and DHA from flax oil, you need a special digestive enzyme. And, guess what? The news from Level1Diet.com is that only young, healthy people make enough of the enzyme to do the conversion from flax oil into these special nutrients that people are looking for.
What are all these initials and why do people want them? EPA, DHA and GLA are called "essential fatty acids" because your body can't make them by itself. You must eat foods (or take supplements) from outside sources containing either Lenoleic Acid (LA) or Alpha Lenolenic Acid (LNA). Flax seed oil contains both of these.
And, if you can properly digest these essential fats, then you get two wonderful health boosters for your body called EG1 and EG3 (prostaglandin series-1 and series-3). These are terrific aids in fighting inflammation. And, when you reduce inflammation, you help your body prevent major diseases like heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes and many more.
What if you can't digest the flax seed oil? Well, you will end up making too much of something called EG2 (prostaglandin series-2). As you might guess, this actually INCREASES your levels of inflammation, and therefore increases your risk for all the major diseases associated with inflammation -- and that's a big list of diseases, as scientists are reporting these days. The Level1Diet.com site lists dozens of these associated diseases, adding up to possibly 73% of all the deaths each year in the U.S.
So, for years people have been buying flax oil to get these vital nutrients. And all this time they may have actually been making matters worse. Or, at least many people have not been improving their health, despite their efforts.
Here is the break down -- The issue is that the Linoleic Acid flax seed oil contains has to be converted into Gamma Linolenic Acid using Delta-6 Desaturase D6D enzyme. And D6D is made inoperative by high levels of insulin (duh), alcohol, pollutants, and high levels of Omega-6 Fatty acids from vegetable oils and fried foods, trans-fatty acids, etc. Also, D6D becomes less available anyway as we age, and there is evidently a genetic mutation that makes people into diabetics (by family groups of course) that is basically simply a mutation that makes people not as capable of making D6D as "normal" people. It is felt that this mutation is probably the true cause of the familial component in the genesis of type-2 diabetes, and naturally likely of most inflammatory disease and metabolic syndrome.
A simple digestive enzyme deficiency, which is possibly inherited among up to 40-50% of people or sometimes even more in some regions (apparently about 90% of the Pima Indians in Arizona, for example). Estimates vary, but the inability to use D6D is very common. So, a simple digestive enzyme can be a major cause involved in many of our worst diseases. Who'd have thought it?
OMEGA-3 Alpha-Linolenic Acid LNA (part of flax oil) + D6D -> ... -> Eicosapentaenoic Acid EPA -> Series-3 Prostaglandins [inflammation fighters]
OMEGA-6 Linoleic Acid LA (in many vegetable oils, incl. flax oil) + D6D -> ... -> Gamma Lenolenic Acid GLA -> ... -> Dihomogamma Linolenic Acid DGLA -> Series-1 Prostaglandins [inflammation fighters]
NOTE that D6D is required to generate both of these this way, from vegetable oils, and it is often not available for diabetes and many pre-diabetics or metabolic syndrome, insulin resistant folks.
Incidentally, if you eat the wrong stuff and D6D stops working, then you get Arachidonic Acid (AA), which leads to making Series-2 Prostaglandins... those are the bad guys involved in most inflammatory disease states.
Everybody affected by most of the major types of disease in the U.S. usually wants to boost Series-1 and 3 Prostaglandins, and lessen Series-2. We're manipulating our diet to get that to happen. That's most of our strategy. There's more, i.e. burning more with exercise, eating less etc.
SOLUTION?
The idea is to make an end run around the missing or not-working D6D issue. Fish oils give you EPA and DHA with needing to be converted by D6D. Borage oil gives you GLA with using D6D. So the answer is simply to add them into your diet.
Thomas Bond is the founder of the Level1Diet.com anti-inflammation health program. He is the creator of the unique Food Guide Football(tm), a replacement for the Food Guide Pyramid. The Food Guide Football features fats at one small end of the football, sugars at the other end, vegetable proteins like beans, peas and nuts in one vertical stripe around one end, and animal proteins like fish, chicken, turkey and lean beef, as the other stripe around the other end, with the large middle of the football representing fruits and vegetables. The Food Guide Football represents a low fat, low simple carbohydrate, moderate protein and high complex carbohydrate diet formula. Specific foods and supplements are recommended to achieve and maintain a low inflammatory state of health.
If all of that complex chemistry stuff is confusing, just take Level1Diet.com's word for it. A capsule or two of flax seed oil probably won't hurt you, and it may help you. However fish oil and borage oil should ABSOLUTELY HELP YOU. Take them instead.
For more information, contact:
www.Level1Diet.com
Thomas Bond
561-627-6221
ceo@level1diet.com