Chapter 18 Chapter 16 Fatty Acids of Fish

As long as you take three capsules a day, you can lower your cholesterol and protect your heart!Words like this always appear in advertisements for salmon oil capsules.The words rich in Omega︱three fatty acids must be placed in a prominent position on the packaging in large fonts. Sometimes, on the background screen, there is a happy-looking Eskimo who is strong enough to fight a polar bear, but has nothing to do with myocardial infarction irrelevant.The ad was quite successful.However, these marketing and advertising managers have a trick on us: their fish oil is not cholesterol-lowering at all!Conversely, at recommended doses, fish oil raises the bad LDL cholesterol that people focus on when it comes to cholesterol.

How is this possible?You may not believe it, but it is true, based on the analysis of clinical trials conducted specifically on these agents.Among them, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol increased by 5% to 10%, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol increased by 1% to 3%.At the same time, very low-density lipoprotein cholesterol was clearly lowered, as total cholesterol was barely elevated, but triglycerides were reduced by an average of 25% to 30%.As a result, triglyceride and HDL cholesterol ratios (which we've talked about many times in this book) improve dramatically, but not insignificantly.

This is how the same thing?Are we more clichéd than the nutrition authorities?It's not new that fish oil manufacturers aren't interested in advertising if they're telling the truth!The product sells well.We should be able to understand this.Cholesterol fears are so ingrained today that if I told you the truth, no one would buy their greasy pills.Imagine if the ad said: Please use our salmon oil capsules!While it will raise your bad LDL cholesterol, you will still be healthier!Then don't even think about selling these medicines.Sadly, this would literally kill more people from myocardial infarction.Yes, you understand exactly right, these pills do reduce the incidence of myocardial infarction, at least in high risk groups, namely coronary thrombotic heart disease patients, and people who have already had myocardial infarction.There is no doubt about this, because there are currently seven clinical studies that have clearly confirmed this point.

Omega︱Tri fatty acid prevents myocardial infarction At present, seven randomized monitoring clinical studies have pointed out the preventive effect of Omega︱3 fatty acids on coronary thrombosis heart disease, and this kind of clinical research is often the most convincing.In two experiments, further dietary modifications were included due to the higher proportion of fruit and vegetable intake.All experiments attempted to get subjects to consume a certain amount of linoleic acid from food, in one experiment by eating canola oil, in another by eating nuts, and in four experiments, by eating fatty acids. High in fish, EPA-Eicosahexaenoic Acid and DHA-Docosahexaenoic Acid capsules.There is another item, one part uses mustard oil and the other part uses other fish oils.Klemens of the University Hospital of Munich.Feng.In a study, Clemens von Schacky and his staff examined the extent of coronary arteriosclerosis in subjects under the influence of this fatty acid.Two years later, compared with the group taking fish oil, the narrowing of blood vessels that easily caused arteriosclerosis was significantly reduced, and the formation speed of blood vessel wall deposition was significantly slowed down compared with the group taking fish oil.All other studies also showed a reduction in death from coronary thromboembolic heart disease, although in some small trials the differences were less significant.

Based on the above experiments, the mortality rate of coronary thrombosis heart disease has dropped by nearly 40%, and the total mortality rate has dropped by 30%.All of these studies have shown that Omega︱3 fatty acids have significant disease prevention effects, and it is not achieved through lowering LDL cholesterol. Today, the important basis for whether to use a certain treatment method is actual evidence.By this standard, fish oil intake is the only treatment in nutritional medicine that has shown real efficacy.So far, no other dietary factors have been clearly proven to have the effect of reducing mortality in clinical trials, whether it is vitamin E or vitamin C, whether it is vegetables and fruits, crude fiber, vegetable butter, or soy products, whether it is Left-handed or right-handed lactic acid bacteria

The discovery of miraculous fish oil began in the 1970s.At that time, humans observed that although Eskimos ate a lot of fat, they rarely died of myocardial infarction.Ninety percent of their calories come from the seal, whale and other fatty fish they eat.This is a fact that cannot be ignored.However, this completely contradicts the dominant view in the field of nutritional medicine.Therefore, with curiosity, everyone began to study the fat of these fish carefully.Sure enough, we found that it was very different from the fat of other animals.This fat is high in long-chain, polyunsaturated fatty acids.This is important because these fatty acids do not condense even in the coldest temperatures.For these animals living in the Arctic, if the fat in the nerve and muscle cell membranes freezes, it is not a good thing. If you want to escape from the fierce and greedy enemies, it is better not to freeze into dried fish.The secret of their body fat is that they can maintain a liquid state and pass this state on to other living cells.

Let's start slowly.The human body needs highly unsaturated fatty acids (HUFA) to sustain life.These fatty acids are an important part of the structure of cell membranes, especially in brain cells, the central nervous system and blood vessels.The more this fatty acid, the more active and adaptable the cell membrane is physiologically.In addition, this fatty acid is the basis for many compounds that the body needs to survive as hormone-like substances that regulate myriad responses in the body, from blood clotting and regulation of blood pressure to inflammatory responses and immune mechanisms.Highly unsaturated fatty acids are indispensable, without which there is no life!But the human body cannot produce this fatty acid by itself, it must be ingested through food, or through the ingestion of the precursor substances needed for its synthesis.The fatty acid chain of the latter has eighteen segments, which is slightly shorter than necessary, but the human body can extend it and turn it into highly unsaturated fatty acids for reuse, but this is more laborious and difficult.

There are two types of polyunsaturated fatty acids: Omega︱three and Omega︱hexa fatty acids.Their names are derived from their respective chemical structures.If in the fatty acid chain, the first point of unsaturation (the so-called double bond) appears after the third link (carbon atom), it is called Omega︱three fatty acids, or n-3-PUFA for short.If the first point of unsaturation appears after the sixth link, it is called Omega|six fatty acids or n-6-PUFA. These two fatty acid families perform their respective missions in a coordinated relationship of mutual growth and decline.Hostile in nature, they are also sensitive to imbalances.So the body tries to make up for this imbalance, but a long-term imbalance will gradually lead to dysfunction of body organs.An excess or deficiency of either can lead to unnecessary inflammation.A well-known example is rheumatism.

Unfortunately, the reality is that these two fatty acid families often cross paths.Because there is a bottleneck in the process of converting its precursors into highly unsaturated fatty acids: both fatty acids must use the same conversion system to complete the conversion.It is conceivable that if one family has a large force and the other family is outnumbered, who can grab this car?The party in the minority will have to wait a long time to get their turn. If they are unlucky, they will not be able to squeeze in at all. What conclusions can we draw from this?We must not only eat enough of these two fatty acids, but also pay attention to the balanced ratio of the two, otherwise there will be trouble.What exactly should we eat to achieve the correct amount and proportion?Two highly unsaturated fatty acids, both found only in animal fats.That's right, only animal fat!Isn't animal fat unhealthy?Oddly enough, it contains what the body needs most.The first fat each of us acquires in life comes from maternal fat, which is also of animal origin.The placenta filters and concentrates the highly unsaturated fatty acids in the mother's circulatory system, and feeds them to the fetus in an optimal ratio.These long-chain fatty acids play a key role in the development of our brains (see Chapter 24).Interestingly, in the brains of all mammals, the ratio of Omega︱3 and Omega︱6 fatty acids is completely equal, one to one.

The second fat breast milk obtained in human life is naturally pure animal, and also contains a large amount of highly unsaturated fatty acids.This is no accident, because in the first postnatal period, an insufficient supply of this fatty acid quickly leads to dysfunction of the central nervous system and retinal cells. When we get a little older and stop cuddling up to our mothers to nurse, life becomes less simple.From this point on, only a few sources can provide us with this valuable fatty acid. Two important long-chain substitutes for Omega︱ fatty acids, eicosahexanoic acid and ducosahexanoic acid, are only found in large quantities in fish, especially cold-water marine fish such as mackerel, herring, salmon, and tuna.A hundred grams of salmon contains an average of one gram, herring contains two grams, and mackerel contains three grams.In short, the fatter the fish, the better.But, which child likes to eat fish?If fish isn't your thing, you'll have to figure it out yourself (or your parents).

The meat is different, especially the minced meat topped with tomato sauce, which even children like to eat.Once upon a time, meat was an important source of Omega︱3 fatty acids. At that time, animals were still foraging in grasslands and woods, and they could eat enough green fodder: leaves, grasses, mosses and ferns, which contain synthetic Omega︱ The plant-based precursor of the tri-fatty acid is linoleic acid (ALA).It is converted in animals into the longer chains eicosacaproic acid (EPA) and ducosahexanoic acid (DHA).Carnivores obtain sufficient, processed omega︱3 unsaturated fatty acids by eating herbivores, together with their brains, bone marrow and all internal organs. And today, in modern livestock farming, humans feed animals everything they can: wheat, corn, other grains, soybeans, skimmed milk powder, and sometimes even meal ground up from their own kind, whose bones may have been crushed before. They didn't die under conditions that conformed to animal morality.Under such feeding methods, most of what is accumulated in the meat of animals is naturally Omega︱6 fatty acids from these feeds, because grains and soybeans are the plants with the highest content of this fatty acid. Today, only the meat of wild animals can be regarded as a rich source of Omega︱3 fatty acids.Compared with domestic animals, the meat and viscera of deer, deer and antelope, especially their brain and bone marrow, not only contain a large amount of unsaturated fatty acids, but also are particularly rich in highly unsaturated Omega︱3 fatty acids.The ratio of highly unsaturated fatty acids contained in the meat of wild animals is relatively balanced, ranging from 2:1 to 6:1, while the ratio of grain-fed cattle can reach 4:1 to 16 depending on the feeding method :one.The impact on health of such a significant difference is self-evident. If ordinary meat is no longer a source of Omega︱3 fatty acids, and someone does not like to eat fish, then he must at least consume a large amount of linoleic acid, the precursor substance for the synthesis of this fatty acid.The most important sources of this plant-based Omega︱3 fatty acids are various plant seeds and green leafy vegetables.Seeds can be squeezed into oil, and linseed oil contains nearly 50% linoleic acid, ranking first in content, followed by rapeseed oil with 9%, and soybean oil with 7%.In addition, nuts, especially walnuts and walnut oil, plant germs, and green vegetables such as onions, purslane, Brussels sprouts (rose cabbage), spinach, and green algae contain linoleic acid. We now know exactly how important highly unsaturated Omega︱3 fatty acids are.We found that it can turn on specific functions of certain genes, and conversely, it can also inhibit certain innate responses of the body.In other words, without Omega︱3 fatty acids, our genetic traits would be nothing.It helps regulate metabolism and other functions of the body in different ways.It is speculated that it can promote the function of a gene that prevents fat deposition in tissues, and can also promote the production of heat and the burning of free fatty acids in the body, which can explain why fish oil has the effect of lowering triglycerides.In addition, when they accumulate in large numbers in the cell membrane, they can also improve insulin sensitivity and the absorption of glucose by cells. Other benefits of this fatty acid have also been known for a long time.It dilates blood vessels, lowers blood pressure, and inhibits blood clotting, thereby reducing the possibility of thrombus formation.It increases the ductility of red blood cells, thereby improving blood flow in the smallest blood vessels in tissues.It also stabilizes the heart rate, helping to prevent sudden death from sudden cessation of the beat.Plus, it suppresses inflammatory processes in the body.For people with unknown symptoms, it is especially important that it can help control blood fat at a lower level after meals, thus preventing arteriosclerosis.Under such circumstances, who would give up such a good Omega︱3 fatty acids? In fact, we do, though not entirely voluntarily.For decades, we are gradually abandoning food sources that can provide enough Omega︱3 fatty acids.The reason is that in the food we ingest, Omega︱6 fatty acids, which are opposite to Omega︱3 fatty acids, dominate.Although the latter is also required by the human body, the key is to have an appropriate amount and a balanced ratio. Omega︱The predecessor of the six fatty acids is linoleic acid, mainly from wheat, corn, soybeans, sunflower seeds and cottonseeds, as well as pigs, cows, chickens and turkeys that are fed with millet. They also benefit from the slogan of letting everyone eat grain .Laminoleic acid, which has been called particularly valuable by nutrition authorities for decades, is more than abundant in these foods.Earlier, it was discovered that linolenic acid has the effect of lowering cholesterol.You can imagine what this means: linoleic acid is all the rage, unstoppable, the star of fat.Everyone is fascinated by it, and nutrition authorities are even more in love with it at first sight, and they are still unable to extricate themselves.Because according to their logic, anything that can lower LDL cholesterol must be able to prevent myocardial infarction and must be healthy.So for decades, all healthy citizens have been subtly indoctrinated with a point of view: you should not touch animal fat, but eat more vegetable fat containing linolenic acid. In fact, linoleic acid is not a substance needed by the human body.Importantly, it's synthesized from two long chains: di-gamma linolenic acid (DGLA) and arachidonic acid.Of the latter, we were, and still are, getting adequate amounts from meat.But di-gamma linolenic acid is rarely seen in today's food chain.Certain seeds of plants that are less common today, such as evening primrose, contain this substance, but who eats evening primrose oil?If the body does not get enough linoleic acid, there will be insufficient di-gamma linoleic acid converted by extending the fatty acid chain of linoleic acid, and this deficiency will cause some specific symptoms, such as skin eczema.One effective remedy is evening primrose oil, available in pharmacies. Linoleic acid and other Omega︱6 fatty acids, we actually only need five to six grams a day in total, but now we actually consume two to three times this amount. The content of Omega︱3 fatty acids in general food is very small, so the average ratio of our intake of Omega︱6 and Omega︱3 fatty acids is 12:1, those who are particularly health conscious, except for vegetable butter and sunflower oil, don’t For those who don't eat any oil, the intake ratio even reaches 25:1. Too much of one of the two fatty acids blocks the pathway of the other.Eating a lot of vegetable oils and grain products like we do today makes the body take in too much linoleic acid, which hinders the conversion of linoleic acid into highly unsaturated Omega | three fatty acids.This is equivalent to a lack of this fatty acid. The optimal ratio of Omega︱6 and Omega︱3 fatty acids is 3:1, so that the fatty acid chain can be extended smoothly.In the muscles of wild animals, the ratio is exactly three: one.Animal fat again! Undesirable side effects of vegetable oils Excessive intake of polyunsaturated Omega︱6 fatty acids can cause a variety of adverse reactions, including excessive intake of linolenic acid compared with saturated fatty acid defense (SAFA), and blood clotting caused by excessive fibrin concentration tendency.Sublinolenic acid can activate platelets.When platelets are in an active state, they will cause adverse changes in endothelial knots and release vascular activating substances, which can accelerate the formation of blood vessel wall deposition and cause vascular sclerosis.Compared with saturated fatty acids and monounsaturated fatty acids, Omega︱six polyunsaturated fatty acids will enhance the oxidation tendency of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, thereby deepening the degree of atherosclerosis.In addition, medical research has also proved that compared with saturated fatty acids, Omega|six polyunsaturated fatty acids can inhibit the production of nitric oxide in the endothelium, possibly through oxidative stress.The resulting endothelial dysfunction will also aggravate atherosclerosis.In addition, Omega|six polyunsaturated fatty acids also have immune-suppressing and carcinogenic effects. We know that during millions of years of human evolution, the ratio of intake of these two fatty acids has remained between one:one and two:one for a long time.Contrary to today's situation, under the hunter-gatherer lifestyle, human beings consume relatively less Omega︱6 fatty acids and more Omega︱3 fatty acids from food.As industrial civilization progressed, these two fatty acids entered a state of imbalance in our diet.On the one hand, people mass-produce grains rich in Omega︱6 fatty acids and vegetable oils extracted from grains with solvents, and at the same time, in order to promote these products in the market, they put health labels on them.Certain physicians have also contributed to the persistence of this salesmanship.On the other hand, the intake source of Omega︱3 fatty acids is gradually being squeezed out of our diet by modern products. Omega︱Actual and recommended intake of three fatty acids In the United States, according to the current most accurate survey, the average daily intake of linoleic acid is about one.One to one.Six grams, EPA and DHA total about ○.1 to ○.Two grams, that is, a total of various Omega | three fatty acids.Two to one.eight grams.According to the latest recommendations of experts, we should increase the intake of linoleic acid to two.2 grams, the intake of eicosahexic acid and ducosahexic acid was increased to ○.Sixty-five grams, that is, the total intake of Omega︱3 fatty acids is increased to about three grams, which is to double the actual intake.At the same time, experts suggest that the intake of linoleic acid (Omega︱6 fatty acids) be reduced to about seven grams per day, so that it is possible to achieve the optimal ratio of three:one. Some experts in the United States recognized this trend many years ago and called on people to change their minds.At present, we recommend doubling the intake of Omega︱3 fatty acids, while controlling the intake of linoleic acid (Omega︱6 fatty acids) at about 7 grams per day, in order to get close to the optimum of these two fatty acids. good ratio. What does this mean in practical application?How can we increase the intake of Omega︱3 fatty acids?I will explain this further in the last chapter.Now, I would like to introduce you to a study that has gained worldwide reputation in the professional field: In the late 1980s, the famous French scholar, Serge of the Affiliated Hospital of Cheon University,Professor Serge Renaud and his assistant Michel.De.Michel de Lorgeril observed six hundred myocardial infarction patients in a clinical monitoring study.They wanted to test the efficacy of high intake of linoleic acid (Omega︱3 fatty acids).They divided the patients into two groups. One group received the usual inpatient diet, which was low in fat but relatively high in plant-based Omega-6 fats.Another group received a Mediterranean-style diet: oils and vegetable creams rich in fruits and vegetables, sunflower seeds, and soybeans, replaced by rapeseed oil and rapeseed vegetable creams that were not yet on the market.Rapeseed oil diet neither lowered cholesterol, nor lowered blood pressure, and reduced the risk factors of heart disease patients in other traditional views.But after two years, the canola oil group had a 72 percent lower rate of heart attack and a 70 percent lower death rate than the other group. This research is by far the most successful model of myocardial infarction prevention, which caused a sensation at the time.The two scientific pioneers had only one problem to solve: Lyon's image (reminiscent of Lyonnais sausages) and canola oil (associated with diesel fuel) lacked market appeal.Clever ad guys had an idea, they renamed the original thing the Cretan Diet, and explained in various books and beautiful pamphlets that the extraordinary health benefits were due to the consumption of olive oil in large quantities.But who cares about such a trivial ploy to deceive consumers?