Health & Wellbeing

Healthy Eating: The Vital Balance

Essential advice on essential fatty acids by food expert Luis Luna

You may have heard discussions about the importance of Omega-3s in high-profile diseases such as heart disease, osteoarthritis, and cancer. However, I would like to suggest building Omega-3s into a balanced diet, so you can reach for your optimum health in both mind and in body.

Contrary to popular myth, our bodies need fats. However, they must be the right kind. The fatty acids that are required for good health and that cannot be made by our bodies are called Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs). EFAs are needed by every living cell in the body. They are essential for rebuilding and producing new cells. Of the range of EFAs that there are, one major category that is vital is called Omega-3. Excellent sources of Omega-3 are fish, especially the oily ones, e.g. mackerel, sardines, and tuna. Also some greens and seeds are very good sources.

Because the Omega-3 EFAs are needed by every cell in the body it follows that an insufficiency or imbalance will have some effect on every part of the body, including the brain.

The diet typical of the modern, industrialised and principally Western nations has changed dramatically. The emphasis gradually moved away from fishing, hunting and gathering towards cultivating the land, but the greatest and more rapid diet changes have happened in the past few decades. There is an ever increasing reliance on cereals, heavily processed foods and, most significantly, the vegetable oils and spreads now providing an over-abundance of Omega-6. At the same time, intake of the Omega-3s has dropped by more than half. Of the fish that is eaten, by far the majority is of a type with low fat levels (cod and haddock) compared with the fish popularly eaten 100 years ago (herring and mackerel).

Although not enough is yet known about the early impact of low Omega-3 intakes, it is not over-fanciful to suggest that a deficiency can lead to diseases and conditions serious enough to threaten life or the quality of life by eroding vitality, concentration, optimism and joie de vivre.

Simple measures can make a big difference. Why not try to?
• Cut down on fried foods and use olive oil (a monounsaturated fat) for cooking and in salad dressings.

• Use spreads sparingly if at all. Although it is a saturated fat, a little butter on bread is arguably better for you than soft margarines (made from sunflower, safflower or soya).

• Reduce consumption of processed and junk foods and as these are normally high in saturated or trans fats.

• Eat at least two meals a week of oil-rich fish like salmon, sardines, mackerel, trout, herring, pilchards, fresh tuna sprats or take a fish or cod liver oil supplement daily. These supplements are now available in a variety of ‘strengths’. Aim for a regime that supplies a minimum 1000mg Omega-3 a day.

• Try to incorporate nuts, seeds, quinoa, soya, and dark leafy greens, also seaweed into your diet.

• Make salad dressings with nutritious oils such hemp, avocado, extra virgin olive oil and rapeseed.

OMEGA - 3 A GUIDE TO WHAT YOU ARE EATING

Fish Omega-3
(120g portion) content (g)
Mackerel, canned,
drained 2.2
Salmon, canned, drained 2.2
Tuna, fresh 2.0
Sardines, canned in oil,
drained 1.8
Bluefish 1.7
Cod 0.6
Crab 0.6
Tuna, canned in water,
drained 0.3
Tuna, canned in oil,
drained 0.2

Nuts and seeds Omega-3
(30g portion) content (g) Brazil nuts 2.2
Walnuts 2.2
Flax seeds 1.8
Pecans, dry roasted 0.3
Pistachios, roasted 0.1
Poppy seeds 0.1
Pumpkin seeds, shelled 0.1
Sesame seeds 0.1

Oils Omega-3
(1 tbls) content (g) Flax seed 6.9
Sardine 3.7
Cod liver 2.8
Walnut 1.4
Rapeseed 1.3
Soybean 0.9
Olive 0.1

Information source:
Fats that Kill Fats that Kill,
Dr Udo Erasmus Omega-3 Connection, Dr Stoll