The latest study released about omega-3 fatty acids says that they can raise a man's risk of prostate cancer by 2.5 times.
I know! You're thinking, "What? I thought omega-3s were good for you!" Here is a link to read about the study.
This is another big surprise (for most people) in the study of nutritional balancing.
There were several interesting things about this study. It was carried out with thousands of participants, and those with trans-fats in their blood had less chance to get aggressive prostate cancer than those who had high levels of omega-3 fats in their blood. The study said the biggest source of omega-3 fats was fish consumption and not supplementation.
It should be pointed out that this type of study only points to correlation and not causation.
What most people don't know is omega-3 fats are not health food. They are polyunsaturated fats, the most unhealthy naturally occurring fats.
Most of our degenerative diseases today seem to be caused by polyunsaturated fats. Our normal diet has become about 30% poly-fats. This overloads the body causing high estrogen and cortisol levels as well as stifling thyroid function. Diabetes has been caused experimentally by using polyunsaturated vegetable oils. (In this case it was a high safflower oil diet.)
One of the best places to get information on diabetes, particularly as it involves fats is HERE. In fact that site is probably the best for understanding how fats work in the body. It can be a bit too much detail for people though and it is spread out in multiple articles, so HERE is a long but complete page that is probably easier to understand for most people.
But let me explain a little bit of the "surprise" from the first study sited. Fish oil, which comes from fish, has been successfully used in many experiments to help solve various health problems. But the conclusions stated in most of those studies gave credit incorrectly to omega-3 oils. The problem is that omega-3 oils are only a very small amount of what is in fish oil. For instance a capsule of high quality wild fish oil contains 1000mg of oil, but only about 300 mg of that are omega-3 oils.
When you separate out omega-3 oils and try to do the same types of tests, they don't work. For instance, flax seed, though high in omega-3 fats doesn't help like fish oil does. That's because the other stuff in fish oil keeps the omega-3s from going rancid, helps omega-3s do some positive functions that they can sometimes do, and accounts for nearly all the benefits of the fish oil.
Fish oil's other major components are monounsaturated fats, saturated fats, and Vitamins A & D. The vitamins help to keep the polyunsaturated fats from going rancid, the monounsaturated and saturated fats do more antioxidant work as well as benefiting cholesterol processes (breaking down plaque buildup), and helping with digestion and energy. In fact the omega-3 fats cannot do what little they are good at unless they are accompanied by saturated fats.
Note that in the study the people with the worst risk for cancer were the ones with the most omega-3 oils circulating in their blood. This is likely because they are deficient in saturated fat. Saturated fat allows the cells to use omega-3 fats. Without saturated fats in the system omega-3 fats only cause trouble.
Most people don't get enough saturated fats, because the media and fitness gurus were mislead into thinking that saturated fats were bad for people. Most of the studies that showed saturated fats were bad for people were done with artificially saturated fats, not real saturated fats. Hydrogenated fats are bad (artificially saturated). Naturally saturated fats are very healthy. Saturated fats, (like coconut oil) actually help the body to control and regulate blood sugar, balance cholesterol, balance hormones, control microbes and viruses, and have many antioxidant like functions.
"Essential fatty acids" turn out to not be "essential" at all. People live just fine without the "essential" fats. And in fact, a deficiency in "essential" fats turns out to be a big boon to health. Autoimmune diabetic mice (genetically made that way) don't develop diabetes when they are "deficient" in "essential" fatty acids. Here is that Link. Other autoimmune diseases respond well to similar treatments as well.
The mead acids (the omega-9 fats) are probably more responsible for the health benefits of fish oil than the omega-3 fats. There are generally about twice as many mead acids as omega-3 acids in fish oil. Here is a link to further discussions about "essential" fats and mead acids.
I highly recommend that people who want to improve health eliminate all added polyunsaturated fats (read labels), and use coconut oil for cooking, virgin olive oil for salad dressings, and raw butter on your whole grain bread. Saturated fat from natural sources (like raw milk from grass fed cows) are an important part of a healthy lifestyle. Get good fats (like mead acids) from nuts and avocados.
Have a great day!
Coach G.
Here are other past articles on fats.
This article expresses the opinion of it's author. It is not intended to diagnose, cure or prescribe treatment for any disease. All readers are responsible for their own health. If they decide to turn over that responsibility to a doctor or practitioner or pundit, that is their choice, and yet the responsibility still lies with themselves. Taking control of your own health, requires personal research, prayer, and pondering. Take it seriously, you only have one body. After appropriate thought and research, take action in the direction that you have determined to be most beneficial. Of course, if you have emergency life-threatening problems get the appropriate help as quickly as you can.
