Information a-bounds that Omega-3 EPA and DHA sourced from the oil of fatty fish are a miracle to health, and they are but there's a vast difference between ALA and EPA DHA. Knowing the difference in these fatty acids, and the source of each, means the difference in creating more inflammation or good health. Knowing that all Omega-3s are not created equal is essential. One of the least understood elements to the Omega-3 craze is how soybean, corn, safflower, flaxseed (to name but a few); all Omega-3 ALA oils, promote inflammation. What few may realize is unknowingly we've consumed these deceptively hidden oils in foods for decades and depending on your age, it could be many decades.
TIME Magazine's February, 2004, cover story entitled "The Fires Within" set the stage for an uncovering of the damage from inflammation and the critical link between chronic inflammation and heart health, Alzheimer's, Lupus, and all inflammatory illnesses. While this was one of the first major publications to bring this information to light, the evidence is now found throughout numerous medical studies.
The discovery that Omega-3 EPA and DHA sourced from the oil of fatty fish reduces inflammation is a discovery that boggles the mind in its significance to health; unfortunately, it's becoming obscured causing much confusion to consumers strolling grocery store aisles filled with Omega-3 ALA products.
Do you buy those products wanting to get Omega-3 in your body and since you don't care too much for fish, fear ocean contaminants, this seems to be the best way? Can you decipher the confusing, misleading labels? By purchasing those products, you are creating more inflammation to that which your body has been accumulating for decades. How? Omega-3 ALA is converted by our bodies into pro-inflammatory Omega-6s, a crucial fact most consumers do not know. Says Dr. Joseph Hibbeln, National Institutes of Health, world renowned Omega-3 researcher:
"When you look at the percentages of Omega-6s to Omega-3s in the US diet, it's about 90% of all the polyunsaturates in our tissues are Omega 6s and about 10% are Omega 3s. So you had a one-to-one balance to inflammation when we were evolving, and now it's a 10-to-one balance in favor of inflammation because of the predominance in seed oils. Soybean oil is called the lubricant of the food industry, and it literally is."
Until about 1909, Americans received most of their fat from free-range animals. They also consumed a miniscule amount of soy bean oil - 0.02 pounds per year increasing gradually thereafter annually until about 1960, when "soybean oil took over the U.S. food chain," says William Lands, a retired biochemist with the National Institutes of Health.
"It was like a tsunami. These two types of fatty acids have a biochemical yin-and-yang relationship. While omega-3s reduce our body's inflammation response, Omega-6s encourage it. Each fatty acid is crucial. For example, if your inflammatory response is too weak, you won't be able to fight infection properly. And in theory, the push and pull should create perfect balance. Instead, the excess of Omega 6s in our diets may have left us in a perpetual state of inflammation."
Medical and research studies are confirming at an astonishing rate we are, indeed, in a perpetual state of inflammation causing heart disease, diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, cholesterol-an endless list associated with inflammation. That food manufacturers have confused the discovery Omega-3 EPA and DHA from fatty fish reduces inflammation by flooding the marketplace with ALA products that adds to inflammation needs to be written across the sky alerting consumers.
Because most consumers are unaware of the abundance of plant and seed oils our foods are floating in from packaged goods, fast food chains and restaurants, they don't know the "silent killer" is mounting each passing year in their tissues, bodies and brains until disease, stroke, Alzheimer's or a heart attack hits. Rather than beginning as a whisper, the silent killer erupts into a mighty roar throughout the body forever changing the quality of life.
To learn how you can make better choices and protect your health, "The Food Industry's Greed: How Misleading Labeling of Omega-3 Foods Undermines American Health" is an eye-opening investigative expose into the travesty underfoot that digs deeply into the confusing Omega-3s, labeling, medical studies, FDA guidelines, research, complaints filed, and what you, personally, can do about it.
FDA Qualifying Health Claim for EPA and DHA
When the FDA issued a Health Qualifying Claim for "EPA and DHA" from fatty fish in 2004, "Omega-3" became big business. So big, food manufacturers freely began substituting "ALA" (alpha-linolenic acid) for EPA and DHA in bread, cookies, pasta to yogurt and now, a line of soybean-fed pork items that are "enriched with Omega-3 fatty acids." The double-whammy contained in one ounce of those pork items is frightening with no end, supervision, or control in sight.
Is anyone home at the FDA?
Not only was ALA not part of the FDA Qualifying claim, science conclusively shows we convert Omega-3 ALA seed and plant oils into inflammatory Omega-6. And the end result? Consumers are being hoodwinked into purchasing these products while awareness of the health benefits from EPA and DHA are being compromised. How big of an issue is this? Read on and you'll see why the word "travesty" applies.
Omega-3 ALA
Omega-3 ALA is plant and seed oils, soybean, corn, safflower, flaxseed, all polyunsaturates, and while they may be lumped together and referred to as "Omega-3 fatty acids" all they share in common with EPA and DHA is the classification "Omega-3 fatty acids." There's a far cry between any health benefits from ALA and those science has conclusively contributed to EPA and DHA.
An astonishing 94% of Omega-3 products line shelves today contain ALA while 6% contain minute amounts of algae or algal oil.
Omega-6s
Why is this so critical to the American consumer? Unless you've led a vegetarian lifestyle for years, rarely eat out, unknowingly you've been consuming an abundance of Omega-6s for decades hidden deceptively in packaged foods, snacks, cakes, dressings, as well as liberally used by restaurants and fast food chains. In other words, our bodies are so tipped in Omega-6s, we were in a state of perpetual inflammation before food manufacturers began adding more ALA to boast an Omega-3 label. How bad is this?
National Institutes of Health on Omega-6 Inflammation
Dr. Joseph Hibbeln, National institutes of Health, and world renowned Omega-3 researcher, and tireless crusader for American health, says:
"When you look at the percentages of Omega-6s to Omega-3s in the US diet, it's about 90% of all the polyunsaturates in our tissues are Omega 6s and about 10% are Omega 3s. So you had a one-to-one balance to inflammation when we were evolving, and now it's a 10-to-one balance in favor of inflammation because of the predominance in seed oils. Soybean oil is called the lubricant of the food industry, and it literally is."
William Lands, retired biochemist with the National Institutes of Health, had this to say:
About 1960, when "soybean oil took over the U.S. food chain, it was like a tsunami. These two types of fatty acids have a biochemical yin-and-yang relationship. While omega-3s reduce our body's inflammation response, Omega-6s encourage it. Each fatty acid is crucial. For example, if your inflammatory response is too weak, you won't be able to fight infection properly. And in theory, the push and pull should create perfect balance. Instead, the excess of Omega-6s in our diets may have left us in a perpetual state of inflammation. That's what's really killing us - the balance of Omega 3s to 6s got out of whack."
Center for Science in the Public Interest
And Bonnie Liebman, a nutritionist with the Center for Science in the Public Interest, says:
"It's all very confusing. Consumers are in real danger of being misled. Even a careful label reader won't learn, for instance that a carton of Breyers Smart DHA Omega-3 yogurt has less DHA than a teaspoon of salmon."
Consider this. Hellmann's Mayonnaise says "Naturally Rich In Omega-3" but remember, it's just a name. What's really in it? "Most mayonnaise is made with soybean oil which is a source of ALA. But that kind of Omega-3 fat, found most abundantly in flaxseed, has not been proven to convey the same health benefits as DHA plus EPA," Liebman says.
Omega-6s and Inflammation
That Omega-6s create inflammation that leads to diet-related disease, poor heart health, arachidonic acid, to name but a few, is scientifically established. If this information is hard to grasp, look at our health statistics. We have unprecedented numbers of childhood obesity, juvenile diabetes and with each passing year, according to Harvard, those numbers rise dramatically. Did children suddenly become ravenous eaters?
The rise in health issues and obesity crosses all age groups but this rise in children is the most telling of all. What is the common denominator? It's not the water supply - it's our food supply that packs pounds leaving our bodies in a perpetual state of inflammation.
How critical to health is this misleading labeling of Omega-3 ALA? Let's look at the conclusions of a 14 year study conducted by the National Cancer Institute about ALA:
"In this large prospective study, we found that ALA from non-animal sources and ALA from meat and dairy sources were associated or suggestively associated with an increased risk of advanced prostate cancer. This finding agrees with the finding of a single previous study that evaluated ALA intake by food source. EPA + DHA was suggestively related to a lower risk of advanced prostate cancer, which was mainly due to DHA and to a lesser extent to EPA."
It is sad and disheartening that information from prestigious medical communities, globally, with study after study showing EPA and DHA are profoundly beneficial to a myriad of health issues from diet-related to cognitive, is becoming obscured and blinded by food manufacturers' hype. With their long reach and deep pockets, the health of a nation is on the line.
And the result? The every-day, hard-working consumer overwhelmed with little time to do any personal in-depth research assumes all Omegas are created equal.
Lois Smithers has sinced written about articles on various topics from Nutrition, Omega 3 and Aquarium Fish. Lois Smithers spent years studying health and Omega-3 EPA DHA. Read her thoroughly researched, investigative expose,"The Food Industry's Greed:How Misleading Labeling of Omega-3 Foods Undermines American Health." Book and free Omega-3 newsletter:. Lois Smithers's top article generates over 40500 views. to your Favourites.