Gotta get me some omega-3s!

The Queen of Fats:

Why Omega-3s Were Removed from the Western Diet and What We Can Do to Replace Them

by Susan Allport

Didn't quite fit the subtitle -- the topic of "Why Omega-3s Were Removed from the Western Diet" was a very small part of the whole. In a nutshell, here's why: they oxidize faster (aka go rancid), which makes them more expensive to preserve in processed food--it's cheaper to remove them. The experts in the early days didn't know they were important--fat is fat, right? And it took a long time before they realized the importance. And as we well know, our food industry is a business, not a non-profit. If people aren't demanding it and willing to pay for it, we don't get it.

A better subtitle would have been something like "the slow but exciting discovery of the essential need for Omega-3s in the diet--and why nobody cares." Because that's what the story was all about--by the time researchers actually had some evidence about the subject, western consumers had seen so many fat fads come and go, that finally, when there is some actual evidence, they're too tired to care.

can you blame 'em? My parent's generation (in the 1950's) were told to quit eating butter, lard, and egg yolks because of the bad animal fats and cholesterol. They were to substitute the 'good fats' from plant oils. My generation (the 1980's) were told to avoid all fats and switch to high-carb. My kid's generation (2000's) were told to restrict the carbs but load up on saturated vegetable fats and lean animal fats, with an occasional side of bacon. It's clearly a game of good fat/bad fat, right?

It shouldn't have been, because it should have been obvious to anyone who took a minute to look at the numbers--American's fat consumption has been steadily decreasing but our rate of heart disease has not--and we're fatter than ever. There never was and never will be a causal relationship between the quantity of fat consumption and bad health.  Just as there never was a causal relationship between dietary cholesterol and blood cholesterol. (To make matters worse, blood cholesterol levels have never been demonstrated to be linked to heart disease.)  As usual, it's like this: people make up shit and other people believe it.

But not this book. It's about people who were determined to get to the truth, wherever it led. And it's about where the truth did lead them.

And one more thing, in case you read this blurb but never read the book: Omega-6 and Omega-3 fatty acids are both essential to human health. This is not a speculation--there is real, evidence, of many kinds. It is also known that adding omega-3 fatty acids to the diet can improve babies' vision and brain development, and can slow down or reverse adult heart disease.

 Is the "cause" of heart disease a deficiency of omega-3s? Probably not. But is the cause of conflicting nutrition advice our human tendency to over-simplify the complex? Most likely.