Americans have become frankly fat-fobic.
And with good reasons: Scientists have pointed to fat as a possible cause of diseases ranging from heart disease to obesity to some cancers. In response, the store shelves are now aligned with fries without fat, lunch meats and cookies, all invented so people can literally have their cake and eat too.
But being fat-healthy is not only avoiding the saturated fats found in meat and tropical oils. It is about making sure that you are eating a good balance of the right types of fats. "It is not about good bad fats / fats, but consuming fats in the right values that counts," says Dietista Elizabeth Somer, M.A., R.D., author of the reference of the nutritional table.
Scientists have discovered that a high diet in omega-3 fatty acids can help prevent heart disease, diabetes and obesity, and even relieve the pain of arthritis. On the other hand, people who have diets that are low in omega-3 and high in another fatty acid, omega-6 - the typical American diet - has higher rates of heart disease. "It's not so much omega-6s to be bad for us, it's just that the proportion is out of whack, says Somer.Forskolin Fat Loss Diet Pills - Good Fat, Bad Fat
An examination of other cultures offers some evidence of it. Japanese, European and Mediterranean diets typically have proportions of two to one of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids, says Artemis Simopoulos, M.D., co-author of the Omega diet. In the United States, the proportion of omega-6 for omega-3 fatty acids in diets is about 20 to 1 - very high for a healthy lifestyle, leaving Americans susceptible to heart disease, obesity, autoimmune diseases and diabetes. "From 25% of people in this country do not eat any fish, and few people eat green leafy vegetables, you can see why we have an unbalanced proportion," says Simopoulos. At a conference in April 1999, in national health institutes, simopoulos and other specialists from all over the world has reached a consensus that a relation greater than four for one is unhealthy.
for people who do not have access to rich foods in omega-3 (or do not like fish), fish oil supplements are now an option. Previous studies have indicated that fish oil supplements could represent a danger, but a recent study by William Connor, M.D., from the University of Oregon Health Sciences, shows that people can safely lead to eight grams per day. Get omega-3 of natural food sources, however, should always be the first option, says Connor, who presented his research at the 1999 annual meeting of the American Dietetic Association (ADA).
"It's best to eat food than to take supplements," says Connor, who recommends that people get two grams of omega-3 oil every day in order to harvest their protection benefits. (Four ounces of salmon contains 2.3 to 3.6 grams of omega-3 and four ounces of rainbow trout contains fence from a grass.)
omega-3 fatty acids can also be an important component of the central nervous system, says Carol J. Lammi-Keefe, Ph.D., head of the Nutritional Sciences department at Connecticut University, which also presented his research at the meeting Ada.
In his study, Lammi-Keefe and his colleagues discovered that children born of women with more Omega-3 in their diet during pregnancy had more developed central nervous systems. The results of the study point to the possible omega-3s role play in the development and maintenance of the nervous system, says Lammi-Keefe, which recommends that pregnant women eat at least three portions of fish rich in omega-3 every week.
Lammi-Keefe also plans to invest if omega-3 are important in preventing memory loss and resulting from the effects of Alzheimer's and other diseases related to the nervous system.
