Do You need a “Balanced” Fat Supplement

A rather famous biochemist made a fortune selling “balanced” fat  formulation for human consumption.

I have to take umbrage with the concept and ask the critical question: Balanced for whom?

It’s nice to simplify and package the whole fatty acid biology thing into a pretty mix of pastels that all blend together in a pretty picture. Omega3’s 6’s 7’s 9’s etc. all sound sexy especially if you don’t know or care what the effect is in people.

Or maybe you’ve never been responsible for human life the way I have.

You and I are already unbalanced in a big way if we follow anything close to the diet recommended by the gurus of the Food Pyramid and most other Western Diets.

I have often told you the story of my Omega6/3 ratio testing amongst Vegans and Vegetarians but I will repeat it here: they were just as unbalanced as the rest of the population with an average Omega 3 content of 23%.

The best range should be between 60 and 70%.

My meat eating Paleo buddies come in at around 45% on average disputing what another (this time Paleo guru) said when he related, “You don’t need fish oil”.

Sorry, but most of us do myself included.

If we live on the coast and eat predominantly sea food, sea weed and vegetables we could conceivably get away with no fish oil supplements. That is of course if we could tolerate the lead, mercury, and plastics that are part of that food chain and are removed from high quality fish oil.

Now one of my heroes, Dr Bill Lands, to whom we owe the Omega6/3 fingerstick ratio test reminded me that diet alone can be adjusted to give a very favorable Omega 3 ratio. A moment later he confided that taking fish oil was actually much easier.

That is true for all of us!

Now I firmly believe in eating healthy but I have never successfully adopted a low Omega 6 high Omega 3 diet.

I like some fish and seafood but not that much. Eating free range meat and eggs helps a lot and the Horrendous Diet will reduce your need for Omega 3’s.

But if you are over 40 and run, lift or play sports for your health, odds are you will generate inflammation and start the aging program going in the wrong direction.

Sounds completely contrary to what we are being told right? After all exercise is good isn’t it?

The truth is all the exercise parameters we measure in the lab look at individual chemical reactions and the effects are “good”. They do not look at long term effects on joints however and many of the exercises that are tested and stressed are damaging to joints.

Now add to that the effects of elderly epigenetics, poor posture and faulty biomechanics and you have at least something that will blunt the effectiveness of exercise as an anti-aging tool.

In the words of everyone who ever wrote a scientific article that got published, “More research is needed!”.

I will tell you that the simplest answer is not to worry about it and do your exercise, but take your Fish Oil to blunt that inflammation and level the playing field!

Unless you are a perfect biomechanical specimen!

The search for perfection should never stop but neither should you as a result of that pursuit so make it easier on yourself!

Your body will Thank You for it.

Doc

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top