Over a decade ago I created what I called “Dr Dave’s Pizza Hypothesis”. At the time, pizza had just overtaken the hamburger as America’s Number One Junk food. I postulated that if one ate a big ugly fat-laden meal, like Pizza, finishing it off with a big dose of fish oil capsules along with a quality probiotic would nullify just about everything bad except the calories from the pizza.
I based my reasoning on the fact that the human body can biochemically overwhelm inflammatory fats such as the Omega 6’s and artificial man-made devils found in pizza and other processed foods. Now this irritated a lot of my colleagues who frowned on the “pill popping mentality”. After all, aren’t all doctors supposed to tell you to eat right and cut your calories?
Of course, but after 25 years in medicine I can honestly tell you the ONLY time I ever saw that happen for 90% of the population was after heart bypass surgery – and that only lasted as long as the patient thought they HAD to behave. Now I realize you may be an exception and I hope you are. I certainly try to be most of the time, but most of the time is not good enough. Your body doesn’t handle most of the time any better than pregnancy or cancer (not to lump the two together). The point is, when all the time is best, realism is needed. And if you are going to go astray, why not take advantage of the principle of the pizza antidote to protect yourself when you do.
So rather than suffer the ravages of your dietary indiscretions protect yourself with fish oil.
Keep in mind that even when you do follow a “healthy diet”, healthy in this country often means way too much Omega 6’s. As a matter of fact, if you look at some of the most famous omega zone books, you will find the recipes to be loaded with omega 6’s! In a friggin’ book about how good Omega 3’s are and how to eat healthy!!!
All in all, my 6 grams a day recommendation has proven to be spot on to get the average “healthy eater” to the goal of greater than 60% Omega 3 (40% omega 6).
And if you have some junk food, then increase it by 2 to 4 capsules that day and you should be fine.
One more thing!
The effects of junk food on your brain are equally damaging. A high Omega 6 inflammatory junk food diet blunts the secretion of nerve growth factors in the brain. A recent study in the British Journal of Nutrition shows that Omega 3 fish oil can reverse those bad effects. Omega 3 returns these nerve growth factors back to normal.
In addition, Omega 3 mimics the effects of Calorie Restriction as well, something that seems to increase lifespan in some animals and definitely has a positive impact on healthspan in humans.
So keep your fish oil intake up!
Your brain and your body will thank you for it!
Doc