By ROB SLATER
As a physician training in integrative medicine, I believe nutrition is vital and that the right foods can act as medicine. Patients often ask me about fats, and I think this raises an important question: Are fats really essential?
The human body can make most of the types of fats it needs, but some fats are considered essential because these fats can only come from the food that we eat. The essential fats include two main families of polyunsaturated fats, the omega-6 and the omega-3 fatty acids. Linoleic acid is the main omega-6, and there are three main omega-3s:
• Alpha-linoleic acid is a plant-based omega-3, and is found in high amounts in flax and chia seeds, canola oil, nuts (especially walnuts), leafy vegetables and in grass-fed animal fat. Our bodies use ALA mostly for energy, but can convert a small amount into the other two omega-3s; and
• Eicosapentaenoic acid and Docosahexaenoic acid are found in the fat of cold water fish such as salmon, mackerel, anchovies, sardines, herring and trout, along with many other types of seafood. EPA is an important building block for hormones that reduce inflammation, and DHA is important for healthy nerve and retina function.
Omega-3s are not very plentiful in the typical American diet. Omega-6s, on the other hand, are abundantly found in refined vegetable oils, which are used in most snack foods, fast foods, cookies, crackers and sweets in the American diet.
Many nutrition experts believe that before processed foods became common, humans ate roughly the same amount of omega-3s and omega-6s. Our modern diets are very different, however, and we may now eat as many as 10 to 25 times more omega-6s than omega-3s. This imbalance is important, because the omega-6s create the inflammatory hormones that our bodies use to respond to injury, infection, stress and certain illnesses.
Too many omega-6s can result in too much inflammation. High levels of inflammation are seen in auto-immune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, lupus, psoriasis and multiple sclerosis, but lower levels of long-standing inflammation are seen with an enormous range of chronic diseases, such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, fatty liver disease, osteoporosis, asthma, depression, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. The marine omega-3s, EPA and DHA, reduce inflammation and have been shown in studies to be helpful in many of these conditions.
Considering the tremendous potential benefits of omega-3s, I recommend them to all of my patients. Everyone should try to eat fish or seafood at least a couple times per week. For those that are unable to eat seafood or don’t like the taste, I recommend taking a daily supplement, such as fish oil. The recommended dose is 1 gram per day of combined EPA and DHA. However, a typical 1,000-mg fish oil capsule only contains about 30 percent of these omega-3s, so the correct dosing is three or four capsules per day for the average adult.
So, omega-3s really are essential.
Dr. Rob Slater is an Integrative and Behavioral Medicine Fellow at the University of Texas Medical Branch.