A CHANGE IN DIETARY FAT

Since the beginning of the century, dramatic changes in food consumption in the U.S. have taken place. Fruits, grains and vegetables have been replaced by processed, nutritionally deficient, fatty foods and refined sugar.

In 1909, the average person in the U.S. consumed about 125 grams of fat per day. Today, the consumption is closer to 175 grams, an increase of some 40 percent, or about 50 pounds extra per year. Fat consumption has risen from about 33 percent of total calories daily to almost 50 percent, and is still increasing. Of the total increase in the consumption of fats and oils, shortening, margarine, refined salad oil and cooking oils account for 50 percent.

These, statistics, when combined with the dramatic increase in degenerative diseases in this country, point conclusively to the link between good diet and good health.

Flaxseeds fit into the picture of good health perfectly because of the high content of essential fatty acids, or good fats, Omega 3 and Omega 6. Due to their volatility, these essential fatty acids have been purposely processed out of most foods in order to extend the shelf life of the products. A process that is profitable for manufacturers, but hazardous to the American consumer.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has entered into a three-year, $2 million contract with the National Cancer Institute to study the effect of flaxseed on various health concerns. As part of the Institute’s ongoing Designer Foods program, the FDA will conduct experiments confirming flaxseed’s role in fat and cholesterol metabolism, bone mineralization, and the immune system. The research will make flaxseed one of the most intensively-studied nutrients used in any food product.

Flaxseeds supply the body with the essential fatty acids. Not only are flaxseeds richer in Omega 3’s than fish oil, but they pack more fiber ounce for ounce than oat bran. How the body responds to the essential fatty acids is remarkable. The list below is just a sample of the countless studies conducted using flaxseed in the diet and the benefits observed.

1. Dr. Johanna Budwig treated seriously ill cancer patients with flaxseed oil and low-fat cottage cheese. Over a period of approximately three months, tumors gradually receded. Symptoms of cancer, liver dysfunction, anemia and diabetes were completely alleviated.

2. In Great Britain, Dr. Sinclair conducted specific research and determined that even a relative deficiency of the essential fatty acids plays an important part in the causes of arteriosclerosis, coronary thrombosis, multiple sclerosis, diabetes mellitus, hypertension and certain forms of malignant diseases.

3. In Canada, Dr. Horrobin found that alcohol does its damage to the fetus and to the liver by interfering with normal essential fatty acids metabolism.

4. A research project in Australia used low concentrations of flaxseed oil to successfully combat strep infection in hospitals.

5. In 1982, Dr. J.R. Vane shared the Nobel Prize for Medicine for his work proving how metabolism of Omega-3 fatty acids helped prevent heart problems.

6. In the U.S., Dr. Donald Rudin found that Omega-3 fatty acid deficiency is the basic cause of major mental illness, because fatty acids provide the substrate upon which niacin and other B vitamins act to form the prostaglandin-3 series tissue hormones (special mission fatty acids) which regulate neurocircuits through the whole body.

7. Again, in the U.S., Dr. Patricia Johnston found that a diet containing 10 percent flaxseed oil could drastically change the prostaglandin content of serum and the fatty acids context of human breast milk by a factor of ten, within five days.

Excerpted from the Healthy Cells News Summer 1998 issue