[Mtngrl]

Karen--

I'll take a stab at it, though R.B. is the expert. He even wrote a book on it.

In an early post it says: "The diet of our ancestors was less dense in calories, being higher in fiber, rich in fruits, vegetables, lean meat, and fish. As a result, the diet was lower in total fat and saturated fat, but contained equal amounts of n-6 and n-3 essential fatty acids. Linoleic acid (LA) is the major n-6 fatty acid, and alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) is the major n-3 fatty acid. In the body, LA is metabolized to arachidonic acid (AA), and ALA is metabolized to eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)."

Translation: Nowadays, our diet has a much higher ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3 than the diet we evolved on, both because we directly eat a lot of vegetable oils that are high in Omega 6 and because the animal foods that we consume (meat, eggs, milk, butter) have the same imbalance, because the animals were fed a high Omega 6 diet (i.e. grains and soy.)

The practical application is this: Eat a predominately plant-based diet of whole, unprocessed foods: whole grains, lots and lots of vegetables, and fruit. Eat wild, cold-water fish a few times a week. If you can get it, eat "pastured" (grass fed) meat, eggs, butter and milk. Milk from grass fed cows is higher in Omega 3 fatty acids than conventional milk, and it has conjugated linoleic acid, which is good for you, and which conventional milk does not have. If you can't get red meat, chicken, eggs and dairy foods from grass fed animals, consider skipping them or severely limiting them. (Nonfat dairy foods should be alright--no fat means no imbalance of fats, I should think.) Don't eat anything fried. Use just a little olive oil on your salads. Avoid all trans fats (hydrogenated fats). Avoid or limit added sugar. Don't use artificial sweeteners.

You might want to take fish oil supplements--one or two grams a day. If you are a vegetarian, flax seed is high in Omega-3, but it is a kind that your body has to convert to be useful. Some people's bodies do this better than others'.

For breast cancer, the question of drinking red wine, which is another component of the "Mediterranean Diet," is controversial. At least one researcher thinks it's fine to have one glass a day with a meal of the "right" foods. The consensus, however, seems to be to the contrary.

One "flat belly" diet program based on the Mediterranean diet says to eat monounsaturated fatty acids with each meal. Sources include olives, dark chocolate, olive oil, avocado, cashew, sesame, and other nuts. But fats are very nutrient dense, and as the opening sentence stated, we evolved on a less dense, lower-fat diet than we typically eat now.