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Old 07-02-2006, 03:13 PM   #24
R.B.
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Join Date: Mar 2006
Posts: 1,843
Walnuts and soy are identified as they have some omega three which is you will see from the chart below is unusual. { there are many more rarefied members of these fat families but they are not commonly discussed and it starts getting very complicated - the subs bench might be a description.}

Many of the trials on omega three and six have only got as far as omega three and take no account of omega six intake as a factor. Omega six is not yet on the wider radar.


Hence they will look at say the impact of walnuts on a diet - so the subject is getting more three which is an improvement BUT misses the real point that six is the key and omega three the essential partner. Fred Aistaire without Ginger Rogers. This also can lead to suggestions that three has no impact, which may in fact be simply because the relatively low additional intake is being swamped by the impact of excess omega six already in the diet.

It is the mother fat linolenic acid 18:3 n3 soy and walnut etc contain which if your body is working ok, pathways not hindered by medication, not compromised by excess six....can be made into the longer and more flexible and influential children DHA and EPA.

BUT walnuts soy etc do not provide DHA or EPA which is even harder to find high level food sources for - there is only basically fish and meat with offal and particular fish providing higher levels - which is why scavengers etc prize the offal as a food source and it is first choice on the carnivore menu, why
bears like salmon etc. I guess.

In general terms the animals have collected the mother fat it from green things and made it into the children, and collected it and the children fats from littler living things, and we are making use of that.

There are vegetarian options but they are limited, which I guess makes balancing the threes and sixes and low level sources of the mother fat greens etc even more important for some. There are some algae products as well.

http://www.benbest.com/health/fpercent.gif

http://www.benbest.com/health/fcontent.gif

This site is useful to look up particular foods
http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts-B00001-01c20oc.html
http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts-B00001-01c20ob.html
http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts-B00001-01c20ob.html

So in the absence of any other omega three sources some walnut and soy is better than none. In a three six diet they would be included for variety and width of diet but factored into the omega six intake (and soy is a personal chioce given the issues that surround it for BC reasons).

AND they also have high levels of six, which as a nomad who fished so omega threes were no problem was good news too ( except soy is reported not to have been on the menu until the chinese found out how to cook it or ferment it to make it more digestible).

AND walnuts have lots of antioxidants and other things - soy products have lots of facets which are the subject of much ongoing discussion for BC sufferers good or bad is still under debate as noted above.

BUT whilst having more three than most things which is good news if you are short of sources of three, they are high sources of omega six which is an issue if you are trying to balance the threes and sixes.

HENCE the general observation if the three six is of interest to keep in mind that nut consumption is high six source in many instances, and nuts and seeds should be consumed in strict moderation. AGAIN CHECK ON NUTRITION DATA as some nuts like macademia and to a lesser extent cashew are much lower in Omega 6s, and some like sunflower are very high.

Levels of intake must be an individual choice but there are suggestion that low sensible is the most effective option keeping the three six balance in mind.

Flax perillia etc are some of the few high three vegetable seed source exceptions - but they too have some six but less six than three see above table.

I hope this helps.

Thanks for the comments. It is a pleasure to feel of some use hopefully, and questions / posts make me check and think about things from different perspective, and force a better understanding which is very helpful in my wanders.

RB

Last edited by R.B.; 10-24-2008 at 02:48 PM..
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