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The American Paradox: Institute of Medicine’s 2005 Recommendations
The Institute of Medicine (IOM), an American-based nonprofit organization that is part of the National Academy of Sciences, issues scientific recommendations on the amount of nutrients we should eat. The IOM’s most recent report, 2005’s Dietary Reference Intakes, did not suggest any guidelines to balance our omega-6 and omega-3 fats. The report has been criticized [...]
Benefits of Balancing the Omega-6/Omega-3 Ratio
A clever study from Harvard Medical School showed dramatic results when a gene spliced into worms gave them the ability to make their own omega-3 fats. The worms began automatically producing a balanced fat ratio of 1-to-1 in their cells, with incredible benefits:
• Heart cells decreased susceptibility to irregular heartbeats.
• Cancer cells were naturally destroyed [...]
Omega-6 Fat Syndrome, New Foods Created: Margarine and Shortening
In 1897 the invention of hydrogenation (adding hydrogen to oil) allowed vegetable oils to become solid. Voilà shortening and margarine were born. The timing was just right, too. The escalating prices and scarcity of butter during World War I paved the way for lower-cost alternatives. Toss in the medical community’s recommendation to replace butter with [...]
Omega-6 Fat Syndrome, Why Too Many Omega-6 Fats in Our Diet?
A convergence of well-meaning health advice, food processing, and industrialization resulted in a wide variety of foods overfl owing with omega-6 fats, from frankfurters to granola. Many of those fats come from vegetable oils. Today only four oils—cottonseed oil, corn oil, soybean oil, and canola oil—account for 96 percent of the vegetable oil consumed in [...]
Omega-6 Fat Syndrome, The Case of the Fatted Calf
Before 1850, virtually all cattle in the United States spent four to five years grazing on grass, which naturally contains omega-3 fats, before slaughter. But today feedlot operations get a steer to slaughter in just about one year. As a result, cows have much less omega-3 in their meat today than they used to. A [...]
