FATS THAT HEAL FATS THAT KILL - The Complete Lecture - Part 3 (Printer
Version)
©Udo Erasmus 2002
Part Three: EFA's - The Healing Fats
Now comes the exciting part. There are 50 essential nutrients that our body cannot make, but must derive from food. Two of these, called essential fatty acids, (EFAs) come from fats and oils. One is alpha-linolenic acid (omega 3); the other is linoleic acid (omega 6). Both are easily destroyed by light, air, and heat. This is why they become toxic when fried. EFAs are major nutrients. We need them in tablespoon, not milligram, amounts each day.
EFA FUNCTIONS
Energy production. EFAs make red blood cells more flexible, which means that they can find their way through capillaries more easily. The result is that tissues and cells receive their supply of nutrients and oxygen more effectively, and stamina therefore increases. According to feedback from athletes, this effect is noticeable within a week, usually within 3 days, of adding 3 tablespoons (3 times 14 grams) or more of the EFA-rich oil blend we developed to do our work.
EFAs can also increase oxidation, energy levels, and stamina, most obvious to athletes, elderly people, the overweight, and the middle-aged, but also in some young adults and children. They improve athletic performance both in strength and endurance sports. They speed recovery from fatigue.
They can also improve performance and recovery in dogs, horses, and birds. Retired animals may be able to compete again because EFAs bring their energy back. Working dogs pull heavier loads farther. Young birds perform like adults. Race horses perform better and recover quicker.
Older people who use fresh, EFA-rich oils find that their energy levels pick up noticeably. They can increase physical activity; get tired less quickly; recover faster; feel more like being active; and stay alert later in the evening. This energy is not a buzz like you get from coffee, but a stable, sustained, extended energy.
People with cancer, fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis, chronic fatigue-conditions associated with low energy-find that their energy is "up", and they feel better.
People who lack the energy to enroll in a fitness program find that the right kinds of fats - those rich in EFAs with emphasis on w3s - give them the energy they need to work out.
Weight reduction. EFAs ability to increase metabolic rate helps us burn more calories. Instead of being used as fuel, they are converted into hormone-like prostaglandins. These fats keep us slim! EFAs help our kidneys dump excess water in tissues, which constitutes significant extra weight in some people. Cravings which result from not getting the nutrients we need, subside. EFAs satisfy that craving.
In fact, EFAs are exceptionally good at satisfying hunger. EFAs elevate mood and lift depression-a reason why some people overeat. Elevated mood and increased energy levels make us feel like being active.
Here's a key point on fats and body fats. The commonly held belief that fats make you fat is completely wrong. Those who are seriously overweight are almost always fat-phobic carbohydrate junkies. They avoid fats, develop food cravings, and eat sweet and starchy foods. The body does not need the carbohydrate fuel that sweets and starches provide. The body turns into fat all carbohydrates that are not burned for energy.
It is not easy to convince people who want to lose weight to eat more fat. But consider this. In the last 10 years, our intake of fats has decreased from 42% of calories to 35%. This in response to national dietary goals set by experts who operate on only half of the story on fats. It is clearly the wrong advice to give, because in those same 10 years, obesity has gone up, from 20% of the population to 33%. What does that tell you? It's common sense!.Eating less fat is making us fat. We should be eating more fat. But remember, it should be the right kind of fat. Not the processed fats, but the essential ones.
EFA Effects On Major Body Systems:
Red blood pigment (hemoglobin) formation requires EFAs. They also play roles in cell growth and cell division.
Brain development and brain function. 60% of the weight of our brain, the fat-richest organ in our body, is fat, and one third of that is EFAs. Agree with the teacher who calls students 'fat-heads'. The ratio of omega 3s to omega 6s in the brain is 1:1.
Children with learning problems benefit from freshly prepared dietary EFA-rich oils, if the omega 3 to omega 6 ratio is right. They learn faster, and focus better. According to research, their intelligence can increase by 6 to 9 points. EFA-deprived mother rats produce pups with permanent learning disabilities.
Nervous horses calm down by correcting their EFA intake. Horses' natural diet, grass, contains more omega 3s than omega 6s (ratio is 60:40), but they usually get only refined, cheap corn oil rich in omega 6s, but too little omega 3s (ratio is 1:100).
Behavior improves in dogs and cats by adjusting EFA intake to levels and balances they obtained under ideal conditions in nature. Dogs and cats need less omega 3 than horses, but still need both EFAs; most pet foods contain no omega 3s.
Corrections. Given omega 3-rich oils, incorrigible juvenile delinquents unresponsive to counseling became receptive to counseling. EFAs could play important roles in rehabilitating criminals.
We shouldn't expect the brain to fire on all cylinders if its essential nutrient needs remain unmet. After all, the brain too, is made entirely from foods. If our foods don't satisfy our brains' biological requirements, we cannot expect it to work right. And then, our behavior also cannot be right. That's a basic law of behavioral biology.
Mental illness. Because EFAs lift depression and elevate mood, many depressed people would benefit by improving intake and balance of EFAs. Schizophrenics hallucinate less when EFA intake improves. EFAs ought to be key nutrients used to treat mental conditions. Dramatic improvements have sometimes been recorded in Alzheimer's disease and senile dementia. Parkinson's, Lou Gehrig's disease (ALS), and multiple sclerosis also respond positively to improved EFA intake, but may require additional interventions, especially protease enzymes, greens, and anti-oxidants.
Skin, hair, and nails. EFAs form a barrier in our skin against loss of moisture, protect us from dehydration, and prevent many problems involving histamines, prostaglandins, and inflammation. The barrier function of EFAs helps prevent dehydration, and the constipation and toxicity caused by it.
EFAs, excellent edible cosmetics, make skin soft, smooth, and velvety. Even octogenarians still have soft, smooth skin when they get their EFAs right. The best way to oil our skin is from within, using the right amounts of properly balanced, properly made EFA-rich products. Adults usually require about 2 tablespoons per day, but the exact amount for best results is individually determined. People also tan better and burn less. They get relief from eczema, acne, psoriasis, and other skin conditions.
EFA-rich oils used externally turn rancid on our skin and we then smell like paint. That's why these incredible beauty treats (cosmetic edibles) are little used in cosmetics. Just so, eat EFAs to get nice skin.
Dry skin indicates a need for EFAs. In winter, we need more than in summer. When the weather 'turns' in fall, dry skin is your sign to take more EFAs.
Skin is a good indicator of EFA need. We can live with dry skin, but not with a dry liver or brain. Inner organs get priority on the EFAs brought into our body. After our inner organs have their EFAs, your skin gets oiled. I've taken as much as 15 tablespoons in one day, and then none for 12 days (traveling, I didn't want to chance breaking the amber glass bottle and spilling oil all over my underwear in my suitcase). By the skin test, I require almost one tablespoon more each winter day than I do in summer.
Detoxification. In studies done with Vietnam war veterans, their body burden of toxic, cancer-causing oil-soluble Agent Orange-a combination of two chlorinated hydrocarbon herbicides, 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T, made by Dow Chemicals and used to defoliate vegetation during the Vietnam war-was reduced by sweating in a dry sauna. Agent Orange was measured in their sweat, and its decrease in their body could be monitored. The oils part of the sweat carries these toxins. Oil lost in sweating had to be replaced through increased oil intake to prevent dry skin.
And new research shows that EFAs, especially the omega 3, can protect the body from the toxic effects of pesticides. The work was done with Inuit (Eskimos), using omega 3 derivatives found in high fat, cold water fish.
In animals, EFAs benefit skin, hair (feathers), and nails (hooves) in all species with which we have worked: humans, dogs, cats, horses, tigers, lions, and other wild cats, elephants, wolves, hyenas, monkeys, and birds.
EFAs heal conditions like dry, flaky skin, oily skin, 'hot' spots, bald spots, and skin effects of flea and food allergies in dogs and cats rapidly. Improvements begin to show within 3 weeks, become obvious by 30 days, and become apparent in show animals already in top condition by 6 to 8 weeks. Skin benefits are fully developed by 3 months. Horses develop a 'spit and shine' polish within a month of getting their EFAs right.
Digestive system. EFAs help prevent 'leaky gut' and food allergies. They help to reduce cravings that lead to constant snacking, one of the reasons for overweight. They also help prevent addictions to foods, and ease the intensity of symptoms during withdrawal from problem foods.
EFAs also decrease addiction and ease withdrawal from cigarettes, alcohol, and drugs, which can seriously hurt the digestive system and the rest of the body.
EFAs reduce the inflammation that leads to leaky gut and food allergies.
EFAs improve bowel flora, satisfy hunger, and suppress appetite. A friend of mine went to a conference on an island off South America. He arrived a day late, and found all of his cohorts had diarrhea. Unwilling to accept the same fate, he told me that every time he got hungry, he took 2 tablespoons of an oil blend that I developed for the work I do-a blend with a ratio of twice as much omega 3 as omega 6. He was surprised at how well it suppressed his hunger. Using the oil blend this way, he ate nothing but oil for 2 days, and ate his next meal only when he returned to California. In this way, he managed to avoid the bowel problems that all his friends had to contend with.
Inner organs-liver, kidneys, adrenals, and pancreas-require EFAs to function properly, as do our thyroid and other glands. EFAs are required for hormone production. Again, this is just common sense. If every cell in the body requires EFAs, so do our glands and organs, because they are all made of cells.
Sperm formation and female reproduction require EFAs. EFAs help prevent premenstrual syndrome. Other minerals and vitamins required for EFA metabolism, and helpful in both male and female reproduction, include vitamins B3, B6, C, biotin, & E, and the minerals manganese, zinc, and calcium.
Women's health research has recently made some very interesting discoveries. During development, the unborn child draws EFAs from its mother's body the EFAs it needs to develop its brain, because EFAs are absolutely necessary for brain development. In fact, studies had previously shown that a mother rat deprived of the omega 3 EFA produces offspring with permanent learning disabilities.
Studies have also shown that with each consecutive child, a women becomes more depleted of the stores of EFAs she carries in her body. Each child obtains fewer EFAs from her than the child before. Researchers suggest that the reason why younger children in large families often have behavioral and developmental problems is not because they are 'spoiled', but because they don't get all the brain fats-EFAs-they need for normal development. This may also be why oldest children tend to be the most intelligent-their brain is more optimally developed because of the best supply of EFAs during their development.
Those who carried out the studies suggest that depletion of EFAs is a prime reason why women get post-partum depression, and also why women get more depression, fibromyalgia, lupus, thyroiditis, multiple sclerosis, Lou Gehrig's, and other degenerative conditions than men do. The fact that females grow humans inside them-made from their foods, their bodies-means that women are depleted of EFAs in a way that men will never be subjected to.
Because women in North America (or anywhere else around the world) have no reliable way of getting the omega 3 EFA that is so critical to health, researchers suggest strongly that women be made aware of this need. Both for the sake of their own health, and for that of their children.
Cardiovascular system. Cholesterol transport requires EFAs. Omega 3 EFAs lower high triglycerides by up to 65%, better than drugs, without side effects, except that you feel better. Remarkable-a fat that lowers blood fats.
Given in the right ratio-we use twice as much omega 3 as omega 6 in the preparation we use in our work in North America, Australia, and Europe because omega 3s are more therapeutic and less available in normal diets, and that ratio gives us the best results-EFAs produce hormone-like prostaglandins that make platelets less sticky, decreasing the likelihood of a clot forming in an artery to the heart or brain, thereby protecting us from heart attacks and strokes. The right ratio of prostaglandins, made from the right ratio of essential fats in our diet, also help to lower high blood pressure, help our kidneys remove excess water; and decrease inflammation in tissues.
Given in the wrong ratio, EFAs can have the opposite effects. That is one of the most important reasons to make sure we get the ratio right. There should be more omega 3s, but enough omega 6s to avoid omega 6 deficiency.
EFAs are unreliable for lowering cholesterol. Sometimes they do. Sometimes they don't. Elevated cholesterol is lowered consistently and reliably by fiber, the best of which is water-soluble mucilage (insoluble fiber is useless for lowering cholesterol) found in flax, psyllium, and slippery elm. The right combination of these three is especially effective (synergistic).
Immune system. EFAs protect genetic material (DNA) from damage. Our immune cells use EFAs to make oxygen 'bullets' to kill infectious foreign invaders. EFAs help treat fungus infections like athlete's foot or those that take hold under finger and toe nails. Along with enzymes, greens, and friendly bowel bacteria, EFAs also help get rid of yeast overgrowth (candida). The omega 3 EFA, and derivatives of both omega 3 and omega 6 EFAs inhibit tumor growth.
EFAs are required for wound healing.
EFAs play a regulating role in the expression of genes on our chromosomes, especially those which make transport and other proteins with important functions in our cell membranes, and those involved in the production of enzymes needed for energy production.
EFAs are required for protein metabolism. Without EFAs, in fact, proteins can become quite toxic, impairing liver and kidney function, and leading to leaky gut, inflammation, and food allergies.
This point should be emphasized to people on low-fat diets, as well as to athletes, overweight people, and anyone else who has become protein-conscious and fat-phobic. Having heard only half of the story on fats, they are led to make food choices which can have significant negative effects on their health.
We require EFAs to transport and metabolize minerals. They help to maintain strong bones, prevent osteoporosis, and help balance the mineral-depleting action of protein.
