5 Reasons to Love Fat

[Samuel]

http://www.health.com/health/article/0,23414,1515882,00.html

5 Reasons to Love Fat

by Julia Rosien

http://img.timeinc.net/health/i/200610/nuts_225.jpg

The healthy kind can help you lose weight, ease aches, breathe easier, and more.

If you skimp on healthy fats—omega-3s in fish, supplements, and some plant and dairy products—you’re missing out on a great way to help prevent a host of common problems. Here’s a quick look at how good these fats really are, and the best ways to work them into your life.

1. Fight those aches
How omega-3s help: Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center found that nearly two-thirds of patients suffering from chronic neck and back pain stopped needing anti-inflammatory pain pills after taking fish-oil pills for 20 to 30 days. The key may be omega-3s’ ability to fight inflammation.
How to get them: You don’t necessarily have to take the pills, says Joseph C. Maroon, MD, a University of Pittsburgh neurosurgeon. Cold-water ocean fish (salmon, mackerel, herring) and lake trout are the best sources of anti-inflammatory omega-3s.

2. Stay slim
How omega-3s help: Mood swings can lead to bring-on-the-brownies moments that sabotage your efforts to lose weight. Omega-3s may help by stabilizing your moods, says Douglas Bibus, PhD, an omega-3 researcher and scientist at the University of Minnesota’s Academic Health Center.
How to get them: Bibus recommends taking a high-quality supplement for 30 days. If you don’t notice a difference, increase your dosage.

3. Have more “up” days
How omega-3s help: Another form of omega-3s known as DHA makes up 25 percent of your body’s brain fat and manages the production and flow of the feel-good chemical serotonin. People who battle depression seem to be DHA-deficient.
How to get them: Researchers believe a DHA supplement may be a gentler (and ultimately more effective) alternative to antidepressants, says David Perlmutter, MD, author of The Better Brain Book and an expert on the relationship between nutrition and neurological disorders. But don’t count on just any supplement available at a drugstore or on the Web. Go to consumerlab.com/results/omega3.asp (http://www.consumerlab.com/results/omega3.asp) to find a list of omega-3 supplements judged in independent tests to be fresh and free of contaminants, and to have the amount of good fats listed on the label.

4. Breathe easier
How omega-3s help: Omega-3s may help reduce the inflammation associated with asthma. In a recent Indiana University study, patients taking fish-oil supplements were better at controlling exercise-triggered symptoms than people taking a placebo or just eating a normal diet were.
How to get them: A supplement is your best bet, Bibus says.

5. Keep your heart healthy
How omega-3s help: In addition to fighting inflammation, omega-3s may lower blood pressure and reduce clotting. And they may help fight diabetes, too. “Diabetes has a strong inflammatory component, which leads to a much greater risk of developing heart disease,” Bibus explains. Omega-3s help cells lower blood sugar, a key to avoiding diabetes, Perlmutter adds.
How to get them: Eat plant foods like flax, walnuts, spinach, arugula, avocados, and canola oil, and soy products like full-fat tofu and edamame. They have a form of omega-3s called ALA that may help prevent heart disease, according to Harvard Medical School scientists. Also eat coldwater fish twice a week. And if you like eggs, shop for brands like Eggland’s Best that contain high levels of omega-3s. Bon appétit.

[Dodger]

Eat plant foods like flax, walnuts, spinach, arugula, avocados, and canola oil, and soy products like full-fat tofu and edamame. This is very misleading. Soy does have some ALA, but it has about 8 time as much o+mega-6 as omega-3. None of these plants have any long-chain omega-3s which have been associated with significantly more health benefits that ALA has.

[tom sawyer]

I wonder how much of inflammation reduction is based on consumption of omega-3, and how much is from reduced carbohydrate consumption? I eat commercially-finished meat, not that much oily fish and no supplements, and I still had my asthma go away. I'm sure I still get more omega-3 in my diet, even though the ratio to omega-6 isn't much different from the way I used to eat.

I'm not convinced that the ratio of these is that important. If you have adequate omega-3 available for synthesis of hormones, I would think that would be of primary importance. even if there is some competitive inhibition by omega-6, having plenty of both would still make it likely that the enzymes would finds enough of the right substrate (omega-3) to make the necessary amount of hormone.

The reduction in asthma and other inflammation-related problems like acne, could be a combination of both increased omega-3 intake, and the lack of frequent high influx of carbs causing inflammation on a regular basis.

[tom sawyer]

On the focus on plant sources, isn't ALA porrly converted by the body to the active form? Not that all the sources mentioned are bad for you, other than possibly soy. Most everything else mentioned is part of a good hunter-gatherer diet. Maybe not flaxseed, I bet hunter-gatherers wouldn't touch the slimy stuff. Maybe the ones who had a taste for okra.

[mike_d]

I believe "healthy fats" and oils supplements are of little use on a low-fat diet where the total fat is < 30%. There are other factors that come into play like fat soluble vitamins.