Column #155

There’s an old saying that “if the only tool you have is a hammer, you’ll tend to treat everything as if it were a nail.” I’ve been accused of having a one tool approach to health and disease due to my seemingly myopic fix on the essential fatty acid (EFA) ratio. Without reservation I claim that the totality of the food we eat has a larger than life impact on the body’s ability to function optimally. And when I say that, I’m referring to chronic diseases which MedicineNet defines as inflictions that “cannot be prevented by vaccines or cured by medication, nor do they just disappear.”

Since I’m so adamant about the impact of diet on health, few recognize that I also pound the table for sleep, exercise, stress management, mold eradication, and other physical and mental approaches to improving our health and well being. I also state that modern medicine has done wonders in areas of injuries, bacterial and viral infections, poisonings, some birth defects, and communicable diseases. On the other hand, modern medicine doesn’t cure chronic diseases nor does it give diet its due.

My take is that the healthcare industry, including biotechnology, is more single-tool minded than I am. The specialists in those fields are myopic in their beliefs that drugs, operations, and genetic manipulations are the only scientifically valid approaches to addressing chronic diseases. Of course they got there with only a common knowledge understanding of nutrition. That means they know just as much about nutrition as the public knows about drug formulation, surgical techniques, catalytic mechanism of enzymes, protein engineering, the X-ray crystallography of proteins and DNA, and the many other high tech medical marvels.

Recently I had an online conversation with a college professor who’s in a 35-year career of biochemistry teaching and research. I initiated it with a comment posted on an aviation blog responding to several pilots complaining about cataract issues and/or fears of developing cataracts.

The points I made started by stating there is a lot of good research confirming the importance of Omega-3 fatty acids in health and disease and chronic eye diseases are just one area. Dr. Gary Heiting, OD, the senior editor at AllAboutVision.com, has an interesting review titled “Eye Benefits of Omega-3 Fatty Acids” where he describes how chronic eye diseases are caused or exacerbated by the Omega-3 deficiency.

It’s well established that the Omega-3 deficiency is determined by the balance of Omega-6 fatty acids with Omega-3 fatty acids. There are some thousands of fats and all but a few are synthesized by the body. On the other hand the EFAs must come from the diet. For nearly all of time, because of what he ate, man had a balance of Omega-6 to Omega-3 in his cell membranes of about 1:1. But following the invention of farming over 10,000 years ago, he changed the foods he ate until now his ratio is around 15:1.

Unfortunately, many chronic diseases start occurring when the ratio exceeds 4:1. That illustrates the importance of the role Omega-3 EFAs play in nerve, brain, and immune system functions. The problem today is that most people eat too many Omega-6 foods such as seeds, grain, nuts, fruit, and grain-fed animal products (meats, dairy, and eggs). Their resulting EFA ratio of 15:1 is obviously indicating an Omega-3 deficiency.

Then I recommended a study by A.P. Simopoulos titled “The Importance of the Ratio of Omega-6/Omega-3 Essential Fatty Acids” because it explains the science regarding the Omega-3 deficiency and many of the related health issues. It’s scientific information that has been around for well over 40 years. Yet it’s still ignored primarily because there’s so little money to be made in getting people to eat the few foods that have equally balanced EFAs. And that’s not to mention the lost business doctors will experience if there are fewer cases of chronic diseases.

Today’s USDA MyPlate guidance is the same failed high Omega-6 diet the USDA has been pushing for 60 years. We can evaluate its effectiveness by looking at the record. In the past 60 years the nation’s health bill has steadily increased to a staggering 18% of the GNP with chronic diseases making up 85% of that cost. That sounds to me like a death sentence, not a solution. I closed with a link to my website.

The college professor’s response was that, Blogs do not science make. Especially when the “science” has a sales axe to grind. This is not peer reviewed science, but is good commercialism. Barring genetic disease or medication side effects, virtually no one eating a balanced and sensible diet suffers from vitamin or essential nutrient deficiency.

Taking “extra” vitamins will not improve health, and to the contrary there is evidence that high doses of some vitamins will significantly increase risk of serious disease. If you develop cataracts, chalk it up to years of UV exposure which degrades crystallin proteins in your lens.

Blogs do not science make. Especially when the “science” has a sales axe to grind. I’ll leave it at that. Caveat emptor.

Biochemistry is applied primarily in medicine, nutrition, and agriculture. In medicine it’s to investigate the causes and cures of diseases. In nutrition it’s to study how to maintain health wellness and the effects of nutritional deficiencies. In agriculture the study involves soil and fertilizers, ways to improve crop cultivation, crop storage, and pest control.

So here he is, a college professor in biomedical research cranking out students who are supposed to believe that when eating the USDA balanced and sensible diet people will not suffer from vitamin and other essential nutrient deficiencies. And did he confuse Omega-3 fatty acids with vitamins? Obviously his conclusion ignores the 60-year record of health and disease in America. He ignored the fact the pilots in the blog are overweight with additional chronic disease issues and are very afraid of losing their airman medical certificates.

Worst of all he is ignoring the findings of the world’s leading nutritional scientists, many of whom have more years of service than he does. Artemis Simopoulos, MD, FACN, was born in 1933 and she is still actively involved in nutritional science. William E.M. Lands, born in 1930, is an American nutritional biochemist who is among the world’s foremost authorities on essential fatty acids. He is still very active in the field. Both are legends we ignore at our own peril.

Sometimes really smart people, even biochemists, have only one tool.

To your health.

Ted Slanker

Ted Slanker has been reporting on the fundamentals of nutritional research in publications, television and radio appearances, and at conferences since 1999. He condenses complex studies into the basics required for health and well-being. His eBook, The Real Diet of Man, is available online.

Don’t miss these links for additional reading:

Biochemistry from Wikipedia

Eye Benefits Of Omega-3 Fatty Acids by Gary Heiting, OD

Law of the Instrument from Wikipedia

Biomedical Sciences from Wikipedia

Medical Definition of Chronic Disease by MedicineNet, Inc.

Nutritional Modulation of Cataract by Karen A Weikel, et al.

William E.M. Lands from Wikipedia

The Importance of the Ratio of Omega-6/omega-3 Essential Fatty Acids by A.P. Simopoulos, M.D.

Bill Lands’ EFA Education Website

Ted Slanker’s Omega-3 Blood Test

Get Your Own Omega-3 Blood Test and use slanker as a code for a discount

Food Analysis: GI, GL, Fat Ratio, Nutrient Load by Ted Slanker

USDA MyPlate