OMEGA 3 IN BALANCE IS VITAL FOR GROWTH AND BRAIN DEVELOPMENT
Endocrinologist, pediatrician, and researcher, Dr. Artemis Simopoulos stated in the Journal of American Society for Clinical Nutrition, that Western diets are woefully deficient in omega 3 fatty acids. The increase intake of polyunsaturated vegetable oils, rich in omega 6 and deficient in omega 3, has created a substantial imbalance of omega 3 EFAs. Adding insult to injury, most of these oils are refined and damaged in the process. Since brain development in humans takes place during fetal life and the first two years after birth, supplying proper lipid nutrition to both mother and child is of special relevance to human development. Simopoulos emphasizes that omega 3 fatty acids are essential for growth and development, and maintaining a balance is vital.
Mother’s milk contains the EFAs necessary to support normal growth and brain development. The milk of vegan women contains less EFAs than the milk of non-vegetarian women. Most commercial formulas lack the right balance of EFAs.
It is no wonder that the Cherokee and various other Indian tribes highly valued the flax plant. To provide their pregnant and nursing mothers with the needed nutrients for creating strong and healthy children, they mixed flax seed oil with either goat or moose milk (to form special lipoprotein compounds), honey, and cooked pumpkin. This formula was also given to people with skin diseases, arthritis, malnutrition, as well as men wishing to increase virility. They believed fax seed oil captured energies from the sun that could then be released and used in the body’s metabolic process.
In fact, this belief has merit: Flax seed oil is rich in electrons, which strongly attract photons from sunlight. However, EFAs must be combined with protein at the same meal to be fully effective. Thus, a combination of flax seed oil/protein/sunlight releases energy and enhances the body’s electrical system. In addition, this combination, along with natural vitamins A and E, can benefit infertile couples and women suffering from premenstrual syndrome (PMS).
OMEGA 3 ALLEVIATES DEPRESSION AND ARTHRITIS
Harvard educated, Donald Rudin, MD and Clara Felix, BS (nutrition science) authors of The Omega 3 Phenomenon (Rawson Assoc. New York, 1987; Avon paperback edition 1988) and Omega 3 Oils: Why You Can’t Afford to Live Without Essential Oils to Improve Mental Health, Fight Degenerative Diseases, and Extend Your life, (Avery Publishing Group, Garden City Park, New York, 1996) successfully treated depression and other emotional disorders by using a whole foods diet supplemented with one to two tablespoons of flax seed oil daily. In fact, Dr. Rudin did most of the pioneering, early work with EFAs, omega 3, and flax seed oil. In one study, for example, arthritic pain could be reduced in a couple of months, skin often became smoother in a week, and mood improved in two hours. Dr. Rudin published his work as: The Omega Factor: Our Nutritional Missing Link (Rodale Press, 1985). The technical version was published in 2006.
http://americannutritionassociation.org/newsletter/omega-3-oils
Rudin and Felix also revealed the "modernization-disease syndrome" and how it results from the major deficiencies in our modern-day diet. Although older, their work is still valuable. http://orthomolecular.org/library/jom/2006/pdf/2006-v21n01-p55.pdf The Felix Newsletter: http://felixletter.org/about.php
For good reason, Nature provides humans with a sympathetic nervous system that is inflammatory, and a parasympathetic nervous system that is anti-inflammatory.