Speaking Of Vitamins

<strong>Learn How to Choose Omega-3 Foods

Have you read about this recently?  Research indicates that including more omega-3 foods in your diet could reduce your risk of degenerative diseases, such as arthritis and heart disease.  The second recommendation is to reduce your intake of omega-6 fatty acids, because they contribute to inflammation and inflammatory diseases.

Inflammation is an important function of the immune system.  It is one of the body’s first reactions to injury or illness.

When an injury or invasion by a pathogen occurs, a flood of white blood cells and other fluids rush to the scene.  Elements of the white blood cells fight infection and the fluids help to protect the area from further injury.

But, in some diseases, rheumatoid arthritis for example, inflammation occurs when there is no infection or injury.  In fact, scientists don’t know why the inflammatory process is initiated.

They call conditions like rheumatoid arthritis autoimmune diseases, because the immune system is over-reacting and attacking healthy cells and tissues.  The immune system overreacts to various stimuli in allergies and asthma, too.

Inflammation is also a cause of cellular aging.  It is involved in the formation of wrinkles and sagging skin.  It damages collagen fibers and can eventually cause cellular changes that lead to cancer.  It plays a role in heart disease, too.

The primary benefits of omega-3 foods and supplements are due to the effect that they have on the body’s inflammatory processes.

Both omega-6s and omega-3s are essential in the human diet.  We can’t survive without them.  But, the two types of fatty acids perform greatly different roles when it comes to inflammation.  If consumption of the two is balanced, then inflammation occurs only when it is necessary.

If consumption is imbalanced, skewed towards the omega-6s, systematic inflammation can occur.  It is sometimes referred to as silent inflammation, because it does not cause any outright pain, at least at first.  But, it is silently doing damage to all of the organs and cells of the body.

All omega-3 foods contain some omega-6s, as well.  There is no food that contains only omega-3s.  So, ideally, people should choose food that contains a balanced ratio of the fatty acids.

The best balance is seen in canola and olive oils.  Flax seed actually provides more omega-3s than omega-6s, as does fish oil, but we don’t use either of those for cooking or other things that we could use canola and olive oil for.  They are good choices for supplementation, however.

Fish and seafood are the best known of all of the omega-3 foods, although, walnuts, olives and avocados are good choices, too.  Bad choices, because they contain too many omega-6s and little, if any, omega-3s include:

Corn oil Peanut oil Sunflower oil Grape seed oil

Now that you know this, ideally you should try to include 5-7 servings of low mercury fish or seafood in your weekly diet. in order to insure that you are getting enough omega-3s on a daily basis. a good fish supplement is the best choice.  Have you had your omega-3 foods, today?

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