I was recently asked by a colleague, what I thought about various popular cooking oils…in particular, grapeseed, flaxseed, canola, and pumpkin seed oil. Here is a summary.
First of all, all of these oils are oils, and their caloric content is roughly similar, about 50 calories per teaspoon. You will not save calories by choosing a particular oil, and there is no oil you can eat limitless quantities of without the caloric content eventually catching up with you.
Secondly, as far as omega-3 content, any vegetable oil containing omega-3 fatty acids contains ALA, NOT the EPA and DHA found in seafood. Even though some ALA can be converted to DHA, it does not occur in quantities needed to therapeutically treat PCOS, or to maintain the integrity of brain structure in the general population. The reason ALA is important, is that it helps to protect the body from inflammation and when it is consumed in adequate quantities, it allows DHA to do its job. In other words, if all you are doing is taking a few fish oil capsules but not changing your diet, you are not very likely to benefit from the fish oil.
That being said, when you choose oils to cook with, you want to remember that your overall dietary omega 6 to omega 3 ratio should be 10:1 or less, in order to reduce the possibility of insulin resistance. How do these four oils measure up?
I boldfaced the ones I prefer.
Grapeseed oil 696 to 1 Yikes!
Flaxseed oil 0.238 to 1 Now you know why we love flaxseed so much around here. Here is some information on some flaxseed oils you can cook with that you might find interesting.
Canola oil 2 to 1 Whether or not you want to include canola oil in your diet is part of your own food religion. If it fits for you, know its ratio is excellent. If it does not, you may want to investigate the flaxseed oil option listed above.
Pumpkin seed oil 3 to 1 Not bad!
Lard 10 to 1 This surprised me. It also made me feel better about my love of tamales.: )
Butter 8.6 to 1 Even better than lard!
Margarine, stick 11.4 to 1 Don't go there.
Margarine, tub 4.8 to 1 The only problem here is that in order to make a liquid oil solid…it has to be turned into trans fat. Wrong kind of omega-6 oil.
I received notice yesterday that a new omega-3 product has hit the market. It's called"New Harvest", and it caught my eye because it is a vegetarian source of essential fatty acids. We have a lot of vegetarians reading our blog so I wanted to know more. This is what I learned by going to their website.
1. The manufacturer is Dupont Chemical. 2. The omega-3's are produced by using a specific type of yeast, Yarrowia lipolytica, to turn corn sugar into fat.
I do like the fact that companies are working to find alternatives for humans that do not involve depleting the world's fish supplies. And I do like the fact that this has potential to help vegetarians.
My problem with this product is that it appears to be a product of genetic engineering. I'm not convinced that this is a completely risk-free technology. And, given the fact that a very high percentage of our readers are either trying to conceive or are pregnant, I have to remember that any food or supplement choice we encourage here has the potential to affect at least two lives, only one of which has a choice in what they are exposed to.
I'm in the process of deciding for myself about genetic engineering. It is a relatively new technology and I don't believe it's been around long enough for us to be 100% confident that it is 100% safe. Each of you has your own opinion about whether or not you wish to incorporate these foods into your diets. It took enough work for me to find the answers to simple questions I had about this product, that I decided to simplify the process for anyone else who might have similar questions.
I also wish, instead of marketing their product as"yeast-based", DuPont had been more forthcoming about the fact that it's more accurately positioned as"corn-based".
If you've been following the blog over the last week, I've been reporting about interesting products and things I learned at the 2011 Natural Products West Expo. It's a huge exposition where food companies hoping to connect with buyers for health food stores have a chance to showcase their products. There were about 2,000 exhibitors there, and in 3 days I didn't get a chance to see and talk to everyone I wanted to. You can imagine, on the exhibitor end, the pressure there is to create a product, packaging concept, and booth display that catches the eye of the people you came to meet!
Unfortunately, not all concepts were on target. I'm sharing one that is a common example of how omega-3 marketing is not always accurate. It's still not regulated well, so there are lots of variations in how facts are presented that can be confusing to the person who knows they want to eat well but doesn't understand all the facts.
Yesterday I pulled a fish oil bottle out of my sample bag and noticed on the label that it was"extra-virgin" fish oil. This is a concept that I'm familiar with when it refers to olive oil, and it means that it is the olive oil from the first press of olives. It's a stronger oil, with a lower smoke point, and more appropriate for recipes where the oil is not heated. But it's not really a concept that has any relevance to fish. (I joked with my Facebook friends about whether or not it really mattered what the fish were doing before we caught them!) This particular product's label was also busy with breakdowns of omega-3's, 5's, 6's, 7's, and 9's, promoting a"perfect complement of 16 omega's". It all sounded very official, but to the average consumer who is still confused about 3's, 6's, and 9's, it only serves to make shopping for fish oil tedious and painful.
One of the reasons for all of this confusion is that fish oil is Mother Nature's patent. Consumers want their foods and supplements to be as unrefined as possible, but the only way to patent and protect a manufactured product, is to alter it. So it is very difficult for fish oil companies to create products that distinguish themselves from other competing products while keeping their customers happy. What is left to distinguish a product is where the fish is caught, what species the fish is, and the total amounts of omega-3 fatty acids. And lots of pretty, irrelevant marketing words.
Even with all my knowledge and training, I can spend hours in the health food store looking at labels on fish oil supplements and keeping up with new and different products. From my perspective, it's the total amount of omega-3's that matters. If you have a hard time with the flavor or the burps, there are several flavored options and packaged forms that can get you around that problem.
Here is my advice to you.
1. First of all, before you spend a lot of money and time, try taking fish oil to see if it works for the problem you're trying to solve. Be sure you take enough of it. For the degree of inflammation seen with PCOS, you're going to need to take the equivalent of 1000 mg DHA. That can be 2 to 3 times the recommended dose on the bottle. Be sure you do your math. It can even be the Costco brand. That is actually my first recommendation to clients. I'm more interested in whether or not adding DHA to the diet is helpful, not where the fish was caught, what the flavor of the fish oil is, yadayadayada. I just want to establish if there is a DHA deficiency.
2. Make a list of the problems that you have that you're looking for relief with that you know are related to omega-3 imbalance: memory, concentration, mood swings, carbohydrate cravings, skin problems, menstrual irregularity. Keep this list in a handy place.
3. If memory problems are on your list, be sure you have a mechanism for remembering to take the fish oil! I swear, this is one of the biggest barriers to PCOS, memory and forgetfulness keeping you from remembering what it is you need to do! If you need to engage your significant other, or set up an alarm on your phone, or a Google calendar reminder…do whatever it takes to be consistent. If you didn't take it, and it didn't work, it didn't work because you didn't take it, not because it's not the issue.
4. Be diligent about reducing your omega-6 intake: soy, safflower, sunflower, sesame, corn, cottonseed. The less of these oils you have in your diet, the better chance omega-3's have of doing the job.
5. Be sure you're reading the dose right on the label. One of my biggest issues I have with one of the most popular brands of fish oil is that their dose is two capsules, not one. Most people never read the fine print, assume a dose is one pill, and end up taking half of what they were thinking they were taking.
6. At the end of your trial period, look at your list and see what improved. Did it work? NOW, and only NOW that you've established whether or not you were DHA deficient, consider if the type of fish oil you take. Would you prefer a flavored, a gel, a capsule, a liquid? All of them are going to give you what you want, you're just deciding which one fits best with your personal taste and texture preference.
Pretty packaging and fancy words are not what are going to help you to feel better. It's what's inside the package, and in what concentration, that you need to focus on!
This article just popped up when I logged in this morning, and I thought you all might find it interesting. I know from my website that skin and appearance issues are among the top concerns of"cysters"…
What's interesting about this, is that the very same foods that promote fertility, can promote healthy skin.
A short note about fish oil and skin. About 15 years ago I took a vacation to Costa Rica. I used sunscreen…but my German-WASPy skin just didn't tolerate the intensity of the latitude. I ended up with a second degree burn, and scarring on my chest that I had resigned myself to having as a lifelong lesson about sun and skin.
In the last few years I've been changing my own diet based on what I've learned in studying PCOS, and I've begun to do some work for omega-3 companies. Dennis, my friend at Nordic Naturals kept sending me bottles of flavored cod liver oil, which I kept putting in the refrigerator or trying to pass off on my cats.
Finally, I decided to try it. And a few months later, I noticed, the scarring looked a whole lot less worse. It's probably a combination of a better diet and supplements, but it really reinforced with me, being here in Arizona, that my skin deserves the best possible diet and care I can give it.
I was asked to clarify some comments I recently made about chia, as they were questioned for their accuracy. I'm all for revisiting and making sure my information is accurate, so here is my response.
First of all, while the information on this blog should be helpful to anyone regardless of whether or not they have PCOS, it IS targeted toward women who have this hormone imbalance. So some of the information I provide is more geared toward their specific nutritional needs and not the apparently healthy population. This should always be kept in mind when reading what I write.
One of the questions about my post was that I stated that taurine is an essential amino acid. There is actually some debate about this. Some experts say no, we can synthesize it. Others call it a conditional amino acid, meaning in some situations it may be essential.
Women with PCOS seem to have something going on in their brain and nervous systems that interferes with everything from mood and appetite regulation to speech and language function. (Simply read the responses to my question last week about the symptoms I listed and you will see what I mean.) Much of the dietary protocol we have developed is actually derived from epilepsy research at Johns Hopkins University, with the premise that calming nervous system excitability makes it easier for the brain and nervous system to function as they should when not under duress. Taurine is an amino acid showing promise as an anti-seizure compound, which makes me wonder whether or not a hyperexcitable brain blows through available taurine much more quickly than a brain that does not have to live under these conditions.
That being said, I am more comfortable with the premise that for the population for whom this blog is written, as well as anyone living with any kind of condition that places stress on the brain (migraines, epilepsy, OCD, anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, PTSD, schizophrenia, etc.), taurine may actually be an essential amino acid. Research to support my claim still needs to be done, but I am more comfortable being conservative on this one, especially given the responses to last week's questionnaire and the severity of some of the diagnoses I just listed. Better to be safe than sorry.
Secondly, even if the amino acid profile of chia is complete, the total protein content of chia is relatively low. So if we're advocating for a 30% protein diet in a woman who is being advised to consume 1500 calories a day, she is going to need to consume about 113 grams of protein. That translates into your needing, at this protein level, to consume 700 grams of chia per day, just to get your protein needs. That is also 3,430 calories' worth of chia, more than twice your daily calorie needs. And while its amino acid profile is nearly complete, its nutritional profile is not. It contains no vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin K, thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin B6, folate, or iron, to name a few.
From an omega-3 standpoint, I did invert the numbers. There is no consistent order by which omega-6 and omega-3 ratios are reported, and though I usually check to be sure I did not flip them, I did not this time. I do apologize for that.
According to http://www.nutritiondata.com/, chia seed contains an omega-6 to omega-3 ratio of 3.03, which is actually quite good.
The caveat is that the omega-3 this food contains is alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), not EPA or DHA. Most omega-3 experts will contend that in the most perfect of conditions conversion of ALA to DHA is at best 5%. Again, the women this blog serves seem to need a much higher level of DHA than average for a variety of reasons. We find that they seem to do best on 1000 mg DHA daily, the level recommended by Dr. Artemis Simopolous for treating depression. Calculated out, if you are depending on chia seed to get all of your omega-3 fatty acids, from ALA through EPA and DHA, you're going to need to consume about 115 grams of chia seeds per day. Just be forewarned.
Bottom line, I actually think chia is a healthy food--as part of a varied diet. I especially think that for vegans reading this blog it can be a great addition to your diet. However, I do not believe in superfoods. There seems to be a trend toward wanting to find one perfect food that has it all. I have yet to find it. It's understandable when we're surrounded by a lot of confusing information and we live in a culture where over 10,000 new products hit the grocery shelves each year (I saw half of them in Anaheim last month and it was overwhelming!) that we'd want to have just a few foods and a small nutritional comfort zone. Unfortunately that is not really how human nutrition works.
This is an especially important philosophy to stick to on this blog, given the fact that we're learning that a very high percentage of the women we're helping have some kind of history of"veganism gone wrong"…in other words, overzealous veganism with a focus on eliminating foods rather than on learning how to eat to be nutritionally complete with no animal products on the menu. We discourage fanaticism and encourage food curiosity and variety!
We were designed to be omnivores and to eat a variety of foods from a variety of sources. I encourage you, rather than arguing for why you should narrow your choices down to feel more comfortable around food, to learn to negotiate a wider variety of foods you are willing to include in your diet.
Gaby AR. Natural approaches to epilepsy. Altern Med Rev. 2007 Mar;12(1):9-24.
POSITIVE: To put that into perspective, a tablespoon of hemp seed has about the same amount of fat as a teaspoon of butter or oil, plus slightly less protein than an ounce of meat. So as far as fat choices, it's going to give you more nutritional bang for your buck than a pure fat source. That protein is also a complete protein, too!
WARNING: Beware of those calories, though! Someone who commented on the Livestrong.com website where I got this information shared that he puts 3 tablespoons of hemp seeds on his cereal every morning. That is 240 calories, which if not removed from elsewhere in the diet, is the equivalent, over a year, of 25 pounds' worth of calories. If you ADD hemp to your diet, be sure you've accounted for it by REMOVING less calorically dense/nutritious food choices.
POSITIVE: With respect to fatty acid profile, the omega-6 to omega-3 ratio of hemp averages 3:1. This is favorable, as it is lower than the recommended total dietary ratio of 4:1.
WARNING: As hemp is a vegetarian source of omega-3, it provides ALA. It does not contain EPA or DHA, which are primarily found in seafood. Some of the ALA found in hemp will be converted into EPA and DHA, but not in the quantities we have found to be of therapeutic value for PCOS. If you want to use hemp in your diet, it is certainly beneficial, but it does not replace the need for the other omega-3's.
POSITIVE: Hemp contains gamma-linoleic acid (GLA), which can be helpful for some skin conditions, including atopic dermatitis.
WARNING: GLA tends to work best when it is not overwhelmed with omega-6 fatty acids. In other words, if you have a skin condition, and you want to try GLA as a remedy, you are most likely to achieve good results if you cut back on your total omega-6 fatty acid intake (safflower, sunflower, soybean, sesame, corn, and cottonseed oil).
You could say the bottom line with hemp, as with any other food, is that if it is used judiciously and respectfully and not layered onto an unhealthy diet that needs some tuning up, it can be a tool toward better hormone balance.
But it is not a miracle food that will allow you to continue with unhealthy dietary indiscretions without consequence.
For those who are concerned about the THC content of hemp: in order to ingest enough industrial hemp to get 'a buzz', you would have to consume the the equivalent of 2-3 doses of a high-fiber laxative. Thanks to the North American Industrial Hemp Council for that little tidbit!
For starters, here is a recipe for hemp pancakes. As you can see, the oil has been removed and replaced with hemp seed. That is the way hemp should be used; as a fat alternative, not as an additional fat. It could probably be used in many recipes where you are using ground flax seed, with similar results.
Here are some sample hemp food products available at amazon.com
For more information about the history, politics, and nutritional analysis of hemp, beyond the direct pertinence of hemp to PCOS, try this article on Dr. Bronner's website.
…I wanted to highlight eggs since they are a food many people don't eat, thinking about the cholesterol.
It used to be, when I was brand-new to this profession, I was taught to tell people to avoid eggs. Because of the cholesterol.
It turns out, the cholesterol in eggs has been shown to not increase serum cholesterol, and taking eggs out of your diet doesn't really decrease your cholesterol.
Besides that, eggs…
…are cheap. …have one of the highest quality proteins available. …are one of the very few foods contain choline (in the yolk), which is very important for maintaining memory, potentially reducing your risk for Alzheimer's disease. …are a good source of vitamin B-12, another nutrient that isn't always easy to get. …are convenient to eat. …if you get the omega-3 kind, can be a source of DHA, which is not easy to get in your diet if you don't like or don't have access to fish.
So have fun with your holiday and take advantage of the fact that you've got all those boiled eggs in the frig. Have them for breakfast. Put them on your salad at lunch.
And know it's something good you're doing for yourself!
The day after the FDA warning about pistachio nuts came out, I was in a local grocery store. As I walked through the produce aisle, I noticed the produce manager and his clerk with a huge bin; they were emptying out their inventory of pistachio nuts into a huge garbage bin. They had no idea where their pistachios had come from, and they had to throw them away.
I felt sad that so much food had to be wasted.
The day that the FDA warning about pistachio nuts came out, I received a note from Whole Foods Market. They were working to source where all their pistachio nuts came from. A detailed memo was released later in the week regarding the safety of pistachios in their many stores.
Please read this blog post and make your own decisions. But do consider the value in being an informed consumer. If you are judicious about where you shop, it may be worth a little extra investment. If you make a choice to purchase locally grown products at your farmer's market, you're not only supporting a local small business, you know exactly what hands your food passed through before it fell into yours.
There will come a time when pistachios will be considered generally healthy to eat, no matter what the source. And when that comes, keep these pistachio fun facts in mind:
--a one ounce serving of pistachio nuts scores higher on the USDA's antioxidant scorecard than a cup of green tea. --pistachio nuts can help to reduce bad cholesterol and raise good cholesterol --pistachio nuts are high in lutein and can help prevent macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness --pistachio nuts are a good source of many vitamins and minerals, including: thiamin, vitamin B6, copper, manganese, potassium, dietary fiber, phosphorus and magnesium --pistachio nuts are a good source of healthy fats, including omega-3's
My point is…I hope you don't eliminate pistachios completely from your diet because of what you've heard in the news. The pistachio recall was specifically for pistachios from Setton Farms. If you can shop at a store or farmer's market where you can be assured pistachios did not pass through this processing plant, they can be a wonderful addition to your PCOS eating plan.
Here's a recipe for white bean pistachio chili to get you started!
I have heard the following recommendations made by the American Heart Association repeatedly for years now. And I hear them parroted everywhere by well-intended medical experts who, it seems, did not stop to check the math on which the recommendations are based:
Population Recommendation Patients without documented coronary heart disease (CHD) Eat a variety of (preferably fatty) fish at least twice a week. Include oils and foods rich in alpha-linolenic acid (flaxseed, canola and soybean oils; flaxseed and walnuts).
Patients with documented CHD Consume about 1 g of EPA+DHA per day, preferably from fatty fish. EPA+DHA in capsule form could be considered in consultation with the physician.
Patients who need to lower triglycerides 2 to 4 grams of EPA+DHA per day provided as capsules under a physician's care.
Patients taking more than 3 grams of omega-3 fatty acids from capsules should do so only under a physician's care. High intakes could cause excessive bleeding in some people.
Evidence from prospective secondary prevention studies suggests that taking EPA+DHA ranging from 0.5 to 1.8 grams per day (either as fatty fish or supplements) significantly reduces deaths from heart disease and all causes. For alpha-linolenic acid, a total intake of 1.5–3 grams per day seems beneficial.
I couldn't sit back anymore. Ellen Reiss Goldfarb, RD, a member of this blog's inCYST Network for Women With PCOS collaborated with me on hopefully setting the record straight. We hope it helps, especially to get a mathematically-correct set of recommendations out to the public so they can go grocery shopping with a better sense of empowerment.
Regarding the omega-3 recommendations recently discussed, you all may want to consider that there are several contradictions within that make it very difficult (maybe even impossible) for the average American to follow them. As dietitians, it is important that we understand this math so that we help, not confuse or hurt, people who look to us for advice.
First of all, we are telling people that they are not to eat more than 3 grams of omega-3's per day unless they are under a physician's care. However, if you try to get 1.8 mg of combined EPA + DHA combined, in the form of food first, 3 ounces of Alaskan salmon, which contains 384 mg of EPA plus DHA, would have to be eaten in a DAILY QUANTITY OF 14 ounces in order to get there. Are you really saying that if you're eating enough fish to get the amount of omega-3's we recommend, that the MD has to manage it??? You are unnecessarily putting yourself out of business if you are!!!
Secondly, given those numbers for salmon, the densest seafood source of omega-3's, there is no way eating fish just a few times a week is going to get you to the level of omega-3 intake these recommendations are making. It is so frustrating watching colleagues parrot these recommendations and wondering if we're the only ones who've actually sat down and done this math.
We also went to three popular fish oil brands and calculated out how many pills you would need to get the upper level of DHA + EPA recommended. Two of those, Nordic Naturals and Carlson's, if taken at the level needed to get there, would also place your client at levels you say a physician needs to manage.
Realistically and honestly, how many of you are really doing that?
With regards to bleeding, in all of our collective years actively recommending fish oil, only one client encountered a bleeding problem. The people at greatest risk for that are people who are on medications such as coumadin…and if you work closely with a physician who"gets it"--the dose of that medication can be dropped as EPA levels rise and help normalize blood clotting function. Always start low, titrate up, look closely for symptoms in people not on contraindicated medicatoins and let the MD check blood levels in people who are…and work very hard to minimize omega-6 intake. You'll get a lot more bang out of your omega-3 buck if you focus on the omega 6 to omega 3 ratio than if you only think about one.
If you don't know how to use omega-3's to promote health, you may actually CREATE health risks for your clients, which I don't think any of you want to do.
Here are the numbers from our calculations for your reference.
Amount needed to meet n-3's needed to meet upper DHA + EPA recommendation/total omega-3 content of that amount 3 ounces salmon 14 oz DAILY/15.2 total gms n-3 Nordic Naturals 3.27 capsules/3.6 gm total n-3 Carlson's 3.6 capsules/6.0 gm total n-3 Barlean's 3.0 capsules/2.3 gm total n-3
Monika M. Woolsey, MS, RD Ellen Reiss Goldfarb, RD
Lent is a good time to remind all of you, Lenten-practicers or not, that even though salmon is a nice source of those omega-3’s, it’s not the ONLY source. Don’t bore yourself out of one of the most important nutrients your PCOS needs by focusing on only one fish! Omega-3’s gain entrance into the food chain at the very bottom, with algae. The smaller fish eat a lot of algae. Bigger fish eat the smaller fish, which is how they get THEIR omega-3’s, and so on and so forth, up the food chain. (Whales defy that, they get their omega-3’s from krill, but they’re technically mammals and unless we live in the Arctic circle we don’t eat them so they don’t count in this blog post.) Anyway, my point is, ANYTHING that comes from the water has omega-3’s in it. You don’t just have to eat salmon. In fact, it would be better if that wasn’t all you ate in the seafood department, because if we all did that… we’d wipe out the salmon population. There just aren’t enough for all of us to do that. Any seafood has omega-3’s, and when you’re eating seafood, provided it isn’t fried in an omega-6 fat, your dinner plate overall is likely more anti-inflammatory than it would be if you ate poultry or meat. Here’s a list of the omega-3 contents of a variety of seafoods for you. Remember, it’s about the balance of omega-6 to omega-3 fats, so total omega-3 is not all that matters. Salmon is nice, but for many of you it’s expensive. It’s also summer-seasonal, which means eating it in the winter is not really a sustainable practice. It’s better for everyone involved, including the fish, and the planet, if you vary your choices. Barramundi… prawns… catfish… they’re all beneficial to your health. Gumbo, sushi, calamari anyone? http://www.heartfoundation.org.au/SiteCollectionDocuments/FishOils-table.pdf
In the spirit of Mardi Gras week, I thought I'd highlight a kissin' cousin of that Cajun crawfish…shrimp.
Shrimp are one of those foods people love…and they have learned to be afraid of. When I started out in this field, I was taught to teach patients to avoid shrimp because of their high cholesterol content.
Turns out, dietary cholesterol in foods such as eggs and shrimp do not influence our own cholesterol nearly as much as pro-inflammatory fats, saturated fats, and trans fats. Some researchers even suggest that shrimp consumption may IMPROVE cholesterol and triglyceride levels!
In addition shrimp, lucky for a shrimp lovin' woman like myself, is extremely low in fat! A 3.5 oz (deck of card-sized) serving of fish has about 1 gram of fat…whenever I'm questioned about shrimp I always remind the person with the question that shrimp is so low in fat, it almost squeaks from lack of lubrication against your teeth when you bite into it.
Shrimp is also a great source of protein, vitamin B12 (crucial for mental health), tryptophan (needed to make serotonin), and vitamin D (thought to be important in managing PCOS). In addition, shrimp helps omega-3 balance by contributing a moderate amount of DHA. And, when you're replacing red meat with seafood, you're exchanging pro-inflammatory omega-6 fats with healthier fats, which ensures that your omega-3's are not metabolically destroyed before they have a chance to benefit you.
So if you see shrimp cocktail, shrimp fajitas, grilled shrimp on the menu…go ahead! Enjoy! It's contributing to your health while providing a tasty adventure.
As you know, I have a huge allegiance to omega-3 fatty acids and their potential for our readers. So much so that my friends are convinced that under the mask of my smiling face there is a giant fish head. I have done my best to steer clear of allegiance to any particular brand, but I do have a strong allegiance to integrity. I ran across something recently that felt really wrong, and I'd like to bring it to our fans' attention, so that their choices for who to support in the quest for hormone balance are informed choices.
From time to time I've mentioned a line of products I thought were really nice omega-3 options from a company called Barlean's, their Omega Swirl line. Pictured here is their packaging, including their lemon-flavored fish oil and their strawberry-banana flavored flax oil.
Yesterday I ran across a new line of products.
Here's a picture of their lemon fish oil product.
And wow, here's their — whaddaya know — strawberry banana flax oil product.
Same flavor, same concept…they didn't even bother to package in a different bottle.
As for what's inside, the original (Barlean's) contains 365 mg DHA, 365 mg EPA, and 970 mg total omega-3 fatty acids. The other company's product? 360 mg DHA, 360 mg EPA, and just over 1000 mg total omega-3 fatty acids. A little too close to be considered coincidence.
I know there are certain rules by which the US Patent and Trademark Office define how we each can play the intellectual property game. And I know for every rule there are always 2 or 3 or 4 ways around it.
But I also know what integrity looks like. This is not it.
Be good to the Barlean's people. They're the ones who did the hard work and the ones who deserve our support.
**I receive no compensation from Barlean's and never have.
I just read some information over the weekend targeted at women with PCOS, in which they were advised to eat more almonds because of their omega-3 content.
Please note, almonds do NOT contain omega-3 fatty acids. The only nuts that do, are walnuts, pecans, pine nuts, pistachio nuts, hazelnuts, and cashew nuts. If you wish to verify this for yourself, by visiting the USDA Nutrient Database. The compound you want to look for is called"18:3 undifferentiated fat".
Almonds are not bad for you, and in fact, they contain a lot of great things. In fact, according to the Almond Board of California, they are the tree nut highest in calcium, vitamin E, riboflavin, and niacin. All of these nutrients are important for total PCOS wellness.
It's just important to know that if you're looking for ways to boost your omega-3 intake (which we strongly encourage at inCYST), almonds are not going to be the nut that gets you there.
I was asked by one of our readers (who happens to also be my dear cousin Susan), if there was anywhere on the Internet, a checklist for vegetarians to follow to be sure their diet is complete. Her pretty exhaustive research found nothing really practical for meal planning.
So in response to that, and knowing that a very high percentage of our own readers are vegetarian, I put something together. Please let us know if it needs refining or detail, so that we can make this as practical as it can possibly be.
There are five main things to attend to. All of them are important, but I ordered them in the way I look at them when planning a vegetarian meal for myself.
1. What is my protein source and how much of it do I need to truly give me enough protein?
Here are your goals based on the number of calories you eat. This will make 30% of your calories protein, which will help to fight insulin resistance.
2. Where is my vitamin D coming from, and have I had enough? You will have to make a very conscious effort to get enough of this vitamin. With regard to whole foods, mushrooms are pretty much the only vitamin D-containing food. With regard to vegan milk alternatives, beware. Most are so low in protein, they are more accurately thought of as juices rather than milks. If you choose to drink them you will need to find other ways to meet criteria nu,ber one above. I blogged about this in detail not too long ago.
3. Are my fats healthy? If your definition of vegan is primarily not eating meat, and you are eating a lot of packaged, processed, prepared, or baked food…be extra sure you are not inadvertently letting the pro-inflammatory fats sneak in. Remember, they tend to begin with the letters"s" and" c" — soybean, safflower, sunflower, sesame, corn, cottonseed. (Canola is the exception.). Vegans are often blindsided here with salad dressings, baked goods, cookies, and chops. Read your labels--as much as I love Whole Foods, their entire snack food aisle only has a handful of choices you can bring home if you follow this rule! Good fats include olive and organic canola.
4. Am I getting DHA and EPA (marine omega-3)? Yes, flax, green veggies, and other foods contain omega-3, but the conversion rate is not high. You will need to find a marine algae supplement to be sure your intake of these two essential fatty acids is adequate. InCYSTer Chris Marquette found one that is not genetically modified; look for it next time you shop.
5. Am I getting enough fruits and vegetables? Ideally, these should be the vast majority of what you eat. I am surprised at how many vegans I know who do not like vegetables! You should be aiming for 2-3 1/2 cup servings PER MEAL. Beware of juicing; it is a great way to get in large volumes of fruits and vegetables…BUT…the carbohydrate to protein ratio is not going to help reduce insulin resistance. Make a smoothie out of your juice with your favorite protein powder.
Of course, you can take supplements to make up many of these deficiencies…but if your solution in more than one of these categories is a supplement, I challenge you to consider why you do what you do. The true definition of a vegan is someone WHO MEETS THEIR DAILY NUTRITIONAL NEEDS without using animal-based food to make it happen. If all you have done is remove animals from your diet, you are simply a picky or misinformed eater.
It's little things that add up to big changes. And it's the canister of little pumpkin seeds in my kitchen cabinet that reminded me it was time for a new food of the week!
One of the things I think people miss most when eating healthier is the perception that they are sacrificing the"crunch". I'm not sure where that perception comes from, with most produce providing a great crunchy alternative…but for those of you who just don't think carrots are a fair crunchy trade for potato chips, think about seeds and nuts.
I used to hate pumpkin seeds as a kid, but it's probably because we scooped them out of the gooey Halloween aftermath and had to take the shell off to eat them. These days, shelled roasted pumpkin seeds are available in the bulk food sections of most grocery stores.
I like pumpkin seeds because they contain omega-3 fatty acids. Not the kind you'll get in fish, but still a healthy fat. I also like their versatility. You can sprinkle them on a salad or soups. You can add them to a tuna or chicken salad. Crushed or ground, you can add them to any flour you're using for a baking recipe. Mix them into your bread crumbs and crust your chicken or fish. Or…just have a handful when you walk in the door while you wait for dinner to be ready.
I like to store all my seeds and nuts in glass canisters so that I'm reminded that I have them. And if I remember they are there, I'm challenged to think of ways to put them into my other foods.
Blog reader Renata Mangrum, a fellow dietitian, sent me this recipe. I am not a sardine lover myself, but I am always surprised at how many people really do enjoy them. On behalf of those who do…here is Alton Brown's sherried sardine toast. Enjoy!
I've been pretty vocal about the fact that we need to diversify our recommendations for seafood so that we don't deplete entire species in our quest for omega-3 fatty acids. In a search for options to replace the ever-popular salmon, I've learned some interesting things that we'll share on the blog. Today, I'd like to introduce you to a prehistoric Amazonian fish called paiche (pronounced pie-EE-chay). This fish is so new to culinary tables, the first one only appeared in the United States in the summer of 2010.
Fully grown, this fish can reach lengths of almost 7 feet and weights of over 200 lbs. Once overfished by natives to the point of near-extinction, the Peruvian government had placed a ban on its harvest. However, aquaculture specialists have been working to develop a means to sustainably raise this fish. Not only is this effort creating an industry beneficial to a financially disadvantaged part of the world, it is helping to replenish local waters with a vital component of the food chain that had been depleted with non-sustainable practices.
This fish is low in fat, and marketers are promoting it as a high omega-3 fish. I am working to find the exact values; this fish is so new on the market that data is not readily available. I'll update you here when the numbers actually do come in. One additional selling point of paiche is that it is farmed in the rainforest, in water that is free of mercury, antibiotics, and other toxic compounds.
Paiche's flavor has been described as subtle, like Chilean sea bass (on the Monterey Bay Aquarium's overfished list) or Atlantic cod.
Bottom line, it's good for you, it's good for the people who work to bring it to you, and it's good for the planet. When you see it in you store or on a menu, give it a try!
I recently read a blog entry about omega-3 fatty acids, in which it suggested that adequate DHA could be obtained from spirulina and chlorella, two supplements
found in most health food stores. I was surprised to read this, as I'd never run across any information in all the DHA research I've read to suggest that these were appropriate sources.
Total DHA content of pure algae, by percentage total fat, is as follows:
As far as total DHA content, it is clear that the Schizochytrium and Cryptocodidium cohnii provide more bang for the buck; the total volume needed of the former is far less than isochrisis, chlorella, and spirulina. Whichever supplement used, the total amount of DHA consumed is important.
Another benefit to using schizochytrium and cryptocodinium is that Martek has FDA approval to sell their DHA to companies who then incorporate it into foods.
By making a few simple changes in your grocery list, you can increase your DHA intake without having to use a supplement. If you want a supplement, those are available as well. A list of available foods and supplements can be found at this link.
Thanks to colleague Connye Kuratko, Ph.D., R.D. of Martek Biosciences, for being able to find a study (referenced below) that helped clarify this issue. Martek's Life's DHA marine algae supplement, found both in capsules and in foods, contains Schizochytrium or Cryptocodinium cohnii.
Ö. TOKUS¸OGLU AND M.K. ÜNAL Biomass Nutrient Profiles of Three Microalgae: Spirulina platensis, Chlorella vulgaris, and Isochrisis galbana. Journal of Food Science 68:4, 2003, 1144-1148.
Senanayake SPJN and Fichtali J. Single Cell Oils as Sources of Nutraceutical Specialty Lipids: Processing Technologies and Applications. in Shahidi F Nutraceutical and Specialty Lipids and Their Co-products. CRC Press, Taylor and Francis Group, Boca Raton, FL, page 268.
Women with PCOS tend to have higher risk pregancies. A risk that is pretty well acknowledged is gestational diabetes. However, the rate of pre-eclampsia is also higher in cysters. Did you know diet can help you reduce your risk?
Researchers analyzed the diets of women with pre-eclampsia and gestational hypertension to see if any specific nutrients were correlated with these problems. The specific nutrients they looked at were: calcium, omega-3 and omega-6-6 fatty acids, trans fatty acids, magnesium, folate, and vitamins C, D, and E. There was a slight reduction in risk of pre-eclampsia in women with a higher intake of omega-3 fatty acids.
Omega-3 fatty acids, especially DHA and EPA, are two essential items you should include in your"Healthy Pre-pregnancy, Pregnancy, and Nursing Toolbox".
Boomsma CM, Eijkemans MJ, Hughes EG, Visser GH, Fauser BC, Macklon NS. A meta-analysis of pregnancy outcomes in women with polycystic ovary syndrome. Hum Reprod Update. 2006 Nov-Dec;12(6):673-83.
Oken E, Ning Y, Rifas Shiman SL, Rich Edwards JW, Olsen SF, Gillman MW. Diet during pregnancy and risk of preeclampsia or gestational hypertension. Ann Epidemiol 2007 Sep;17(9):663-8.
From inCYSTER Karen Siegel…contact information for her Houston clinic is listed below.
"Yes. Another reason to keep encouraging the fish oil supplementation."
Public release date: 16-Dec-2009
Contact: Public Affairs Office public.affairs@apa.org 202-336-5700 202-336-5700 American Psychological Association
New study links DHA type of omega-3 to better nervous-system function Deficiencies may factor into mental illnesses WASHINGTON — The omega-3 essential fatty acids commonly found in fatty fish and algae help animals avoid sensory overload, according to research published by the American Psychological Association. The finding connects low omega-3s to the information-processing problems found in people with schizophrenia; bipolar, obsessive-compulsive, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorders; Huntington's disease; and other afflictions of the nervous system.
The study, reported in the journal Behavioral Neuroscience, provides more evidence that fish is brain food. The key finding was that two omega-3 fatty acids – docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) – appear to be most useful in the nervous system, maybe by maintaining nerve-cell membranes.
"It is an uphill battle now to reverse the message that 'fats are bad,' and to increase omega-3 fats in our diet," said Norman Salem Jr., PhD, who led this study at the Laboratory of Membrane Biochemistry and Biophysics at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
The body cannot make these essential nutrients from scratch. It gets them by metabolizing their precursor, α-linolenic acid (LNA), or from foods or dietary supplements with DHA and EPA in a readily usable form."Humans can convert less than one percent of the precursor into DHA, making DHA an essential nutrient in the human diet," added Irina Fedorova, PhD, one of the paper's co-authors. EPA is already known for its anti-inflammatory and cardiovascular effects, but DHA makes up more than 90 percent of the omega-3s in the brain (which has no EPA), retina and nervous system in general.
In the study, the researchers fed four different diets with no or varying types and amounts of omega-3s to four groups of pregnant mice and then their offspring. They measured how the offspring, once grown, responded to a classic test of nervous-system function in which healthy animals are exposed to a sudden loud noise. Normally, animals flinch. However, when they hear a softer tone in advance, they flinch much less. It appears that normal nervous systems use that gentle warning to prepare instinctively for future stimuli, an adaptive process called sensorimotor gating.
Only the mice raised on DHA and EPA, but not their precursor of LNA, showed normal, adaptive sensorimotor gating by responding in a significantly calmer way to the loud noises that followed soft tones. The mice in all other groups, when warned, were startled nearly as much by the loud sound. When DHA was deficient, the nervous system most obviously did not downshift. That resulted in an abnormal state that could leave animals perpetually startled and easily overwhelmed by sensory stimuli.
The authors concluded that not enough DHA in the diet may reduce the ability to handle sensory input."It only takes a small decrement in brain DHA to produce losses in brain function," said Salem.
In humans, weak sensorimotor gating is a hallmark of many nervous-system disorders such as schizophrenia or ADHD. Given mounting evidence of the role omega-3s play in the nervous system, there is intense interest in their therapeutic potential, perhaps as a supplement to medicines. For example, people with schizophrenia have lower levels of essential fatty acids, possibly from a genetic variation that results in poor metabolism of these nutrients.
More broadly, the typical American diet is much lower in all types of omega-3 than in omega-6 essential fatty acids, according to Salem. High intake of omega-6, or linoleic acid, reduces the body's ability to incorporate omega-3s. As a result,"we have the double whammy of low omega-3 intake and high omega-6 intake," he said.
### Article:"Deficit in Prepulse Inhibition in Mice Caused by Dietary n-3 Fatty Acid Deficiency"; Irina Fedorova, PhD, Laboratory of Membrane Biochemistry and Biophysics, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health; Anita R. Alvheim, PhD candidate, Laboratory of Membrane Biochemistry and Biophysics, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health, and National Institute of Nutrition and Seafood Research, Bergen, Norway; and Nahed Hussein, PhD and Norman Salem Jr., PhD, Laboratory of Membrane Biochemistry and Biophysics, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health; Behavioral Neuroscience, Vol. 123, No. 6.
(Full text of the article is available from the APA Public Affairs Office)
Norman Salem Jr. can be reached at nsalem@martek.com or at (443) 542-2370 (443) 542-2370. He was with the National Institutes of Health until 2008, when he became the chief scientific officer and vice president of Martek Biosciences Corp. in Columbia, Md., an ingredient supplier of DHA. He states that he and his co-authors conducted this research while with the NIH.
The American Psychological Association, in Washington, D.C., is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States and is the world's largest association of psychologists. APA's membership includes more than 150,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 54 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance psychology as a science, as a profession and as a means of promoting health, education and human welfare. -- Karen Siegel, MPH, MS, RD, LD, LAc Acupuncture & Nutrition Clinic 9660 Hillcroft, Suite 202 Houston, TX 77096 713/721-7755 713/721-7755 www.AcupunctureandNutritionClinic.com or www.Karensclinic.com
