Did you know that your mind consists of over 60% fat? If you do not have the appropriate fats to nourish the nerve cells and myelin of the mind you’ll have some problems down the street (such as Alzheimer’s disease). There are two distinct sorts of fats–bad fats, and good fats. Examples of bad fats contain fats, processed fats, trans-fats, hydrogenated fats and fats processed under high heat. Good fats are unsaturated and in fluid form at room temperature and are what you ought to be eating as your fat calories.
Essential Fatty Acid (EFA)
Deficiencies have become epidemic in our world. Some similarities exist between sluggish thyroid and EFA deficiency, and low thyroid, but there are differences, too. Do YOU suffer from a fat lack? EFA deficiency is associated with:
- Chronic diarrhea, Crohn’s or IBS
- Attention deficit disorder (ADD)
- Irritability or anxiety
- Dry mouth or dry throat
- Skin rash or cracks behind the ears
- Emphysema, asthma or other chronic lung disease
- Chronic joint pain or arthritis
- History of kidney, bladder or prostate problems
Essential fatty acids (EFA’s) are those fats that the body can’t produce by itself. The body receives these fatty acids directly from the diet. For example:
- LA (Linoleic acid) is an omega-6 fatty acid found in sunflower, safflower, corn and sesame. These fats are used in a huge collection of body functions.
- ALA (Alpha-linolenic acid) is an omega-3 fatty acid found in flax, walnut and green leafy veggies. These fats are used in a huge collection of body functions.
- DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), comes from fish oil, eggs and poultry and is found in the head.
- GLA (gamma-linolenic acid) comes from the Evening Primrose or Borage plants and has been used with some success in treating schizophrenia.
Take Note
You can find other EFA’s but this seems complicated already. Just know that we want all these fatty acids, and they should maintain specific ratios to operate perfectly. It looks like each body requires a bit different ratio, but this is what being an individual is all about. We each are drawn to different diets and different foods. The goal is to discover the ratio which works in general for the “normal” body and how to tweak this ratio for dis-eased body types also.
The most typical unsaturated fats that I see most people needing in my practice are Wheat Germ Oil (particularly for reproductive difficulties ), Olive Oil, Sunflower Oil (especially in the winter months for mild depression), and the lighter oils such as Sesame, Apricot, Avocado and Emu oil to be used as an after shower body lotion.
My question, of course, is “Who’s normal?” I don’t know anybody that’s just like anyone else. Even identical twins have differences.
Some Research
There also have been a whole lot of research done on EFA’s within the past several years in the veterinary field as the food companies keep trying to create diets which are optimally balanced to conquer all of the chronic skin disease caused by fleas (those pesky annoying little creatures).
From EFA’s, our bodies create the mind fats and vital messengers that help regulate a huge abound of body action necessary for peak purpose. Fatty acids can be saturated or unsaturated, but EFA’s are constantly unsaturated. EFA’s can be damaged by free radicals (such as in well-done and char-broiled meats, oxygen damage and electromagnetic field influences,) and be out competed for receptor sites by saturated fats (from eating too much meat) and amino acids (from whipped vegetable oils like margarine).
Therefore, it’s a fantastic deal to incorporate some EFA’s with each meal for optimum health so at least they have a opportunity to glom onto these receptor sites to create the cells operate at maximum capacity for all they have to do.
The bottom line?
Eat your raw vegetables, nuts and do not forget the eggs. Use butter rather than margarine. Fry just in butter, coconut, ghee or olive oil because these fats aren’t that easily damaged by high temperatures.
Factors for EFA deficiency
- Fast food, low-fat, or very low egg diets
- Taking anti inflammatory drugs
- Taking cortisone, prednisone or other steroids
- Drinking hard liquor on a regular basis
- Regularly using margarine and processed sugars
- Smoking or chewing tobacco.
