Re: Atkins vs South Beach vs Ornish

Michael Sand wrote:
I'm very optimistic in this respect. But why not using cheap oils
(rapeseed / canola for hot cooking and additionally flaxseed aka
linseed for salads etc.) a canister for at most a few $s instead of
buying it extravagantly packed in capsules or even following the
expensive fish oil hype. No problem for your body to build
eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), the most
important fish oil ingredients, from ALA. Or are there any advantages
I'm not aware of?

I understand that commonly-available canola oil is processed and therefore contains trans fats, just at a low enough level to round to 0g per serving on the label. I've looked locally, but can't find the virgin stuff.

As for the EPA/DHA thing, apparently ALA converts at a very low rate. I'm not sure if this is true for everyone or a subset of folks. I know Davis uses fish oil and is successful at reducing heart scan scores with it and has had difficulty finding anything as successful for vegetarians, except some expensive DHA stuff available a few places that doesn't come from fish.

I am not clear on the saturated fat vs. polyunsaturated fat question; research seems contradictory to me. Though I am more clear on the omega3:omega6 question.

It became much more important to me after my heart attack to get it straightened out, both for myself and for people I advise. So I take a middle-of-the-road attitude towards the fat question. I strongly prefer just eating real food to taking supplements, and have done a lot more to change my diet than to take pills.

I do take very cheap fish oil supplements from Walmart. I have upped my fish intake, but I'm not fond of fish much, so mostly mild stuff like tuna and tilapia. When I can afford it, scallops.

I eat flax meal as a basic cereal ingredient and to make bread-like and muffin-like concoctions (often with almond meal). I eat a lot of nuts and seeds generally.

I use primarily olive as a raw oil and avocado oil or homemade broth to cook with. Avocado oil is expensive, but you use little - I also eat a couple whole avocados each week. The homemade broth is made without removing the fat as long as it's from pasture-raised animals and provides a lot of minerals as well as being quite flavorful to cook with.

I have switched all my animal intake, meat, poultry, cheeses, yogurt, butter, eggs, etc. to products from grass-raised animals - and since these are more expensive, have also cut my intake of saturated fat a bit in doing so. It still comes in much cheaper than CLA supplementation and buys me a bit more omega3s.

I replaced cocoa butter in chocolate with coconut oil via a homemade bark I make. Net increase in saturated fat is zero with whatever advantages coconut oil adds.

I use lecithin as the main emulsifier in cooking. It's dead cheap when bought as a baking ingredient and only gets expensive if packaged as a supplement. A completly painless change in my diet.

It seems to me that eating better is a lot easier, cheaper and more pleasant than taking pills. It also seems my strategy maximizes my health no matter what turns out to be the ultimate truth about fats.

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http://www.ornery-geeks.org/consulting/
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