Essential for Good Health

: 1) the body needs certain fundamental nutrients to create, sustain or recover health, and 2) all too often these critical nutrients are deficient in the modern diet.

Such is certainly the case with the EFAs, or essential fatty acids, linoleic acid (LA) and linolenic acid (ALA). Indispensable for good health, the body cannot manufacture them, so they MUST be obtained through the diet. Yet less than 10% of our population is getting enough.

LA is the “parent oil” for a family of fatty acids called the omega-6s; ALA for the omega-3 family. While most people get enough LA, albeit from toxic vegetable oil sources, very few get enough ALA.

Fish oil, a source of two important members of the omega-3 family, EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), has been touted as either a “miracle cure” or “ineffective” for improving heart disease, depression, cognitive difficulties, autoimmune illness and more.

But when the body finally gets something it has lacked and must have to function properly, it’s not too surprising when it gratefully responds by curing various maladies. On the other hand, studies that “prove” fish oil is ineffective only show that either there was no omega-3 deficiency in the first place or, more likely, that omega-3 deficiency was only one of several factors that needed addressing before healing could occur.

EFAs serve us as building materials for constructing fatty tissues and by making eicosanoids—hormone-like chemical messengers that regulate critical body functions like pain, inflammation and swelling; blood vessel dilation/constriction; immune response; smooth muscles; forming/dissolving blood clots; and more.

You don’t need a lot, but not having enough EFAs is a disaster. Most importantly, cell membranes won’t be constructed properly. EFAs help membranes become appropriately fluid, allowing cells to pull in needed nutrients and push out toxins.

EFAs must also be consumed in the right ratio of omega 6:omega 3. Humans probably evolved on a diet supplying a 1:1 ratio; but our modern diets supply nearly 20:1. This encourages production of pro-inflammatory eicosanoids leading to pain, blood vessel constriction, blood clots and other unwanted outcomes.

To be healthy, you need a reliable source of EFAs, in the right ratio. A diet that eliminates toxic oils and includes sources of omega 3s is a good start,