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American Heart Association Comes Clean...Sort Of.
AHA and Your Heart. A Case of Fox Watching the Hen House? Normal people dream about winning the lottery. Or kissing movie stars. My dreams tend to be geekier. I dreamt about the American Heart Association the other night. Guess that's why I write articles about fish oil for a living. Anyway, in my dream, the American Heart Association (AHA) came to their senses, snapped out of acting like politicians and leveled with the American people about diet and heart health. AHA Tells It Like It Is In the dream, some faceless suit standing behind a podium said the following: "The AHA is sorry. Really, really sorry for misleading you about heart health for nearly four decades. Please pay attention now, because we'll only say this once. This is deeply embarrassing and we'd rather get it over with to clear our conscience. We've known for some time now, that some of our dietary guidelines were simply wrong. Millions of you followed our advice and gave yourself heart attacks. We even published dangerous and misguided information as recently as 2009. We know better now and we want to set the record straight. Making a Monkey Out of You I'm sure you read the New York Times piece where scientists fed a monkey a strict AHA-recommended diet and the monkey quickly gained weight and developed poor heart health. Just like most of you. Poor monkey! Poor you! But it began long before the monkey. We started sending you wrong messages way back in 1961, back when our board had some questionable members. And one of them had published 'pioneering' research that said poor heart health was caused by saturated fat and cholesterol. This person, Ancel Keys, actually ended up on the cover of Time magazine that year! He became a celebrity! And you know how much we love celebrities! So we never questioned his research. Turns out his research was semi-bogus. He connected dots that ought not to have been connected because, well, it told a nicer story. After that, we've been telling our kids to dress up as eggs and bacon for Halloween. Since 1961, we've also been telling people to: Eat low-fat foods Toss out lard and other saturated fats Start cooking with vegetable oils And finally, we told people to eat more grains. We were wrong to tell people to eat low-fat foods. We were wrong…really, REALLY wrong to tell people to start cooking with vegetable (seed) oils. And, yeah, we were definitely wrong about eating mostly grains. What a hat trick! Those three recommendations probably killed a lot of people you know, well before it was their time. Cholesterol, the Innocent Villain? Turns out high levels of cholesterol cruising through your blood vessels isn't always bad. Matter of fact, it is actually healthy and important. It's when this cholesterol gets oxidized that you need to worry. Umm…the stuff that we told you to eat, like vegetable seed oils and your non-stop soda drinking causes cholesterol to get oxidized. Yikes! What the heck were we thinking?! Before we knew it, the USDA, the American Diabetes Association, the Dietetic Association and a zillion other official sounding associations were saying the same things about diet. The echo chamber was really working. By the late 1980s, if you were a scientific organization and you had not completely rejected cholesterol, you were weird! Back to that vegetable oil thing…vegetable oils like corn oil, soybean oil, and oils from sunflower, safflower etc. have a ton of Omega-6 in it. Your body NEEDS a little bit of Omega-6. It's important. So you'd think more Omega-6 would be better. Omega-6: More Is Not Better You'd think that more Omega-6 would improve heart health. Wrong! Turns out more Omega-6 causes several health issues. * Why? Well, because excess Omega-6 creates an 'eicosanoid imabalance' that leads to several health problems. This is not new information. We've known about this for a long, long time. This chart by the highly respected Dr. Bill Lands shows how Arachidonic Acid, a byproduct of Omega-6 from vegetable seed oils like corn oil and soybean oil, is very closely associated with poor heart health.* The problem is that there is no pill to undo the damage from excess Omega-6. The only solution is to fix our diets and food supply. Oops! Ahem. You'd think we'd know when to shut up. But no. In 2009, we issued a press release telling people to eat more Omega-6. We understand that we lost our credibility with a lot of you scientists out there. Well, hope this acknowledgement makes things better. The Lyon Diet: Message Lost! You know that fat monkey? Well, ten year earlier, there was a study in France where they compared people who ate an AHA-recommended diet versus people who ate a low-Omega-6 Mediterranean style diet. Guess what? The Mediterranean diet caused a 70% DECREASE in all-cause death. (PUFA =polyunsaturated fatty acid = mostly Omega-6) The results of Lyon Diet Heart Study were so significant that the researchers stopped the study early and told the people eating the AHA diet that they ought to stop and switch to the Mediterranean diet. That study was published in, well, ahem, in our own publication about 10 years before we told you to eat more Omega-6. Oops! In our defense, there have been recent studies that showed swapping out saturated fats for Omega-6-rich vegetable oils did not worsen heart health.* Ahem, but what we didn't tell people is that once your tissue percentage of Omega-6 is high, say 4%, then glopping on more doesn't worsen your chances of kicking the bucket. Because you're already half way there. But, hey, I'm getting tired of beating up on myself and my colleagues. Cut us some slack, will ya, at least we've been telling people to eat salmon and salads for a while. I'm sure that saved a few lives. Oh, and a few parting disclaimers: We promise to align ourselves with public health. We promise to pay more attention to scientists like Lands, Hibbeln, Simopoulous and Sears. We are not going to apologize for the absurd 'less fat, more whole grain' disaster that's been foisted on you. We'll apologize for that in the year 2035. Because that's how long it will take for people to figure out that low-fat-more-grains was a colossal disaster. Well, may be longer." Oh, and Jimmy Hoffa died of an Omega-6 overdose. He is buried at... And then I woke up. * These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Clinical research suggests the omega-3 dosage needed to help maintain healthy triglycerides is 2000-3000 mg per day when used as part of healthy diet and exercise regimen.
Fish Oil Grows on Trees!
New SDA soybean oil has Omega-3 normally found in fish oil. Is it OK to eat? I spend more time than I ought to, reading science journal and websites. And I came across this headline: Fishy Fat from Soy Headed to US Dinner Plates. Turns out that scientists (mad?) genetically engineered soybeans. Again. They mixed genes from a type of mold and a primrose plant to create a fancy new genetically modified soy plant that makes a fatty acid called Stearidonic Acid or SDA. No, no, I'm not foamed at the mouth about genetically modified foods. Other angry people do a much better job of expressing that foam. Regular readers know my beef: too much Omega-6 and not enough Omega-3. Now THAT's foam-worthy! Why Create This New Soy Variety? SDA is an Omega-3 fat. It's found in small quantities in fish oil. SDA is usually less than 3% of fish oil. So it's a minor component. OmegaVia has 2.83% SDA. We didn't add it - it just naturally comes with fish oil. Matter of fact, it is part of the 150 mg of 'Other Omega-3' listed on our label. Why Should We Care About SDA Omega-3? Well, I've beat this horse to death, but plant-derived Omega-3 likes ALA from Flax is useless. Your body will convert only 1 to 5% of it to usable EPA or DHA Omega-3, the types found in fish oil. But, SDA is a precursor to EPA Omega-3. And your body will convert about a third of SDA into EPA. Nifty! And SDA grows on trees! And now Soy. SDA is also found in the seed of the Echium plant. Echium seeds have lots of SDA. Some Echium growers have started marketing their oil as an alternative to Flax and Fish oils. I'd really like to see Echium become more popular because it has a usable form of plant Omega-3, that vegetarians could really use. But back to our new soy and its SDA. I'm guessing this is what went through the scientists' heads: Americans don't get enough Omega-3. Our oceans could run out of fish. So why not engineer our soy plants to make more usable Omega-3. It helps fix a desperate nutrient deficiency. And we'll patent the plant. And charge more for soybean oil that people use to cook with. Agree. But there's only one catch. And that's the soybean oil. It's a poison. Chronic toxin to be exact. There are two kinds of toxins. Acute toxins like Cyanide - stuff that kills you lickety-split. And Chronic toxins like mercury, which causes systemic damage to your body after repeated exposure to low concentrations over long periods of time. Whoa there, lil fella, you say, you comparin' Soybean oil to Mercury? I sure am. Soybean oil (and corn oil for that matter) is more than 50% Omega-6 fats. A particularly dangerous Omega-6 fat called Linoleic Acid. This fatty acid is necessary in small amounts and chronically toxic in large amounts. Excess Linoleic Acid may be responsible for so misery I could write a separate blog just about that. Well, several smarter people have beat me to it. People like Evelyn Tribole, Susan Allport, Dr. Emily Deans to name a few. Dr. Barry Sears of the Zone Diet has repeatedly mentioned the dangers of getting too much Omega-6. (PS: Dr. Deans' blog is so good that I frequently worry that she'll stop writing!) Their combined message is this: For thousands of years, we ate a diet low in Omega-6 and that's what your body needs - a little bit of Omega-6. But with modern mass-produced agriculture and its industrial seed oils like corn oil and soybean oil, all that changed. We've gone from eating equal parts Omega-3 to Omega-6 to eating 20-times more Omega-6. This causes problems.* So, yes, I am comparing soybean oil, corn oil and most other 'vegetable' seed oils to Mercury. Bottom-line on Linoleic Acid (Omega-6): excess causes health problams.* And that's why I have not purchased soybean oil to cook with in decades. And I hope an obese teenager on a skateboard runs me over if I ever do! So is adding a little SDA to soybean oil like a rattlesnake that comes with a free shot of anti-venom? You would think. But this one's not as bad as I thought it was going to be. Here's why: Typical soybean oil has 8% Omega-3 in the form of ALA, the kind in Flax. This new SDA soybean oil will have 20 to 30% SDA plus slightly higher levels of ALA. That makes this soybean oil almost a third Omega-3 fats. If McDonald's and Burger King started making fries with this new oil, childhood obesity, and other issues may be markedly reduced.* Don't hold your breath - SDA soybean oil may not hold up to deep frying. I hope it does. But I still will not touch the stuff. Not because it is genetically modified. But because it still has a ton of Omega-6 Linoleic Acid in it. Even with all that SDA, the Omega-6 is a heart-stopper. When this product hits the market in 2012, the marketing behind it will be fierce. The marketing will work. And millions of well-meaning Americans, will buy this heart-stopping stuff by the gallon. And they'll be putting their own and their family's health at risk. May be at less risk than before, but risk nonetheless. Just save yourself the grief. Go with olive oil, coconut oil or even butter from grass-fed cows. Of the three, Olive oil is the highest at 9% Omega-6. Butter has 3% and Coconut oil, my all-time favorite oil, has 2% Omega-6. Sure beats 51% Omega-6. * These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
IFOS Approved Fish Oil - Part 2
In Part 1, I talked about why IFOS Approved Fish Oil is so great. Here, I want to talk about some things IFOS could, well, aspire to. The IFOS 5-star rating is used for what they call 'Ultra-refined' fish oil. In their opinion, anything above 60% Omega-3 is Ultra-refined. Sounds like a 10 year old opinion to me, from a bygone era when 60% pure fish oil was considered danged spiffy. How Do Fish Oils Get Rated? Anyway, here's what each star means: Star 1 is for passing all CRN (Council for Responsible Nutrition) and WHO (World Health Organization) testing categories. Star 2 is for being higher than 60% Omega-3 Star 3 is for rancidity (oxidation less than 75% of CRN/GOED standards) Star 4 is for pollutant PCB Star 5 is for pollutant Dioxin GOED Monograph - the Official Definition of Fish Oil Quality The CRN Monograph is now the GOED Voluntary Monograph and can be seen here. Most reputable fish oil manufacturers follow GOED's Monograph, which serves as a guide or rule-book for the industry. Why no star for being Mercury-free, you ask. After all, that's important, right? Well, that's because Mercury is listed separately along with some other bad actors like lead, arsenic and cadmium. Some fish oils like Salmon oil or Cod Liver Oil are natural high in these heavy metals, so it's good to know what's in your oil. Also, why no star for being 'super' concentrated? I think it's time for IFOS to add another star for oils above 75% Omega-3. Or 90%. That star for being 60% pure is pretty easy to get these days. 60% is no longer an accomplishment. It is relatively easy to purify fish oil from 30% to 60% Omega-3. But taking it from 60% to 90% is a different ball game - this takes a HUGE amount of effort and cost. And something that IFOS ought to recognize. A Few Other Limitations of IFOS As with most things, IFOS testing has some limitation: Is Your Fish Oil from China? People are very concerned about the quality of Chinese made nutritional and medical products. (Just for the record, OmegaVia DOES NOT use Chinese fish oil. It was designed that way. And will stay that way!) For now, IFOS Reports don't say what the origin of the fish oil pills are. About half of discount fish oils have Chinese ingredients or are fully made in China. If the folks at IFOS can find a way to shine some light in this area, I think it would greatly increase the value of their service and ease consumer anxiety. Commercial Entity. IFOS (NutraSource) is not a non-profit consumer advocacy agency. They are a business. From what I can tell, a very honest one. But still, a for-profit business has the potential to be partial. Other Fish Oil Testing Authorities There are other nutritional testing outfits like ConsumerLab.com and Consumer Reports. ConsumerLab.Com ConsumerLab.com occasionally tests fish oil. They are a fine testing facility, but their results can only be viewed by subscribers. You gotta pay! A 12-month subscription is about $30 and their last fish oil review was in September 2010, where they found problems with 30% of the fish oil brands they selected for review. Makes you wonder if your fish oil was one of the 30%, doesn't it? Sign up for a membership and read the report here. Consumer Reports Consumer Reports, well, they are great at testing car seats, washing machines and dishwashers. They have no in-house fish oil experts and should stay with what they know best. We'll leave it at that. So IFOS provides a unique and necessary service. Labdoor.com is a newer entity that has so far tested 54 brands of fish oil. OmegaVia is near the top. Should all Fish Oils be IFOS-Tested Someone recently asked, 'Well, what if all fish oil brands get tested at IFOS, it will become less valuable, won't it?' No, it won't! IFOS isn't special because only an exclusive group of fish oil products are tested. It's special because of its high standards, full disclosure and transparency. I think it'd be great if all fish oil products got tested at IFOS. There'd be no mystery or worry. You'd know who got the gold, silver, bronze (or lead!) With IFOS, you get all the facts. And you decide. I like that. * These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Clinical research suggests the omega-3 dosage needed to help maintain healthy triglycerides is 2000-3000 mg per day when used as part of healthy diet and exercise regimen.
IFOS Approved Fish Oil - Part I
What is IFOS? And Should You Care? IFOS stands for International Fish Oil Standards. And yes, you definitely should care! IFOS testing program is administered by NutraSource Diagnostics at the University of Guelph in Canada. IFOS is the third party testing that everyone keeps asking me about. Thanks to IFOS, you don't have to believe the manufacturer's marketing hype or spin - IFOS does the fact-checking for you. The IFOS Program tests Omega-3 products for purity and quality. They don't manufacture or market fish oil. They test. And they publish. That's it. And the best part? IFOS Fish Oil Test Results are Open to Public The results of their tests are open to the public for free. Just go to their website and see. They don't publish the results of all the fish oil tests. Companies that get their fish oil tested at IFOS have to pay extra to publish the results. The whole thing costs over $3,000. This really helps you, the consumer, pick brands of fish oil that are CONFIDENT about their products. Any company that has its products tested at IFOS has to be pretty picky (and confident) about quality. Testing at IFOS is not cheap - there are hundreds of small third-party labs that can test fish oil for a fraction of what IFOS charges. Most don't even bother with third party verification because it is not required by FDA. Why do Some Fish Oil Manufacturers Have Their Products Tested at IFOS? Bragging rights. It's a big deal to pass an IFOS test with flying colors. Another reason for IFOS is transparency. All fish oil manufacturers are supposed to have something called a 'certificate of analysis,' which tells you what's in the pills. As a consumer, you ought to have access to the certificate of analysis, often called C of A. Many companies will give you the runaround - they will not share their C of A with you. This should be a red flag. Another red flag is if the C of A tends to be too vague or sounds like a politician. Common Examples of Vague Language in Certificates of Analyses: Appearance: acceptable Odor: normal Mercury: within specifications PCBs: conforms to standards That's bullsh*t! (Pardon the language.) I've seen plenty of C of As that talk in circles and insult the reader's intelligence. Granted that fish oils have far, far less mercury than fish itself, but still, consumers have a right to know EXACTLY how much mercury is in their fish oil, even if it is parts per gazillion. HIGHEST RATING View OmegaVia C of A IFOS Reports Make it Easy When you look at an IFOS report, you know exactly what's in the product. There is a level of openness and detail that you will not find anywhere else. As a customer recently told me: "I don't know what the heck Furan, PCBs and Dioxins are! But I know they are bad and I'm glad the IFOS folks interpret the data and rate the products on a 5-star scale." IFOS 5-star rating Like movie reviews! A 5-star-rated oil is great. 2 stars or less, well, they're stinkers. Fortunately, you won't see ANY product with less than 4 stars because it costs money to publish the results. And why would any company pay money to embarrass itself? In Part 2, we'll take a look better look at the IFOS Rating Scale and why IFOS is not perfect. * These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Vegetarian Fish Oil?
Dale didn't want to take fish oil pills any more. He'd given up meat, poultry and seafood. And so he no longer could take fish oil pills under his self-imposed new rules. "I have high triglycerides...so what do I take instead of fish oil?" he asked. This was a loaded question. I could give him a short and simple answer, which is what he wanted. Or I could tell him what was on my mind. So I did both, in that order. "Take algae Oil," I replied. "It's got plenty of DHA Omega-3, it's usually very good quality, it'll lower your triglycerides and it's certainly vegetarian." How 'bout Flax or Chia? "How 'bout Flaxseed oil or Chia?" asked Dale. 'I've been seeing a lot of good things about Chia." We've beat this topic to death on this blog, but it's worth restating: Flax seeds and Chia seeds are a good source of several nutrients. And they are very high in Plant Omega-3, also known as ALA. I think they're wonderful additions to salads. But as a source of Omega-3 fatty acids, they are almost worthless. Why? Adult humans are not capable of converting ALA Omega-3 from plants into EPA and DHA Omega-3. Plant Omega-3 has to go through half dozen steps before the body turns it onto DHA. To be specific, teenage girls can convert about 20% of the Omega-3 from Flax and Chia into usable EPA. Very little if any get converted to DHA. If you're no longer a teenage girl or if you're a man, you'r out of luck - less than 5% of the ALA gets converted to EPA Omega-3. In other words, you'd need at least 20 Flaxseed oil pills to equal the benefit of one fish oil pill. Once I explained this to Dale, he quickly got excited about algae oil. As he should. Most of the good brands of algae oils use oil made by Martek (Life'sDHA brand). Markek is a leader in growing tiny green algae in vats and extracting Omega-3 from them. It's a fascinating technology and one that our children and grandchildren may someday have to depend on if our oceans get overfished. There are two disadvantages to algae oil: Cost. Very little EPA Omega-3. Cost. The technology used to make algae oil is proprietary and sophisticated. For now, it is still a bit pricey. But that will change as patents expire and competitors enter the market. Also, as the cost of fish oil goes up year after year, algae oil will become relatively affordable. Very little EPA Omega-3. Algae oil is mostly DHA with very little EPA. DHA is necessary and important, and some of the DHA is naturally converted in your body into EPA. But if you're looking for a blend of both Omega-3s, then algae oil is not ideal. Already, there are several companies scrambling to produce EPA from algae and yeast. Some of these EPA-rich products will be more widely available in a your or so. Having convinced Dale that he should buy algae oil, I had a little warning for him. Vegetarianism and Triglycerides As a nutritionist, I see a familiar pattern with new vegetarians: their triglycerides shoot up. Surprised? Not me. If you're a vegetarian for moral or spiritual reasons, I can respect that. But if you became a vegetarian to get healthier, well, that won't help your triglycerides one bit. I have nothing against vegetables. They're good great for you. It's the other stuff that's eaten with vegetables that causes problems. Sure, vegetarians have lower blood pressure and obesity. But vegetarians also face other added risks: Higher homocysteine levels (a risk factor for poor heart health) Lower HDL (good) cholesterol Know these risks before you go in. And work to address them using the tips below. Common Issues with Vegetarianism: Excess grain intake. New vegetarians eat more grain, flour and refined starch-based foods than before. Grains, especially wheat and any refined starch will drive your triglyceride levels skywards. Yes, even earthy whole grain wheat. Excess seed oils. New vegetarians are often drawn to 'Vegetable oils,' which are usually soybean oil mixes with extremely high Omega-6 levels. Not good. Switch to Olive or Coconut for your oil needs. Over-dependence on soy. Fermented or unprocessed soy products are OK. But tofu, soy milk and soy protein isolate that many new vegetarians depend on for protein, are not so healthy. A Harvard study found that men who drank a cup of soy milk a day cut their sperm count in half. Two cups of soy milk has as much phytoestrogens as one birth control pill. Soy has a trypsin inhibitor that interferes with protein digestion, soy increases your need for Vitamin D, soy contains phytic acid that reduces mineral absorption. I could go on. Stop worshipping at the altar of soy! So if you want to become a vegetarian: Watch the grain intake - it's a killer. Literally. Besides sodas and fruit juices, this is the top reason why triglycerides go up. Strongly consider adding eggs and fish to your OK-to-eat list. And go easy on the soy. Get yourself some algae oil pills. Studies show that vegans are usually deficient in Omega-3 and Vitamin B12. I didn't talk Dale away from vegetarianism. I just warned him about some of the pitfalls.
Fish Oil Freezer Test
Every year, I spend the second weekend of march at the Natural Products Expo in Anaheim, California. It marks the arrival of spring. And I get to see people I've known for 20 plus years. Hundreds of natural and organic foods manufacturers and supplement companies exhibit their products. If you can elbow you way past 50,000 attendees, you can taste all the new great stuff that the health food industry has in store for you. 'Gluten-free' appears to be the big new trend this year, as it was the year before. I'll have more to say about gluten-free in a future blog. But a tried-and-true marketing gimmick by a fish oil manufacturer annoyed me, so I want to share that with you here. It's called the fish oil freezer test. Simply put, the marketing claim is: if you freeze your fish oil, and it becomes opaque, it's bad fish oil. On the surface, this test is made for infomercial TV - easy, simple and fun to demonstrate. Everyone can understand freezing and opaque vs. clear. No wonder marketers continue to use it and no wonder people fall for this gimmick. As I've mentioned several times on this blog, regular (retail grade) fish oil contains only 30% Omega-3. The other 70% is a mixture of various saturated and unsaturated fats. There is a lot of saturated fats in regular fish oil. And these saturated fats solidify when put in the freezer. Omega-3 fats do not freeze solid easily because they have extremely low freezing points. Saturated Fats Solidify Easily When the saturated fats solidify, it makes the pill look opaque like butter (right). That's neither good nor bad. It's not an indicator of quality. It's just an indicator of the Omega-3 content. Low-Omega-3 fish oils will turn opaque in the freezer. High-Omega-3 fish oil pills won't. Simple as that. This does not mean that the oil is low quality and it does not mean that it has mercury or other contaminants. It simply means that there is more saturated fats than Omega-3 fats in the opaque pills. Now, if you took a Ultra-concentrated fish oil with 85% Omega-3, it is less likely to go opaque in the freezer because there is more Omega-3 and less saturated fats. I think the 'freezer test' marketing gimmick is misused by marketers to indicate quality and purity, as opposed to Omega-3 content. And THAT is my objection to this sales technique. It connects dots that don't exist. A 90% Omega-3 fish oil product that is old, rancid and contaminated with mercury will pass the freezer test. It will look clear, crisp and beautiful after a night in the freezer. But it will also make you sick. As I was walking through the Natural Products Expo, I saw a prominent manufacturer's sales rep use the old 'freezer test' pitch on an unsuspecting health food retail store buyer. It sounded exactly like a TV infomercial pitch. It took a lot of self-control for me to not step in and set the situation straight. The words 'interference of commerce' popped into my head and so I kept walking. Oh well. At least you know. * These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.