Eliot Martin Glick wrote:

> jeules wrote:
>
>> There is much discussion about flax oil being a less than ideal
>> source of
>> omega-3 fatty acids because they are very sustecible to rancidity when
>> exposed to heat, air, and light for very short periods of time.  Why
>> does
>> this discussion not carry over to the high heat exposure of other
>> omega-3
>> sources such as in the roasting of grass fed meat or wild game,
>> frying of
>> omega-3 eggs, baking of fish, and the drying of walnuts?  If it's so
>> bad to
>> heat flax, why wouldn't it be the same for any other omega-3 containing
>> food?
>>
>>
It is difficult to get n-3 fats from modern foods. Supplementing is a
viable idea, and is one (Perhaps the only one) that pretty much everyone
agrees on (e.g. the low carb folks, the high carb folks, the AHA, your
doctor, etc.) The best way, from a whole foods/Paleo perspective, to get
more n-3 is to eat more seafood (Especially cold water fish.) However,
these are often polluted so that eating more than a few servings a week
can actually do more harm than good. Fish oil capsules have proven to be
safe and effective. The other way is flaxseed oil or hempseed oil. These
things are not very Paleo, but they are an attempt to make up for what
we miss by not eating brains and marrow. If you want to be 100% Paleo
you can eat more seafood and/or brains and marrow, otherwise
supplementing is probably okay.

All polyunsaturated oils are subject to oxidation. They oxidize when
they are cooked, exposed to light, etc. And they even oxidize in the
body after you eat them. Natural sources of PUFA tend to have mechanisms
to prevent this, such as mixing PUFA with other fats or antioxidant
chemicals. These mechanisms degrade quickly when the food is stored and
cooked. The best way to deal with this is to store food in a cool, dry
place, use it quickly, and don't over cook it or cook it with excessive
heat (It is better to cook slowly at low temperature.)

> I'm sure someone can answer this in a clearer way.  Flax oil is an
> artificial food.  There is no way paleo man or woman could extract the
> oil from flax seeds, nor would there be any reason to.  Perhaps because
> it is thus, the oil is very susceptible to rancidity.  This is not the
> case with rendered fat, nor coconut oil and to a lesser extent olive
> oil.  Interesting, these sources of concentrated fat were easily
> obtainable with basic paleo knowhow.  Omega-3's are not destroyed in
> food when using proper cooking/roasting methods. Why this is so I cannot
> say.

This is accurate. The problem is that none of the foods you suggest
provide any significant amount of n-3 PUFA. Fat from game meat or grass
finished beef/bison (Preferrably pasture fed) contains very little n-3.
Fat from corn finished beef contains practically none.  Coconut oil
contains practically none, but is high in lauric acid which has been
shown to have several health benefits (Despite being one of those evil
saturated fats.) Olive oil contains mostly oleic acid, a MUFA and the
most prevelent fatty acid in nature (A very healthy fat also found in
almonds and macedemia nuts.) Olive oil contains practically no n-3.
Eating these foods is very good for you, and very Paleo, but eating
these foods alone will still leave you with a deficiency of n-3 relative
to n-6.

Also, olive oil isn't much more Paleo than flaxseed. According to
wikipedia, the process of fermenting olives to make them edible and
extracting the oils probably began in the first millenium BCE, but there
is some evidence they were consumed as early as the Middle Bronze Age
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olive). This article on flaxseed
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flaxseed) suggests that it was cultivated
for linen approximately 5000 years ago (Though it does not mention when
it was first used as a food.) The use of hemp, including the seed,
*does* go back to Paleo times. Incidentally, hempseed oil has an n-6:n-3
that is ideal for human consumption. Unfortunately, it is used less
frequently today for purely political reasons.