On Tue, 9 Oct 2001 13:14:07 -0400, matesz <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>...He spends a lot of time on ways to balance inflammatory and
>anti-inflammatory prostaglandins and leukotrienes.  He claims that
>increasing intake of foods that are high in ALA and EPA will encourage
>anti-inflammatory PGE-3, and foods that are high in AA will encourage
>inflammatory PGE-2.

The proper balancing of prostaglandins looks like the most promising
approach agains 80% of all civilisation deaths: cancer and chd.

If it works.

"Zoners" or who has read the books of Sears or of Erasmus or Simopoulos
are more or less aware of this.
So, any success in the right direction is worth the most sincere efforts.

What you quote ("foods that are high in ALA and EPA will encourage
anti-inflammatory PGE-3, and foods that are high in AA..pro..") reflects
some basic results so far.
In fact it looks like, the real problem problem is how to avoid AA in the
blood - all other (high LNA/EPA etc) are just derivations of this.

Sears meanwhile favours insulin control (to be low) for limiting AA
production - while he favoured EPA and GLA supplementation first.

>Apparently this author feels that one of the biggest reasons for a diet
>high
>in AA is red meat, and it should be avoided if inflammation is a concern.
>He says that organ meats are high in the worst kinds of fat,...

That's right.
Red meat and particularly organ meats are the main source of *dietary* AA.
That's the reason why Sears recommends "white" meat.

>Our reply:
>First, not all meat is the same.  The fatty acid profile of grain fed meat
>is very different from that of grassfed meat...
>The composition of 100% grassfed beef, lamb, and their organ meats, is more
>like that of wild game, very favorable.

Agree to that. Wild game  as opposed to all farmed meat has a proper omega-
6 to 3 ratio *and* a proper percentage of PUFAs of total fat.

But does this imply to you, that wild game (or 100%grassfed, if you manage
to buy this) has a lower *AA* level?
That was the question, after all.
A quick USDA lookup resulted in 0.070 in moose and 0.040 in beef - even
less.

Todd Moody assumes that *dietary* AA is no problem
(see http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?A2=ind0012&L=paleofood&P=R11486
and my reply at
http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?A2=ind0012&L=paleofood&P=34986
 - bottom)
I'm not so shure, because the assumed regulatives on dietary AA are
buffering ones. temporarily therefore.

>Re. AA, there are more problems than just red meat.  In fact, vegetable
>oils rich in omega 6 linoleic acid are in most people's diets the major
>source of
>pro-inflammatory prostaglandins (not red meat).

You mean body made AA now.
I agree that eating a lot of pure unbalanced LA (omega 6) may result in
increased AA production. This is a negative result of eating "vegetable"
oils like sunflower, safflor etc *without* proper balancing by flax.
Same with farmed animal fat of course.

You don't forget, that LA is the source of both, inflammatory and anti-
inflammatory prostaglandins, do you?
In ths context only the activity of d5d, which *makes* AA out of the good
DGLA is of concern.
And how to influence and decrease it's actions.

I know of the following:
- high LNA or OA intake (competition for d5d)
- high EPA concentrations
- low or zero insulin for long times per day
- eating sesamin (in sesame seeds)

Somewhere here or nereby lies a treasure.

No disagreements about your notes on IBD and allergy-prone food items.

regards, Amadeus