On Sat, 20 May 2000 11:10:17 -0700, Ken Stuart <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>AFAIK, paleo man did not get his Omega-3 fatty acids from plants,
That depends which nutrition of paleo-man you assume.
Todays macro-agriculture sources of fat are depending on some plants
which are rather omega-3 low.
Grass seeds , soy (after beeing fed to animals or extracted from the soy).
This strikes milk fat, slaughter fat and direct cereals' fat.

The interesting idea (of Zone or Simonopolous) is,
that in the follow-up the omega-3 oil shortage of "common" nutrition
may drive our metabolism "wrong" (by "wrong" eicosanoids).

Various paleo-sources of fats seem more well-belenced in w-6 to w-3.
All the green herbs are low in fat but have a superb composition.
Oily plants like nuts (which i assume to be the real fat source in
paleo-times) have mostly a not extreme, but good composition with a
good deal of w-3 fats.
This should be adequate. And it has some accompanieing substances
that may well be necessary to be healthy.
Mostly to speak of Vitamin E, which is the substance which keeps
the polyunsaturated fats in the nut (almond) and our body fresh.
Humans seem to need that too -
after all, this is why it's called "Vitamin" E.

Paleo animal fats seem to be mostly marrow and brain. And brain has all
the essential fatty acids like EPA and DHA ready made (but without
the natural preservatives).
As far as the animal brains were a constantly significantly eaten part
in the last 2 mio years, their w-3 to w-6 ratio may be interesting.
As the fats are ready made, the ratio should be computed (I haven't
tried yet) and taken into account.

Brain also contains a good deal of (ready made) AA (arachidonic acid).
Sears' dreaded precursor of "bad" eicosanoids.

>.. and there is
>no benefit to getting them from plants (such as flax), but there are
>disadvantages (they have to be converted to EPA and DHA in the body,
>and these
>processes are inefficient, and compete with other essential body
>processes).
Not ready made EFA's may be of benefit in the light of the above
- as long as our elongases work.
How do cows make the efas of their brain?

Is flax paleo?
The seeds themselves are pretty unmodified nice flower seeds.
But as the are so small, they may be difficult to gather in amount.

cheers

Amadeus S.