On Fri, 16 Oct 1998 09:51:00 -0400, Todd Moody <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>On Fri, 16 Oct 1998, Amadeus Schmidt wrote:
>
>> 1) How much, and which relations of fatty acids do we need?
>> I take a look at the human milk which is a real genetic determined
>> paleolithic measure - and that even for the time of brain build-up.
>
>I think this is a mistake.  You are presupposing that the
>nutrient balance of human milk represents an ideal nutrient
>balance for human adults.  I see no reason to believe such a
>thing.  That is, I find it perfectly believable that nutritional
>requirements change as we mature.
Taking human milk as a model is perfectly valid only for the
 early ages.
It's one possible example to infer from the milk composition to
the adult's needs. (Other possibilities might be to infer something
from the prehistoric available food items :-))

I think in then brain construction discusson it's not a bad starting point,
because in the early childhood the brain is growing very fast,
and if we're looking at the w-3 fat need from the brain, then the
early childhood needs ought to be at a peak at that time.
(Similar to protein needs...)

>
>For example, human milk is higher in saturated fat than just
>about any food that would have been available to paleolithic
>humans before the relatively recent big-game hunting epoch.
True, big vatiations in there.

> The
>w-6:w-3 ratio of human milk is 7:1.  This would not be a good
>ratio for adults. ........ If we are striving for a
>ratio of 2:1 or less then we need

>substantial amounts of w-3 that are not accompanied by massive
>amounts of w-6.
How do you get to the 2:1 ideal as opposed to the 7:1?
From the "omega plan"-website i found "less than 4" (while todays
average was 14 to 20).
How could such rations (2:1) be reached with any paleolithic food item?
Fish are not paleolithic food items.
And for the other paleosources -
Even brains - they aren't so high in DHA/EPA/ALA.
I'd expect that all hunters mix their fats from brain eaten with the other
body fats (energy/fat is rare for hunters - not protein).
This will worsen the effective ratios.
Maybe there are other sources still fo find (insects??).

>Nuts are good, but even walnuts provide only small amounts of w-3
>fat.  Since the ratio of nuts averages about 10:1 or
>more, we must seek our w-3 fats elsewhere.
Maybe 7:1 or 4:1 *is* a right value.
The Walnut data
showed a fine value and a quite large ALA content.
6 grams per 100g! That's 13 times as much as in brain (in form of EPA/DHA).
(I wonder how the mgongo nuts from the !kung do :-))

LAMBS BRAIN(RAW):   FATTY ACIDS, POLYUNSATURATED     0.880
18:2  LA                        0.030
20:4  ARACHION                  0.230
22:5  EPA                       0.130
22:6  DHA                       0.490
CHOL                        1325.000

NUTS, WALNUTS, has a very good w-3 to w-6 ratio 4.5
 18:2  LA                       31.762
 18:3  ALA                       6.811

Accepting a little higher ratios,
that looks to me like nuts still were the right place to look.

I did come to nuts as a key nutrition food item also in other
aspects, as you'll recall. They satisfy our increased vitam
in B1 needs.

>It's in the saturated fats......... Animal
>fats have a decent ratio of w-6:w-3 but in absolute terms
>contains only tiny amounts of these.
I see.

regards and have a nice weekend

Amadeus