On Sun, 7 Jul 2002 23:29:01 -0500, Theola Walden Baker
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>... I'll make only brief mention here that the Eades' position
>on p. 69 of the Lifeplan book is that the ALA>EPA/DHA conversion process
>works fine IF the necessary enzymes are in top working order, which among
>their patients they have found is seldom the case.

The enzymes not in top working order was seldom the case?
How could they measure?
I myself had the DHA level checked and it was fairly high while I didn't
eat a sigle molecule of DHA within the last 17 years or so.

DHA sources are rare anyway.
Apart from brain which is a very good source, ordinary (wild!) meat
takes about 1kg for the amount Cordain assumes to be necessary.
Marine sources (fish oil) would hardly be available in the savannah of east
africa.

Low DHA levels I think could be caused by an overall low supply of ALA.
If you compare sources of fat in the wild you could compute with somewhat
25% PUFA in all fat and at least 1/4 of this as ALA (exception: some nuts).
That makes at least 5% ALA of all fat in the diet. This will hardly be
reached by unsupplemented modern diets. And not by the Neanderthin diet.

In addition the enzymes D6D d5d can be outcompeted by excess omega-6 oils.
And d6d can be disabled by alcohol, high glucose and saturated fats, as can
be read in books.

regards

Amadeus S.