Todd Moody wrote:

>> Animal fats are like what the animals eat: farmed is bad.
>
>Actually, the w-6 to w-3 ratio of even farmed beef is not bad.
>According to USDA it is only 2:1.  The trouble is that the w-3
>fat is in the form of alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), which is less
>desirable than EPA.  Farmed beef is devoid of EPA.

After a short USDA check i understood the trick.
Wild game doesn't have a better fat composition because the fat is so
much better, but because the brain and marrow has a much bigger
*percentage* if the whole animal is considered.
Wild game is so lean that much fat is in the brain and brain is
the real source for (ready made) long chain fatty acids.
Even better since the higher long chain animal fatty acids
found in the brain have a better metabolic effect.
Maybe "farmed" brains are as good as hunted ones.

Strange:
I couldn't find a better w-3 ratio in wild game compared
to beef in USDA.

>> Dark green vegetables (herbs like purslane) cary the
>> valuable fat composition which can be found in true wild game.
>
>True, but again the absolute amounts are very small, and you have
>to eat more ALA than you would need of EPA/DHA to get an
>equivalent metabolic effect.

This matter seems to be not so easy - I found in literature
that humans were still able to make ALA from LA.
I think it can't be true that humans evolved on fish fats in the
arctic.
So it may be, that some factors normally accompanying the w-3 fat
sources influence the proposed good health results.
At least absolute abounts are very high with nuts.

>To my knowledge, only walnuts have an appreciable amount of w-3.
>Do you know of others?

Well, most ratios are not as good as the "omega plan" suggests,
but the overall polyunsaturated fat contents are very good.
Don't you think that the w-3 fat relation to all the other fats
mono and unsaturated is important?

Hm Omega plan mentiones butternuts and chia seed -
which i don't know - its not in my dictionaries.

Alas i couldn't get a lipid profile of the !Kung nut: the mongongo.
A single nut-species with a favourable w-3 fat content could change
the present view, that human anchestors possibly
evolved scavenging brains (to build up our much bigger brain).

A recent radio lecture and reading about the physiological needs of
the brain (at
  http://medtstgo.ucdavis.edu/endo/lecture/metOrgan.htm
 see Brain...)
did point out to me that big brains at first need more *fuel* im form
of glucose (and accompanying vitamin-b1 for usage).

regards

Amadeus
(now able to walk alone on his feet again)





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