On Fri, 20 Jul 2001 14:24:43 -0400, Hilary McClure <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

>I'm glad you asked, because now I can come clean! I haven't even read
>his book and there I was criticizing him.

May I suggest you to read it? From what I see what you are thinking about
it might be a inspiration for you.
For your own thoughts.

>My comment was based on a
>review of his book by Fallon or Enig that can be found on the
>westonaprice.org website. Their claim is that there are many people out
>there who, because of him, are consuming dangerous amounts of flax oil.

In my copy there are definite recommendations how much of supplementation on
a daily basis or in the long term would be good.
LA still is the main EFA, and *if* you read the book you'll get to know
about more than just flax.

>Apparently we are adapted for the consumption a certain amount of
>alpha-linolenic acid, but shouldn't get too much. We're better off
>getting the longer chain omega-3's instead, which is what we would be
>getting from wild meats, organ meats, and fish.

I don't subscribe to this point of view.
We need eicosanoids every minute of the life and the amount of ALA compared
to LA influences how much AA is produced.
ALA can outcompete d5d witch produces the bad AA.
LNA seems to be beneficial in fighting tumor cells through
the cell membrane structure.

> Some say you need ALA
>supplements, such as flax oil, to balance out excess LA, but why not
>just eliminate the excess LA from your diet

Because LA is essential to make prostaglandins.

>.. and eat foods with
>evolutionarily appropriate fatty acid profiles?

Please take a look at the fatty acid profiles of as many evolutionary foods
as possible. You may be astonished how high in LNA an LA these are.
And don't think of a cow as an evolutionary food. Gazelle yes, cow no.

>They also claim that in his book, mixed
>with a lot of other good information, there is serious misinformation
>about coconut oil, saturated fat, canola oil, and hemp oil.

What might that misinformation be?
I found everything in concordance with other sources.
It's just that Enig Fallon are very sensible about anything
negative said about saturated fats.
But of course saturated fats have their problems.

> I find a lot of what Enig and Fallon have to say to be fascinating
>and very valuable..

Yes. Particularly valuable I find the traditional nourishment idea.

Amadeus