On Wed, 13 May 1998, Betty Guyer wrote:

> The Omega Plan has some interesting things to say about the different
> types of fats, Omega 3 and omega 6, and how an imbalance between the two
> can affect cholesterol.
> The basic premise is to increase the omega 3's where ever possible.  Eat
> lots of Olive oil, fatty fish, walnuts.  There's a bunch of others, but
> that's all I can remember.

I don't know that olive oil is rich in n-3 fats, but it is rich
in monounsaturated fat, which is generally beneficial.

>From a paleo standpoint, humans would have eaten plenty of
monounsaturated fat, from bone marrow and organ meats.  Boyd
Eaton estimates that the fat of wild animals, though not at all
plentiful, is about 4% n-3 fat, whereas in domesticated animals
it is about zero.  It is therefore far from clear, to me anyway,
that a diet that makes extensive use of fatty cuts of beef is
particularly close to a paleolithic diet in its fat content.  So,
in my opinion it is to be expected that while some of us may have
adapted to a high sat-fat diet, others of us have not.

It's not unlike the situation with respect to carbohydrates,
really.  Clearly there are some people -- more than a few -- who
can eats lots of starchy carbohydrates without any particular
response in their blood lipids, etc.   But for others among us,
these foods kick our livers into high gear, churning out LDL
cholesterol.  Apparently the same can be said about saturated
fats.  Audette and Gilchrist claim that it is foreign proteins
that cause the reaction, but I am not aware of any evidence to
support this contention; and there is at least some that
contradicts it.

So, for some of us the unhappy situation is that we must avoid
both saturated fats *and* too many carbs.  Actually, it's not as
hard as it sounds.  This, of course, is assuming that elevated
LDL cholesterol really means something.  I am aware that some
researchers now consider TGL/HDL is more important, though they
seemingly don't dismiss LDL entirely.

And of course, since cattle are corn-fattened, not only do they
carry lots of saturated fats, they also are loaded with n-6
polyunsaturated fats from the corn oil, which makes their fat
profile even more lopsided in the wrong direction.

Todd Moody
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