Article by Gareth Edwards

This week Gareth Edwards, one of the UK’s best qualified nutritionists and alkaline diet experts, writes about the subject of healthy fats and oils.

We are often told in the Media that fats are generally bad for us, which is simply untrue. There are good and bad fats and in order to achieve good health, it is very important to consume healthy fats like the essential fatty acids (EFAs).

Gareth is explaining which fats and oils are beneficial for us and why they are so important for our health. He has also put together an action plan for you, so that you know exactly how to include these fats into your diet.

Why are Essential Fatty Acids (Omega 3, 6 and 9s) so Important for our Health?

Cod liver oil, oily fish, butter versus margarine, Udo’s Choice, Flax oil, Hemp oil, Chia Seed oil …… what an earth is a healthy fat? Patients or clients are usually grateful when I shine a bit of light onto this important area of health diet and metabolism.

The most important and fundamental factor, that I am sure most Energise readers will have grasped is that healthy fat doesn’t make you fat. In fact quite the reverse is true. You need to have it in your diet.

Reasons To Eat Fat:

There are several reasons why you need fat in your diet. The primary and arguably hedonistic reason is …… that it tastes good! The dense calorific nature of fatty foods gives concentrated flavours that tickle our taste buds. If you eat healthy fat it can be a beneficial, pH neutral or even alkalising source of calories or a way to make you feel full and to give you a fuel source to make energy.

On top of that there are certain body structures that are made of fat (or to give them their biological name lipids). The membranes that form every cell in your body are made from fats. The myelin sheaths that act as insulators around your nerves are made from fats. Your skin is primarily made of fat and messenger substances in your body have a lipid component to them. Add to that the fact that the grey matter of your brain mostly consists of fats and suddenly you may start to feel an urge to start drinking fat….!

Which Fats To Choose:

So that means that a bacon and egg sandwich is healthy then…..? No, because not all fats were born equal. If you need convincing of the shortcomings of high intakes of animal based proteins and fats, then the highly scientific, population based “China Study” by Colin Campbell (available from Amazon) should persuade you. In summarising his research, Campbell provides compelling and scientifically robust evidence of links between increased incidence of degenerative diseases such as arthritis, cardio-vascular disease and arthritis and higher intakes of calories from animal sources.

Combine this with some of the more recent exciting research carried out. A natural substance contained in unprocessed, organically grown plant foods called salvestrols, has been shown to have anti-fungal and anti-tumour properties. Un-refined plant oils contain these along with essential (required by the body) fat soluble nutrients like vitamin E. So they start to emerge from the fat fog as having healing and health promoting properties.

A Bit of Science:

With the exception of Coconut oil, all lipids or fats that come from plant based sources are unsaturated. This means that the carbon chains that form their fatty acid structures are not completely “saturated” with bonded hydrogen. In the absence of Hydrogen atoms the carbon atoms form a double bond between them. (See diagram C = carbon and H = hydrogen).

The position of the first double bond in the carbon chain is a defining characteristic of fat. So if the first double bond falls after the third carbon atom that fatty acid structure will be called and omega 3 fatty acid. If it falls after the sixth carbon atom it will be called an omega 6 fatty acid and so on.

Fats You Have To Have:

Your body is a fantastically intelligent, creative entity. It can “manufacture” many different molecules from metabolic building blocks. There are however two types of fatty acid that your body has to have from what you eat. It can’t turn other stuff into them. These are omega three and omega six fatty acid chains. These are called essential fatty acids (EFA’s) because your body can’t make them and you have to have them.

Most seeds (such as sunflower or pumpkin) are rich sources of omega six fats, while relatively few have high sources of omega three. Hemp and flax oil are particularly high in omega three fats. Hemp oil is more stable than flax oil but it does contain more omega six fats.

Where You Get Them:

As an educated reader of these articles you are probably well aware that you can also get omega three oils from oily fish. The SMASH acronym is a handy way to remember the best sources (salmon, mackerel, anchovies, sardines and herring).

Personally, I have my doubts though about “dosing up” on fish. Eating it occasionally from choice might be a different matter. One important consideration is the fact that these essential un-saturated fats are susceptible to damage by light and heat. So unless you are eating your fish raw, I’m not convinced that it’s a great way to get the omega oils that you absolutely need.

Action Plan:

I absolutely recommend to all my clients that they have about 1 ½ tablespoons (or more!) of either hemp oil or Udo’s Choice every day. Udo’s Choice is a vegetable oil blend with flax oil as the primary ingredient. It has vitamin E added which may serve to make it more stable.

The best thing to do is to add either hemp oil or Udo’s Choice to salad dressings or add it to raw vegetable smoothies. You should not cook with either and they should be supplied and kept in dark glass bottle and bought from and kept in the fridge.

Avocados and extra virgin (ideally unrefined) olive oil will also give you healthy fats but they are not a substitute for hemp or flax oil. All vegetable oils are best stored in the cool and the dark in a glass or a tin, not plastic. Margarine is best avoided and olive oil is preferable to butter. Nut butters (not peanut and ideally raw) including tahini are tasty ways to have fats from vegetable sources.

Recommended further reading: Fats that Heal, Fats that Kill by Udo Erasmus, available from Energise for Life.

Note: This blog is only my opinion. It is not medical advice or diagnosis. Only opinions based upon our own personal experiences or information detailed in medical/academic journals or other publications is cited. WE DO NOT OFFER MEDICAL ADVICE or prescribe any treatments. Please consult with a medical professional before making any diet or nutrition changes.

About Ross Bridgeford

Ross is known as THE Alkaline Diet Expert...especially when it comes to implementation and making the alkaline diet REAL in your life. He has been living, learning, teaching, coaching and loving the alkaline lifestyle since 2004 and has written over 600 articles, alkaline recipes, videos and guides on how to live alkaline and stay alkaline for life. Ross loves life in Brisbane, Australia (although is a proud Englishman) and is healthily-obsessed with nutrition, fitness and Tottenham Hotspur F.C.

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From Energise Alkaline Diet & Natural Health Blog - health news, alkaline diet resources & tips to make you happy! do something nice today...

Krill Oil is fast being recognised as the most effective and efficient source of Omega 3 (EPA & DHA) and has been clinically proven to provide the following benefits to men & women:

Men:
• Aids Muscle Growth & Repair
• Very High in Antioxidants
• Reduces LDL and Raises HDL Cholesterol
• Treats Pain & Inflammation (especially Rheumatoid Arthritis)
• Increases Libido
• Works Wonders on Skin Conditions Such as Eczema & Psoriasis
• Boosts & Maintains Energy Levels
• Dramatically Effective in Helping Treat Depression
• Significantly Decreases Risk of Mental Illness

Women:
• Proven to Decrease Symptoms of PMS
• Very High in Disease-Fighting Antioxidants
• Supports Weight Loss By Helping The Body to Burn Fat as Fuel
• Increases Metabolism
• Supports Strong Hair & Nails
• Promotes Soft, Clear Skin
• Vital for Pregnant Women or Those Wanting to Become Pregnant
• Dramatically Effective in Helping Treat Depression

Krill Oil – The Nutritional Gem from our Oceans

Article by Bibi

Krill Oil and its numerous health benefits are becoming increasingly popular and well known around the globe. Various studies have been conducted in recent years in order to prove these benefits and to highlight its superiority towards Fish Oil.

This is a quote from Dr Tina Sampalis M.D., Ph.D. which says “I call … Krill Oil nature’s perfect recipe. It’s like what nature intended for humans by putting it in a small and plentiful marine animal.”

In the following article we are going to look at this in more detail and highlight how Krill Oil has numerous health properties and can help us with various symptoms ranging from Arthritis, Hyperlipidemia to Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS).

1. What is Krill Oil and where does it come from?

Krill Oil is extracted from shrimp-like crustaceans that are abundant in all the oceans and are approx. 1 to 6 cm long and mainly feed on phytoplankton. The most well known type is the ‘Antarctic Krill’ – in technical terms (Euphausia superb). There are large amounts of Krill stock in our seas and they are also one of the most successful types of animals in the world.

This stems from the fact that their bio mass of ca. 500-900 million tons is probably larger than of any other ‘multiple-cellular’ animal. This means that the Antarctic Krill is a crucial part of the ecosystem. A core advantage with Krill is that they are plentiful in the oceans.

Krill are also positioned right at the start of the food chain and are therefore free from heavy metals and pollutants.

2. What does Krill Oil contain?

Krill Oil is similar to Fish Oils in that they are both partly made up of Omega-3 rich oils EPA (eicosapen-taenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid). The main difference between those two types of oil is that Krill Oil is the unique source of Omega rich oils in the form of phospholipids; whereas all Fish Oils are triglycerides. As the Omega-3 essential fatty acids (EFAs) contained in Krill Oil are bound to these phospholipids, the body can take them in much better than Omega-3 EFAs contained in Fish Oil.

Most Krill Oil typically has more than 40% phospholipids by weight and upwards about 30% EPA and DHA. This is the main difference between Krill and Fish Oil, as the EPA and DHA of Fish Oil is totally in the form of triglycerides.

Apart from its high levels of Omega-3 fatty acids, which are extremely important for our health, Krill Oil is also becoming increasingly popular because it contains an antioxidant called Astaxanthin. Krill eat algae that produce the bright red pigment Astaxanthin that gives Krill, salmon and other crustaceans their slightly reddish/pink colour.

Furthermore, Krill Oil also contains Omega-6 fatty acids, Vitamin A, Vitamin E and Cantaxanthin.

3. What makes Krill Oil so nutritiously valuable?

As outlined above, Krill Oil contains healthy fats like the EFAs (Essential fatty Acids) in the form of Omega-3s and Omega-6s plus the potent antioxidant Astaxanthin, Vitamin A and Vitamin E.

Mainly due to our Western diets we are commonly lacking a sufficient intake of Omega-3s, which has been proven to be extremely important for human health. Unlike the other fats, the body cannot produce them itself and yet they are essential for the efficient working of our cells that make up our body and for the development of our central nervous system. We therefore need to take them in with foods and high quality oil supplements like Krill Oil. They also play a central role in regulating our coagulation, our blood pressure and inflammations.

Omega-3 fatty acids also have a positive impact on our cholesterol levels. Krill Oil has the ability to reinstate the balance between ‘bad’ and ‘good’ essential fatty acids, which can help in the prevention of inflammations.

Furthermore Omega-3s fatty acids are also very beneficial for our brain functions, as it improves our performance and concentration capacities. People who have been taking Krill Oil have reported that they have started to feel benefits like increased alertness and higher levels of concentration.

Other well documented benefits of the EFAs are lubricate joints and improved blood circulation. They can also protect against heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure and diabetes, just to name a few core benefits. Besides that, they can also help relieve secondary symptoms of asthma, arthritis, allergies and skin conditions.

As the EFAs can also help in the prevention of inflammations, Krill Oil has therefore got an important anti-inflammatory effect, which can reduce pain levels for people taking it regularly.

The other core ingredient contained in Krill Oil is Astaxanthin, which is one of the most potent natural antioxidants ever discovered. It is often called the ‘ultimate antioxidant’ as it has up to 550 times the antioxidant capacity of Vitamin E, and up to 10 times the antioxidant capacities of Beta Carotene and Lutein. Research into the health benefits of Astaxanthin also suggest that it looks very beneficial in maintaining the eyes, fertility, immunity, heart and arteries, the digestive system, muscles and joints and premature ageing of skin.

The highly antioxidant power of Krill Oil protects the body and protects the oil of becoming ‘rancid’ or to oxidize, which can be detrimental to our health. This happens quite frequently with other types of oils. These antioxidants together with the Omega-3s fatty acids are built into the cell membrane of each newly developed cell in the human body. They protect us from attacks from so-called “free radicals”, which can lead to an early death of cells and a function loss.

Another important point is the difference in the ratio of Omega-3s and 6s contained in Krill Oil. Our body uses about the same amounts of Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids. The main problem is that our intake of Omega-6s is generally too high nowadays due to our diet, as these EFAs are also contained in vegetable oils as well as white meat and eggs.

Krill Oil can help here – it contains 15-times more Omega-3 than Omega-6 fatty acids. This is an about three times better ratio compared to other Omega-3 sources like Fish Oils.

4. What are the main advantages of Krill Oil in comparison to Fish Oil?

Generally it can be said that people take Krill Oil for the same reasons they use other oils rich in Omega-3 fatty acids like Fish Oils and Flax Seed Oils.

Krill Oil has however got some important advantages in comparison to most Fish Oils, as has already been partly mentioned above. Krill Oil has a much more pleasant taste, as it does not cause fishy burps or a fishy aftertaste, which is a very common side effect of Fish Oil.

Another advantage is that it does not become rancid and also has a longer durability than most Fish Oils.

The results of a study published in 2003 also show that Krill Oil is easier digestible and the body can absorb it better, which is particularly the case for the absorption of the Omega-3 fatty acids. This means that a large number of people who are suffering from a very weak digestion of fats should profit from the intake of Krill Oil. This is due to the fact that the Omega-3s in Krill oil are bound to phospholipids in contrast to the Omega-3s of Fish Oils which are bound to triglycerides.

As well as this, the ratio of Omega-3s and Omega-6s in Krill oil is about three factors better than the ones contained in Fish Oils as well as Vegetable Oils.

Krill Oil can also positively influence our Cholesterol levels and has shown much better results than Fish Oil. An official study showed that the improvement was ten-times higher by a daily intake of 2g of Krill Oil in comparison to a daily 3g intake of Fish Oil.

5. What are the Core Health Benefits of Krill Oil?

Here is a list of the most common reported health benefits shown in published studies of Krill Oil:

• Arthritis: A recent study conducted with the aim to evaluate the effect on Neptune Krill Oil on Chronic Inflammation and Arthritic Symptoms. Ninety patients were recruited with confirmed diagnosis of cardiovascular disease and/or rheumatoid arthritis and/or osteoarthritis and with increased levels of C-reactive protein (CRP). The result of this study clearly show that Krill can significantly reduce joint pains, inflammation and to increase the flexibility of the joints. It has also shown to alleviate symptoms caused by osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. (Click here to see details of this Study)
• Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS): A study conducted at the University of Montreal evaluated the effects of Neptune Krill Oil on the Management of Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS) and Dysmenorrhoea. The participants of this study were seventy patients of reproductive age diagnosed with premenstrual syndrome.

  The conclusion of the study was that Neptune Krill Oil can significantly reduce dysmenorrhoea and the emotional symptoms of premenstrual syndrome and is shown to be significantly more effective for the complete management of premenstrual symptoms compared to omega-3 fish oil. Krill oil preferentially benefited breast tenderness, feeling of inadequacy, stress, irritability, depression, joint discomfort and bloating. Both groups improved on weight gain, abdominal discomfort and swelling. (Click here to see details of this Study)

• Cholesterol: In a study conducted by the University of Montreal, McGill University and a medical centre in Quebec, Canada, 120 people were given Krill oil, fish oil or a placebo. The results of this study demonstrated within high levels of confidence that krill oil is effective for the management of Hyperlipidemia by significantly reducing total cholesterol, LDL (commonly referred to as “bad”) cholesterol , and triglycerides, and increasing HDL (“good”) cholesterol levels. At lower and equal doses, krill oil was significantly more effective than fish oil for the reduction of glucose, triglycerides, and LDL levels. This is something that no pharmaceutical drug has yet been able to manage. (Click here to see details of this Study)
• Power of Potent & Bioavailable Antioxidants: studies highlight that krill oil contains a powerful combination of antioxidants, which are not only beneficial for your continued health, but also sustain the shelf life of the oil. Krill oil provides you with an ample supply of vitamins A, E and D, plus alkaline minerals such as potassium, sodium and zinc. And it also contains large amounts of the B-complex nutrient, choline.
• Strong, Natural Stress Reducer: the high choline content (as mentioned above) means that Krill Oil is a powerful de-stresser. This, along with the general benefits to your mood and energy levels provided by this potent source of omega-3 means that Krill is very beneficial to those living a high-stress lifestyle
• Powerful Pain Killer: In a recent double-blind study, fourty-five patients with rheumatoid arthritis or osteoarthritis were administered 300 mg of krill oil. After only 7 days, inflammation was reduced by 19%, pain was reduced 24%, stiffness was reduced by 21% percent and immobility was reduced by 16%.

  The combination of three anti-inflammatory ingredients (omega 3, phospholipids and the antioxidants mentioned above) make for a very effective, and healthy, pain reliever.

• Muscle Repair & Growth: vital to the creation of new muscle is the repair and restoration phase after workout (or muscle stress) and omega 3 is absolutely vital to this process. The role of omega 3 directly impacts the bodies ability to recover and rebuild as the body will only reach an optimal level of recovery if all of the necessary components are in place- meaning that cardiovascular, hormonal, immune, and muscle function are contingent, to a large degree, upon the required amount of omega 3 consumption. As a perfect and easily absorbed combination of EPA and DHA, Krill Oil is highly recommended.
• Increases the Production of New, Healthy Red Blood Cells: Krill Oils supports the formation of red blood pigment (haemoglobin) from other, simple substances: Haemoglobin ensures that oxygen is carried around the body. Sufficient haemoglobin levels are essential as this means that oxygen and nutrients reach the muscles and other areas of the body where they are needed. Also, acidic waste products (including carbon dioxide and lactic acid), will be removed with greater efficiency if haemoglobin levels are sufficient.

If all the information above has made you interested in giving this exciting Krill Oil a try, then have a look at the latest addition to our product range – the ‘Jarrow Krill Oil 60 Softgels’ for only £29.99.

We are almost certain that you will discover your new favourite Oil supplement which has highly antioxidant powers and provides you with all the healthy essential fatty acids (EFAs) needed for our bodies to function at their most efficient level!

About Ross Bridgeford

Ross is known as THE Alkaline Diet Expert...especially when it comes to implementation and making the alkaline diet REAL in your life. He has been living, learning, teaching, coaching and loving the alkaline lifestyle since 2004 and has written over 600 articles, alkaline recipes, videos and guides on how to live alkaline and stay alkaline for life. Ross loves life in Brisbane, Australia (although is a proud Englishman) and is healthily-obsessed with nutrition, fitness and Tottenham Hotspur F.C.

Mail | Web | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | YouTube

From Energise Alkaline Diet & Natural Health Blog - health news, alkaline diet resources & tips to make you happy! do something nice today...