Essential Fatty Acids
If you've already read our article about fats, then you'll already have learned that despite their bad reputation, fats are an essential component of a healthy diet. However, it's important to distinguish between good and bad fats, in order to ensure that you're getting the right kind of fats that the body needs.
Fats and oils are made up of fatty acids - there are a number of essential fatty acids, or EFAs, that the body cannot produce itself, and therefore must be ingested through the food in our diets. Essential fatty acids can also be called vitamin F, or more commonly, polyunsaturates.
What are the benefits of essential fatty acids?
Essential fatty acids are, indeed, essential - these nutrients are needed by every one of the body’s cells, helping to repair damage and produce new, healthy cells, and therefore, are needed in your healthy diet. Essential fatty acids help to reduce high blood pressure and lower cholesterol; they can help in the fight against arthritis, improve the condition of both skin and hair, and help to prevent blood clots. Essential fatty acids are also required by the brain to ensure normal development and functioning, as they help to transmit nerve impulses, allowing us to take in new information and recall it as needed.
Because essential fatty acids have beneficial effects on the skin, they can help to reduce the severity of eczema and psoriasis - they're also helpful for conditions such as candidiasis (thrush) and cardiovascular disease.
The body uses essential fatty acids to produce prostaglandins, which, in turn relay chemical messages and help to regulate a variety of different processes within the body, including; lowering blood pressure, relaxing coronary arteries and encouraging healthy muscle tone within the blood vessels.
In addition to these benefits, essential fatty acids are also vital because they’re the precursors for other unsaturated fatty acids, which ensure that highly active tissues which need a lot of energy and oxygen to function, such as brain tissue, the retina, and adrenal and testicular tissues, get what they need to do their jobs properly.
Types of essential fatty acids – omega 3 and omega 6
Essential fatty acids can be broken down into two different categories: omega 3 and omega 6.
The omega 3 essential fatty acids include the individual acids alpha-linolenic and eicosapentaenoic. The can be sourced from fresh fish (deepwater), fish oil, canola, flaxseed and walnut oils. Among the omega 6 essential fatty acids are linoleic (the most essential of them all) and gamma-linolenic acids, which are present in oils derived from borage, grape seed, primrose, sesame and soybean, and also in raw nuts, seeds and also legumes.
Let’s look at some of these sources of essential fatty acids in more detail:
Fish oil – the best fish oils for omega 3 are those that come from salmon, mackerel, menhaden, herring and sardines. Low fat fish, such as cod, has very low amounts of EFAs in comparison.
Flaxseed and flaxseed oil – as well as being a great source of omega 3, flaxseed is also nutrient rich, with high levels of magnesium, potassium and fibre, and good amounts of Vitamin B, protein and zinc. Another benefit of flaxseed is that it has no cholesterol, and only a small amount of calories and saturated fat. You can grind flaxseed and enjoy its nutty flavour in water or natural pressed juice, or sprinkle on salad, cereal, soup or yoghurt. Research indicates that flaxseed can be incredibly beneficial in reducing the symptoms of arthritis.
Grape seed oil – with no cholesterol, sodium or trans-fatty acids, hardly any saturated fat and an abundance of linoleic acid, grape seed oil is one of the very best sources of EFAs. It’s also one of the only EFA-rich oils that can be heated. Look for cold-pressed versions without preservatives.
Primrose oil (evening primrose) – the richest source of gamma-linolenic acid, primrose oil is beneficial for heart disease, multiple sclerosis, the liver, inflammation, high blood pressure, PMS, sex hormone release and reducing cholesterol levels. Women with breast cancer should use blackcurrant seed oil as an alternative.
Hemp seed oil – a good long-term source of both omega 3 and omega 6, as well as gamma-linolenic acid.
It’s important to note that the EFAs in the above oils (apart from grape seed) are destroyed by heat, so cooking with them or eating them in a processed form (such as hydrogenated to make margarine) will render them useless, and what’s more, leads to the production of free radicals, which are extremely damaging to our health.