Welcome to Straight Talk on Health. I’m your host Dr. Chet Zelasko. Straight Talk on Health is a joint production with WGVU in Grand Rapids MI. With a PhD in exercise physiology, I’ve been teaching people how to improve their health through diet, exercise, and supplementation for over 30 years. I look at the science behind all the headlines and social media, and let you know whether it’s something to consider or not. You can check out other things that I do on my website Drchet.com and sign up for my free emails.
There are always controversies in nutrition. Seed oils are one of them. With all that’s been written and said about seed oils and sources of omega-3 fatty acids, I thought we would go back to the basics on this episode of STOH. Back to what really are the essential fatty acids. Similar to essential amino acids, essential fatty acids are the fats that we cannot make ourselves. Therefore, they must be obtained from the foods that we eat.
Let’s actually start with saturated fats. In the most simple terms, these are fats made up of chains of carbon atoms that are saturated with hydrogen atoms. They can be short in length, which seems to be beneficial for our health, or long which are not beneficial when we have too many floating around bloodstream. The thing that is interesting is that the saturated fats we eat are not the only source of saturated fat we consume. Decades ago, when saturated fats became the health enemy, that didn’t stop us from making saturated fats ourselves IF we overate. Carbohydrates from sugars and starches can be used to make saturated fat. Even carbon remnants from proteins can be used to make saturated fats. Again, remember the word overate. If we can attain a normal body weight and we have a healthy intake of all types of fats, quality carbohydrates, and protein, that’s not a problem. But we love to eat to excess and so, we can make too much saturated fat ourselves.
While we can make plenty of saturated fats, we cannot make the two essential fatty acids (FA). The two essential fatty acids are the omega-6 fatty acid called linoleic acid and the omega-3 fatty acid called alpha-linolenic acid. With those as a base, other fatty acids can be made which have a variety of important functions in the body. The most important function they have is to make up cell membranes. If you have adequate amounts of these two essential FA, it simply means your cells will work better.
Men need about 17 grams of alpha-linolenic acid per day while women need about 11. Women need about 1.1 gram of linoleic acid per day while men need 1.6 g per day. That seems like such small amounts when you consider that works out to fewer than 150 calories for women and 200 calories for men, using oils as the primary source.
What about the omega-3s we hear about all the time like EPA and DHA? Understanding that linoleic acid is the essential omega-6 FA and alpha-linolenic acid is the essential omega-3 FA, the logical question would be what about oily fish like tuna, salmon, and anchovies and other sources of omega-3 FA? It’s just a little complicated but let me explain.
It is true that in humans, we can use alpha-linolenic acid to make EPA and DHA. The problem is that it is not a dominant biochemical pathway. That’s why the phrase “functional essential fatty acids” are used to describe EPA and DHA. Another way is saying it is that to function at optimal levels, we should get DHA and EPA from either food sources or from dietary supplements every day.
DHA is critical to brain and eye health while EPA has anti-inflammatory properties. The best sources of EPA and DHA would be seafood such as tuna, salmon, and anchovies to name just a few. If someone is a vegetarian, there are some products available that contain these functional fatty acids from algae. It is only a matter of time before the more easily reproducible sources like algae and seaweed will replace fish as the primary source found in supplements.
I’ve talked about seed oils several times. I do not disagree that we overconsume seed oils but most are found in ultra-processed foods. That’s why we end up with the disproportion of omega-6:omega-3 fatty acids eaten in our society as a whole. It is supposed to be 1:1 but it’s more like 20:1 omega-6s to omega 3s. Getting it closer to 1:1 is necessary for good health. The reason is that one of the functions of some omega-6s is making pro-inflammatory hormones like cortisol so it is essential to regain some sense of balance between the two. Also, linoleic acid on the other hand, is also critical for good skin as well as cell membranes. If you want to use oils in cooking, safflower, sunflower, corn, and soybean oil have the best omega-6 profile. You can certainly find non-GMO and organically grown sources of those oils. If you’re going to get oils from food, you might as well use the sources with the highest amount of linoleic acid per serving.
Let’s turn to AI for a moment as it’s been in the news lately. I’m still bugged about the topic I talked about last week, polyphenols in fruit. It’s not that I don’t think it was an interesting topic. It was. Why did it show up in a press release now when it was published in 2023? My sense is that AI was involved, based on what I’ve read and what I’ve researched in the past. I’m going to change the way I select topics to talk about.
But that’s not the real reason I’m writing this. It is to let you know that everything I write and talk about is written by me. I do use a specific AI to search for background research on topics (one expert said to think of AI as an eager research assistant, and that’s how I use it). I read only the research papers that AI finds, and I know the field well enough to know a good source from one that’s bad. Once I read enough research, I write about the topic. Then my editor of 36 years verifies what I’ve written makes sense or recommends changes that makes it clear what I intended to write. Then it goes to you.
It's not that AI doesn’t offer to write something, but it doesn’t have a database of life experiences in addition to my knowledge base. It cannot think, has never run a marathon, got a knee replaced, or dealt with any of the human conditions we face. If you read what AI writes, it sounds hollow because when AI writes, it’s not choosing the best word—it’s giving you the most common word to occur in that particular phrase.
One area is not free from AI: the illustrations I use in my weekly emails. Paula says it’s almost impossible to find art that hasn’t been touched by AI. It’s not just the image of a hippo in a track suit eating ice cream; it’s almost every image, no matter how ordinary, but we work hard to make sure the images aren’t misleading and try to exclude anything made with generative AI.
Just know that everything I write or say originated with me. I hope that this helps you rest easier knowing that I generate the content I share. This is an AI-free zone and it is going to stay that way. That’s all the time I have for this episode. If you like this podcast, hit the like button and share the link with your friends and colleagues about it. Until next time, this is Dr. Chet Zelasko saying health is a choice. Choose wisely today and every day.
Reference:
1. Linus Pauling Institute. Essential Fatty Acids
2. J Lipid Res 2014 DOI 10.1194/jlr.R055095
