Re: omega 3 fatty acids -plant sources such as black beans?

[Guest guest]

bill4cr wrote:

> Is the bio-availability of these fatty acids in black beans equivalent

> to animal sources such as fish? What other plant sources are there?

According to Cron-o-Meter, I get about 200% of the recommended omega-3

from just 2 tablespoons of ground flax meal, which I add to my morning

smoothie (made with soymilk, frozen berries/fruit, and almonds--which

provide 21% of omega-6).

Flax may not provide the ideal balance of omega-6 to omega-3, but I

remain a bit confused by this.

[Guest guest]

It would be nice, Bill, were the omega-3 fatty acids

those that are in fatty fish. It seems that the black

beans have only the alpha-linolenic acid, which is

poorly converted to he long-chain fats in fish.

Flaxseeds have much more of the alpha-linolenic acid

than black beans.

--- bill4cr <bill4cr@...> wrote:

> I found this on the " world's healthiest foods "

> website -

>

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=george & dbid=72

> :

>

> " Black beans also contain small amounts (about 180

> milligrams per cup)

> of omega 3 fatty acids. This amount is about three

> times that

> available from many other beans, including kidney

> beans. While the

> amount of omega 3 fats in one cup of black beans is

> roughly equal to

> the amount in one ounce of a cold water fish like

> halibut, it's still

> a valuable addition to your meal plan since omega 3

> fats are essential

> to protecting our health. "

>

> Is the bio-availability of these fatty acids in

> black beans equivalent

> to animal sources such as fish? What other plant

> sources are there?

>

> bill

>

>

>

-- Al Pater, PhD; email: Alpater@...

__________________________________________________

[Guest guest]

Many plant foods are good sources of Omega 3 fatty

acids. The plant foods that are the most concentrated

are flax seeds, walnuts, and green leafy's.

The difference between plant and animal sources like

fish is that plants contain only the short chain EFAs

(omega 3 & 6s), while fish contains both the short

chain EFAs and the longer chain EPA and DHA.

We can synthesize EPA and DHA from the Omega 3.

Because of this, none of the major health

organizations recognize EPA and DHA as " essential "

right now. the question is how efficient is the

conversion. I recently posted some studies showing the

estimates.

You can easily get enough Omega 3 from plants alone if

you were to make wise choices. The debate is over the

efficiency of the conversion to EPA and DHA.

The ratios are still debated but another way to look

at it is that you need a certain level of omega 3s

(and there are several different estimates right now.)

and you don't want too much omega 6 as it can be

inflammatory and can compete for the enzymes that

convert omega 3s to EPA and DHA. The ratios you often

here recommended range between 4:1 and 1:1 (6:3), with

no clear evidence for any of them yet. Some studies

show the exact ratio doesn't matter as long as the

above " principles " are followed. And some show that

just reducing the amount of omega 6 in the diet

increases the amount of EPA and DHA conversion from

the same amount of Omega 3 consumed.

I don't think looking towards individual " foods " like

flax or certain " oils " that have the right " balance "

is the answer. The answer is consuming a total diet

that has enough omega 3s without too many omega 6s as

your daily average over time. The potential benefit

of any one " ideal " food can easily be offset by the

rest of the intake of an overall bad diet.

Following the basic principles of CR-ON as recommended

by Walford and those on this list, will often do that,

if not come very close.

I am posting this as a " review " from my perspective of

the data. All the references that support this

" view " have been posted on the list recently during

the discussions.

Jeff