Why Flax Oil - and Seeds - Aren't the Whole EFA Solution

You've Only Got Half Of The Story

When researchers discovered that Omega 3 was an Essential Fatty Acid (EFA) for humans, in the 1960’s, the whole story about this fat and the role it plays with Omega 6, the other EFA, wasn't yet fully understood.

Unfortunately, the other EFA, Omega 6, was swept aside in the excitement of this discovery, and that was a mistake, because you need both of these essential fats to be optimally healthy. They work together in very unique ways, and their balance is required to keep your body and brain working efficiently.

As flax seeds were then known to be the plant form of Omega 3 that contains the highest amount of this EFA, flax seeds and oil were suggested as being the choice to supplement with. As an aside, Chia seeds have a slightly higher Omega 3 content, but they weren't yet available, in the quantities that they are available in today, and they also don’t contain other important nutrients that flax seeds do.

When the information about these important Omega 3's filtered down to nutritionists and doctors open to nutritional approaches, in the 1980’s, it was handed out to clients and interested people. However, the whole story wasn't conveyed, because the importance of the ratio and balance between Omega 3 and Omega 6 wasn't yet fully understood.

Therefore, many people started supplementing with Omega 3, using either flax seeds or oil, and ignored Omega 6.

As most people are deficient in Omega 3, they immediately started feeling better, and continued using these forms of Omega 3 as their only EFA supplementation. However, after anything from 2 to 8 months they may have noticed that their skin became very thin, and papery, any bruises took a very long time to heal, and any wound or cut also took ages to heal properly.

The reason this happens is because the body uses the Omega 3 to deal with the severe deficiency, and then becomes deficient in Omega 6, leading to other complications such as:

Hair loss
Eczema-like skin disorders
Behavioural changes
Growth retardation
Lowered immunity
Failure of wounds to heal
Heartbeat abnormalities
Dry, thin skin, dry hair, as well as brittle nails
Dry eyes
Sterility in males
Miscarriage in females
Arthritis-like conditions

Although it has been stated that you get enough Omega 6’s from the sunflower, safflower and soya oils that most people consume in great quantities today, this isn’t the whole story either. These Omega 6’s are highly processed, as they need to be shelf stable, and in the processing, the delicate fat molecules end up becoming damaged.

This is why you also need Omega 6’s in your foundation food supplement – you need them to be undamaged, so that they can do their job properly, as the damaged ones can’t.

Furthermore, as pesticides accumulate in fat, the seeds that are used to make the Omega blend, need to be organic.

The ratio of these unique, essential fats has been found to most effective at 2:1 – that is, 2 parts Omega 3 to one part Omega 6. And when other, important compounds are added to the blend, such as natural vitamin E, lecithin, as well as rice and oat bran oils, you end up with the perfect blend of undamaged, unrefined, Essential Fatty Acids’s (EFA’s.)

References

Healthy intakes of n-3 and n-6 fatty acids: estimations considering world-wide diversity. Hibbeln JR, Nieminen LR, Blasbalg TL, Riggs JA, Lands WE. Am J Clin Nutr. 2006 Jun;83(6 Suppl):1483S-1493S.

Dietary n-6 and n-3 fatty acid balance and cardiovascular health. Wijendran V, Hayes KC. Annu Rev Nutr. 2004;24:597-615.

Fatty acids, Cognition, Behaviour, Brain development and Mood Diseases. Bourre JM. pp 935-954. In: ‘fatty acids in foods and their health implications. Third Ed. Chow CK Editor. CRC Press. Taylor & Francis Group, USA. 2007.

Presentation given by Udo Erasmus, 1 October 2007, Brisbane, Australia, titled ‘Why not all fats are killers and why all Omega 3 and 6 oils are not the same.’

Essential role of fats throughout the lifecycle. Background: the renaissance of fat: roles in membrane structure, signal transduction and gene expression. Deenyer GS. Med J Aust. 2002 Jun 3;176 Suppl:S109-10.

Fats that heal, fats that kill. Erasmus, U. Dr. Alive Books. Burnaby BC, Canada. 1993.

Add to favorites

View your Favorites