Omega 3 Deficiency

Over the past thousand years, western society has evolved from a hunting diet to one largely based on agriculture. Many nutrients formally consumed in abundance have now become scarce. One of the nutrients still considered absolutely essential for our good health and development, but now largely missing from our diets, is the family of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) known as the omega 3s. Coupling this fundamental change in dietary nutrients with our society's rapid adoption of highly processed foods, it is little wonder that western society is experiencing an overwhelming escalation in diet-based disease. These diseases range form atherosclerosis, cancer, diabetes, obesity, asthma and skin diseases to premature aging.

It should come as no surprise therefore that during this period of increase in diet-based disease, the amount of omega 3 fatty acids consumed in a normal diet has dropped by as much as 80%. About 40 years ago, health authorities strongly recommended that western diets increased their consumption of PUFAs to lower cholesterol levels. This led to a marked increase in the consumption of vegetable oils which provide the essential omega 6 PUFAs but not the omega 3's. It has now been found that an excess of omega 6 interferes with the benefits of omega 3, thus making an existing omega 3 shortage more acute.

 During the 1980's Dr. William Lands argued that a heavily corn, soy, and canola based American agricultural system had skewed this dietary omega-3/omega-6 balance very heavily toward omega-6 fats. This, he warned, would have long term health consequences. There is a debate today within the nutritional and medical communities regarding whether sky-rocketing incidences of immune disorders (such as diabetes melitus, asthma, lupus erythmatosis and rheumatoid arthritis) in society are attributable to this shift.