EFAs and fish oil

Hey guys,

Remind me, what fancy fatty acids am i supposed to be getting? Are there
some that are good and some that are in some way bad? Is it fish oil or
fish liver oil that's the one to go for?

tom

--
life finds a way

"Tom Anderson" <twic@urchin.earth.li> wrote in message
news:Pine.LNX.4.64.0807031714510.2351@urchin.earth .li...
> Hey guys,
>
> Remind me, what fancy fatty acids am i supposed to be getting? Are there
> some that are good and some that are in some way bad? Is it fish oil or
> fish liver oil that's the one to go for?
>
> tom
>
> --
> life finds a way

Fish Oil with Omega 3

Burr

In article <ddWdnTVYgfa_-fDVnZ2dnUVZ_sHinZ2d@earthlink.com>,
"Burr" <pitzradio@earthlink.net> wrote:

> "Tom Anderson" <twic@urchin.earth.li> wrote in message
> news:Pine.LNX.4.64.0807031714510.2351@urchin.earth .li...
> > Hey guys,
> >
> > Remind me, what fancy fatty acids am i supposed to be getting? Are there
> > some that are good and some that are in some way bad? Is it fish oil or
> > fish liver oil that's the one to go for?
> >
> > tom
> >
> > --
> > life finds a way
>
> Fish Oil with Omega 3
>
> Burr

Or Flax Seed if fish oil does not agree with you.
Fish oil is better (richer) but Flax will do in a pinch.
--
Peace! Om

"Human nature seems to be to control other people
until they put their foot down." -- Stephan Rothstein

On Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:15:45 +0100, Tom Anderson wrote:

> Hey guys,
>
> Remind me, what fancy fatty acids am i supposed to be getting? Are there
> some that are good and some that are in some way bad? Is it fish oil or
> fish liver oil that's the one to go for?
>
> tom


Omega-3 (n-3) Fatty Acids. They are an 'essential' nutrient, meaning
Your body can not produce them from other components and You can not live
without them. There are 3 main types: EPA, DHA, and ALA. (Strictly
speaking, Your body can produce EPA and DHA from ALA, but it is a very
limited ability. For optimal health, it is generally believed that most
EPA and DHA need to be acquired through diet.)

Fish oil contains EPA and DHA. ALA is found in flax seed oil, kiwi, and
numerous other plants. Omega-3s have been linked with a wide variety of
positive health effects.

Fish liver oil on the other hand, has few n-3 fatty acids, and is very
high in saturated fats. Avoiding saturated fats is generally believed to
be a good thing.

On Fri, 4 Jul 2008, Shava_X wrote:

> On Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:15:45 +0100, Tom Anderson wrote:
>
>> Remind me, what fancy fatty acids am i supposed to be getting? Are
>> there some that are good and some that are in some way bad? Is it fish
>> oil or fish liver oil that's the one to go for?
>
> Omega-3 (n-3) Fatty Acids. They are an 'essential' nutrient, meaning
> Your body can not produce them from other components and You can not live
> without them. There are 3 main types: EPA, DHA, and ALA. (Strictly
> speaking, Your body can produce EPA and DHA from ALA, but it is a very
> limited ability. For optimal health, it is generally believed that most
> EPA and DHA need to be acquired through diet.)
>
> Fish oil contains EPA and DHA. ALA is found in flax seed oil, kiwi, and
> numerous other plants. Omega-3s have been linked with a wide variety of
> positive health effects.
>
> Fish liver oil on the other hand, has few n-3 fatty acids, and is very
> high in saturated fats. Avoiding saturated fats is generally believed
> to be a good thing.

Right, went out and bought more fish oil today. Cheers, Mr X!

tom

--
unconstrained by any considerations of humanity or decency

Tom Anderson <twic@urchin.earth.li> wrote:
> On Fri, 4 Jul 2008, Shava_X wrote:
>> On Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:15:45 +0100, Tom Anderson wrote:
>>> Remind me, what fancy fatty acids am i supposed to be getting? Are
>>> there some that are good and some that are in some way bad? Is it
>>> fish oil or fish liver oil that's the one to go for?

Aren't you a scientist working in biochemistry though?
We're supposed to be asking YOU these questions! :-)

>> Omega-3 (n-3) Fatty Acids. They are an 'essential' nutrient, meaning
>> Your body can not produce them from other components and You can not live
>> without them. There are 3 main types: EPA, DHA, and ALA. (Strictly
>> speaking, Your body can produce EPA and DHA from ALA, but it is a very
>> limited ability. For optimal health, it is generally believed that most
>> EPA and DHA need to be acquired through diet.)
>>
>> Fish oil contains EPA and DHA. ALA is found in flax seed oil, kiwi, and
>> numerous other plants. Omega-3s have been linked with a wide variety of
>> positive health effects.
>>
>> Fish liver oil on the other hand, has few n-3 fatty acids, and is very
>> high in saturated fats. Avoiding saturated fats is generally believed
>> to be a good thing.
>
> Right, went out and bought more fish oil today. Cheers, Mr X!

I'm pretty sure there is such thing as too much of fish oil and it
might be only tens of grams. The problem is that long chain
unsaturated fatty acids are especially susceptible to peroxidation and
produce lotsa free radicals. Also see pacemaker theory of aging. Also,
if you put a guy on an essential fats free diet, it would take years
to develop deficiency. In rats, even the offspring of EFA-deficients
(first generation) carry enough maternal EFAs to kind of cripple
through their little miserable lifes.

There are studies on rats that show that too much PUFA is bad for
longevity. OTOH, saturated fats are metabolically "inert". It's
possible that they are only "bad" on the background of too much w-6
and carbs (that is, a typical fast-food diet). There are some pacific
populations that don't have diseases commonly associated with
saturated fats while they derive a lot of calories from palm kernel
and coconut oils (those are largely saturated).

For myself, I limit fish oil intake to about 1 gram a day. If I were
pregnant or brestfeeding, I'd certainly up it. Some may use it as a
drug (EPA may fight depression etc). Other than that I see little
reason to go crazy on that stuff.

DZ <20901@687321611.2262928206.31656.17721.8144> writes:

> For myself, I limit fish oil intake to about 1 gram a day. If I were
> pregnant or brestfeeding, I'd certainly up it. Some may use it as a
> drug (EPA may fight depression etc). Other than that I see little
> reason to go crazy on that stuff.

Dmitri, If you were pregnant or breastfeeding how much EFA you got would
be the least of your problems.

Jason

Jason Earl <jearl@xmission.com> wrote:
> DZ writes:
>> For myself, I limit fish oil intake to about 1 gram a day. If I were
>> pregnant or brestfeeding, I'd certainly up it. Some may use it as a
>> drug (EPA may fight depression etc). Other than that I see little
>> reason to go crazy on that stuff.
>
> Dmitri, If you were pregnant or breastfeeding how much EFA you got would
> be the least of your problems.

It worries me that 100% of people who posted in this thread so far did
so from a Linux computer (although using 4 different newsreaders:
pine, pan, slrn, gnus/emacs). Coincidence?

Did I mention that I encrypted the hell out of my hard drive and that
I have a very loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong passphrase stored only
in my head, which is wrapped in a tinfoil at all times to prevent
brainwave-sniffing?

DZ <19239@158292308.2548821909.21835.17059.30838> writes:

> Jason Earl <jearl@xmission.com> wrote:
>> DZ writes:
>>> For myself, I limit fish oil intake to about 1 gram a day. If I were
>>> pregnant or brestfeeding, I'd certainly up it. Some may use it as a
>>> drug (EPA may fight depression etc). Other than that I see little
>>> reason to go crazy on that stuff.
>>
>> Dmitri, If you were pregnant or breastfeeding how much EFA you got would
>> be the least of your problems.
>
> It worries me that 100% of people who posted in this thread so far did
> so from a Linux computer (although using 4 different newsreaders:
> pine, pan, slrn, gnus/emacs). Coincidence?

My experience is that Linux users make up a disproportionately large
percentage of USENET users these days, and Linux has quite a few very
usable news clients.

None of them are quite as good as Gnus, of course. Then again, what
software is as good as Gnus?

> Did I mention that I encrypted the hell out of my hard drive and that
> I have a very loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong passphrase stored only
> in my head, which is wrapped in a tinfoil at all times to prevent
> brainwave-sniffing?

It used to be that using Linux was encryption enough. Linux was so hard
to use that actually encrypting your files was overkill. These days
people come over to my house and use my wife's computer (running Ubuntu)
and they don't even realize that they aren't using Windows.

That's part of the reason that I still use Emacs. It's still just as
impenetrably hard to use as ever. Most of the stuff that I am
interested in encrypted is hidden deep in the bowels of Emacs' org-mode.
Sure, there are some plain text files that you could read somewhere, but
to find them you'd probably have to care.

Jason

Jason Earl <jearl@xmission.com> wrote:
> DZ writes:
>> Did I mention that I encrypted the hell out of my hard drive and
>> that I have a very loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong passphrase
>> stored only in my head, which is wrapped in a tinfoil at all times
>> to prevent brainwave-sniffing?
>
> It used to be that using Linux was encryption enough. Linux was so
> hard to use that actually encrypting your files was overkill. These
> days people come over to my house and use my wife's computer
> (running Ubuntu) and they don't even realize that they aren't using
> Windows.

Truth is that I have to encrypt the entire drive on any computer that
may have any files that I could bring from work. It doesn't matter
what kind of files. But in Fedora-9 it's easy - you just click on the
encrypt checkbox during the installation and enter a passphrase. I
don't see any degrade in performance.

Of course the benefit is that you can have banking passwords and stuff
like that stored without worrying that the computer gets stolen and
then booted from a CD.

> That's part of the reason that I still use Emacs. It's still just as
> impenetrably hard to use as ever. Most of the stuff that I am
> interested in encrypted is hidden deep in the bowels of Emacs' org-mode.
> Sure, there are some plain text files that you could read somewhere, but
> to find them you'd probably have to care.

I use emacs to write LaTeX and usenet posts, but I didn't know bout
the org-mode.

On Jul 3, 11:15*am, Tom Anderson <t...@urchin.earth.li> wrote:

> Remind me, what fancy fatty acids am i supposed to be getting? Are there
> some that are good and some that are in some way bad? Is it fish oil or
> fish liver oil that's the one to go for?

Omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids are the only fatty acids you need to
eat. The body will synthesize saturated and MUFA.

ALA is the form of omega 3 that is in flax seed oil and the body will
convert it to EPA and DHA, but fish oil already has it in those
forms.

DHA is the most important form to have followed by EPA and ALA.

--
Ron

DZ <31741@1318311020.2936932444.16905.15085.14859> writes:

> Jason Earl <jearl@xmission.com> wrote:
>> DZ writes:
>>> Did I mention that I encrypted the hell out of my hard drive and
>>> that I have a very loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong passphrase
>>> stored only in my head, which is wrapped in a tinfoil at all times
>>> to prevent brainwave-sniffing?
>>
>> It used to be that using Linux was encryption enough. Linux was so
>> hard to use that actually encrypting your files was overkill. These
>> days people come over to my house and use my wife's computer
>> (running Ubuntu) and they don't even realize that they aren't using
>> Windows.
>
> Truth is that I have to encrypt the entire drive on any computer that
> may have any files that I could bring from work. It doesn't matter
> what kind of files. But in Fedora-9 it's easy - you just click on the
> encrypt checkbox during the installation and enter a passphrase. I
> don't see any degrade in performance.
>
> Of course the benefit is that you can have banking passwords and stuff
> like that stored without worrying that the computer gets stolen and
> then booted from a CD.

Ah, That makes sense. I don't deal with particularly classified
material. When I do need to deal with confidential material I tend to
do it over a ssh connection. That way the information is never really
on the hard drive of my laptop.

For those few times when I needed to take confidential information with
me and I wasn't planning on having network access I used gpg, but that's
fairly cumbersome.

Full disk encryption is pretty straightforward these days. I probably
should look into what a small encrypted partition would entail.

>> That's part of the reason that I still use Emacs. It's still just as
>> impenetrably hard to use as ever. Most of the stuff that I am
>> interested in encrypted is hidden deep in the bowels of Emacs'
>> org-mode. Sure, there are some plain text files that you could read
>> somewhere, but to find them you'd probably have to care.
>
> I use emacs to write LaTeX and usenet posts, but I didn't know bout
> the org-mode.

Org-mode is good stuff if you spend a lot of time in Emacs. I spend
basically all of my time in Emacs, and so planning my time, and logging
how I actually spend my time, in Emacs makes a lot of sense. I used to
use planner-mode, but org-mode is easier to use (IMHO).

The only downside is syncing the information with my handheld organizer.
I've decided to fix this by making sure that my next handheld runs Emacs
.

Jason