Posted by IsoM on June 15, 2002, at 22:33:13
In reply to Re: Profit Driven Industries » IsoM, posted by omega man on June 15, 2002, at 21:30:25
I wasn't responding to the original post but making a comment on alternative treatments in general. Not to say that some aren't good but like everything else, it has to be weighed against what is known to be absolutely true & factual, & what is new & hypothetical. Based on what information we can dig up, a person needs to make a reasonable decision whether to try something or not.
About omega-3 oils, there's real science there, but there's not enough we know about it all yet. But I think people may be jumping the gun a little too fast. In trying to isolate just certain types of fats, other valuable lipids may be missed. When something new is learned, people tend to get overly hopeful that this new discovery is the answer to so many different ills. Trying to take only 'good' fatty acids & avoiding some of what's considered 'bad' (no, I don't mean obviously bad like trans-fatty acids like hydrogenated fats i.e. Crisco) but those like arachidonic acid is sometimes considered 'bad' as it forms more pro-inflammatory prostaglandins rather than the anti-inflammatory ones. But everything in the body needs to be balanced with an opposite. It's the balance that's most important, to not lean too far in one direction than another.
Remember when butter, tea, coffee, chocolate, eggs, milk etc were all considered bad foods? But 'new' evidence shows their benefits after all. I believe the same may be true of many fats & trying to separate some fatty acids from others & take more of those new 'good' ones may instead cause other problems not now known about.
CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) has now got researchers' interest. Where is it found? In animal fats (though not grain-fed animals). How much more will we learn? Vitamins, minerals, & amino acids are somewhat better understood as they've been researched & tested longer, but the study of lipids & their effects on health is pretty new. We honestly don't know enough about lipids & all the roles they play in our bodies. There's quite a few studies being done on CLA & its effects on people & animals right now. More is being learned all the time & retractions of what was previously accepted is being done frequently. What other types of lipids will be discovered to have protective effects on human health?
Time & time again, it comes back that eating a good, balanced diet with variety is the best preventative medicine of all. Only trouble is that trying to find truly natural unadulterated foods has become more & more difficult, not to mention expensive, unless you have your own land & farm. And people like convenience. They're willing to pay more money for foods that don't taste as good & are often unhealthy for us for the convenience. Cooking really healthy AND tasty meals is time-consuming. Yet we can't think we can get what we need by taking more supplements instead. (By the way, CLA capsules seem to be less than 50% effective as compared with natural CLA in foods & FAR more expensive, of course.)
poster:IsoM
thread:109267
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020609/msgs/109984.html