Super Omega-3

Desaturase and elongase enzymes responsible for these conversions vary in functionality from species to species, within the same species, and even within the same individual under differing circumstances. Additionally, it is believed, these enzyme systems can be affected adversely by various toxins and disease states. Thus not only diet, but environmental and genetic factors can influence eicosanoid balances.

In animal species, sufficient enzyme systems do not exist to permit formation of unsaturated bonds in the omega-3 and the omega-6 positions. Therefore, as discussed previously,

omega-3 and -6 fatty acids are essential dietary constituents. Plant chloroplasts, on the other hand, have the enzyme systems necessary to form these omega-3 and -6 fatty acids and thus plant food sources become the ultimate source of these essential fatty acids for animals. This means even if an animal is a carnivore, it is consuming prey which in turn has consumed plant material containing these essential fatty acids. Such is the case for fish which concentrate high levels of omega-3 coming up to them through the food chain from phytoplankton.

A natural diet consisting of fresh, raw foods provides an entirely different spectrum of fatty acids than does the modern fare of fractionated, processed, stored, and otherwise altered foods. In a natural diet a wide range of fatty acids will be supplied in their biologically protected and active form. Fatty acids of the omega-3, -6 and -9 families will all be present in the ratios in which life was originally adapted to utilize them. Under these circumstances, eicosanoids are more likely to be properly in balance.

In the modem diet, however, it is possible to receive virtually no omega-3 fatty acids, extremely high levels of saturated fatty acids, oxidized cholesterol, trans-fatty acids and other isomers, and large proportions of omega-6 fatty acids as well as various oxidized forms of these fatty acids which result inevitably from processing. Such conditions imbalance eicosanoids by providing improper starting materials for eicosanoid synthesis and by introducing toxic elements which interfere with enzymatic pathways.

Proper nutrition should therefore be directed toward restoring the natural, unaltered diet and the elimination, as much as possible, of foods comprised of lipids in inappropriate ratios and altered from their natural forms.