OMEGA OILS AND
ESSENTIAL FATTY ACIDS
FOR WEIGHT LOSS
In Chapters 6 and 10 you will learn how essential omega fatty acids increase metabolic rate, stimulate thermogenesis in body tissue, increase lipid oxidation, improve fat emulsification, and contribute to normal, healthy weight loss. These essential fatty acids are contained in a variety of plant foods as well as in cold water fish like salmon, trout, herring and sardines. However, they are most commonly consumed as processed oils, like canola, corn, safflower, soybean and olive oils. On pages 96 to 99 I discuss how omega-3 and omega-6 oils affect weight loss and how to balance these oils for maximum benefit. Chapter 10 also covers the dangers of trans-fatty acids and their affect on your health. You will also find out that even when processed foods claim zero grams of transfats per serving, this may not be true. I will tell you how to determine whether or not the label is telling you the whole truth. In Chapter 6 I explain how we used to get these essential fatty acids from our regular diet. Because we live in a world that thrives on mass production and maximum shelf life for food products, key nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, and essential fatty acids are systematically removed from many processed foods. This is particularly true with refined vegetable oils, whether they are included as an ingredient in a finished product like potato chips or they are just being used as a salad dressing. Chapter 6 also discusses the implications of medical studies showing that overweight people tend to have low essential fatty acid levels. Absence of the essential fatty acids results in a lower metabolic rate and therefore a slower rate of burning the fat we eat. You will also learn about studies showing how essential fatty acids help regulate glucose and fat mobilization from storage depots. On page 55 you can read how the essential fatty acids are also responsible for the creation and activity of several other biologically active lipids that contribute to weight loss. These powerful lipids increase levels of key substances that affect lipolysis within fat cells. Lipolysis is the intracellular activity of decomposing and digesting fat. In order for the essential fatty acids and their lipid derivatives to be effective, some other nutrients are necessary to help them do their job.
COFACTORS - VITAMINS, MINERALS AND AMINO ACIDS
In Chapter 6, page 55, you will read about enzymes that facilitate the chemical reactions that occur in metabolism and the vitamins, minerals and amino acids that protect the essential fatty acids from harm by oxygen and free radicals. In addition to being necessary cofactors for the essential fatty acids, you will discover that some of these vitamins and amino acids have their own role to play in weight loss. Among the things I took for smoking were certain amino acids that slow the cross-linking activity in the connective tissue protein we call collagen. However, it turns out that these nutrients are also important in weight loss because they are lipotropic agents, meaning they regulate and reduce the accumulation of fats in the body tissues and organs and transport fatty acids across the mitochondria, where they can be used as fuel for energy.
GETTING YOUR OMEGAS
In Chapter 10 I show you the best way to obtain the essential fatty acids. You can do this in part by consuming high quality omega-rich foods like vegetable oils and flours and salmon and other types of fish. To do so requires that you only purchase these foods from sources that guarantee their freshness and quality. If you want to get your omega-3 oils from salmon, then you should seek out wild Pacific salmon because it is going to be the most free from chemical contaminants like mercury. Almost all Atlantic salmon, meaning over 98%, is farmed and contains higher levels of chemicals that have been shown in clinical studies to cause cancer. Like poultry raised in cages, farmed salmon are essentially caged, not free to swim, and more prone to diseases that require giving them antibiotics. These salmon are also fed color additives to give them the pink color that is natural to wild salmon. In a study done at Cornell University, they concluded that wild Pacific or Alaskan salmon was more beneficial than eating farmed Atlantic salmon. Chapter 6 also discusses how many of our foods have had the beneficial nutrients processed out of them in order to maximize shelf life and appearance. A hundred years ago most people obtained vegetable oils from a local supplier and it was usually recently made. Today, the oil available to Americans is a highly processed food that is designed to maximize shelf life and appearance. Modern manufacturing practices and processes have eliminated most of the food value in commercially available oils by destroying the essential fatty acids and creating trans-fatty acids. In order to purchase vegetable oils where the essential fatty acids are intact, you need to visit your nearest natural foods or health food store. In Chapter 10, on pages 99 and 100, I show you what foods and nutritional supplements to take to make sure you obtain the essential fatty acids your body requires.
DIGESTIVE AIDS FOR WEIGHT LOSS
MINERALS FOR WEIGHT LOSS
ACID-ALKALINE BALANCE AND WEIGHT LOSS
ENERGY NUTRIENTS FOR WEIGHT LOSS
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