In a world of dietary extremes, from fashionable (and virtue signalling) veganism to the carnivore diet (it’s an extreme elimination diet FYI), there is one tried and tested diet that is always worth using as a template for your nutrient intake: The Mediterranean diet.
It is a nutrient dense, whole food, sustainable and, frankly relatively sensible way to eat and live in the long term.
Sure you need to tweak it for your personal situation, genetics (I have the gene for the coeliac disease so gluten for me is out) and lifestyle, but as a general template, it’s pretty good as well as being tried and tested for quite a while now.
The omega 3 content from cold water fish, found in the Mediterranean diet has long been known to have positive benefits for heart health.
In fact, omega 3 fish oil is a multi-million pound business.
There have been plenty of epidemiological studies and RCT’s to back up the benefits of a long-term intake of omega 3 for heart health.
But for a while now the results of studies have started to reduce and flat out look bad.
How can this be?
Before fish oil got really popular most people on a standard western diet were low in omega 3.
Thus, if you put them in a study and give them omega 3 fish oil, you have a chance to see what happens when you take someone from deficient to sufficient can do for your heart long term.
The challenge is, most researchers are not clinicians, so they don’t actually measure the omega 3 levels of patients in studies before they enroll them (this also happens in huge studies on vitamin D).
They are asking a single question:
“Does giving omega 3 reduce condition X.”
But of course, if the patient is not low/deficient in omega 3 there isn’t going to be much benefit, thus the results look the same between treatment and placebo group.
Thus, the headline screams “omega 3 does not reduce condition X” or “omega 3 no better than placebo for condition X”.
You can read more about that here:
Given the popularity of fish oil, the rates of deficiency are much lower than they were, especially among the older, more health-conscious patients.
This is actually very common in modern research.
Many researchers simply do not truly understand what they are researching from a clinical point of view.
Plus, there may well be a financial agenda. Drug companies do not want patients reducing the risk of disease without the use of drugs, it’s not a good business model, is it?
But in the case of omega 3 and heart health in research, there is also something else in play, everyone’s best selling favourite pain inducing, kidney failing, brain damaging drug……statins.
Not only do statins have very little if any effect in primary prevention
https://thennt.com/nnt/statins-for-heart-disease-prevention-without-prior-heart-disease-2/
Or as a %
Note, there is a very small benefit when you use one less heart attack as the primary end point, this is favoured by the drug industry.
But when you go for a more real world end point, like death of all causes excluding mortality (“lives saved”) (which then covers side effects from the medications), the benefits drop to zero🤯 .
But they also appear to ironically increase the production of the omega 6 derivative arachidonic acid (AA) which is pro-inflammatory.
https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1741-7015-11-5
Arachidonic acid is the precursor to the pro-inflammatory prostaglandin E2 (PGE2).
Quick Quiz: Why are prostaglandins called prostaglandins? answer at the end.
It is the balance between these two pathways that is one part of a healthy balance between pro and anti-inflammatory mechanisms.
And remember this is how our best selling (and back in stock on Monday) TURMERIC PLUS works.
It modulates down the LOX and COS enzymes for less inflammation.
If the aim of a study is to see if omega 3 fats reduce the risk of heart issues, and part of the benefit is related to the omega 3-6 balance, then statins are going to reduce or stop the effect by increasing omega 6’s.
Thus, the effects on heart health from omega 3 fish is negated via the effects of statins.
I think the best bet for most patients is to try and eat a bespoke version of a Mediterranean diet, as fresh and whole as they can, including oily fish twice a week. The blend of fresh vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds etc in a Mediterranean diet is full of antioxidants and this is critical when you are eating fish.
The avoidance of ultra-processed foods will mean a reduction in seed oils and thus far less omega 6, thus your ratio naturally improves.
Plus, remember grass-fed meat and milk are full of omega 3.
Check out the omega 3-6 ratio 🤯
Also here👇
If you do not like eating fish, then an omega 3 fish oil supplement may be appropriate, especially if you are over 65 or pregnant.
Quiz Answer – Prostaglandins were first found IN the PROSTATE GLAND, hence prosta-gland-in.