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 Yet another headline today on a new study discounting the benefits of raising “good cholesterol”. Yet everyone in America and every ad you see is telling you to raise it.
Raising good cholesterol, a goal pursued by Merck & Co. and Eli Lilly & Co. as the next milestone in cardiac care, may not cut heart attack risk, says a study that challenges the development of drugs that may generate billions of dollars in sales. The report, in the U.K. medical journal The Lancet, found that people with a genetic condition that causes high HDL have the same heart-attack risk as the general population. The study is based on a computer analysis of 20 studies involving 20,913 heart attack cases and 95,047 control subjects. Generally the recommendation is to take fish oil to raise good HDL. Fish Oils have received an enormous amount of attention in recent years as a cure-all for a number of chronic diseases; including heart disease, cancer, depression all the way to dementia. As with any supplement that is heavily marketed and associated with large corporations the benefits of taking a fish oil supplement have to be examined. Fish do not actually produce omega-3 fatty acids, but instead accumulate them by consuming either algae or other fish that have accumulated them. Therefore, large fish like sharks, tuna, salmon may be high in omega-3 fatty acids, but they can also be full of toxic contaminants as well; mercury, dioxin and PCB’s. In March 2010 a lawsuit filed by a California environmental group claimed that eight brands of fish oil supplements contained excessive levels of PCB’s, including CVS, Nature made, Rite Aid, GNC, Twinlab and Solgar. The majority of these products were either cod liver or shark liver oils. The Fish Industry, just like poultry & meat; believe in utilizing every morsel of the fish to maximize profit. The better cuts are sold to human consumers and generally the quality trickles down to animal feed or fertilizer. At some point, fish oil, received its spike in attention and the Fish Industry recognized a very lucrative market for human consumption. More than 50% of the world’s fish oil is used as feed to farm raised fish, now there is a large human demand. Dr. Esselstyn states that: “Fish oil is not essential. Fish get their omega 3 from plants. It is difficult to be deficient in Omega 3 if eating 1-2 tablespoons of flax-seed meal and green leafy vegetables at several meals.” I was prescribed synthetic fish oil after heart bypass surgery to increase my HDL. (Side note: He also prescribed a statin that reduces not only LDL but HDL… what a struggle.) The majority of fish oil in the U.S. in consumed with the intent to raise “good” cholesterol. People eat salmon for the heart healthy benefits but do not realize that 70% of the salmon’s fat has nothing to do with Omega-3 fatty acids; and ultimately they are ingesting a large amount of unnecessary fat. A Plant Based diet provides all the nutrients necessary to maintain health without over the counter supplements. The medical industry, wants to raise your HDL at all cost and fish oil will do that in a short amount of time. However, if you are following a plant-based diet your LDL will naturally decrease as well as your HDL. Dr. Dean Ornish, recently equated HDL to a garbage truck. Simply, HDL task is to carry away the garbage, LDL. If you have less garbage you don’t need as many trucks. (Cholesterol: The Good, the Bad & the Truth) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-dean-ornish/cholesterol-the-good-the-_b_870655.html Dr. Esselstyn also made similar remarks in regards to HDL: “It is not uncommon for HDL to fall when cholesterol falls. Do not be alarmed.” (www.heartattackproof.com) Supplements are not a substitute for good nutrition. In regards to fish oil; a couple of tablespoons of flax-seed, a green leafy salad, and a handful of chia seeds should do the trick. No issues: no PCB’s, no environmental stress on the world’s fisheries, no mercury and no added expense.
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Thank you for the link to the huffington post. I do occasionally eat wild fresh salmon depending on my budget and my mood. More often than not, I eat sunflower seed butter on crackers topped with the fresh fruit of the season as a snack or dessert or meal. It always makes me scratch my head that salmon/fish is what is trumpeted with omega 3s when one can get more omega 3s by adding a spoon of: flax seeds to vanilla/chocolate yogurt topped with fresh bananas/berries, sesame seeds to salads or stir frys, etc.
Thanks for the comment. It is so true regarding Salmon. It is a rather poor delivery system for protein and omega’s; you end up with a lot of fat as well.
Ian
To me, cod liver oil sounds just like another overpriced, over-hyped supplement. Similarly, outrage has arisen about bad quality olive oil being sold to the public etc. In the end its all about the money and none of these highly successful business men and women have ever stopped to consider the huge environmental and social impact of what they are doing. I have indeed wondered whether it’s safer to just stick to nature and eat whole fresh fish and plant sources of omega 3’s instead.
The only thing is, I’m not sure whether omega 3 can be destroyed/innactivated by heat when cooking the fish. Perhaps it would be better to eat low-sodium smoked fish instead? Or perhaps it doesn’t matter? Many early/primitive cultures seemed to have had this balanced perfectly- as evident in skeleton analysis, records, etc..
However I am a bit wary of eating flaxseed meal since it apparently contains many toxic compounds to the human body, and mostly omega 6&9’s which throw off the balance of omega ratio, just like any other plant derived oil eaten in large quantities does… Perhaps the age old sesame seed oil is better? Anyhow, it would be great to find out which raw vegetables contain omega 3 and whether this and cooked fish both have omega 3 that are more assimilable/usable by the body, and in the right quantities needed.
For a start we know that original people always lived near water where foods such as vegetables, fruit and fish were plentiful, whereas red meat, nuts, seeds, root vegetable were eaten in smaller quantities or rarely, rather kept stored for winter, using more salt etc. And it wasn’t until more ‘developed’ societies started to reverse this eating pattern that more strange illnesses started showing up. I sometimes wonder if this world is undoing itself, literally going backwards in its quest for knowledge and power, the world as a whole seems to be achieving very little that truly benefits life.