One of our advisors, Dr Garry Gordon, has written the ultimate treatise on omega-3 essential fatty acids. I’ve never before come across such a thorough yet readable tract on these lipids.

Dr Gordon, like many progressive physicians who see nutrition as the foundation of health and wellness, states very clearly that much of our illness today has come from our diets lacking the basic essentials.

Omega-3 EFAs (essential fatty acids) were once part of everyone’s diets. The eggs we ate came from healthy chickens and contained them; the grains we ate contained them; the fish we eat still contain them (some fish, not all); and many of the vegetables we ate contained them. Today, our diets consist of processed foods. Because omega-3 EFAs are unstable, their shelf life is short, and for a country more interested in marketing than in health, they are very unprofitable.

Corn has become our oil of choice, and sadly, during the fifties, as Dr Gordon points out, the corn oil industry convinced the medical community that corn oils were the best oils to put in our bodies.

Wrong.

As Dr Gordon adamantly states: Corn is the most dangerous food on the market.

Many nutritionists agree with him.

In reading Dr Andrew Weil years ago, I’d first learned of prostaglandins and prostaglandin chemistry. I understood his basic concept and why we should toss out all our corn oil and replace it with olive oil, but I never understood his explanation of prostaglandin chemistry.

Dr Gordon makes up for that. You will not be befuddled after reading this book. Gordon is a delightful writer, his science is unobtrusive and simple without being oversimplified. Sort of what we try to do here at this web site.

Dr Gordon points out that many of our illnesses today (and that medical science is starting to agree) come from inflammation (something I’ve been researching for two years now and someday we’ll have a very thorough article here on it). These diseases range from cancer, to heart disease, to diabetes, to arthritis. Corn products stimulate the inflammation response in our bodies.

The Omega-3 Miracle points out that there are good fats and there are bad fats. He points out that omega-3s are not better than omega-6s, but rather they must be balanced within our bodies. Both fats are essential to good health, but having an overabundance of omega-6s (which the Standard American Diet most certainly has) stimulates the inflammation response.

And what book on essential fatty acids would be complete without kicking the crud out of the worst fats in the history of mankind, trans fats, or partially hydrogenated oils.

I’ve often written on the dangers of these oils. Type Two (non insulin dependent diabetes) Diabetes can be traced to our abundant consumption of trans fats in all their forms. Medicine likes to point out that the main cause of Type Two Diabetes is white flour. However, take your average donut, and you have white flour, sugar, and trans fats (from shortening).

This is a triple threat.

Dr Gordon points out, like I’ve often pointed out, that our cell membranes consist of lipids. Cholesterol, an “essential fatty acid,” is found in every cell membrane in our bodies. (This is just one reason for our recent focus, at this website, on so-called bad cholesterol and how the marketing of cholesterol lowering drugs is the greatest fraud ever pulled off on our society.)

Dr Gordon also points out, in a Rumsfeldesque manner, that our cell membranes consist of the fats we eat, and not the fats we want to eat or should eat. We are what we eat. And though I hate repeating myself (for the kazillionth time!) if your fat intake consists of trans fats, then instead of cholesterol making up your cell membranes, trans fats will take their place. Trans fats are some tough little buggers. They have an almost indefinite shelf life. Being tough, they don’t let nutrition into our cells or toxins out as well as cholesterol does. In fact, insulin, being a very large molecule, has an even tougher time getting past a cell membrane constructed by trans fats, hence non insulin-dependent diabetes.

Something we’ve not discussed yet, but that Dr Gordon covers quite nicely, is that the membranes in our cells (there are three) are also made up, or should be made up, of omega-3 fatty acids. If they are missing from our diets because we’ve been eating too many omega-6s and trans fats, then our entire system is overfed, undernourished, and as toxic as a Monsanto landfill. Cellular communications slow down, we become acidic, hormones hardly can do their job, and inflammation runs rampant.

Is there any doubt that chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, diabetes, and arthritis are diseases of the fork? These are all what I like to call "first stage" diseases. "Second stage" diseases that everyone with these illnesses will eventually suffer (if they are lucky enough to live that long) are the two main killers in America, cancer and heart disease.

Finally, and this is always fun, I must tell you of a bit of synchronicity.

While reading Dr Gordon’s book The Omega-3 Miracle I was also researching probiotics. As you know, my favorite food product in this universe is Omegasentials. The inventor, a genius by the name of Stan Mann, is a vegan, meaning he eats nothing that comes from animals. However, even as a vegan, Stan puts fish oils (another form of omega-3s) into his Omegasentials because the fish oils contain DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) and EPA (eiocosapentaenoic acid), two very important fatty acids that our nervous systems require. So, while reading both The Omega-3 Miracle and studying probiotics, I came across the same bit of information at almost the same exact time: If the human body is in proper working order (meaning our digestive system is up to par, our liver is healthy and gets the proper nutrients, and/or our digestive flora [probiotics] is/are in balance), we can convert flax oil into DHA and EPA.

This just jumped off the page at me. Were we a healthy people, Stan would not have to put fish oils into his ground flax product, Omegasentials. But, most of us are not. Our diets are terrible; our digestive systems are terrible (the largest over the counter medication purchased in this country is antacids).

My recommendation? Buy this book! It contains a wealth of information. Then buy Omegasentials. They are essential to health and longevity (and don’t forget our Omegasential Baking Contest). And finally, get good probiotics into your body. If you were to do all this starting today, incorporate healthy oils into your body (coconut, palm, and thirdly, olive (but never heat it), in 90 days you’d see a whole new you.