Health Benefits of Omega3 And Omega6
Fatty Acids
Excerpt from the Health Book:
Maintaining Health
Benefits of Omega3 And Omega6 Fatty Acids
Oils and fats are the most concentrated foods we have.
Weight for
weight, they contain more than twice as much fuel or
energy value as any other food. Taken in moderation they
are easily digested, but if taken in excess they become
a burden to the system. About 7 or 8 per cent of the
weight of a normal body is fat, and this fat is formed
chiefly from the fatty foods taken into the system,
supplemented by the sugar and starch ...
Sources of rats
Our chief sources of fat supply are cream and butter,
vegetable oils, nuts and the flesh of animals. Most
meats, especially when mature, contain considerable fat.
When the fat is mixed in with the meat, it is more
difficult to digest than the lean flesh. Fresh fish,
most of which contains very little fat, is digested very
easily, while the fattest of all flesh, pork, is tedious
of digestion.
There is an instinctive craving for fat with foods that
contain little or none of it. That is why we use butter
with cereals and lean fish, and oil dressings on
vegetables. In moderation this is all right. Fats are
not very rich in salts, which must be supplied by other
foods.
Because of their great fuel value, more fats are
naturally consumed in cold than in hot climates. The
Eskimo thrive when a large part of their rations is fat.
Such a diet would soon nauseate people in milder
climates.
Fats and oils in cooking
Fats and oils are used too much in cooking. Fried foods
and those cooked in oil are made indigestible. Sometimes
we read directions not to use animal fats, but to use
olive oil or cotton seed oil for frying. It is
poor cooking, no matter whether the grease is of animal
or vegetable origin.
Fats and oils
Fresh butter is very good, and so is olive oil. Some
vegetable oils contain indigestible substances. Cotton
seed oil and peanut oil are much used. Sometimes they
are sold in bottles under fancy labels as olive oil. The
olive oils from California are fully as good as those
imported from Spain, Italy and France and are more
likely to be what is claimed for them than the foreign
articles. In the past, much of our cotton seed oil has
been bought by firms in southern Europe and sent back to
us as fine olive oil! Such imposture is probably more
difficult under our present laws than it was in the
past.
Most oils become rancid easily and then are unfit for
consumption. If
taken in excess as food they have a splendid opportunity
to spoil in the digestive tract, and then they help to
poison the system. Taken in
moderate quantities they are digested in the intestines
and taken into
the blood by way of the lymphatics. They may be stored
in the body for a while, but finally they are burned,
giving up much heat and energy.
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