FertilehealthyAiming for success, not perfection…

I’ve been getting some questions on the Fertile Friday posts, so I thought it best to do a Q&A post once in a while.  Don’t be afraid to ask questions!

Last week’s post about fats generated two important questions:

The lovely Lyn, from Escape from Obesity, wants to know more about the fish-or-flax issue.  Furthermore, the fish oil that she’s been investigating says “molecularly distilled” and she asks if that means that it’s heated.

The fish vs flax debate is ongoing and passionate!  Both sides are represented by respected health experts and scientists.  I’ve attended debates about this, read articles and books and ultimately decided on flax oil as my supplement of choice. 

The main reason is that women preparing for pregnancy, as well as pregnant and nursing mothers are discouraged from consuming fish oil.  This is because oily fish are highly contaminated with PCB’s and mercury, which have been known to cause various problems with the cognitive development of babies.  But of course, these substances cause problems in grown-ups too!  Actor Jeremy Piven recently collapsed because of mercury poisoning from eating sushi too often and this blogger writes very eloquently about her recovery from mercury poisoning.

My other concern with fish oil is that you can’t just squeeze the fish to release the oil.  Heat is always involved.  All fish oil for dietary supplementation undergo the following processes:  bleaching, heat under vacuum, winterization and deodorization.  None of these processes are natural or gentle.  Even the encapsulation process involves heat.

Molecular distillation is a process where the oil is heated to above 250°C (480°F), which is of course way above the safe limit of 160°C (320°F).  They defend this by saying that the oil is only heated at this temperature for 45 seconds, which is not long enough to effect molecular changes.  I don’t know about that…  if you heat anything for 45 seconds at that temperature, it’s bound to undergo changes! Let them try that with their fingers and see if they remain intact…  Remember, our bodies don’t have the enzymes to deal with heated fats.

Fish oil manufacturers will tell you that fish oil is loaded with Omega 3, EPA and DHA.  I’m going to quote Mary-Ann Shearer from her book Perfect Health: The Natural Way on this issue, since it’s quite technical:

Omega 3 is an essential fat and can only be made by plants.  It is then converted in humans into five Omega 3 derivatives – two of them are EPA and DHA.  Just like the other derivatives, these two are necessary, but you do not need to take them as your body will produce them as much as is needed (just as your body converts beta-carotene into vitamin A at the rate you need it).  Think of derivatives as children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, etc.  EPA is the great-grandchild of Omega 3 and DHA the great-great-great-grandchild.  So as much as they are part of the family of Omega 3, they are not actually Omega 3.  The companies that promote fish oil will tell you that it is the best source of Omega 3, which is not the truth as you are only getting two family members (derivatives) and not the original parent Omega 3, which is what we are designed to have. 

EPA and DHA are needed by the body along with vitamin E to be efficiently processed.  Fish oil lacks vitamin E whereas flaxseed oil and other cold-pressed vegetable oils have an abundance of vitamin E.  Eating fats from plants allows your body to make all the EPA and DHA it needs, whereas you could be seriously overdosing when taking fish oil.  Some people claim that we do not have the ability to convert Omega 3 to EPA and DHA.  This is utter nonsense:  the only reason we cannot convert Omega 3 is because we’re not getting it in our diet in the first place.  If you happen to be one of the less than 2 percent of people who are genetically unable to do this conversion, then eat fresh fish instead.  The fat is only heated once when you cook it and does not contain chemical solvents, although you may be getting a good dose of mercury.  Then make sure you daily drink a tall glass of barley grass juice as the chlorophyll will help neutralize these heavy metals.

She goes on to remind us that fish oil comes loaded with cholesterol, which flax oil obviously doesn’t have – you need a liver in order to manufacture cholesterol.  One of my family members saw an alarming increase in his total cholesterol after starting to take fish oil supplements.

For more information on fats, I would recommend a visit to Udo Erasmus’ website.  He really is a guru on fat (as opposed to a fat-guru!) and has a most impressive Q&A section. 

Fellow green smoothie enthusiast, Tami, has the following question, “I am wondering what you think about coconut oil other than that it is a bit safer to heat it. It is labeled as saturated and yet as a medium chain fatty acid it is used by the body better than other saturated fats — does that fit with your research?”

I haven’t done much research on coconut oil, but I know that it’s a beneficial saturated fat.  It can be heated much higher than other fats, so it’s good to have in the kitchen.

There are all kinds of claims being made, which makes me cautious, as I don’t want to fall into the “next big thing” trap.  So this is something that I’m going to investigate more thoroughly and I’ll do a post about coconut oil in the future.  I know that Udo Erasmus uses it in his blended oil.

I use coconut oil on my face and body and I love it. 

We have to remember that no matter how beneficial a fat is, it should still be consumed in moderation.

Boysmom wants to know why I said in this post that corn is bad.

I love corn!  Really, it was hard for me to give it up.

You don’t have to avoid corn if you can find your own supplier of organic, heirloom corn, but that may be quite hard…

Almost all commercially grown corn, and soy, are genetically modified.  And as much as the biotech industry wants to reassure us that GMO’s are safe, they really have no proof. 

The independant research data is starting to trickle in and the news is not good.  One study in particular scared me – they found that genetically modified corn causes infertility and abnormal gene expression in mice.  That was it for me – no more corn!  I don’t need something that may thwart my best efforts to get fertile!

In the actual post, I was talking about junk food, and I included corn products in that description.  That is because corn is widely used in foods, not only as High Fructose Corn Syrup, but in various other forms, all highly processed and bearing no resemblance to actual corn.  Did you know that of the thirty eight (???) ingredients in Chicken McNuggets, 13 are corn based?  And people give this to their kids?  They may be depriving themselves of grandchildren…

For more information about genetically modified foods, I recommend John Robbins’ excellent book The Food Revolution.  My dad has just finished reading it and he’s completely changed his mind about GM foods!  If we don’t stop these companies, the human race will become extinct in a very short time.  You may also want to subscribe to the Organic Consumers Association, which has wonderful articles, newsletters and initiatives.

Don’t hesitate to ask questions! Next week we’ll resume our discussion about foods to avoid in our quest for perfect weight and fertility.