Fat and Its Effects On Women

There are two stories on fats - two different kinds of fats with opposite functions: fats that hurt health, and fats that help health. For example, there are fats that promote tumour growth and fats that inhibit tumour growth. Fats that predispose to heart attacks and strokes, but other fats that protect us from heart attacks and strokes. Fats that interfere with insulin function, but other fats that are required for insulin function. Fats that lower high blood fats. Fats that keep us slim. Obviously, we should avoid the ones that harm health, and embrace the ones that enhance health.

Most of the harm that fats do to health is the result of one of two factors:

1. Lack of the fats that help health; or 2. Destructive processing practices used by industries - processes such as frying, hydrogenation and deodorization.

We call the fats that help your health essential fats. These are two substances that come from fats and oils. By definition, they are essential because your body cannot make them, but every cell needs them to be able to function, and they must therefore be provided by foods. If you don't get them you die. If you get too little, your health deteriorates in many ways. If you add them back to a deficient diet, the health deterioration is stopped, reversed, and you completely recover your health.

Essential fats come as omega 3s and omega 6s, and the ratio between them is of vital importance, because too much of one will make you deficient in the other, and vice versa. That is why Dr Udo Erasmus developed his "Ultimate Oil Blend". It's his answer to those who ask: "Is there a simple way to get everything I need from fats which at the same time avoids everything I should avoid from fats?"

Functions of Essential Oils:

they improve energy levels, stamina and recovery time.

they are required for heating of wounds and injuries

they are required for brain development and adult brain function, helping improve vision, learning, intelligence, mood, and behaviour

they make skin soft and velvety when given in optimum ratio and amounts, and help with acne, psoriasis, and eczema

they help prevent leaky gut and food allergies, and maintain healthy bowel flora

they improve the functions of all organs (liver, brain, lungs, kidneys) and glands
(thyroid, adrenal, mate, and female)

they transport cholesterol and, in optimum ratio and amounts, lower high blood pressure, decrease risk of unwanted clots in arteries (stroke, heart attack, embolism), and lower high triglycerides

given in the right ratio, they decrease inflammation in joints, muscles, tendons, ligaments, gut,
kidneys, blood vessels, and other tissues

they dampen the over-response of the immune system in auto-immune conditions

they protect our genes from damage

they improve mineral transport and mineral metabolism

they are necessary for protein metabolism

they are required for haemoglobin production

they are required for cell structures and cell division

If we don't get enough essential fats, everything falls apart. Dry skin, low energy levels, behaviour and mood changes, hyperactivity, vision and learning problems, clumsiness, sterility, miscarriage, growth retardation, liver and kidney damage. immune failure and many other health problems.

Women's Health

Women need to take special care to get essential fats. During pregnancy, each developing child pulls a large amount of essential fats from its mother's body, in order to make a healthy brain. Each child takes from its mother some of the essential fats stored in her body. Good weight balance is important. Losing weight is easy with a suitable diet for women.

The brain is the essential fat-richest organ in the body. And, because most women in affluent societies do not have a reliable source of both essential fats in their diet, mothers become more depleted with each successive child. In addition, each child gets less essential fats to develop its brain than the child before it. Researchers have suggested that this is why in many families, the older children are more likely to be strong and well behaved, while younger children show a greater incidence both of developmental and behavioural problems.

The health results on the mother of this depletion of mum's essential fats by her children include several conditions. One of these is postnatal depression. Essential fats in the brain can elevate mood and lift depression. When the fats are depleted, the mother's mood can become depressed. In that case, supplementation with essential fats may be helpful. Omega 3 fats may be more important here, but omega 6s should be supplied as well, because they have other important health functions.

Dr Erasmus recommends a ratio of twice more omega 3s than omega 6s, a ratio that gives us the best therapeutic effects. This ratio is so useful because omega 3s are missing from most people's diets today, while omega 6 intake has increased dramatically in the last hundred years. People on low fat diets may be deficient in both essential fats, and the 2 : 1 ratio gives them both essential fats in proportions that replenish the missing brain omega 3s as well as high quality omega 6s. Researchers also think that the depletion of brain fats by the developing child might be the reason why women suffer more from depressed mood, auto-immune conditions like lupus and fybromyalgia, and multiple sclerosis than men do. These conditions involve fats, and may be improved by higher omega 3 intake. The depletion of essential fats of mothers suggests other conditions which women must contend with, including those that affect skin, hair, and nails, arthritis, premenstrual mood changes, and fatigue, in addition to the conditions that affect men, women and children equally.

Sources of essential fatty acids

Most women in affluent societies have no reliable source of omega 3s in their diet. High fat, cold-water fish are one source, but the majority of the population does not consume these on a regular basis. Vegetarians are even worse off. So supplementation of essential fatty acids is vital.

Besides high fat cold water fish, one of the richest sources of the missing omega 3s, is flaxseed or its oil. But these are poor sources of omega 6s, which is why the flax oil should be mixed and matched with one of the better omega 6 oils, such as sunflower or sesame.

Care of Essential Fats

The oils that provide essential fats must be pressed with care if they are to improve health. They should be pressed at low temperature from organically grown seeds, under exclusion of light and oxygen. They are then packaged in amber glass bottles. We believe that plastic packaging of oils, water, and even mineral-vitamin supplements is inappropriate for both the natural food trade and for healers. Plastics are not organic, are environmentally-unfriendly and used only because they are cheap! The oil is further protected from light by a box, stored in a fridge before and after opening. Mix about two to three dessertspoons of oil each day with your foods.

Summary

Dr Erasmus recommends eating fish rather than taking encapsulated fish oils, because of concerns with rancidity, over-processing, and pollution with toxic industrial chemicals. And he also highly recommends that women make sure they get enough essential fats from properly made unrefined, organic oils, in optimum balanced amounts.

[ Introduction to the science and effects of oils and fats in the body ] [ The effects of oils, hard fats and sugars in the body ] [ Fats that heal - Fats that kill ] [ Essential fatty acids and weight loss ] [ Balancing Omega 3 and 6 ] [ Essential fatty acid function - alpha-linolenic acid (Omega 3): linoleic acid (Omega 6)</font> ] [ Essential fatty acid deficiency ] [ About Udo Erasmus ] [ Contact page ]