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"Essential" Fatty Acids May Not Even Be Essential...
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Are you following health trends that actually harm your body? In my eye-opening masterclass "The 7 Popular But Deadly Health Fads," I reveal how common health practices promoted by influencers and gurus might be ravaging your gut, accelerating disease, and shaving years off your life.
Discover which popular diets, supplements, and health rituals are secretly sabotaging your health and learn what to do instead. I explain why these seemingly healthy habits are damaging your body and provide actionable alternatives for true longevity.
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The Live Longer Formula is your go-to podcast for cutting through the noise and discovering practical, science-backed strategies to not just add years to your life, but to add life to your years. Hosted by longevity author and functional health practitioner Christian Yordanov, this podcast dives deep into the truths (and myths) behind longevity, health optimization, and addressing chronic health problems.
Each episode offers actionable insights drawn from the host's own research, clinical practice, and personal journey, helping you make informed decisions to restore and enhance your health. Whether you're interested in reducing stress, boosting your energy and mental performance, improving your gut health, or simply looking to optimize your diet and lifestyle, this podcast delivers the tools you need to live a healthier, longer life.
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Transcript
Introduction and Purpose
00:00:01
chrisyzen
Hey, it's Christian, you're off here. Time for another late night episode.
The Omega-3 and Omega-6 Debate
00:00:07
chrisyzen
Today, I am trying to use Chad GPT's power by asking it to pretend it is a an investigative scientist that is trying to poke as many holes in the
00:00:30
chrisyzen
supposition or suppose the not the theory because it's it's actually considered as fact and into the essentiality of omega 3s and omega 6s. So you would be surprised perhaps to learn that there was actually very little research demonstrating the essentiality of omega-3s and 6s and there's a lot of flaws that even the chat GPTs sort of ah even though it's towing the party line it's definitely
00:01:08
chrisyzen
peppering in a lot of it sort of what it's programmed to do is kind to uphold the narrative and you know all that stuff. Even Chad GPT will find a lot of flaws in the existing body of research that is purported to demonstrate that Omega-3s and Omega-6s are essential nutrients for humans. So I asked it to do that. I had to make some adjustments because Like I said, it keeps trying to, you know, cede doubt into the this the sort of argument against the essentiality, which is, you know, it's it's clear that it it is biased, right? Because when you ask it to do other things, it will very easily assume the role of of a thing that you want it to do.
00:02:02
chrisyzen
and it will give you all the arguments it has without kind of making excuses and stuff so that that's another sign that there is some fuckery afoot as it were so let's let's let's let me take you through some of the arguments that chat gpt itself found against or rather the potential flaws in the research that quote-unquote prove that Omega-3s and Omega-6s are essential, right?
00:02:35
chrisyzen
So first of all, the definition of essentiality, right? So the argument is that the term essential refers to nutrients that the body cannot synthesize in sufficient quantities and must obtain through diet to avoid deficiency. So like vitamin C, for example, certain amino acids, it can synthesize, but not enough of.
00:02:57
chrisyzen
So those would be then essential nutrients, right? Now, it goes on to say, however, some of the symptoms attributed to essential fatty acid deficiency such as skin dryness, poor growth or cognitive issues are not life threatening or irreversible, which calls into question whether PUFAs or polyunsaturated fatty acids should be classified as truly essential, right?
Reevaluating Nutrient Essentiality
00:03:20
chrisyzen
so
00:03:23
chrisyzen
A lot of the early experiments that just showed like the animals might not grow as much as others, but they might have dry skin or scaly skin, right? And that's when they would give them like a linoleic acid, and an omega-6 fatty acid, and then the skin issue would improve, you know for example.
00:03:42
chrisyzen
but the thing is if you give it an oil that oil might have vitamin E and it's actually been shown that vitamin E deficiency can also cause some of those issues that quote-unquote essential fatty acid deficiency causes so there's a lot of other flaws which we'll get to right so but this is ah back to this point of essentiality Chagipity continues flaw in research. The symptoms of PUFA deficiency are typically mild and can be reversed quickly with dietary introduction of these fats, unlike essential amino acids or vitamins where deficiency can be fatal. The symptoms of polyunsaturated fatty acid deficiency deficiency, such as dermatitis, are far less severe, challenging whether these fats should be classified as essential.
00:04:26
chrisyzen
Now, next point, compensation by other nutrients. So the argument is that several studies have demonstrated that vitamin E, zinc and other micronutrients can mitigate or even reverse some of the symptoms attributed to polyunsaturated fatty acid deficiency.
00:04:45
chrisyzen
This raises questions about whether polyunsaturated fatty acid deficiency alone causes these symptoms or if deficiencies in other nutrients are compounding the problem. And the flaw in research is that many early studies, particularly animal studies, did not control for deficiencies in these other critical nutrients.
00:05:06
chrisyzen
such as antioxidants. For instance vitamin E is a fat soluble antioxidant that protects polyunsaturated fatty acids from oxidative damage and deficiencies in this vitamin can exacerbate the effects of low polyunsaturated fatty acid intake. This lack of control makes it difficult to isolate the role of PUFAs as the sole cause of deficiency symptoms.
00:05:30
chrisyzen
Okay, then another point against is that there was an over-reliance on animal models. So the argument is that most of the early research on PUFA essentiality was conducted on animals, especially rats, which metabolize fatty acids differently than humans. For example, rats can convert linoleic acid into arachidonic acid much more efficiently than humans, making it problematic to generalize findings from animal studies to human health.
00:06:02
chrisyzen
And the flow in research is that the metabolic pathways and requirements for fatty acids vary significantly between species.
Health Implications and Misconceptions
00:06:10
chrisyzen
Human studies have shown that conversion of omega-3 precursors like alpha-linolenic acid into long-chain fatty acids like ecosopentanoic and docosahexanoic, EPA, and DHA acid is highly inefficient. This inefficiency has been used to argue for the essentiality of direct omega-3 intake but the reliance on animal data may have skewed our understanding of PUFA needs. So yeah it's it's trying hard to like
00:06:46
chrisyzen
to seed doubt even in its own arguments. Then omega-3 fatty acids, unnecessary in healthy individuals is the next point. So the argument is that omega-3 fatty acids, particularly EPA and DHA, are often claimed to be essential for brain and cardiovascular health. However, some studies have shown that individuals with adequate intake of ALA, a plant-based omega-3 found in flax seeds and walnuts, do not necessarily need direct EPA and DHA for marine sources.
00:07:16
chrisyzen
ah The flow in research is that research supporting omega-3 essentiality in preventing diseases like heart disease and cognitive decline is mixed. Some large meta-analyses have shown minimal to no effect of omega-3 supplementation on reducing the risk of heart attacks, strokes, or cognitive decline. And this raises questions about whether direct supplementation of EPA and DHA is necessary, or if a well-balanced diet with sufficient ALA might be adequate for most people. Again, it's I asked it already to stop being a little POS and pretend it's properly trying to debunk this.
00:07:53
chrisyzen
But it's continuing to do that, but anyway, whatever. Then, over emphasis on omega-6 essentiality. The focus on omega-6 essentiality, especially linoleic acid from early studies by Burr and Burr, may have led to an over emphasis on omega-6 in modern diets. High omega-6 intake from vegetable oils is now implicated in promoting chronic inflammation, which is a risk factor for several chronic diseases. So now it's arguing that we're focusing too much on omega six, not enough on omega threes. Oh my God. Uh, and then again, this is to be expected, you know, it's, it's definitely trying to push the narrative that, you know, they're essential.
00:08:39
chrisyzen
Then the role of mead acid, a natural substitute for PUVA. So here's the here's where it it gets interesting. So mead acid, which is 5.811, ecosa-trianoic acid, right is synthesized by the body in the absence of sufficient dietary polyunsaturated fatty acids. Some scientists argue that mead acid may serve as an alternative to omega-6 fatty acids like linoleic acids, suggesting that the body can compensate for low PUFA intake by producing its own fatty acids. So the flow in research is that meat acid is often cited as evidence of PUFA deficiency. right So when the meat acid is measured in a person,
00:09:26
chrisyzen
They're saying that that is evidence of PUFA deficiency, right, as its levels increase when omega-6 and omega-3 intakes are low. However, the presence of meat acid does not necessarily correlate with adverse health outcomes.
The Role of Research and Bias
00:09:42
chrisyzen
Some researchers argue that the body's ability to synthesize meat acid may indicate that PUFAs are not truly essential, as meat acids can perform similar functions in cell membranes and other tissues. This raises the possibility that under certain dietary conditions
00:10:00
chrisyzen
the human body may not need polyunsaturated fatty acids in the quantity suggested by current dietary guidelines. Again, this is, you know, if you're trying to assume the role that you're going completely against the argument, you wouldn't be adding these things. But anyway, point being here is that when we're deficient in, excuse me, in omega sixes and omega threes, we start to synthesize meat acid.
00:10:31
chrisyzen
which is a fatty acid that again we synthesize when deficient in omega-6s and omega-3s. And it's able to do these jobs that polyunsaturated fats can do. They're not talking about that in the mainstream.
00:10:49
chrisyzen
they're not talking about that and by the way all of these studies that it's giving me as evidence they they're all like fake links it's not giving me the real links for whatever reason again it's all like pointing to one study like it's for whatever reason it just likes to it likes to like mess with you i don't know uh then insufficient long-term human trials on omega 3's
00:11:18
chrisyzen
Many of the studies supporting the essentiality of omega-3s, particularly for preventing cognitive decline and cardiovascular disease, are short-term or observational. There are very few long-term randomized controlled trials that conclusively prove that omega-3 supplementation is necessary for health in the general population. Okay. Thank you. Finally.
00:11:39
chrisyzen
so there But it still says very few long term that are that conclude conclusively prove that omega-3 supplementation is necessary. So the flaw in the research is some large well-designed trials have failed to show any significant benefit of omega-3 supplementation on reducing heart disease, stroke, or cognitive decline in healthy individuals.
00:12:01
chrisyzen
For instance, the vital trial and the ascent trial both showed minimal cardiovascular benefit from Omega 3 supplementation in healthy adults, calling to question whether Omega 3s are essential in people without pre-existing conditions. In fact, the thing is, if someone is taking Omega 3s, right, we have this concept of the healthy user bias. So if someone is taking omega-3 fatty acids as a supplement, they're likely taking other supplements. They're likely eating well. They're doing a lot of healthy behaviors. And that could be a reason why you you might have an observational study that shows
00:12:45
chrisyzen
That omega 3 is a supplementation is associated with higher. Let's say or better outcomes or you know longer lifespan or less incidence of disease but it it might not be the thing doing it that's why these observational and epidemiological studies are kind of.
00:13:07
chrisyzen
They're overused to support agendas for whatever the case may be, plant-based diets. That's another one where, you know, if someone is doing a plant-based diet, they're probably a healthy user, biased, if you know what I mean. They're probably doing other healthy behaviors and that could be skewing a lot of the The data, I mean, the it could be that the plant-based diet is shortening their life, but all the other things they're doing is increasing their life. And when you compare it to like a person on a standard American diet, yeah, they're going to do better long in the longer term, maybe marginally, maybe not much better, but they still do better because of all the other healthy behaviors they're doing, you know, not smoking and stuff like that, not drinking too much.
00:13:55
chrisyzen
So then misidentification of deficiency symptoms. So the argument is that the symptoms attributed to essential fatty acid deficiency like dry skin, poor growth, immune dysfunction are often nonspecific and could be caused by other nutritional deficiencies or health conditions. For example, zinc vitamin D and vitamin A deficiencies can cause similar symptoms such as skin lesions and immune problems complicating the attribution of these symptoms solely to polyunsaturated fatty acid deficiency. So the flaw in the research is that ah the early research
00:14:36
chrisyzen
the often did not account for these potential confounding factors making it difficult to attribute the observed symptoms exclusively to PUFA deficiency um and in some cases supplementation with other nutrients like vitamins A and E reversed the deficiency symptoms without the need for polyunsaturated fatty acids.
Personal Experiences and Experiments
00:15:01
chrisyzen
So plenty of research has been done where they can reverse these the quote-unquote deficiency symptoms with things like again like zinc vitamins A and E and potentially certain B vitamins and stuff like that.
00:15:17
chrisyzen
So is that really a deficiency? Does that prove essentiality if you have lesions or like your skin skin issues? that ah if you mean if you If you're deficient in
00:15:34
chrisyzen
B vitamin like B1 or B3 you're gonna die you're gonna die if you're deficient in vitamin C your teeth would fall out you'll bleed to death with scurvy and stuff you know
00:15:54
chrisyzen
It's a serious thing. you know And I remember when I was trying but strain super low fat diet for a while, um because I taped my mouth at night to force nasal breathing, I noticed that after I guess a month or two on the super low fat diet, um what happened? So i because I taped my mouth at night, when I would take the tape off, it would never be a problem for the previous like five years.
00:16:23
chrisyzen
but suddenly my lips felt like Super sensitive like I had ripped almost like a layer of skin off or layer of lip layer and Then it was weird um and then on the sides of my mouth I would get cracking like those cracked cracks in the skin and I was like this This can't be from the tape. I've been using this tape for so long. I can't so suddenly have become um
00:16:55
chrisyzen
you know sensitive to the tape I wasn't taking off super hard to have ripped off this layer of skin so what I did then is because I was also doing other things to raise my metabolism I was experimenting with like thyroid ah um thyroid so I must have raised my metabolism so much that increased it increased certain vitamin or and or mineral deficiencies that could have contributed to this sort of cracking of my lips and um the sides, you know, I had like almost like sores. So
Metabolic Considerations
00:17:31
chrisyzen
what I did, I remember is I had the vitamin B2. I had kind of a bought like a hundred or 200 grams, you know, from a lab here in in Europe with a few other chemicals I was experimenting with. And I was like, let me try this riboflavin. So I started taking like pretty big doses of it for about a week.
00:17:52
chrisyzen
i think it was i was thinking like maybe 80 i don't know 80 100 milligrams and my kind of sores on the sides of my mouth they they started to heal and disappear so that's this is what i'm probably ah this is It seems like this is what could be happening with some of these studies, because you have to understand, these polyunsaturated fats, the omega-6s, omega-3s, they're extremely... First of all, they're immunosuppressive, right? That's that's a separate issue.
00:18:26
chrisyzen
but they also are very their metabolic inhibitors so they really slow down the metabolism this is why farmers love corn and soybeans because they get their pigs very fat because that's what these k nuts are doing or seeds that's what animals that like to hibernate or they have to hibernate that's why they use these polyuns such as fats because they slow down their metabolism, they lower their temperature and that allows them to enter the torpor state and enter hibernation. So these are very much metabolic inhibitors and we know like I cite some of the research in my book that shows that polyunsaturated fats inhibit thyroid hormone, I think uptake and transport and even I think production. So there they are very much
00:19:21
chrisyzen
ah in he inhibitors of the metabolism which means that if you remove them your metabolism will increase and when your metabolism increases your ah requirements for certain nutrients will increase but we we don't know how much that increase will be right it it's not like I've heard one researcher I respect he says it's not a linear increase it could be logarithmic for some it could be exponential for others so if you just increase your calories
00:19:57
chrisyzen
or if you don't even, and you increase your metabolism, you can have issues like that. you So if you don't know to add all of this extra nutrition, you can start developing certain symptom symptoms. But again, they're more like skin and dermatological type symptoms, not so much anything life threatening or anything. I mean, a bit inconvenient at most,
00:20:23
chrisyzen
and keep in mind I haven't talked about this publicly but during this experiment I took like a ridiculous amount of thyroid hormone right don't ask me why I do these experiments so you don't have to but um yeah so i think that's that's kind of for me at least it was a firsthand experience of how raising metabolism reducing fats because it does seem like fats slow down the metabolism even saturated fats and and monounsaturated fats seem to have somewhat this effect so when you remove the fats your your met metabolism definitely goes up you you're kind of
00:21:06
chrisyzen
You're plowing through the food, metabolically speaking, so you you can almost it's almost difficult to like feel ah satiated. You're almost almost always hungry. And this is what, again, to go back to this misidentification of deficiency symptoms, this is where this early research did not account for these potential confounding factors.
00:21:27
chrisyzen
where, again, supplementing with vitamin A, E, zinc, or certain other you know B vitamins, reverse the deficiency symptoms without the need for polyunsaturated fats.
00:21:42
chrisyzen
right And keep in mind, here's another thing, just on this point, sort of ah if you are yeah an average person today, let's say, so it's likely that your stored body fat is going to be at least 15% for most people or more of your body mass.
00:22:04
chrisyzen
which means you have a lot of stored polyuns that are fat so even if you remove these things from your diet like for super long time
Dietary Patterns and Evolutionary Perspectives
00:22:13
chrisyzen
you still have your endogenous stores to draw from so it's absolutely impossible with a you just eating like normal food to ever become deficient in these fats because again they're in all foods already even in yeah even in butter, even in like but foods that are mostly like quote unquote saturated fats like coconut oil, I think it's like 2% still. Linoleic acid, omega-6, butter has a couple percent as well.
00:22:48
chrisyzen
olive oil is like i think 8 to 12 percent or so linoleic acid so or polyunsaturated fats so you know you're not going to ever be deficient in these things your problem is you're eating way too much like if you if you can think of a world where we didn't have such an overabundance of products with high shelf life right what could you eat you mean milk from your animals if you had animals maybe you you have one one or two crop crop grains if you're a farmer per year you know like you have nuts in in the kind of fall
00:23:37
chrisyzen
So you wouldn't have this constant access to nuts and seeds all the time. so So now people that eat nuts and seeds every day as a snack or as even like a meal replacement, they are really shooting themselves in the foot.
00:23:54
chrisyzen
you know And this is another area where we are told, Oh yeah, not super healthy. All the research is showing it's associated with all these amazing outcomes. But look again, that research is epidemiological observational data.
00:24:13
chrisyzen
lots of room for healthy user bias because you know maybe a person that's goes goes to the gym and you know eats organic food is likely to get nuts as a snack instead of maybe Doritos right so there's a lot of healthy user bias potential in those studies as well all right next thing evolutionary perspective our proof is necessary so the argument from Chad GPT from an evolutionary perspective human diets were likely low in polyunsaturated fats,
00:24:47
chrisyzen
particularly omega-6s compared to modern diets. This suggests that PUFAs, while beneficial in small amounts, may not be essential at the levels currently recommended. oh Thanks, man. You're a freaking genius. um Flow and research. Some studies argue that the early human populations thrived on diet rich in saturated fats and low in poofas, consuming most of their fats from animal sources and omega-3s for a while. I'll shut up with the omega-3s, man. Here's
Marketing Myths vs. Scientific Realities
00:25:17
chrisyzen
the thing. I'm not even going to finish this point. To me, and look, I was up until last year, just over a year ago or so, about 14 months, 15 months ago, I was opening a can of hake roe and or cod liver.
00:25:37
chrisyzen
full like livers from cod not just the oil but cod liver in oil from cod in cans i had a big stash of those and i was opening one of those every year sort of couple of days so we would eat two to four cans of those per week i would split one can between me myself my daughter and give some to my dog And I thought I was doing us real good. Now the thing is that there's a lot of other nutrients in there, minerals, vitamins, and stuff. So it's not as bad as getting omega-3 fish oil and stuff like that. But I just want to kind of highlight, and and every time I talk about this, I kind of highlight the fact that
00:26:24
chrisyzen
I did this for so long thinking I was doing good. I was doing my family good and whatnot. But now in hindsight, when I look back, I'm like, so these guys are so crafty with their marketing. They're so convincing that they have us believe
00:26:51
chrisyzen
that the oil extracted from fish, they're not even mammals, they don't even live in the same environment as us, they don't even have the same temperature as us, those oils are essential. And an omega-6 fatty acid from friggin soybeans and and sunflower seeds and whatnot that just that one is super essential because we can't make it that's the only one all these other the ones that we can make are not enough and that one is from a friggin seed so the two essential fatty acids
00:27:42
chrisyzen
have to come from a seed seeds and fish right obviously that's greatly simplifying it i know i know a la is omega 3 that's kind of the original one we can Elon some of us can elongate it better than others and whatever but here's the thing they basically pivoted from
00:28:08
chrisyzen
ALA into these fish oils because there was a lot of evidence already accumulating for how peroxidizable and dangerous ALA is so now they're just kind of refreshing the the viewpoint with the just the more fancy sounding you know DHA EPA and look I'll tell you just looking at it as as out of the cult of Omega 3 looking back it does Even if you look at a bunch of supplements, like ah in a picture of different kinds of supplements, like, you know, one pill will be white and won't be like whatever carol of color and the the Omega 3, it's like this golden color. And it, I don't know, maybe that that's how they, they use this to, to kind of,
00:29:03
chrisyzen
throw us something sparkling glittery and that's what made us ah made it easier i don't know but it does it does look valuable because it's yellow it's like the color of gold it's i know it's it sounds very simplistic but these things kind of work you know in terms of marketing propaganda so it's crazy that we think that an oil from a fish a whole entire different species not even a mammal that's essential without that we are you know screwed cardiovascularly cognitively our kids brains won't develop you know it's unbelievable and then the the oil of seeds man like it's insane it's insane that we we believe this or even if look it may be ah he's some i have one textbook
00:29:53
chrisyzen
that they talk about that even like arsenic the the quote unquote toxic metal it's needed in very tiny amounts it may very well be that we need everything everything is essential to a degree and like so some of these things are super we need super tiny amounts of so it could be that you know you need maybe micrograms of arsenic and maybe like uh two micrograms of mercury and a one microgram of gold may it could be that each of these Elements on Earth is what makes up a human being and we just haven't figured out all the essentiality of all the nutrients in the human body. right We only figured out the macro minerals and the the micro minerals but they could be ultra micro, ultra trace minerals. and So it could be the same with all the different fatty acids could be that we need every single one of them and and genuinely some of them we can't produce and we need tiny amounts from the food supply. But if that's the case, they're so tiny that we just probably should never even have to worry about it. And then the final point Chad GPT gave us is 10 potential bias in omega-3 research.
00:31:08
chrisyzen
Some of the research supporting omega-3 essentiality has been funded by industries with vested interest in promoting fish oil supplements and omega-3 enriched products, raising concerns about bias in the design and interpretation of these studies. And yeah, so industry funding, huge. I mean, it's like industry with the seed oils, right? Proctor and Gamble, they um basically funded the American Heart Association into prominence around, I think it was 1948.
00:31:40
chrisyzen
ah So yeah, that's that's after them selling, what was the product? I forget the name of the product, Crisco. Yeah, Crisco, the cottonseed shortening. I think that came they came out with that in 1911. And so yeah that's like three for almost four decades of serious cash accumulation from selling all this toxic slop right so similarly the fish fishing industry is pretty big if you're in in that industry you know you're making a few bucks so there's plenty of cash to lobby government and ah you know marketing propaganda campaigns PR campaigns right so ah let me just quickly
00:32:25
chrisyzen
Say how
Challenging Omega-3 Health Claims
00:32:26
chrisyzen
big is the Omega 3 industry? Let's see how big the Omega 3 industry is. ChatGPT will tell us the market size in 2024.
00:32:42
chrisyzen
searching searching oh my god it's so hard to get data when you need it on the on the fly it's usually so much faster listen to this search six sites the omega 3 supplements industry is significant and continues to grow rapidly in 2023 the global omega 3 supplements market was valued at um approximately 7.15 billion us dollars and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 8.5% from 2024 to 2032. This growth is fueled by increasing awareness of the health benefits associated with omega-3 fatty acid acids such as improved cardiovascular health, brain function and inflammation reduction. The broader omega-3 products market including supplements, fortified foods and pharmaceutical applications
00:33:38
chrisyzen
is also projected to grow substantially with estimates suggesting an increase of 25 billion between 2023 and 2028 with a CAGR of around 8%. Fish oil is currently the dominant source of omega-3 supplementation due to its high concentrations of EPA and DHA.
00:34:00
chrisyzen
um Algae oil. ah Yeah, so it's a huge market 7 billion just for Omega 3 products and um
00:34:16
chrisyzen
And here's what it said, this growth is fueled by increasing awareness of health benefits associated with omega-3 fatty acids, such as improved improved cardiovascular health, brain function, and inflammation reduction. So I already did an episode on why inflammation it is coming from suppression of the immune system, which is creating the ripe environment for cancer, you know, yeast overgrowth ah bacteria, dysbiosis infection potentially.
00:34:42
chrisyzen
So that's inflammation reduction, awareness. The improved cardiovascular health, already today we discussed that, Chad GPT told us that there's been studies that are showing almost no to zero benefit in terms of cardiovascular outcomes. And actually there are studies showing increase increased um cardiovascular complications with omega-3 supplementation. Don't have time to pull those up right now, but I do have a few of those.
00:35:11
chrisyzen
and then the brain function thing um because they're so susceptible to peroxidation and damage having your brain having more of these in your brain makes your brain more susceptible to oxidative stress and inflammation slash neurodegeneration right because they're very easily peroxidizable so yeah so it's all marketing really when you kind of look at the The more nitty-gritty stuff we got duped big-time folks and I was one of them so I'm definitely Owning up and taking responsibility. I remove these things from our diet already last year and ah You know, I'm just trying to do my part in warning you so that you don't
00:36:09
chrisyzen
have to make the mistakes i made for as long as i did you know because we're taking these again again we're taking more natural foods which do have like i'm not saying don't ever eat fish again or anything like that there's plenty of nutrition in fish wild cod and whatnot um but ah definitely i wouldn't be going out of my way to purchase any omega 3 containing supplements and to be to be perfectly honest with you I wouldn't even finish your current bottle because why the hell would you? if it's If they're not even properly proven to be essential, think about something like B vitamin.
00:36:50
chrisyzen
right, or vitamin C in in animals because certain animals can produce their own vitamin C. I think dogs can and stuff. So but yeah if you take vitamin C or a specific vitamin B deficiency and you recreate that in a lab scenario with ah people that would volunteer for that, they will eventually die, you know, but pretty quickly like with vitamin C and whatever with specific vitamin B deficiencies and stuff like that.
00:37:19
chrisyzen
So people would die with with a vitamin E deficiency. You have peripheral neuropathy, like these horrific symptoms. It's horrific thing. With these things, all they're really showing us is skin issues and potentially slowed growth, which again, there's too many confounding various variables to say it was the essential fatty acid deficiency. Because again, yeah if you remove if you remove if you remove certain fats,
00:37:46
chrisyzen
from the diet of an animal, um you're also potentially removing fat soluble vitamins. So they're not doing the kind of research where if you remove certain fats from the diet, they're factoring in, oh, if we If we remove them here, we need to replace the fat soluble vitamins, or at least make sure that the control group has the same condition. So they're not getting a bunch of extra vitamin ah E, A, D, E, and K, whilst the yeah um essential fatty acid deficient group is not only getting the essential fatty acid deficiency, but potentially some other
00:38:25
chrisyzen
fat soluble vitamins. just just Just as an example, I'm not saying specifically that's what caused less growth or whatever, but yeah like we already saw vitamin A or E deficiency can cause those skin issues that these um these animals were shown right and then ah here's that's the thing like where's the actual human research you know like we have plenty plenty of poor unfortunate folks that volunteered for human deficiency studies in vitamins and minerals
00:39:02
chrisyzen
but with the quote-unquote essential fatty acids, there and I know some some research with infants, but there were like preterm infants and stuff that already have health issues. So a lot of that research is super badly done because if you're goingnna if you're going to do human trials with folks that already are in poor health or have pre-existing conditions, that is super confounding in terms of the the the results, right?
00:39:32
chrisyzen
So this is this is the body of evidence because before I asked Chad GPT to give me this sort of perspective as a pretending to be, you know, an investigative.
00:39:46
chrisyzen
ah scientists trying to debunk these kind of theories. Before that, I asked it to give me the, excuse me, the studies that do show that essential fatty acids are indeed essential. And we have a 1929 study by Burr and Burr, husband and wife team. That was like the first study, George and Mildred Burr, they ah studied rats and
00:40:18
chrisyzen
you know, that that that's kind of when they, they decided that omega six fatty acids are essential.
Reflecting on Advice and Change
00:40:26
chrisyzen
Because, you know, those, those ah rats had like scaly skin and stuff. And they didn't look great. You know, so Chad GPT gave me that study.
00:40:41
chrisyzen
Then there was another one in 1958. There was a super small sample size. um Then there was another there were some other studies of omega-3 deficiency in 1972 to 1990. There's a study on DHA in infant in 1990.
00:40:59
chrisyzen
ah There was one in total parenteral nutrition and EFA deficiency in 1982. So it's not like a massive body of research where they have controlled for a bunch of different variables to make sure that indeed these things are um ah causing the deficiency symptoms when all other vitamins and minerals are effectively controlled for now, so This this is the body of evidence on which we are told to like take three four grams of fish oil every day so
00:41:31
chrisyzen
so I don't know ah it's late in the day I think I'll stop here I thought it I thought I hope that at least some of this makes you rethink ah that fish oil that you're taking maybe you may want to pause it for a while that's how I did it with my clients at first I was like oh shit so I had some clients on fish oil last year so the first thing when this with this when this all came to me see most people they'll just bury their head in the sand be like nah Omega 3 is essential brain lower inflammation cognitive function ah you know
00:42:12
chrisyzen
but i'm i genuinely believe i'm uh open-minded so so the first thing i did was i'm like oh shit i started digging digging deeper and uh the next thing i just told the clients you know just put that fish oil in the fridge for now let's pause it and then every time it took me a while like a few weeks to kind of wrap my head around it that I was poisoning myself poisoning my family you know like all that good stuff as you do right and then I just when I see clients one-to-one I just tell them you know I'd come clean and I'd say
00:42:59
chrisyzen
ah You know, by the way, I believe fish oil may actually be a scam. I think we all got duped and they they're ah My clients are very understanding because a lot of them you know, they're they're well, they understand well the stuff going on in the world, right they understand there's a lot of
00:43:25
chrisyzen
you know, stuff, lies and deceit and stuff like that. So they, I think every, everybody was like, Oh, okay. I mean, nothing was, nothing was surprised me now. So I believe you. So it was kind of, it wasn't that many folks that they were on. So it was kind of an easy enough job. but And I can see,
00:43:53
chrisyzen
See, this is where I can see if you're very vested, let's say you have a supplement company or you wrote a book or two a spouse in the benefits or a chapter in a book, like some of these doctors, researchers, whatever, ah you know, or you sell them or you recommend them for decades or whatever the case may be, you are a lot more invested then. And then it was very difficult to change your mind. And I can kind of I can kind of understand why some folks don't even want to entertain the thought that these things are harmful and that they might not even actually be essential because a lot of this criteria for essentiality is not really met when you were just talking about some dermatological skin issues and lesions and whatever scaly skin that's not exactly an essential nutrient especially when that quote-unquote deficiency can be reversed
00:44:54
chrisyzen
ah with other nutrients like vitamin A, E, zinc, whatever the case may be. so it
Encouragement for Further Research
00:45:02
chrisyzen
does it does take a while to come to terms with these things so i'm not expecting people to immediately just listen to one podcast or even two or three you really have to kind of research things a little bit more so i'm hoping to save you a lot of time because there if you go online right now go to google dr go type in let's actually let's do that while we're here omega three
00:45:30
chrisyzen
benefits in DuckDuckGo. The first article that comes up is Healthline dot.com. 17 science-based benefits of omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3 fatty acids have been linked to many health benefits. Did you notice the slight of hand there? The slight of word.
00:45:55
chrisyzen
it is medical medically reviewed and evidence-based check mark though so how dare I even doubt it right so Omega 3 fatty acids have been linked excuse me for the over-enunciation, have been linked to many benefits. In particular, they may help they may help promote brain and heart health, to reduce inflammation, and protect against several chronic conditions. Omega-3 fatty acids are incredibly important. They have many powerful health benefits for your body and brain.
00:46:32
chrisyzen
In fact, a few nutrients have been studied as thoroughly as omega 3 fatty acids and then they give us the the benefits. So, depression, okay, may may benefit depression and anxiety, may improve eye health.
00:46:52
chrisyzen
could promote brain health during pregnancy and early life may improve risk factors for heart disease. Those factors apparently are triglycerides. They can reduce them. HDL, cholesterol, ah they could raise it. Blood clots can keep blood platelets from clumping together. And inflammation, they can reduce the production of some substances released during your body's inflammatory response by suppressing your immune system, though.
00:47:23
chrisyzen
May reduce symptoms of ADHD in children because it's poisoning them So yeah, of course you're gonna sit still when they're being poisoned could reduce symptoms of metabolic syndrome ah ah Some research suggested omega-3 fatty acids could help improve blood sugar levels inflammation and heart disease risk factors, but let let's let me just open some of these studies because There's four studies here three studies. I mean Okay, one month of omega-3 fatty acid supplementation improves lipid profiles, glucose levels and blood pressure in overweight school children with metabolic syndrome. So one month of supplementation. Okay, worthless study. ah Then there was a systematic review and meta-analysis of 13 studies, two case control, nine cross-sectional, one nested case control, and one prospective cohort.
00:48:20
chrisyzen
the present data meta-analysis indicates that higher intakes of omega-3 fatty PUFAs but not omega-6 PUFAs was associated with lower metabolic syndrome risk adding to the current body of evidence evidence on the metabolic health effects of circulating dietary omega-3 PUFAs so that was just it was associated with a lower metabolic syndrome risk and then there was another one
00:48:56
chrisyzen
to Just like the majority of intervention studies in adults with features of metabolic syndrome have reported a benefit for some inflammatory measures. However, other studies using omega-3s have reported no effect. Overall, the data reviewed here report rick support recommendations for regular fatty fish consumption and point towards health benefits.
00:49:18
chrisyzen
in terms of lowering inflammation in adults with one or more features of metabolic syndrome. So yeah, I mean, okay, it's gonna lot yeah go to lower your inflammation. That's another point in the article, might benefit autoimmune diseases. And that's the thing, if you're suppressed immune system, it may seem to help with the autoimmune condition. It just goes back to suppressing the immune system. Short-term benefits, long-term horrific effects.
00:49:47
chrisyzen
could improve mental disorders I mean like this is the thing if you go to one of these if you do a search online this is the kind of stuff comes up so everybody's brainwashed by this almost you know even in my textbook of natural medicine the the chapter on omega-3s and fish oil is huge tons of studies
Conclusion and Final Thoughts
00:50:08
chrisyzen
And look, but another point is that it may help prevent cancer. So how is suppressing your immune system going to prevent cancer? When they've seen there was one study I um i did um i did ah a resource video for my my clients where I was talking about some some deeper research into omega-3s, like actual like studies and basically um omega 3 supplementation increased cancer metastasis tenfold and a thousand fold in terms of volume like huge cancer increase with omega 3 supplementation in in I think it was rat studies and yeah I mean but that's the thing if you go you have to really dig deep for those studies
00:50:55
chrisyzen
Whereas if you go on the internet and you ask most people, coaches, health coaches, doctors, naturopaths, everybody's gonna, almost everybody's gonna tell you omega-3s, this and that, inflammation, brain health, eye health, stuff like that. But now you know better.
00:51:12
chrisyzen
and if you look if you listen to the previous episodes on the topic you should I believe know enough to know that you're better off avoiding supplementation with them and you may not want to go too crazy on the um you know Omega 3 heavy foods like a lot of fatty fish and stuff like that okay Thank you for listening and I'll see you on the next episode.