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Essential
Fatty Acids
by
Jeremy Sims
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The fats and oils in
our diet are made up of chains of fatty acids. These fatty acids
are classified as "essential" or
"non-essential" according to whether or not they can
be produced by our bodies. Essential Fatty Acids (EFA) are those
which we cannot make ourselves and must obtain from our diets.
There is much
evidence that modern diets are relatively deficient in EFA and
that this can have broad implications for our health.
The two EFA of
significance for humans are linolenic and linoleic acids. These
are more commonly known as "omega 3" and "omega
6" oils respectively. Both are involved in a wide range of
body functions and to ensure these are running efficiently we
should try to increase in our diets the following excellent
sources of omega oils:
|
| Linolenic
Acid |
Linoleic
Acid |
| Corn
oil |
Green
vegetables |
| Groundnut
oil |
Linseed
oil (flax seed oil) |
| Nuts
and seeds |
Soybean
oil |
| Safflower
oil |
Walnuts |
| Sunflower
seed oil |
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____________________________________________________________
HealthChat
2000
Dr. Sims is the Medical Director of FitStop, the UK's foremost
group of health and fitness centers, and an expert on matters
relating to fitness of body and mind. Having trained as a GP, he
now works full-time in health promotion and has written
extensively on the subject, including a monthly medical column
in Mensa magazine with the TV psychiatrist, Dr Raj Persaud. Dr.
Sims was the original Virgin.Net online doctor. Article courtesy
of MediaPeak, http://mediapeak.com
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