Listeneing to the People's Pharmacy this morning on the way to work, I finally found out one of the big reasons for why home-raised meat and eggs are better for you than commercial. It's not just the lack of icky things like unnecessary antibiotics. The fact of the matter is that, according the author of "The Omega Diet" (can't recall her last name right off, but her first name is Artemis - she's Greek), there are two essential fatty acids - omega-3 and omega-6. The term essential fatty acids means that we can't make them and have to get them from our diet.

Omega-6 is found in vegetable oils like corn, soybean, etc, and there derivitaves. Omega-3 is found in cold water, fatty fish (like salmon and herring), walnuts (and to a lesser extent, most other nuts - peanuts are not a nut), flaxseed, and many green leafy vegetables, especially wild ones.

In order to be healthy, you need a 1/1 ratio of O3 and O6. Most people get a ratio of 1/16, O3 to O6 - way too heavy on the O6. Too much 6 is indisputably linked to all sorts of nasty conditions like heart diseases, high blood pressure, thrombosis, and so on.

The author lived in Greece and was studying nutrition when a study came out showing that the people on the isle of Crete had less of a chance of suffering these ailments than even other Mediterranean countries nearby. The only real difference that she could find (they all pretty much ate the same high olive oil, high wine, high veggie and fish type of diet) is that Cretins eat a much higher percentage of wild veggies and almost all of their stock is free roaming, eating only what it finds out in the wilderness.

The author did studies and found that chickens fed a wild greens and bugs sort of diet produced eggs with a perfectly balanced O3/O6 ratio. Ditto milk in goats and sheep that were allowed to browse and were not supplemented with grains. Remember that grains are high in O6, hence the high O6 in corn oil, etc. Heart patients who were fed the Cretin diet in blind, controlled studies, whose eggs were all from free-range (real free-range, not supplemented commercial "free-range"), whose milk was likewise, and ate also the standard Mediteranean diet, had over 70% less chance of death from heart diseases than the control group, who were on the American Heart Association Diet. No other diet has had this large of an effect.

So the moral of the story is let your chickens and milk animals roam free, and supplement with grain as little as humanely possible, and you may ensure that their produce will be not only NOT harmful, but actually good for you. Eat your wild greens (wild mustard comes to mind). Use canola oil (has a very good balance of O3 and O6, although not perfect) and olive oil (good balance, plus anti-inflammatory properties, along with many other goodies). Eat you fish, walnuts, and/or flaxseed. Drink plenty of wine - but no more than plenty!

Sounds like a winner to me! I think I'll go make dinner!

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), July 21, 2001

Answers

Sounds like us countrysiders will be chatting for a long, long time if we follow these golden rules, thanx Soni

-- woodsbilly (coleenl@penn.com), July 21, 2001.

Soni, I agree with everything except the canola oil. From what I've read about it I wouldn't use it in my lawnmower. Daryll

-- Daryll in NW FLA (twincrk@hotmail.com), July 21, 2001.

http://www.teleport.com/~jor/

I have this book and the website has quite a bit of info on it if you are interested. Jo Robinson, a co-author of this book has authored other diet/health books as well. "Why Grassfed Is Best" would probably appeal to others on this board. The website for that is http://www.eatwild.com/ Both of those books are good reading. :)

-- Jennifer L. (Northern NYS) (jlance@imcnet.net), July 21, 2001.

Yes, Soni, what about canola oil? There's an old thread here somewhere that says it's horrible - I gave all mine to my son to use for greasing things around the farm - will get my vegetable oils from the heathfood store from now on.

-- Bonnie (chilton@stateline-isp.com), July 22, 2001.

Canola oil has mixed reviews. Dr. Weil is adamantly against canola oil, but I forget the reason right offhand (undoubtedly something about the processing). You could check out his website and find out what his beef is. The only point I was making in this post is that due to the "wild"-ness of rapeseed (canola) oil, it has a very good balance of O3 to O6. Whatever else may be good or bad about it is for another post. If someone out there has these pros and cons at their fingertips, I would certainly like to read about it.

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), July 22, 2001.

Um, as to the balance of Omega-3's and Omega-6's, I have been studying and wondering about this for a ling while. I have read Jo Robinson's book, "Why Grassfed is Best!", and am very convinced. However, I wonder if perhaps we should take it a step further. If the western diet is unbalanced in the direction of getting way way too much Omega-6, and we know that those Omega-6's are produced in grains... and we know that those animals who eat grains will produce flesh that is too high in Omega-6's...I am wondering if we should perhaps try cutting our OWN consumption of grains back!

Reasearch has shown that meats, eggs and milk from grass-fed animals have a perfect balance of fatty acids. Should we not then take a lesson from this, and only eat so much grain products as we balance out religiously with greens?? Remember, if you eat too much bread and cereal stuff along with your grass-fed milk, eggs, and meat, you still are getting an imbalance of far too much Omega-6 fatty acids.

Now, as far as the discussion on canola oil... I found one link that provides links to other pro and con arguments on this subject.

http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/canola.htm

-- daffodyllady (daffodyllady@yahoo.com), July 22, 2001.