Posted on 29th Oct 2009 @ 12:34 PM

A Response to Radio 4’s “Food Programme” of 28 October 2009.

In Defence of Plant Based Omega 3 ALA after unsubstantiated attack by Professors Michael Crawford, Jack Winkler and Dr Alexandra Richardson.

On 28 October two programmes featured claims by the above people that Omega 3,6,9 blends and Flax Seed Oil had no use to humans and implied that consumers - who have benefited for many years from including such products in their diets - where wasting their money.  

As there was no one live on the Radio 4 “Food Programme” from the huge number of scientists, suppliers, distributors or retailers of vegetarian sources of Alpha-Linolenic Acid (ALA) to defend such serious claims, we felt impelled to respond to highlight the misleading and potentially harmful comments made by the above.  

The scientists involved in the programmes are currently campaigning to influence the European Commission to change their initial proposal to allow supplement manufacturers to claim their products were a “source” of or “High” in omega 3 and other polyunsaturated fats and that these quantities, allowing of 2g of Plant based Omega 3 ALA and 250mg of Fish based DHA and EPA are far too low.  

Whilst we agree that both these levels are too low to have any discernable effect on the health and wellbeing of most people we were surprised and disappointed that these scientists chose to use their platform to unnecessarily and, surprisingly for radio 4, without challenge dismiss plant based Omega 3 Essential Fatty Acids as inconsequential and at one point in relation to Flax oil stating that  “this will do nothing for anybody quite frankly” ( quote from Dr Alex Richardson - Flax seed Oil is one of the main components of most Omega 3,6,9 blends of seed oils).  Professor Michael Crawford stated that there was no evidence to suggest that ALA had any benefit for heart and brain health arguing that the principle physical and mental health benefits come only from DHA and EPA in fish oils.

Whilst we in no way dispute the benefits available through the supplementation of diets with DHA and EPA we would like to highlight the huge amount of evidence, both scientific and anecdotal, about Omega 3 plant based ALA to encourage people to include these in their diets in order to improve health, fitness and wellbeing in a much broader way than just the specific claims on heart and brain health from DHA and EPA supplementation highlighted by the show’s guests.



Flax “of no use to anyone” ??? – Suggested by Dr Alexandra Richardson

Studies in fact show that Flax, a major constituent of most plant based Omega oils can protect against heart attacks and stroke by lowering blood lipids, maintaining healthy blood vessels and decreasing inflammation. (1)

In Clinical studies, the heart healthy benefits of flax were achieved by consuming 15 to 50 g of milled flax or between 2 ml and 35 ml of flax oil daily.  In as little as 4 weeks this supplementation decreased total and LDL (bad) cholesterol significantly.  Total cholesterol decreased 6-13% and LDL (bad) cholesterol decreased 9-18% in studies of healthy young adults, men and women with moderately high levels of blood cholesterol and other groups. (2)

ALA rich diets (from sources such as Flax) decrease the production of inflammatory compounds such as eicosanoids and cytokines and are also connected with lower blood levels of C-Reactive Protein (CRP) – a protein which is strongly linked with clinical signs of Cardiovascular disease.  In a clinical study, CRP levels decreased 75% when 23 men and women consumed a diet rich in ALA obtained from a combination of walnuts, walnut oil and flax oil for 6 weeks.3  Further, a community study in Tuscany found that adults with low plasma ALA levels – indicating low dietary intakes of ALA had significantly higher levels of blood CRP.(4)

With all this evidence it seems odd that Dr Alexandra Richardson chooses to ignore these studies.
Intuitively ALA, rather than DHA and EPA, provides the foundation that the body needs to be healthy.  Otherwise millions of non-fish-eating vegetarians across the world would have increased cardiovascular risk, but all the evidence points to reduced rates of coronary heart disease for ALA rich vegetarians.
To suggest that ALA rich Flaxseed oils “have no benefit to anyone” (Dr Richardson’s words) flies in the face of mothers who breastfeed their new born babies.  ALA constitutes 75-80% of total Omega 3 fatty acids in breast milk, underscoring its importance for infant growth and development.(5)


ALA – the Essential Fatty Acid

ALA is the Essential Omega 3 fatty acid.  The word “essential” means that we must eat ALA in our diets because our bodies cannot produce it.  The fatty acids DHA and EPA are vital for health but are not strictly “essential” because our bodies make them from ALA.  In one study, for instance, the blood level EPA increased 60% when 56 adults with chronic illness consumed 3 grams of ALA daily for 12 weeks.(6)  ALA should form part of the foundation of the fats that we ingest through our diets:

A typical fish oil supplement at recommended doses makes up only 1 to 5 grams of oil daily.
Our total daily intake of oil, on the other hand, is between 75 and 125 grams.

If we use 100 grams as our total oil intake per day as an example.  

•    A maximum of 5 grams of oil per day will come from fish/algae oil.  That’s the Supplement.
•    The other 95 grams of per day will come from our foods and cooking oils.  That’s the Foundation.

The “foundation” fats are ingested into our bodies through the foods that we eat and the cooking oils that we use. But they are not always healthy and are often damaged through high levels of processing and the heat from cooking (damaging many of the good nutrients contained in the fats/oils).  This is where getting enough healthy, undamaged Omega 3 ALA and Omega 6 LA (Linoleic Acid) in the right proportion is important.  The more of these that make up the foundation the more the cells in our bodies can work at their optimum for good health, fitness and wellbeing.
In essence:
ALL of us need to get our foundation right,
SOME of us will do better by adding supplements to foundation,
NONE of us can do it on supplements alone.

Conversion rate

One of the key tenets of Professor Winkler’s and Crawford’s arguments dismissing plant based ALA is their claim that ALA does not convert efficiently to DHA and EPA.

Estimates of the conversion of ALA to EPA range from 0.2% to 8% (7) with young women showing a rate as high as 21%.(8)  Conversion of ALA to DHA is estimated at 0.13% to 6%,(9) with young women being at the upper end of this range.(8)  Various factors affect the conversion rate.  Some research points to cigarette smoke being an obstruction to conversion.(10) Gender and diet also seem to have an affect on the conversion rate according to a number of other studies.  Saturated fats, oleic acid, trans fatty acids and dietary cholesterol also interfere with ALA conversion so reducing the intake of these will assist in converting ALA to DHA and EPA

Conversion of ALA is also just common sense. The brains, eyes, and nervous systems of all animals, from insects to humans are rich in long chain Omega 3’s DHA and EPA. Many of these animals are vegetarian, again including humans. They must be converting the ALA in their bodies from their diet as their foods only supply ALA. The long-chain DHA and EPA are important so nature equipped creatures to convert what they need from the Essential Fatty Acid ALA.


If we can take pre-formed DHA and EPA why do we need ALA at all?

ALA gives wider benefits than just DHA and EPA.  Indeed in Prof Crawford’s own paper “Criticism of the Draft Commission Regulation” he states “The alpha-linolenic acid is important in its own right and should be treated as such”.  Strange then that he and his campaigning colleagues seek to persuade consumers that ALA is of no use.

The broader benefits of ALA include lower cardiovascular risk, smoother skin, higher energy levels, improved stamina, performance and recovery, better insulin sensitivity, lowered inflammation, greater heat production, and improved mood, learning, IQ and calmness, along with better ability to handle stress.

It should also be noted that when the body has as much DHA as it needs, feedback inhibition stops further conversion from ALA. Without this inhibition, toxicity could result from excess DHA production. In other words, the body’s own regulation system ensures this does not happen in the conversion from ALA.  An analysis of fish oil studies showed that too much pre-formed DHA from fish oil increases inflammation due to the extreme sensitivity of DHA to damage caused by oxidative stress.11 Giving Omega 3 in the more stable form of ALA is safer because it gives the body control over what it converts and what it uses for other health purposes.


But the Omega 3,6,9 blends contain Omega 6! Surely we don’t need any more of that ?

As regards the claim made by Prof Winkler and Dr Richardson that the Omega 3,6,9 blends where providing more Omega 6 when we already have too much and therefore we should avoid them, this was again somewhat misleading and dangerous.  It is true that as a population we need to redress the balance of Omega 3 and 6 as we are generally deficient in Omega 3.  However, if we take a high amount of Omega 3 by way of supplements, then this can quickly out-weigh the amount of Omega 6 we consume and we could become deficient in Omega 6 which can also have a negative impact on health.  

A 1:1 ratio of Omega 3 to 6 is generally considered by scientists to be optimum for providing the health giving properties of both Essential Fatty Acids. However, our western diets mean that we have far more Omega 6 than 3.

Most of the Omega 3,6,9 blends have a 2:1 ratio of Omega 3 to 6.  This is to ensure that whilst increasing the amount of Omega 3 in our diets we also ensure that we do not end up being Omega 6 deficient.

If we look at an example of Omega 3 and 6 consumption in the UK we can see that it is important to ensure that we obtain both Omega 3 AND 6 in the optimum ratio of 2:1.

In a report by the Food Standards Agency in 2007 entitled “Low Income diet and nutrition survey” Men within the “low income” band consumed an average of 1.9g of Omega 3 and 10.2g of Omega 6 daily – a ratio of 1:5.7.  Women consumed 1.5g of Omega 3 and 8.1g of Omega 6 daily – a ratio of 1: 5.4

The typical daily amount of an Omega 3,6,9 oil blend recommended is 30g for a 50kg woman and 42g for a 70kg man.  The optimum blends contain:
•    Omega 3 ALA = 45%
•    Omega 6 LA = 19.7%
•    Omega 9 = 19.7%

So for the people in the 2007 survey, if they included a plant based Omega 3,6,9 blend in their diet we would see the following results:

MEN

Therefore ratio in these men after including Oil Blend in daily diet = 1.13 : 1 (Omega 3: Omega 6)

WOMEN

Therefore ratio in these women after including Oil Blend in daily diet = 1.07 : 1 (Omega 3: Omega 6)

The oils are generally blended in the ratio of 2:1 Omega 3 to 6 so that if taken regularly and in sufficient quantities they provide the optimum ratio between the two for good health as both are essential.  It is important that the Omega 3 and Omega 6 oils in the plant based blends are undamaged – processed oils through food manufacturing and heating are all too often damaged which have a negative impact on health .  Replacing these with undamaged, health giving Omega 3 and 6 , found in these oil blends and flax oil, is an important message that should be portrayed by these “experts” in the field of fatty acids.


Conclusion

In conclusion, whilst we support the need for a revision in the Daily Recommended Values for Omega 3 we do not support the claims made by these scientists that ALA and Flax where of little or no value to human health.  Science clearly points to the opposite – that in fact sources of ALA are essential to human health and wellbeing in far broader and fundamental ways than what DHA and EPA alone can offer.  





References:
1.    Morris DH. Flax – A Health and Nutrition Primer, Winnipeg, MB: Flax Council of Canada; 2007
2.    Cunnane SC et al.  Bierenbaum ML, et al. Arjmandi BH et al. Lucas EA et al. Clark WF, et al and Denmark-Wahnefried W, et a, Various journals
3.    Zhao G, et al. J Nutr 2004
4.    Ferrucci L, et al J Clin Endocinol Metab. 2006
5.    Ratnayake WMN, Chen Z-Y. Lipids 1996; Innis SM. Am J Clin Nutr 2000
6.    Harper CR, Edwards MJ, DeFilipis AP, Jacobson TA. Flaxseed oil increases the plasma concentration of cardioprotective (n-3) fatty acids in humans. J Nutr 2006
7.    Burge GC, Calder PC. Reprod Nutr Dev 2005; Burge GC, et al. Br J Nutr 2002
8.    Burge GC, Wootton SA. Br J Nutr 2002
9.    Burge GC. Prostaglandins Leukot Essent Fatty Acids 2006
10.  Marangoni F, et al Lipids 2004
11.  Arnesen H N-3 fatty acids and revascularization procedures. Lipids. 2001