Essential Fatty Acids, Flax Seed Oil, Udo's Choice Products > FAQ

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FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions

What is the 'Skinny' on Carbohydrates?

Sugar, sweets, fruit (in excess), and starches will be turned into saturated fats by our body if we don't burn them as fuel for physical activity. Carbohydrates that you burn are good fuel, and carbohydrates that you don't burn are bad for health. Good practical advice goes like this:

Optimize your intake of EFAs in the right ratio. You will know optimum by soft, smooth, velvety skin. When it's hot, about 1 tablespoon per 100 pounds of body weight per day is a good target. In places where winters are cold, aim for 1 tablespoon per 50 pounds of body weight per day.
Limit your intake of sweets and starches to the amount you can actually burn. If you are overweight, you are eating too much and not burning all of the carbohydrates you eat, and must lower carbohydrate intake and/or increase physical activity.
Get your carbohydrates from green vegetables rather than from breakfast cereals, bread, potatoes, pasta, grains, or corn.
Be physically active. Muscles burn much more energy than fat cells.

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Can you take too much Lecithin?

Lecithin makes me fat, but not everyone experiences that. Lecithin is less important than it used to be. Made from soybeans, it was one of the few sources of omega-3s until other sources of omega-3 became available. Our body can manufacture lecithin if the essential fatty acids required for its production are present. Still, lecithin helps to keep fats soluble, and additional lecithin taken as a supplement appears to be helpful for some people to prevent cardiovascular problems.

Should one take anti-oxidants with essential fatty acids?

Relatively small amounts (about 30 mg or IU per day) of Vitamin E are ample for dealing with the essential fatty acids.

The optimum Vitamin E intake, which is between 400 and 800 mg per day, has been shown to decrease cardiovascular problems by 75%. So, we should be taking much higher amounts of Vitamin E for optimum health than what is required for our essential fat intake.

How do you determine the "twisted-fat" content in products?

It is not required to list twisted fats on a label. They are listed by exclusion. If you subtract, from the total fat in the product, the sum of saturated, mono-unsaturated, and polyunsaturated fatty acids, the remainder is twisted fats.

There is talk of making a list of the amount of twisted fats mandatory on labels, but it hasn't yet happened. However, their presence must be on the ingredient list by law. If you see the "H" word (hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated) on the label (sometimes manufacturers get around the "hydrogenated" label by calling the ingredient "vegetable shortening" instead), then there are hydrogenated fats in the product. Remember the slogan: If you see the "H" word on the package, get the "H" out of there! And leave the product behind.

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Does a woman's needs for EFA's increase during pregnancy?

During breast feeding, the child pulls 11 grams of EFAs
from the mother daily through breast milk.

EFAs are required for brain development and brain function. During pregnancy, the child draws EFAs from the mother's body to build its brain, which is over 60% fat and very rich in both omega-3 and omega-6 EFA derivatives. The placenta contains receptors that ensure that omega-3 and omega-6 EFAs are transported from the mother to the baby. No such receptors are found for the non-essential monounsaturated and saturated fatty acids.

During pregnancy, the child depletes women of EFAs. Each child gets less EFAs than the previous child, and each subsequent child depletes the mother further unless the mother augments her diet with essential fatty acids.

Depletion of the mother's EFA stores explains why younger children have far more developmental and behavioral problems than older children, especially in large families in which the children are born close together.

Depletion of EFAs during pregnancy also provides a rationale for why women experience far more depression, fibromyalgia, and chronic fatigue, and more inflammatory, autoimmune, and collagen diseases than men. Women suffer these problems from 2 to 15 times more frequently than men do. The depletion of EFAs during child bearing predisposes women to these conditions. Men are not depleted by baby brain building in the way that women are.

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The information provided is meant for educational purposes only, and is not a substitute for professional medical advice.
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