If you're an athlete looking for a competitive edge, a recent study suggests a few daily tablespoons of seed oil can dramatically improve performance on the court or playing field.

Thirty-five of forty-one runners, cyclists, boxers, and triathletes who supplemented their diets with daily doses of a mixture of flax, sesame, and sunflower oils combined with six other natural ingredients -- marketed as Udo's Choice Oil Blend -- reported a variety of sports-related benefits over a sixty day trial.

"Athletes who exercised to exhaustion to build stamina charted the changes in the time it took to become exhausted," says Dr. Udo Erasmus, who developed the oil blend used in the study. "Two-thirds of the athletes experienced increased endurance and stamina within a month of adding one tablespoon of oil per 50 pounds of body weight per day to their diets," he says.

For a copy of the study, see the DANISH ATHLETES STUDY (summary, or full version), or call 800-446-2110 for more information on "Udo's Choice Oil Blend."

Dr. Erasmus says one cyclist in the group who initially reached exhaustion after riding 90 kilometers was able to ride 146 kilometers to exhaustion within a month of beginning daily oil consumption.

"This constitutes a 60% improvement in performance from oil blend consumption alone -- no other dietary changes were made," says Dr. Erasmus.

Dr. Erasmus says the performance boost experienced by the athletes in the study came from nutrients called "essential fatty acids."

"When blended in the right ratio, certain seed oil mixtures are rich sources of these performance boosting nutrients," says Dr. Erasmus.

"In this study, the oil blend used also showed other benefits including improved muscular development, quicker recovery, faster healing, less joint pain, and improved sleep pattern," he says. "Other research confirms that certain fatty acids help the body repair damaged and inflamed tissues. They also act as natural pain killers."

During the study, Dr. Erasmus says several boxers went from 90-minute workouts twice-a-day to 150-minute work outs twice-a-day. One runner increased his distance from 120 kilometers per week to 180 kilometers per week without any symptoms of over-training.

Dr. Erasmus, who authored a book on essential fatty acids entitled "Fats That Heal Fats that Kill," says that appropriately constructed oils are the best natural performance-enhancers for athletes, and make anabolic steroids and other illegal enhancers unnecessary.

"Essential fatty acids introduced in the correct ratio appear to improve the efficiency of the body's own performance hormones," says Dr. Erasmus. "Men and women experienced similar increases in stamina and performance from adding the oil blend to their diet."

Dr. Erasmus says not all oils enhance performance -- some may even hinder it. "We have not seen these kinds of results with other oils or blends, which indicates that the ratios of the various ingredients, particularly the ratio of Omega 3 to Omega 6, must be precise."

In a subset of athletes who maintained this protocol for 106 days, the oil blend significantly increased the good HDL cholesterol, decreased the bad LDL cholesterol, and increased the HDL/LDL ratio. Serum triglycerides decreased by a significant twenty percent.

"These findings suggest that in addition to improving athletic performance, this oil blend significantly reduced cardiovascular risk factors," said Dr. Erasmus.

"I call them 'fitness fats', and predict that this oil blend will become a staple of trainers and athletes at all levels of competition," says Dr. Erasmus.

"Fats that Heal Fats that Kill" is available at health and bookstores nationwide. The book and free additional information are available at 800-446-2110.