| PUBLICATION: |
Vancouver Province |
| DATE: |
May 6, 1987 |
| AUTHOR: |
Al Arnason, Staff Reporter |
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Crusade
for "Good" Fats
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Vancouver,
BC -- There are fats that kill and fats that
heal. That's the shortest way Udo Erasmus has to
describe his primary personal interest.
It's a nutritional principle that has dominated much of his life
since he left university with a B.Sc. in zoology (just before the
MA thesis stage in biochemistry and genetics) and after a year of
medical school.
He said most people eat too many of the deadly fats and not enough
of the essential ones because they don't know the difference.
Erasmus
blames fat imbalances, at least in part, for
most degenerative diseases - cancer, coronary
heart disease, arthritis, multiple sclerosis
and others.
He is quick to note that he is a nutrition writer and lecturer
- not a physician - but says it is important to follow the
now commonplace medical edict against eating too much fat,
especially animal fats.
"But what hasn't had a lot of coverage is that there are some fat substances
that we absolutely must have in order to live. Getting those substances into
our bodies is even more important than getting away from the fats that cause
problems," Erasmus said recently in an interview. |
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He said two beneficial products are fat components called essential
fatty acids. One is omega-3 (alpha linolenic acid) and the other
is omega-6 (linoleic acid).
Some public attention has been focused on fatty fish as a source
of omega-3 fatty acid. But Erasmus said the richest source of the
product is flax seed oil (not linseed oil) - provided the ingredient
has not been destroyed by light, heat, oxygen, adulteration, processing
or simply too much time on the shelf.
(He noted that some racial groups, primarily those genetically adapted
to marine nutrients, may not be able to metabolize the flax oil source
omega-3).
Although optimal health is dependent on getting an optimal amount
of all nutrients, he said. The lack of essential fatty acids is the
biggest single nutrient deficiency of our time... |
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research articles, scientific studies, athlete statements
and publications by Udo
Erasmus.
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