Fats

We hear all the craze about good fats vs. bad fats. So what's the deal?

Saturated Fat
animal fats, palm oil, coconut oil (these fats are solid at room temperature)

Unsaturated Fat (includes the following)

Monounsaturated Fat: olive oil, avacado oil (these fats are liquid at room temperature and start to solidify when cooled)

Polyunsaturated Fat: sunflower oil, corn oil, sesame oil (these fats are liquid and stay liquid when cooled)
Trans Fats/Hydrogenated Fats: these are not naturally occurring, but are created when
chemical processes are used to turn liquid oils into solid fats. AVOID THEM AT ALL COSTS

Monounsaturated fats like organic olive oil, organic expeller pressed canola oil , and grapeseed oil are the best for you. Don't use "light" olive oil, as the processing of the oil to make it light removes most of the health benefits.

Many nutritionists recommend that fat intake be around 20% for a health adult. Within this 20%, 5% or less should be of the saturated variety, 5% or less from the polyunsaturated variety, and 10% from monounsatruated fats. Easy things to do include avoiding margarine and shortening of any sort, and using olive oil to cook with.

Let's take this into the vegan world: good sources of fats are avocados, olive oil, walnuts, cashews, pistachios, almonds, and cocoa butter.

Within the polyunsaturated category are important fats that are required for human metabolism. These are called essential fatty acids (EFAs). The body naturally produces all but two of these:
Linoleic Acid (LA) or Omega6
Alpha-Linoleic Acid (ALA) or Omega3

Thus, we must make sure to get these from our diet. They "play vital roles in brain function and the prevention of many chronic diseases as well as normal growth and development." (Wexler)

LA and ALA are needed to manufacture longer chains of fatty acids including:
Omega3's: SDA, ETA, EPA, DPA, DHA
Omega6's: GLA, DGLA, AA

It is recommended that we maintain a 1:1 ration of Omega6's to Omega3's in our bodies. The American diet, however, pushes most people closer to a 20:1 ration (or higher). Therefore, we don't really need to worry about Omega6's. Now, the main Omega3 chains that play a role in human nutrition are ALA, EPA, and DHA. If you consume ALA, your body still has to convert it to EPA and DHA, and
"Human studies show a very limited ability to convert ALA to DHA , the overall conversion efficiency from ALA to EPA plus DHA is estimated around 12%." (source)

So, we need to consume EPA and DHA directly. Many non-vegans get these from fish or fish oil, which are great sources of both, however this method is not risk free. With the arising problems of factory farmed fish, more and more fish are being contaminated with mercury, PCB's, colorants, and now we might have to worry about GMO fish.

So, we turn to plant foods. Walnuts, hemp, chia seeds, flax oil, and purslane are all sources of Omega3's. However, they are also sources of Omega6s (which we certainly don't need), and they are mostly ALA's. This means that our bodies still have to convert to EPA and DHA, at a 12% rate. The amounts of these foods we'd have to eat each day to get optimal amounts (350 mg EPA and 350 mg DHA) of these fats would be impossible!

So, let's go back to the fish. Do they produce these fats in their bodies? No. They get them from the algae they eat. So that's where this whole quest for a plant based source of DHA and EPA has led me: to algae.

Originally most algae based supplements contained only DHA, but recently V-Pure has come out with an algae supplement that contains both EPA and DHA.

This particular supplement contains 50 mg EPA and 350 mg DHA. So, it doesn't contain quite the recommended dose of EPA, but any intake of EPA will help the body not have to convert that amount from ALA.

Also, I think there are other brands/companies that have come out with similar products (I am certainly not advocating one brand over another).

Actually, getting your EPA and DHA straight from algae might lower the risk of toxic effects (like mercury and PCB's) from fish and fish oil. Since, like we said, the fish do not produce these fatty acids themselves, but rather take them in from the algae they eat (for those fish lower on the food chain) or from eating other fish (for larger predatory fish). It's probably best to stay lower on the food chain if you do get your Omega-3's from fish (less of a chance of toxic chemicals, etc.).

Also, you can help your body in the conversion process by doing things like avoiding overuse of alcohol, caffeine, saturated and trans fats, etc. This article has a great list of things that you can do (besides using fish and fish oils) to help balance out your EFAs.

Source: Fish Oil, Omega-3, and Essential Fatty Acids by Barbara Wexler MPH. Woodland Publishing. 2007.