X-Message-Number: 20369 From: "Mark Plus" <> Subject: RE: Fish and essential fatty acids (EFA's) Date: Sun, 27 Oct 2002 11:16:05 -0800 In Message #20364, Kirk Talmadge writes, >There may be a problem with just eating fish. Fish, like cattle, used to have a fair amount of Omega-3 EFA. The cattle started losing their Omega-3 content when they were being fed mostly grains instead of range feeding. Because of the demand for fish, as a healthy food, we've started to raise them on fish farms...and feed them grain. They don't have the same EFA balance. They are much lighter in Omega-3's. We may not have much choice about where we get our fish from now on, as wild supplies of seafood are fished to near-extinction. For example, North Atlantic cod stocks are apparently dangerously depleted: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2361763.stm >Grain fed animals have lower omega-3 contents vs. natural or free range animals. Unfortunately, fish are now being farmed, and fed grains. The grain diet is lowering their omega-3 values. The New York Times ran an article a few months back about how the grass-fed cattle business in the U.S. is growing from boutique status into a respectable industry, like organic farming. Apparently the current American strains of cattle, having been bred to fatten up on grains in feedlots, don't do well on grass (!). So the grass-feeding ranchers have had to import cattle from Europe, where cattle still eat a more or less natural diet, to cross-breed with American cattle to come up with strains suitable for the local grazing conditions. The article mentioned that grass-fed beef has a better omega-3 ratio, and is presumably healthier. This ties in with something I've noticed about the relative attitudes towards food & pharmaceuticals in America versus Europe. America holds food to lax standards, & pharmaceuticals to really strict standards. By contrast, European countries hold food to strict standards, & pharmaceuticals to standards arguably more rational & less paranoid than our Food & Drug Administration's. That's why America's food is often suboptimal for human health, and produced in environmentally damaging ways, while a lot of perfectly good pharmaceuticals aren't approved here even though they've been available in Europe for years. The Europeans' priorities actually make more sense, because we eat food every day, while we use pharmaceuticals only as needed. Mark Plus It's not "religious" or "science fictional" if you can do it. _________________________________________________________________ Unlimited Internet access for only $21.95/month. Try MSN! http://resourcecenter.msn.com/access/plans/2monthsfree.asp Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=20369