The Fats of Life

We’re told to eat a low-fat, low-kilojoule diet. But the consequences of this may be fuelling depression and aggression.

Recent research has identified that you can actually predict a country’s depression, suicide and murder rate simply by knowing the intake of seafood and omega 3s. While we undoubtedly need both omega-3 and omega-6 fats, most of us are much more deficient in omega-3 fats, which come from plants such as flaxseeds and walnuts.

In the case of depression, a particularly potent kind of omega-3 fat, called EPA, at a daily dose of 1 000mg, seems to work best and can work better than anti-depressants without the side effects. You’d have to be eating oily fish every day, or supplementing a couple of concentrated omega-3 rich fish oil capsules to get this much. This kind of intake has also proven effective for reducing heart attack risk. The other clear area of benefit is in arthritis.

The larger a fish the more mercury it accumulates, so eating large oily fish, such as tuna, more than twice a week during pregnancy is not advisable. There’s very little mercury in salmon and anything smaller. Good-quality fish-oil capsules are purified to remove mercury and any other undesirable pollutants, so during pregnancy, that’s a safer bet than eating fish.

I eat ALA-rich seeds every day, and oily fish three times a week, and I also supplement a combination of essential omega 6 and omega 3 every day. I recommend you do, too.