Confused...can you have too much EFAs in the oil form?

[shamnas]

Hi there,

Does anyone know if you can have too much flax seed oil? I read on UDO Eramus's website (maker of UDO's choice) that you can have up to 3 tbsp a day and be fine. Then I went to a lecture yesterday on whole foods and he said you should only have flax seed oil 2 times a week. Instead have the whole fats - hemp powder, flax seeds (I think Kathryn had mentioned have these as well)

The lecturer is a raw foodist and claims that you can mess up your liver even with good fats by having too much as it stresses your liver. These are 2 of his articles for your reference.

http://foreverhealthy.net/html/archives/articles/howfat.asp

http://foreverhealthy.net/html/archives/faq/bestfats.asp

Sham

 

[clareMc]

I'm not sure he is right. After all, recent medical research has proven that fish oils taken in mega doses have a beneficial effect on mild depression. And we're taking daily mega doses of ETA's.

I would always want to get a medical opinion, not just a foodist's opinion. And several medical opinions are even better, then you can make your own informed decision.

Clare

 

[kathryn]

Here's my take: Our bodies were created to process real foods, whole foods that cavemen could find or process. Oil isn't one of them. It's a very concentrated, processed food.

A small amount of oil isn't a problem, IMO, but like any other processed food, when you make X oil, you omit a lot of the other components of X. And numerous studies on extracts of various things seem to point to a synergistic relationship between the substnace that is extracted and other, maybe even unidentified at this time, component that are in the whole food. FOr example, soy protein isolates or concentrates may have negative effects that whole soy foods don't.

I think raw foodist are often a bit extreme, but a lot of what they say seems valid to me. I'd say I agree with 50-60% of what I've read by raw foodists.

I've heard of Udo Erasmus, but only through the products he's selling, so I don't know his background.

 

[shamnas]

Thanks for the replies.

I too think raw foodist is too extreme...for me anyhow.

I think I will lay off the flax seed oil for a bit and keep having my ground flaxseeds. I may try to incorporate some more hemp products as well.