Omega-3 fats and intelligence

A person's overall intelligence is largely built during the childhood years, starting from conception.  Nutrition plays a critical role in it.  Some other factors are how much the children are touched and cuddled and loved, and whether the environment is stimulating their senses enough.  But this article is concentrating on fats, since the pitiful "standard American diet" (SAD) supplies so little of the essential omega-3 fats that are crucial to proper brain development in infants and children - and crucial to proper brain functioning in adults.  It is no wonder that American children don't do especially well in international science and math comparisons.  Not all blame can be put to teachers; the nutritional deficiencies caused by eating processed foods and forgetting the wholesome foods and right fats plays a big role AND the fact that so few children are breastfed for a long time.

Note: What follows is for information purposes only.  For diagnosis and treatment of any disease, consult your doctor.

The essential fatty acids (EFAs)

Fatty acids are simply components of fats.  There are TWO essential fatty acids that everybody needs to get from the diet because the body cannot manufacture them.

• One is called alpha-linolenic acid (LNA or ALA), and it belongs to the omega-3 family of fatty acids.  ALA is found in abundantly in flax, and in small quantities in walnuts, cold pressed canola oil, wheat germ (the part taken out when making white flour), and dark green leafy vegetables (in tiny amounts).  By by far the best food source of ALA is flax seed and flax oil.

  The typical American diet nowadays contains extremely little of ALA, and so about 95-99% of the US population is deficient in it.  This deficiency plays a role in practically all degenerative diseases like heart disease and cancer.  Thousands of research studies in the last 20 years have shown that EFAs can have a profound effect on medical conditions including arthritis, skin conditions, cardiovascular diseases, diabetic neuropathy, immune function, and premenstrual syndrome.  Adding ALA back to diet has lots of benefits, indlucing lower cardiovascular risk, smoother skin, higher energy levels, stamina, performance and recovery, better insulin sensitivity, lowered cancer risk, lowered inflammation, greater heat production, and improved mood, learning, IQ and calmness, and better ability to handle stress.

• The other essential fatty acid is called linoleic acid (LA) and it belongs to the omega-6 family of fatty acids.  You can get linoleic acid from sunflower seeds, safflower seeds, corn, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, tahini, and almost any kind of nuts.  The typical American diet contains too much LA in comparison to ALA (from sunflower and corn oil). Some researchers believe an imbalance of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids may lead to a variety of mental disorders, including hyperactivity, depression, brain allergies, and schizophrenia.

Non-essential omega-3 and omega-6 fats

There exist also other (non-essential) omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, which your body can manufacture from the two essential ones.

• Other omega-3 fatty acids include DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) and EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid), which the body makes from ALA (the omega-3 essential fatty acid).  You may have heard about fish oil and omega-3 fats.  Oily cold-water fish contains good amounts of DHA and EPA - the non-essential omega-3 fats.
• Other non-essential omega-6 fatty acids include AA (arachidonic acid) and GLA (gamma-linolenic acid) which your body makes from LA (the omega-6 essential fatty acid).

Many times people confuse or don't differentiate between the different omega-3 fats.  ONLY ONE of the omega-3 fatty acids is essential (that is ALA), and a healthy body can make the others (DHA and EPA).  Fatty fish contains the non-essential omega-3 fatty acids DHA and EPA.  Since the body can make them from ALA, it follows that it is not absolutely necessary to eat fish or take fish oil supplements BUT in all cases it is necessary to get ALA since it is the ESSENTIAL omega-3 fat (best source being flax).

However, in certain cases the conversion from ALA to DHA and/or EPA is not adequate.  That can happen (obviously) if you don't get enough of the raw material ALA, or if you don't get enough of vitamins C, B6, B3, or enough zinc and magnesium, which all are needed in the conversion from ALA to DHA and EPA.  Also, if the diet contains too much omega-6 fats in comparison to ALA (as is usually the case in western diets), then the conversion is slowed down.  So in those cases it can be very beneficial to eat not only flax, but also sources of DHA and EPA as well - which means oily cold-water FISH, like salmon, trout, sardines, herring, and mackerel.  (FDA does not recommend eating mackerel because it can have higher than average levels of mercury.  Salmon seems to be much safer.  But it all depends on where the fish was caught, so check locally.)

Brain and DHA

The brain is about 60% fat by weight, DHA being the most abundant fat in the brain.  A lot of the fat found in brain is in the cell membranes of the neurons and in the protective myelin sheath that covers them.  The types and proportions of fats in the cell membranes determine how effectively the brain cells communicate.  If an adult is deficient in the right fats, his brain does not function optimally, and if a child is deficient, the brain does not develop nor function optimally.  Scientists are now revealing how all kinds of mental disorders including Parkinson's disease, depression, Alzheimer's disease, dementia, and schizophrenia are connected with deficiencies in the essential fatty acids, and with an imbalance between omega-6 and omega-3 fats.  For example, children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADD/ADHD) have been shown to have low levels of DHA in their blood.

It has been scientifically proven that breastfeeding increases a child's intelligence, and that one of the key nutrients responsible for that is DHA.  Standard infant formulas don't have but minuscule amounts of DHA.  DHA is crucial to the optimal development of the brain in infancy and childhood.  No one has really studied the requirements of DHA in later childhood, but based on the fact that in mental disorders they find lowered levels of DHA, it probably is a needed nutrient throughout the whole life.

The DHA levels of breast milk vary a lot according to the diet of the mother.  Breast milk can have a big amount of DHA - if the mother herself eats things rich in omega-3 fatty acids.  In a Danish study, consuming fish increased the amount of DHA found in the breast milk the following day.  Another study found that the milk of well-fed Nigerian women, whose diet was rich in nuts, had five to ten times the omge-3 content of the average mother in the United States.  Nursing mothers can increase DHA levels of breast milk by adding fresh fish, flax seed, flax seed oil, and spirulina in the diet.  When essential fatty acids are increased in the diet, it's also important to take a multinutrient rich in antioxidants to help protect the fatty acids from being destryoed.

Children who don't nurse anymore, can get DHA from fatty cold-water fish like salmon, trout, and sardines (mackerel can have too high levels of mercury).  Low-fat fish have only small amounts of DHA.  Another source is omega-3 fortified eggs from chickens that have been fed flax seed or fish meal.  Dr. David Williams recommends 1-2 yolks from these kind of eggs for children under two to get the daily 250 mg of omega-3 fatty acids that breast milk might contain.  You would need roughly 8 yolks from regular eggs - showing what a difference the chicken's diet makes in the nutritional value of its eggs!

As noted above, DHA is not an essential fatty acid (at least not for adults) - the body can make it from ALA.  But ALA(alpha-linolenic acid) IS an ESSENTIAL omega-3 fatty acid for both children and adults.  The best food source of ALA is flax seed or flax oil.  If you opt for flax seed, you need a little coffee grinder to grind the seeds in because they are hard to chew properly.  If you do not consume ground flax seed immediately, pack it tightly into a container and store in fridge, because the ALA oil in it goes rancid quickly when exposed to air.  Add freshly ground flaxseed to oatmeal, non-fat yogurt, or fruit smoothies.

Flax oil should come in a dark sealed bottle and be refridgerated because light, oxygen, and heat destroy the essential fats in it.  Dr. David Williams recommends the following amounts of flax oil for NON-nursing children: 1-6 months old, 1/4tsp daily; 6-12 months 1/2 tsp daily; 1-2 yers 1-2 tsp daily, and over 2 yrs 2 tsp daily.  You can just add it to the child's food just before eating; or use as a salad dressing or in fruit smoothies, added to oatmeal, non-fat yogurt, etc.  The absolutely best bet is of course to let your child breastfeed for at least 2 years and beyond and simply make sure the mother's diet is adequate, and after weaning let the child (and the whole family of course!) consume flax oil.

Trans fats - the danger

Another often overlooked fact about fats is the danger of so-called trans fats, which are formed when vegetable oils are heated in high temperatures, like in frying or in making hydrogenated oils.  Hydrogenation is a process where unsaturated fatty acids in liquid oils are transformed so they are now solid in room temperature.  It has been said that if hydrogenation was found today, it would not be approved for all the harm the trans fats do in the human system.  The main food items containing trans fats are margarine, shortening, and hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.  If you check the labels, you'll find commercial cookies, candy bars, crackers, and a horde of other foods contain hydrogenated oils.

Trans fats are shaped differently from their original form, and it has been shown that trans fats in rat mothers' diet found its way to their breast milk and on to the puppies brain.  It probably works the same way in humans.  These trans fats in the nerve cell membranes don't fit as well as the normal omega-3 fats, so they cause the nerve cells to communicate less efficiently and the brain cannot function optimally.  Trans fats also promote heart disease, cancer, and other degenerative diseases (think twice before eating the French Fries).

Proper brain nutrition

Of course the developing brain needs all other nutrients, too, besides the right fats.  Those are best provided when practically ALL the foods in the child's diet are nutrient-rich natural foods, like whole grains and legumes, eggs from free-range chickens, fish, nuts, seeds, fruit, and vegetables.  It seems to me that people do remember the vegetables, but then still let the child (and themselves) eat white flour products, white bread, pasta made from semolina or white flour, white rice, white sugar, and 'white' colorless supermarket oils that have been either mostly or totally robbed of the minerals and other nutrients they once contained.

Minerals, vitamins, proteins, right fats - the brain needs it all, and the best way to go is to shun the processed foods and the 'white' foods mentioned above as much as possible.  Vegetables and fruit are good for us, but it's even more important that the STAPLE FOODS are WHOLESOME and free of poisons: WHOLE grains, seeds, nuts, fresh clean fish, organic eggs, and organic meat.  It takes more time but it's worth your child's (and your own) HEALTH.

Sources and other resources

Dr. David William's Alternatives Newsletter September 1999 issue

Fats for Health.com - Essential Fatty Acid Information and News.

Trans, n-3, and n-6 fatty acids in Canadian human milk. Lipids 1996 March;31 Suppl:S279-82
"...average percentage of total trans [fats] was 7.2% of breast milk fatty acids...  ...partially hydrogenated vegetable oils are the major source of these trans fatty acids. The elevation of trans fatty acids in Canadian human milk is at the expense of n-3 and n-6 essential fatty acids.