The Difference Between Good Fats and Bad Fats

Raena Morgan: We’re visiting with Dr. Jorn Dyerberg from Copenhagen, and we’ve been talking about fat—good fat/bad fat. We hear so much about the Omega 3 fatty acids today being good fats. Would you tell us what the difference is, or what Omega 3s actually are—what are they? Dr. Jorn Dyerberg: What are they? They are polyunsaturated fatty acids. And, these polyunsaturated fatty acids are essential for our well being for cellular function. And, it is so—I’m sorry, it’s a bit complicated, but that’s how it is, that we have two families of polyunsaturated fatty acids—the Omega 6s and the Omega 3s. Just to make [it] short, the Omega 6s are mainly land based, and the Omega 3s are mainly sea based—marine based. You’ll find the Omega 3s—the long chained—in fatty fish. And, you’ll find Omega 6s in corn oil, in sunseed oil, or land based oils. These polyunsaturated fats are essential for our human body, but it is so that in our Westernized diet the Omega 6s far exceeds in our foods the amount of Omega 3s. So, we are in sort of a deficiency state of Omega 3s. And, now come[s] the issue that the functions—the good functions we have found over the years in medical research of Omega 3s are related to 2 fatty acids—eicosapentaenoic acid, or EPA, and docahexaenoic acid, or DHA. They function in our heart, in our blood clotting, in our brain. The DHA have an essential function in our brains to make them work, and in our visual function, in our eyes. So, the Omega 3s as EPA and DHA have major functions in our body. If we are in deficiency of them we might, we can have symptoms of this deficiency—heart diseases, mental disorders, maybe, and so on and so on.