I just read a really good article in the September edition of Prevention by science writer Susan Allport, titled The Vanishing Youth Nutrient. In that article she calls omega-3 fats “spring” fats because they come mostly from the leaves of plants and are the fats that animals (including humans) use to get ready of times of high activity usually associated with spring, like mating season and rearing young.   On the other hand she dubs the omega-6 fats which come primarily from the seeds of plant as “fall” fats.  These are the fats that animals use to store energy in preparation for winter, times of food shortage and hibernation.

Ms. Allport explains how the American diet has shifted from a proper balance of these two types of essential fats to a diet skewed in favor of omega-6s due our increasing dependance on corn and soybeans to feed both ourselves and the animals that produce our food.  She writes that we are eating a diet that is supposed to fatten us up for winter when weather is harsh and calories are scarce. But today food is never scarce for the average American.

She discovered in her resarch for her book The Queen of Fats, that leaves are the most metabolically active tissues in plants, and brains and eyes are the most metabolially active tissues in animals.  They are both full of omega-3 fats.  Animals preparing to go  into hibernation shift their diet in the fall to foods high in omega-6 seeds, while animals that migrate long distances and need lots of energy fill up with omega-3s for their long journey.  Her recomendations to boost omega-3s and decrease omega-6s include choosing grass fed pork, chiken and beef whenever you can.  Ms. Allport also recomends real free range eggs an excellent source of omega-3s.  It is worth the time to read the whole article.  I hope to add her book for our library soon.