TITLE:
Creating Benefits from Omega-3 Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals
AUTHORS:
Catharine Clark, Bill Lands
KEYWORDS:
Eicosanoids, Highly Unsaturated Fatty Acids (HUFA), Inflammation, Omega-3 (n-3) Fatty Acid, Omega-6 (n-6) Fatty Acid
JOURNAL NAME:
Food and Nutrition Sciences,
Vol.6 No.17,
December
23,
2015
ABSTRACT: Foods currently eaten by Americans have abundant amounts of essential omega-6 (n-6) nutrients and relatively few omega-3 (n-3) nutrients. The average omega 3 - 6 balance score of typical US foods is about –6. This imbalance causes the average American to accumulate tissue proportions of n-3 and n-6 highly unsaturated fatty acids (HUFA) with about 77% n-6 in HUFA. This HUFA balance links to many chronic health conditions that are made worse by overabundant actions of food-based omega-6 HUFA. Americans currently spend more on treating food-based health conditions than they spend on food. Less medication is needed to treat signs and symptoms when a key dietary cause of the signs and symptoms is prevented. Informed food producers can readily prepare and market new food products with more n-3 and less n-6 nutrients to reverse the current national nutrient imbalance and help people attain and maintain a healthy HUFA balance. New functional foods and nutraceuticals will help consumers shift their financial resources from treating signs and symptoms caused by HUFA imbalance to preventing the nutrient imbalance that causes the need to treat.