Act 4 - Scene 9
Essential Fatty Acids

Aren’t you lucky? More free information, and believe me, this information is beneficial and in a way revolutionary.

Well, I have a revolutionary idea for those who want it and a simple idea for those who are a little bit more lazy! So you can choose you the method that best suits you.

Okay, so let's get started on EFA's...

For those that are not aware, essential fatty acids (EFA’s) are getting a lot of attention and rightly so. This is because almost the whole human population is drastically deficient in these all too important nutrients. However, not only are humans deficient in these nutrients, but so are our pets.

These nutrients are called essential fatty acids because our bodies and our pets bodies cannot create these nutrients within the body. These nutrients can only be obtained through food, thus it is essential the body eats foods containing these nutrients.

In days past when there were better agricultural and livestock feeding practices, our foods were higher in these essential fatty acids. For example, most cattle ate fresh greens; as a result, those cattle would have provided beef higher in essential fatty acids because fresh greens provide a decent source of one of the two essential fatty acids.

This is why I like free range eggs so much. The quality of the feed fed to the free range chickens has a dramatic effect on the nutrients in the eggs including the amount of EFA's.

Like with so many good supplements, essential fatty acids can really make a difference in helping to prevent and in helping to cure so many ailments, but once again, it is only part of the solution and not the solution itself. It is just that these nutrients are soooo essential that they cannot help but make a difference and make improvements.

The therapeutic benefits of essential fatty acids are enormous and too numerous to mention here. However, the importance of EFA’s cannot be stressed enough and much of their work will be done silently without you realizing their benefits.

Nonetheless, all pets will benefit from EFA’s especially those animals that are lethargic, overweight or underweight; have cancer, liver problems, allergies, diabetes, high cholesterol, hemorrhoids, poor blood circulation, cardiovascular disease, colon problems of all kinds, gastritis, ileitis (inflammation of the intestinal tract), foul smelling stools, breath or body odour; arthritis and other degenerative disease.

EFA’s help bring oxygen to the body, increase the metabolic rate, strengthen the vital energy of the body, protect nerves and play a crucial role in healing and preventing of disease.

There are two essential fatty acids. They are known as linolenic (omega-3) and linoleic acid (omega-6).

Omega 3 is found in fewer foods than Omega 6. If you were to eat only one food to obtain these EFA’s, then the best overall source and choice is flax seed (well, actually the best source is hemp seed but it can harder to get hemp seed - although many health food stores now sell hemp seed).

Since flax is the best overall choice, or should I say the most easily obtainable source, for Omega 3 we will focus our attention primarily on the benefits of flax here.

Omega 6 is more important to the body than omega 3 and so the body requires more of it. Ironically, although omega 3 is the hardest EFA to find, flax contains about four times more omega 3 than omega 6.

This part may be confusing, so you may need to read this twice. According to human nutrition studies, the optimum ratio of omega 3 to omega 6 is 1:3. Flax has a ratio of about 4:1 (almost the direct opposite). So, although flax is the best overall source if eating one seed because it contains the more elusive omega 3, ideally you want combine flax with seeds high in the more important omega 6 to increase the omega 6 amount. Does that make sense?

Udo Erasmus says in his book Fats and Oils: The Complete Guide to Fats and Oils in Health and Nutrition, on page 42 an optimum amount of omega 6 for humans may be anywhere from 3 - 10% of calories which is about 9 - 30 grams per day. He continues to state that in animal studies, as much as 28.5%, or about 85.5 grams of omega 6 has been given with no long term problems.

In ¼ cup of flax seed, there is about 10 grams of omega 3 and about 2.5 grams of omega 6. What this means to us is that when we feed our pets flax seed by itself, we are not providing enough omega 6 acid.

Too many pets, not to mention humans are lacking EFA’s. Omega 6 (linoleic acid) is found abundantly in almost all fresh, raw and unprocessed nuts and seeds and is found in much smaller amounts in fresh, raw vegetables. As stated before, omega 3 (linolenic acid) is harder to find. It is most abundant in fish; however, flax seed is our best plant source of omega 3. Dr. Julian Whitaker, M.D., in his July 1996, Vol. 6, No. 7 issue of his newsletter called Health and Healing states that flax seed is 35% oil, of which 55% is omega 3 fatty acids.

Many people give their pets flax oil, but this is expensive and not as effective as giving ground flax seed. So, if you are using flax oil, you can say goodbye to them because one night, a few years ago, I did a little investigating along with some mathematics to create a blend of seeds that provide a balanced source of omega 3 and 6.

Oils as an EFA supplement are great as they are easy, quick and simple to use. But they can be more expensive. In order to protect oils, they need to be cold processed, packaged in opaque bottles and they cannot be exposed to oxygen. Light, oxygen and heat destroy the benefits of EFA’s.

However, Mother Nature has provided the best method of protecting the EFA’s and it is called a seed. The seed’s job is to protect the EFA’s within it from heat, oxygen and light.

As mentioned, oils are great because you can be lazy, but the truth is, you are unfortunately missing so much of the natural goodness of the whole seed. In addition, a whole seed has an indefinite shelf life, but I do suggest storing them in the fridge.

Flax seed which can cost as little as 30 cents per 100 grams is more than affordable.... it is a bargain. All you need is a coffee grinder or a suitable machine for grinding the seeds, which could cost as little as $15. Considering oils can cost up to $20 for a bottle that may only last a few weeks or so, this method will pay for itself in no time and save you a lot of money in the long run.

Whole flax seed contains an immeasurable supply of minerals. It contains potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, calcium, sulphur, sodium, chlorine, iron, zinc, manganese, silicon, copper, fluorine, aluminum, nickel, cobalt, iodine, molybdenum, and chromium. In addition, it is an excellent source of fiber and contains the oil soluble vitamins E, A, D and the water soluble vitamins B1, B2, and C.

Flax seed has also been shown to provide the highest source of lignans which are phytochemicals (phyto = plants). Dr. Whitaker states that flax seed contains up to 800 times more lignans than other plants. Lignans are reported to protect against both breast and colon cancer. In addition to having anti-cancer properties, lignans are said to have an anti-viral, anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties.

Things to remember when feeding any ground seed is that as soon as it is ground, it will begin to go rancid. So, grind the seeds just before feeding and if there is any food left over with the ground seeds left on, that food will need to be thrown away if you suspect it could go rancid.

The seeds should be really ground well to expose the oils and if they are not ground well enough, you will simply see the flax seeds magically reappear in the stools.

The seeds I like to add to flax are raw pumpkin and sunflower seeds. Pumpkin and sunflower seeds are high in omega 6 while low in omega 3. As a result, this blend increases the omega 6 amount and helps obtain a better ratio of omega 3 to omega 6. Pumpkin seed, when fed in larger doses is also known as a natural dewormer. Also, majority of dogs and cats really enjoy the nutty taste of the seeds.

I use a specially blended formula of flax, sunflower and pumpkin seeds that I call “Katy’s Essential Blend”.

This revolutionary blend will dramatically reduce your costs by eliminating those expensive oils. In addition, this blend will provide all the other wonderful nutrients of these seeds. I have no doubt that this idea of blending seeds will forever change the way people provide and get their daily EFA’s..... and to think this is all started because of a dog named Katherine DeBarnes!?!

To take advantage of “Katy’s Essential Blend”, all you need in addition to the seed blend itself is a coffee grinder or other suitable machine for grinding and about 45 seconds for grinding them.

“Katy’s Essential Blend” will provide your pets with vitamins A, B1, B2, B6, C, E; fiber, niacin, folacin, pantothenic acid, potassium, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, iron, zinc, sodium, copper, manganese, ash, water, chlorine, silicon, flourine, nickel, cobalt, iodine, molybdenum, chromium, protein, food energy and a host of other fatty acids and nutrients.

To make “Katy’s Essential Blend”, simply blend equal parts of flax, sunflower and pumpkin seeds together.

When I talk about pumpkin seeds, I am referring to the green pumpkin seeds you find a a health food store.

A simple trick to determine if flax is high in nutrition is to check its darkness. The darker the flax seed, the higher its nutritional value. Flax seed will be darker too if grown farther north and this indicates its rich in Omega 3.

If you wish to feed flax alone, then based on Dr. Whitaker’s suggestions for humans of ¼ cup ground flax seed per day, I have created some suggestions for the use with our pets.

• Kittens and puppies 1teaspoon

• Small dogs and cats 2 teaspoons

• From 20 to 30 pounds 2½ teaspoons

• From 30 to 40 pounds 1tablespoons

• From 40 to 50 pounds 1¼ tablespoons

• From 50 to 60 pounds 1½ tablespoons

• From 60 to 70 pounds 1¾ tablespoons

• From 70 to 80 pounds 2 tablespoons

• From 80 to 90 pounds 2½ tablespoons

• From 90 to 100 pounds 2¾ tablespoons

• If 100 pounds or more ¼ cup

Give your pet some much needed EFA’s. Use either this table or for maximum benefits use “Katy’s Essential Blend” and rejoice. The energy gained along with all the wonderful and amazing benefits will definitely add spark to your pet’s daily life guaranteed!

Now, if you are lazy and want something simple, then you can provide your pet with an oil. I sometimes like to feed or give to my pets a soft gelatin capsule containing EFA's. All I do is put one soft gel capsule on the floor and let the dogs eat it! They love it!

In addition, I sometimes use hemp seed oil. The beauty about hemp seed is that it is naturally balanced between omega 3 and omega 6. We need to combine flax, pumpkin and sunflower seed to get the balance that hemp seed naturally has!

So if you want, you can provide hemp seed oil. It's a great source of EFA's.

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