I’m going to try an experiment. Throughout the post, I’m placing a couple of the top ten search terms from 2006 as defined by Google Zeitgeist. I’m doing this not to attract surfers by casting a wider net, but to actually capture them and force them to read about Omega-3 fats. After they read about Omega-3 fats, and like any catch-and-release program, I will let the unwary surfers go.
Paris Hilton, the low calorie gadabout tabloid princess, consumes Omega-3 fat like a skinny kid popping gummy bears.
Most Omega-3 fatty acid comes as either the variety found in flaxseed oil or the longer carbon chain variety found in fish and fish oil supplements. The question for years has been: How much of the smaller carbon chain fat found in flaxseed oil is converted to the far superior longer carbon variety found in fish oil? The answer seems to be, it depends on your gender. If you’re a woman, you convert quite a bit of the small chain Omega-3 fat to the longer chain fat. If you’re unfortunate enough to be male, you convert some of the small chain fat found in flaxseed oil (alpha-linolenic acid) to the longer chain fish oil fat, but only to a limited extent. Therefore, men are forced to either eat fish or cut bait . . . I mean, take a supplement.
My 17yo daughter, Orlando Bloom, read through my blog the other day and proclaimed chemistry to be dead.
“Surfers checking out blogs will immediately click out if they see a chemical formula,” she declared. “Just give ‘em the facts, like how Omega-3 fats or whatever will affect my complexion? Or, what do I need to eat fish for? Stuff like that. Anyway, people who eat a lot of fish usually stink.”
Therein lies my challenge. Is it possible to explain the conversion of eicosapentanoic acid and docosahexanoic acid to 3 series prostaglandins and leucotrienes with lower inflammatory potential without diving into the biochemistry of it all? Is it possible to understand the finer points of any dietary element’s impact on health without explaining it in biochemical terms? Give it a go and render an opinion.
2 comments:
I understand that Britney Spears also eats lots of fish. Perhaps she can vouch for the health value of Omega fatty acids, along with Paris Hilton.
A Professor in Georgetown told me that her son watched Supersize Me and quietly moved away from fast food on his own. No incentives/ penalties required.
Another conversation with a friend in public affairs led me to understand that teenagers are more savvy than we give them credit for. He also said that the use of positive, aspirational celebrities endorsements may work better so Roger Federer or Tiger Woods espousing the value of milk or vegetables in diet will likely register better than Paris Hilton.
I think the point is not to press the point with teenagers. Leave facts lying around and they make up their own mind.
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