Oil for Life to Balance omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids ... - Oil4Life

OIL FOR LIFE TO BALANCE OMEGA-3 POLYUNSATURATED
FATTY ACID IN CELL MEMBRANE PHOSPHOLIPIDS IMPROVING
HEALTH CONDITION AND WELLNESS
Bruno Berra and Angela Maria Rizzo
Institute of General Physiology and Biochemistry “G. Esposito” University of Milan, Italy
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Since the 1950’s there has been a rapid global shift towards a diet linked to the chronic
degenerative diseases such as Heart disease, Stroke, Cancer, Diabetes, Osteoporosis and
Alzheimer, the major causes of ill health and death. There are many ways in which the
modern diet triggers disease, but it appears likely that the most important mechanism is that
it creates a pro-inflammatory climate within the body, enhanced by smoking, our low-energy
lifestyle and obesity. Five out of six of 60-year-olds already have one or more of the chronic
degenerative diseases. Most of these people will not yet know that they have the disease -
because it has yet to become noticeable. Chronic degenerative diseases are slowly
progressing conditions, a pre-illness growing little by little every day for years or decades
until the clinical illness finally emerge, sometimes overnight.
Excessive and / or inappropriate oxidative and closely related inflammatory stressors are
profoundly involved in tissue damage, the ageing process and most of the chronic
degenerative diseases. Antioxidant and anti-inflammatory defence systems are required to
maintain health, but the modern diet has increased our exposure to oxidative and
inflammatory components, and simultaneously reduced the integrity and functionality of our
defences against these stressors. Our body needs to have a strong anti-inflammatory /
antioxidant defence system - in the same way as it needs a strong immune system. The main
defence against free radical attack are antioxidant enzymes and antioxidant nutrients. Free
radicals generated in cigarette smoke are known to deplete antioxidants, a mechanism by
which cigarette smoking will promote vascular disease. Many plant foods contain
antioxidants that survive cooking in a bio available form and are absorbed by the body. The
olive fruit, being an important part of the Mediterranean diet, is a plant that has the potential
of being a part of a strong antioxidant defences. Secoiridoids are a class of compounds found
only in virgin olive oil that are strong antioxidants. One important molecule in this family is
oleuropein, a bitter-tasting glycoside that is converted to p-hydroxyphenyl ethanol and 3,4dihydroxy-phenyl
ethanol. The mixture of these minor components works synergistic in their
antioxidant defence as in Oil4Life Balance. The described biophenols are absorbed by our
body and enter exclusively into lipoproteins containing cholesterol, protecting the
lipoproteins from oxidation.
The polyunsaturated fatty acid linoleic acid (omega-6) and α-linolenic acid (short chain
omega-3) from plant oils are essential to the human diet. Neither is synthesized
endogenously and the omega-3/omega-6 families cannot be interconverted. α-linolenic acid
may be convertred to the long chain marine omega-3 EPA and DHA in the body. However,
due to competition an omega-6 rich diet of plant oils may inhibit EPA and DHA production,
leading to depleted levels of EPA and DHA in the plasma, although the minimum levels to
prevent disease is obtained. Our early diet contained small, but approximately equal amounts
of omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids, whereas the modern Western diet today contains an
excess of omega-6 due to high consumption of plant oils. This imbalance of omega-6 to
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