The importance of gut health
The topic
From the heart of our cells to our plate
The expert
Anthony Berthou
MicronutritionistSummary
Key takeaways
- Omega 3s: where to find them and through what form
- The deficiencies we most suffer from
Interview Highlights
What types of Omega 3 supplements should we take ?
When we look at food supplements like Omega 3 for instance, we can talk about esterification, purification and so on. And the quality of the process and, above all, the preservation are important – oxidative stress can start to affect these omega-3s, because what makes them so rich, that is the fact that they are highly unsaturated, also makes them weak ; indeed, they are very sensitive to oxidative stress. So when you keep omega-3 capsules for several months, or even several years for some people, it’s a bit like the hot potato effect, i.e. there’s going to be a very significant propagation effect of oxidative stress. In a clinical trial, it was shown that oxidized LDL, i.e. the atherogenic fraction of LDL, increases the risk of cardiovascular disease. In fact, oxidized omega-3s can accentuate the risk, whereas non-oxidized omega-3s tend to reduce it.
And unfortunately, we’re not legally obliged to mention the oxidation rate, what we call the TOTOX index (the lipid peroxidation index from a laboratory), i.e. normally this index must be less than 5 to really have very low oxidation. But this index is sometimes measured by laboratories, and that’s fine. So it’s not because it’s not compulsory that some laboratories don’t do it. Some do, to their credit. Now, the question is, is it done when the product leaves the factory? Is it done after six months’ storage? Is it done after ten months’ storage? And if your storage is at room temperature, etc., unfortunately… these compounds oxidize very quickly. That’s why I recommend, first and foremost, taking the freshest omega-3s possible. We don’t have much control over that, because it simply depends on when they’re produced. But in any case, when you buy them, keep them in the freezer. Because, in fact, even in the refrigerator, in the fridge, oxidation continues.
Which foods can provide us with Omega 3 ?
Little oily fish. Unfortunately, whether it’s salmon or other fish, there have heavy metals… And it’s true that today, if we stay with the salmon story, there’s methylmercury, but there are also other compounds, because they’re fatty fish, and they’ve accumulated these compounds over the course of their own lives. And when we recommend sardines, macros, anchovies, small fish, we have fewer cumulative effects, so we’ll have fewer of these compounds. They’re also present in walnuts from Périgord or Grenoble.
What are the deficiencies we suffer the most from ?
Fortunately, deficiencies are rare today. In Western countries, etc., not all or most of us are deficient in certain micronutrients. On the other hand, we can be deficient. In other words, a deficiency is in the intermediate zone between an optimal status and the preamble to a deficiency if it is maintained over time. And here, in fact, we have a fraction of the population who may be prone to it. Classically vitamin D, not because it’s a dietary problem, simply because we’re no longer sufficiently exposed to natural light: we’re always indoors, as Pierre Rebi said: “we live in boxes, we sleep in boxes, we move around in boxes”, and unfortunately, we lack vitamin D. So it’s unfortunately in relation to our lifestyle. This vitamin D is synthesized from the sun’s UVB rays, and so we need exposure to light to have sufficient vitamin D status, particularly during the period from spring to autumn, to build up reserves for the period when we have less exposure.
And we can see that around 80% of the population today has a deficit in relation to official standards. And if we were to raise the minimum level of deficiency a little, we could have even more people. The same applies to magnesium. We’re talking about 80% of the French population, because on the one hand, the micronutritional density of the foods we eat is falling. We eat a lot of ultra-processed foods. These are often referred to as “empty calories”, because they provide a lot of calories and few micronutrients. On the other hand, we have a lifestyle where we’re often stressed. We also live in an environment, a society where we’re a little stressed all the time in transport, and so on. As magnesium is very important for all energetic enzymatic reactions, whether cognitive or physical, we can greatly increase our magnesium requirements. So, on the one hand we increase it, on the other hand we have less intake, which means that mathematically we end up with a major deficiency.
Podcast Episode
Additional Resources
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