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he made substantial contributions to a number of acid. Experiments in rats, moreover, suggest that Inducing an
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fields including nutrition, cell membrane biology the requirement during pregnancy and lactation
and invertebrate zoology. At the urging of White is double that needed during the growth of young essential fatty
Castle owner Billy Ingram, he once conducted animals. Under ordinary circumstances, the acid
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an experiment on a medical student, allowing the requirement during adulthood is probably well
student to eat nothing but White Castle hamburgers below the minimum one could obtain from a diet deficiency in
and their associated buns and pickles for thirteen made of whole foods. During pregnancy, periods an adult
weeks. The student appeared to fair well on the diet of growth such as bodybuilding or recovery from
and the study became a prominent feature of White tissue injury, or in disease states where existing human
Castle’s advertising. If only McDonald’s had PUFAs undergo oxidative destruction, the re- proved much
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been so lucky when Morgan Spurlock performed quirement may increase. People with low rates of
a similar experiment for his 2003 film Super Size arachidonic acid synthesis or strict vegetarians more difficult
Me. McClendon himself, however, had suffered whose diets are devoid of arachidonic acid may be than curing
from scaly skin and eczema between his fingers more vulnerable to essential fatty acid deficiency
even in the absence of any potent hamburg-emia. and may need higher intakes of linoleic acid. In one.
At Burr’s urging, he cured the problem with a daily these cases, borage oil or evening primrose oil can
dose of corn or flax oil. 1 supply dihomo-γ-linolenic acid (DGLA), which is
Inducing an essential fatty acid deficiency in more easily converted into arachidonic acid than
an adult human proved much more difficult than is linoleic acid, and liver or eggs yolks can supply
curing one. In 1938, the biochemist William Brown arachidonic acid itself. These foods are likely to
volunteered to go six months eating an extremely be more effective—and safer—than high intakes
low-fat diet in Burr’s laboratory. Each day, he of linoleic acid.
consumed three quarts of defatted milk, a quart of
cottage cheese made from it, sucrose, potato starch, THE ESSENTIALITY OF
orange juice and some vitamin and mineral supple- OMEGA-3 FATTY ACIDS
ments. His blood lipids became more saturated and George Burr’s former graduate student,
their concentrations of linoleic and arachidonic Ralph Holman, demonstrated in 1950 with his
acids were cut in half. He experienced a marked own graduate student, C. Widmer, that PUFAs are
absence of fatigue, his high blood pressure returned comprised of two separate families of fatty acids:
to normal, and the migraines he had suffered from linoleic acid is the precursor within the omega-6
since childhood completely disappeared. Rather family and is primarily converted in rat tissue to
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than inducing a deficiency, the diet seemed to cor- arachidonic acid, while alpha-linolenic acid (ALA)
rect a long-standing excess, perhaps fueled by a is the precursor within the omega-3 family and is
history of vegetable oil consumption. primarily converted in rat tissue to docosahexae-
Dermatitis seemingly associated with es- noic acid (DHA). Omega-3 fatty acids improved
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sential fatty acid deficiency has occurred in adult weight gain to some degree in essential fatty acid
humans on total parenteral nutrition (TPN), which deficient rats, but had no power to cure dermati-
is an intravenous infusion of a liquid diet. These tis, infertility, or many other symptoms. In fact,
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diets were also deficient in vitamin K, iron, zinc, omega-3 ALA made the dermatitis worse. The
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and various other trace elements, and essential research community therefore ignored omega-3
fatty acids alone were never shown to resolve the fatty acids for decades. Once Ralph Holman and his
dermatitis. 23-24 TPN also involves a continuous colleagues convinced the medical establishment to
infusion of glucose, which prevents the breakdown include linoleic acid in intravenous TPN infusions,
of adipose tissue and release of stored linoleic acid however, suddenly a new deficiency was born.
that would ordinarily occur between meals. All of In 1982, Holman reported the first case of
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the subjects receiving TPN, moreover, had severe apparent omega-3 deficiency in a six-year-old girl
underlying health problems, were often undergoing who underwent repeated rounds of surgery for an
major gastrointestinal surgery, and were sometimes abdominal gunshot wound and was maintained for
at the brink of death. over five months on TPN. The FDA had recently
These disparate experiences highlight the approved the addition of vegetable oils to TPN
likely variation that exists in vulnerability to es- to provide linoleic acid, and two formulas were
sential fatty acid deficiency among adult humans. available: one containing safflower oil and one
Alcoholism, diabetes, insulin resistance and containing soybean oil. The safflower oil formula
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certain genetic variations decrease the activity of contained an omega-6-to-omega-3 ratio of one
delta-6-desaturase, one of the enzymes involved hundred fifteen, while the soybean formula con-
in the conversion of linoleic acid to arachidonic tained a ratio of six, almost twenty times lower. 34

FALL 2010 Wise Traditions 23