It's just a matter of time before real science catches up with the stupidity. As the following study
demonstrates, the nonsense has got to go.
"Prog Lipid Res. 2003 Nov;42(6):544-68. Problems with essential fatty acids: time for a
new paradigm?
Cunnane SC.
Department of Nutritional Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, 150 College Street,
M5S 3E2, Toronto, Canada. [email hidden]
The term 'essential fatty acid' is ambiguous and inappropriately inclusive or exclusive of many
polyunsaturated fatty acids. When applied most rigidly to linoleate and alpha-linolenate, this term
excludes the now well accepted but conditional dietary need for two long chain polyunsaturates
(arachidonate and docosahexaenoate) during infancy. In addition, because of the concomitant absence
of dietary alpha-linolenate, essential fatty acid deficiency is a seriously flawed model that has
probably led to significantly overestimating linoleate requirements. Linoleate and alpha-linolenate
are more rapidly beta-oxidized and less easily replaced in tissue lipids than the common 'non-
essential' fatty acids (palmitate, stearate, oleate). Carbon from linoleate and alpha-linolenate is
recycled into palmitate and cholesterol in amounts frequently exceeding that used to make long chain
polyunsaturates. These observations represent several problems with the concept of 'essential fatty
acid', a term that connotes a more protected and important fatty acid than those which can be made
endogenously. The metabolism of essential and non-essential fatty acids is clearly much more
interconnected than previously understood. Replacing the term 'essential fatty acid' by existing but
less biased terminology, i.e. polyunsaturates, omega3 or omega6 polyunsaturates, or naming the
individual fatty acid(s) in question, would improve clarity and would potentially promote broader
exploration of the functional and health attributes of polyunsaturated fatty acids.
PMID: 14559071 [PubMed - in process]"