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Singly essential, doubly essential and triply essential fatty acids


For the last six months we have put in a lot of time learning everything there is to know about fatty acids.  Here is the first posting ... 


Within the fields of academic biology, medicine and nutrition the adjective ‘essential’ is used in three different ways.

There is the common usage of '‘must have’ or ‘cannot do without’ this or that nutrient if one wants to achieve good health. Many fatty acids are deemed 'essential ' or 'singly essential' in this sense.

Academic biologists, doctors, researchers and nutritionists sometimes use the adjective 'essential' as a shorthand for 'this nutrient cannot be made by the human body'. There are two fatty acids considered 'doubly essential' - alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) and linoleic acid (LA) - in that:

  • we cannot do without them if we want to achieve good health
  • they cannot be made by the human body

For many people the adjective 'essential' is also a synonym of the adjective 'pristine', meaning 'in its original state', 'undamaged', 'untainted', 'undiminished'. If one wanted to only use the most whole, clean, vibrant nutrients one would seek out those that:

  • have been grown organically (to both maximise nutrient levels and minimise toxic chemical pesticide and fertiliser residues) and
  • are 'raw', i.e. have not been exposed to temperatures exceeding 49 degrees Centigrade/120 degrees Fahrenheit during processing (to maintain nutrient levels)

To emphasise the importance of using only the most vibrant, least damaged fatty acids one might describe these as 'triply essential'.

Before the boom in processed foods most people ate sufficient pristine, vibrant, poly-unsaturated triply essential fatty acids (linoleic acid and alpha-linolenic acid) to meet most of the body's needs. This is no longer so, and our health is almost certainly suffering. It is important to restore good levels of the two 'triply essential' fatty acids into our daily diet as soon as possible.

The body uses various mixes of linoleic acid and alpha-linolenic acid for many purposes. They are, for instance, the body's fats of choice for the maintenance of the membranes of (i) the body's ~37 trillion cells, and (ii) the (sometimes thousands of) energy-producing organelles called mitochondria inside every cell.
  • A key function of the cell membrane is cell oxygenation, which it does by facilitating the diffusion of oxygen from the bloodstream into the interior of the cell
  • A key function of the mitochondrial membrane is mitochondrial oxygenation, which it does by facilitating the diffusion of oxygen from the overall interior of the cell into the interior of the mitochondrion, where it is needed to fuel the mitochondrion's production of the energy (largely adenosine triphosphate (ATP) in a healthy cell) needed for the cell's many functions
If, and only if, the body cannot find sufficient vibrant 'triply essential' linoleic acid and alpha-linolenic acid will it it use other, less effective fats ...
  • firstly, less pristine, less vibrant 'doubly essential' linoleic acid and alpha-linolenic acid
  • then, 'derivative' fatty acids made ('derived') by the body from doubly and triply essential fatty acids
  • then, the toxic synthetic trans fatty acids (transfats) and homogenised fats
... to make the cell and mitochondrial membranes. These inferior fats will also oxygenate the cells and mitochondria, but less efficiently than doubly and triply essential fatty acids (linoleic acid and alpha-linolenic acid).

The good news ...

The good news is that, as we diligently return our body to an abundance of 'triply essential' linoleic acid and alpha-linolenic acid (by consuming lots of raw nuts, seeds, oils or, perhaps, a dietary supplement containing 'raw', cold-pressed oils of these nuts and seeds) the body:
  • returns to its two beloved, more-effective, doubly and triply essential fatty acids for membrane maintenance - linoleic acid and alpha-linolenic acid 
  • stops using the less-effective fats - the damaged EFAs, the 'derivative' fatty acids, the trans fatty acids and the hydrogenised fats
Membranes are repaired with the most oxygenating materials.

Note

Both the terms 'cold-pressed' and 'raw' above mean 'not heated above 49 degrees Centigrade (C)/120 degrees Fahrenheit (F)': a limit set in order to minimise damage to the oils' doubly or triply essential fatty acids.

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