The Queen of Fats

I am reading Susan Allport's book The Queen of Fats: Why Omega-3s were Removed from the Western Diet and What We can Do to Replace Them. As we have discussed briefly in class it is difficult to find populations that are isolated from western dietary influences. One of these occured in a Danish study of greenlander Indigeneous diet. These hunting and fishing communities ate a diet high in animal fats and cold water animals. Heart disease as experienced in comparable ethnic populations in Denmark was only 10 % of the rates. This was in the early 70s before we knew as much about Omega-3 fatty acids and its role in keeping blood from clotting. It was discovered during the process of drawing blood samples that the natives kept bleeding. It was also found that nosebleeds were common in the community.As the towns progressed and began consuming the western diet that arrived on the ships the cohort was lost and they were soon experiencing the same rates of heart disease, diabetes, and obesity as European ancestors.The book talks about the role of EPA in cognition and degenerative disorders of the eye, brain and heart. The oils that flex and turn to create vision in the optic nerve cannot be replaced with corn oil. eat your greens the dark green leafy kind.