Peat Wrong On DHA

[PhoenixGaia]

DHA is such an necessity...

 

[GelatinGoblin]

Personally, when I have children, they're all going to be supplemented with DHA (hopefully) during gestation, and then also during their first few years. This alongside with cholesterol, and a choline source. Probably 50mg-100mg DHA a day, 250mg cholesterol a day, and 250mg-500mg choline (about an egg, IIRC).

Alongside all of that, it would also be good to have a women who is pregnant take pregnenolone and progesterone during the second half of the pregnancy.

I can upload the proof later, but high dose progesterone during pregnancy has been shown to potentially increase IQ scores by 5-10 points. And that's just progesterone. Pregnant women already have sky high progesterone, so giving a pregnant women extra only serves to put them at the upper percentiles of progesterone, which je a good thing.

After my children become toddlers, DHA supplementation would be ceased, with cholesterol/choline staying.

I plan for all.of this to be gotten from the diet, not supplements (besides the progesterone and pregnenolone).

If you and your partner are already smart people, and your female partner takes these during pregnancy in conjunction with a high calorie micronutrient rich diet... Well, I believe this could mean an extra 15-20 IQ points for your child down the line.

The point of all of this is to say that I trust DHA is genuinely needed for the brain. If Mead's acid could serve to replace it, then it would have already, being less prone to oxidation. But it hasn't, and humans hyper-accumulate DHA when if left alone it would be burned much faster for energy.

Also, there's some theoretical stuff. Giving children (or people in general) a low PUFA, high DHA (50mg-100mg/day) could actually make them smarter. DHA competes with other PUFAs in the body, and none of the other PUFAs, even DPA, can replace what DHA does. So the higher the ratio of DHA to all other PUFAs, the more DHA rich your brain will be, and thus the more ordered and structured it will (potentially) be. A typical low PUFA Peat diet + supplement DHA would be the most sensible way to accomplish this.

That's fundamentally what DHA does in the brain, though: it structures it. Any talk of quantum mumbo jumbo or oxidation or energy is all wrong. The purpose of DHA is to help the brain structure itself due to it's repulsive action against sterols/steroids + saturated fat. The less DHA a brain has, the more homogenized it is, literally.

The more cholesterol/steroids/saturated fat and the more DHA a brain has, the more structure it has.

How To Have Beautiful Children may be relevent. I would advise to ask Peat, Al though I do not know if he would be comfortable with that question. I think he would answer with something neutral. Anyway, please thinks Nd research this through carefully... Plenty of babies go without supplemental DHA.
And I remember a case where fish oil or something similar like vegetable oil was added to milk formula and some adverse effects followed... Don't remember where this is from though, maybe from one of Peats' articles.

 

[GelatinGoblin]

DHA is such an necessity...

How so? Wouldn't minimal amounts suffice?

 

[GelatinGoblin]

"I think they have biological roles but in amounts that it’s not bothered to supplement them. There’s evidence that they make endocannabinoids that differ in function. That these endocannabinoids are needed for CNS development during infancy. People always argue that mead acid also has an endocannabinoid it can use instead of the AA and DHA cannabinoids. DHA becomes an endocannabinoid called synaptamide which potently stimulates synaptic growth. I think this is from where DHA brain healthy aspects comes from. And why the brain at birth accumulates so much DHA. If mead acid could do the same thing and is healtheir option then why is not the brain storing mead acid. Anyway time will tell." Mary Enig Vs. Ray Peat - Who Is Right And Who Is Wrong?

 

[freedom]

I just came across this book which goes into great depth on the topic of DHA. The main theme being the more unsaturated cells become over time the quicker the age mainly due to the peroxidation of PUFA. Its interesting that, with exception of the brain and retina, it would seem very little DHA is required or needed for the rest of the body. In fact the body/cells go to great lengths to remove excess DHA as fast as possible:

Human Longevity: Omega-3 Fatty Acids, Bioenergetics, Molecular Biology, and Evolution

 

[freedom]

Thermal and oxidative stability of Atlantic salmon oil

Since DHA/EPA are so sensitive to an increase in temperature it is a source of confusion why it would be so concentrated in the brain and eye.

 

[Grischbal]

Mead Acid and the EFA deficient state should be studied more to make any coherent claim about necessity or "being wrong"

 

[Vajra]

What I'm not fully sure about it whether PUFA is truly "essential" for the skin. Ray says it was merely the absence of B vitamins, which is a compelling argument, but I've seen others mention more modern studies using B-fortified chow get the same skin condition, as well as some PUFA-free people also getting some skin problems. So I'm not sure. But if you're eating normally, that's not a problem either.

I will make the case that the skin problems observed were not an omega−6 deficiency nor a B vitamin deficiency, but simply due to increased evapotranspiration consequent of decreased skin lipid desaturation. Some experimenters had even eliminated the possibility of B vitamin deficiency via supplementation, and greatly increased water consumption had been noted in experimental mice.

Has anyone asked Ray about previous forum member Travis' views on Linolenic acid? His points were of course detailed and thorough but persisted with the "essential fatty acid cell membrane" theory, like others on this thread. How did a person like Travis not see the faulty mechanisms/ portrayal of a cel membrane and all the issues it presents?

He was privy to Gilbert Ling and the association-induction hypothesis.

 

[BigYellowLemon]

​

He was privy to Gilbert Ling and the association-induction hypothesis.

There Travis goes again. I really think he was smart as ****, he created a lot of interesting ideas and stuff. Had some truly innovative basically inventions and discoveries.

 

[RealNeat]

.

 

[Atman]

Since DHA/EPA are so sensitive to an increase in temperature it is a source of confusion why it would be so concentrated in the brain and eye.

It might be that in these sensitive tissues, storage is less dangerous than usage for energy or other processes.