Vegetarianism and bodybuilding - part 2

In the previous post I wrote about how it is relatively easy for people to get protein in their diets without needing to eat meat, eggs or dairy.
I would like to touch on the subject of fats, which is another topic of interest when discussing herbivorous diets.
There are basically two main types of fats that the human body cannot produce and require from the diet, hence they are called the essential fatty acids.
These fats are the omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids and they are necessary for many different cellular processes in the body, including eicosanoid (signalling hormones)formation, maintaining cellular membrane integrity and neural functions.
The omega-6 fatty acid, Linoleic acid is converted into other fatty acids, Gamma linoleic acid, which is a precursor to eicosanoid production, and also into the inflammatory Arachidonic acid, which helps signal cellular processes to repair damaged tissue but can also have a damaging affect on tissues when in excess. These fats are found in foods such as nuts, seeds, unrefined oils as well as meat and other animal products.
The omega-3 fats help maintain healthy levels of inflammation, by regulating the levels of arachidonic acid and other inflammatory cytokines which can come about as a result of diet and lifestyle choices and also trauma or injury. Omega-3 fatty acids are found in certain nuts and seeds, such as flax, hemp, chia, walnut and wheatgerm, as well as sea plankton, wild deep sea fish and organic grassfed meats, dairy and eggs.
In this day and age, many of us have an inbalance of these fatty acids and where the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 should ideally be between 1:1 and 4:1, it is often a much larger gap between the two.
Because omega-3 fats are a little bit harder to come by in the diet, people often don't eat enough of the foods to get healthy levels of these fats.
The other problem with omega-3 fats is they are often found in the form called Alpha linolenic acid, which is a precursor to the more active EPA and DHA fatty acids. The ALA fat needs to be converted by an enzymatic reaction but can often be limited because of certain toxins in the body, i.e. smoking, excess alcohol and trans fat intake in the diet, which deplete the body of nutrients required to produce the enzymes needed for the conversion.
One of the recommendations is for people to eat fish regulary in order to boost their omega-3 intake because fish have high levels of these fats and in the form that is already available for use by the human body.
Fish oils have become very popular as an EFA supplement and do work in lowering inflammation but fish oils have their own problems which would then lean towards using plant based sources of omega-3's. The high levels of pollutants, such as mercury, PCB's and other heavy metals which are leached into the oceans are often found is fish, not to mention it is quite wasteful to harvest the fish just for their fats, when there are effective plant based sources.
Flax seeds have the highest level of omega-3 fats and have other benefits, such as lignans and fibre, which are thought to have further protective benefits in the body, useful for those interested in bodybuilding. Lignans are reported to lower the amounts of harmful forms of estrogens in the body.
Chia seeds and hemp seeds contain high levels of omega-3 ALA and also GLA, so they work well at providing the precursors for eicosanoids. They are also high in bioavailable protein and many othr nutrients.
Sea plankton contains high levels of pre formed EPA and DHA, useable by the human body and are less likely to store harmful chemicals than fish and is being used more commonly commercially as it is proving to be a great source of omega-3.
Using plant foods will provide more enzymes and co factors to help make conversion of ALA into EPA and DHA more efficient and help the body function healthier and stronger.