Let Them Eat Fish Oil

It was difficult to decide today whether to write about Donald Rumsfeld’s personal responsibility for torture at Abu Ghraib or the link between omega-3 fatty acids and violence. I’m going with the fish.

Studies at the National Institutes of Health and at prisons in the US, UK, and the Netherlands indicate that prisoners given nutritional supplements of fish oil show fewer violent tendencies. The clinical trial of 80 people in the US follows an earlier, smaller study that showed a reduction by one third of anger, hostility, and irritability. So, prisons are doing their own experiments and finding a reduction in violent incidents.

It’s just predictable biochemistry. Your brain is (60%) fat and it needs fats from outside your body to function. Chips, cookies, and ice cream all have fats, but they tend to be omega-6 fatty acids from seed oils. Those don’t help.  Your synapses

contain even higher concentrations of essential fatty acids - being made of about 60% of the omega-3 fatty acid DHA. . . . Omega-3 DHA is very long and highly flexible. When it is incorporated into the nerve cell membrane it helps make the membrane itself elastic and fluid so that signals pass through it efficiently.

Without efficient transmission you get suicidal, angry, and impulsive. Sound like anyone you know?

Apparently, omega-3s have helped children and criminals. Maybe it is the emphasis on foods like pretzels and chicken tenders that makes the Bush administration so violent. Let’s experiment on them. Let’s give them multivitamins and fish oil to see if it prevents any violent, criminal behavior. You know where they are.

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

3 Responses to “Let Them Eat Fish Oil”

1. Jenni Says:
   November 28th, 2006 at 11:09 pm

   It’s too bad the oceans are projected to be near fishless in the nearish future.

   I’ve been getting my Omeg 3s from hemp seed and flax seed. Not quite as bioavailable, but better for the oceans.

2. admin Says:
   November 29th, 2006 at 8:54 am

   You could send them some hemp seeds. That would be a nice holiday gift.

3. Jenni Says:
   November 29th, 2006 at 1:32 pm

   Yummy — a political statement and in more ways than one! :)

Leave a Reply