Seeds and Leaves - Why should you balance them?
Human beings have evolved eating a diet that contained roughly equal amounts of omega-6 and omega-3 essential fatty acids. Over the past 100–150 years there has been an enormous increase in the consumption of omega-6 fatty acids due to the increased intake of vegetable oils from SEEDS of corn, sunflower, safflower, cotton and soybeans. Today, in Western diets, the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids ranges from 10 to 20:1 instead of the traditional range of 1–2:1.
To be clear, seeds (and omega-6 fatty acids) aren’t ‘bad’ for us, in fact seeds can be incredibly nourishing (such as seedy fruit, flax, hemp and chia). It’s just that the body likes balance and the Western diet is ‘seed oil’ heavy and ‘leaf’ poor, which is incredibly different to how we evolved.What do leaves have to do with it?Lipids are the plants way of storing surplus energy (just like humans). Many plants primarily have omega-3 fatty acids in shoots and leaves, and these fatty acids are highly susceptible to oxidation and instability. Because Nature is clever and she knows that it would be REALLY unwise to store unstable oils in the prized crown jewel of the plant (the seed), the plant coverts Omega-3’s to Omega-6’s, which are MUCH more stable.In addition to this, if the plant/food is grown in healthy biologically rich soil with abundant microbial activity in the rhizosphere, the lipid levels increase (2-4 times!). Yet another reason to buy food that has been grown in healthy soil.The moral of the story is two-fold:
- Plants are mind-blowingly clever
- We should aim to eat loads of wholefoods with a generous amount of edible leaves (and less of the ultra-processed stuff that's full of vegetable oil).
But you already knew that! ;)
