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Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from house stuff works dot com

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Speaker 1: where smart happens. Hi Am Marshall Brain with today's question,

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Speaker 1: what is an omega three fatty acid? Just about every

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Speaker 1: day you hear someone reminding you to eat more omega three's.

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Speaker 1: It might be an advertisement or the label on a

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Speaker 1: food package, or your doctor or your spouse. Chances are

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Speaker 1: that someone somewhere will nag you today about omega three's.

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Speaker 1: But what is an omega three fatty acid? In order

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Speaker 1: to discuss omega three's, we have to lay a foundation,

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Speaker 1: and this is going to require a little visualization. So

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Speaker 1: what I want you to do is start by visualizing

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Speaker 1: one molecule of diesel fuel, Yes, diesel fuel, that's no joke.

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Speaker 1: A molecule of diesel fuel is a hydrocarbon made up say,

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Speaker 1: of twelve carbon atoms in a chain, and twenty six

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Speaker 1: hydrogen atoms arranged around the carbons. If you put lots

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Speaker 1: of those molecules together, you can run a diesel engine.

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Speaker 1: A typical fat molecule looks like three molecules of diesel

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Speaker 1: fuel hooked together by a little piece called glycerol. This

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Speaker 1: is why fats are called triglycerides. They have three chains,

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Speaker 1: and then a little thing that hooks them together. That's

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Speaker 1: a triglyceride. You may have heard of a fuel called biodiesel.

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Speaker 1: It's made by stripping off that glycerol connector to free

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Speaker 1: up the three diesel fuel molecules. Biodiesel is just like

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Speaker 1: diesel fuel made from crude oil, except that biodiesel doesn't

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Speaker 1: contain any of the impurities like sulfur that make diesel

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Speaker 1: fuel smell funny. Bottom line, when we eat fat, we

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Speaker 1: are eating something that is an awful lot, like diesel fuel.

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Speaker 1: Our bodies can use the fat immediately as fuel, or

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Speaker 1: they can store the fat as fuel for future use.

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Speaker 1: If someone is thirty pounds overweight, they essentially have thirty

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Speaker 1: pounds of diesel fuel on board roughly four gallons. It's

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Speaker 1: in storage for future use. Those three diesel fuel molecules

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Speaker 1: in the trigulyceride are called fatty acids because they have

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Speaker 1: a little knob on one end that makes the acidic,

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Speaker 1: and those fatty acid molecules come in several different forms.

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Speaker 1: A fatty acid is said to be saturated if it

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Speaker 1: has the maximum number of hydrogen atoms around the carbon chain.

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Speaker 1: Saturated fats are solid at room temperature, and they're commonly

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Speaker 1: found in meat. Saturated fats are said to be bad

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Speaker 1: because they have a greater tendency to stick to artery

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Speaker 1: walls and clog them up. If a fatty acid does

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Speaker 1: not contain a full complement of hydrogen atoms, it is

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Speaker 1: said to be unsaturated. If it is missing just one hydrogen,

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Speaker 1: it's said to be mono unsaturated. Olive oil is a

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Speaker 1: good example and is said to be one of the

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Speaker 1: healthiest fats you can eat. If a fatty acid is

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Speaker 1: missing more than one hydrogen atom, it's said to be

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Speaker 1: polly unsaturated. All unsaturated fats, whether they're mono unsaturated or

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Speaker 1: polly unsaturated, are liquid at room temperature, so we call

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Speaker 1: them oils. There are several different kinds of fatty acids

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Speaker 1: that are called essential fatty acids. They are essential because

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Speaker 1: our bodies have no way to make them internally. The

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Speaker 1: only way for your body to get the essential fatty

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Speaker 1: acids it needs is by eating them. Some of these

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Speaker 1: essential fatty acids are called omega six fatty acids, and

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Speaker 1: the rest are called omega three fatty acids. Now, with

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Speaker 1: all this knowledge under our belts, we can talk about

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Speaker 1: omega three fatty acids. Both omega three and omega six

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Speaker 1: fatty acids are poly unsaturated, meaning that they are missing

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Speaker 1: several hydrogen atoms along the carbon chain. The three and

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Speaker 1: the six refer to the position on the carbon chain

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Speaker 1: where the first hydrogen atom is missing and omega three

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Speaker 1: fatty acid is missing a hydrogen atom three carbons up

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Speaker 1: from the end, and omega six, on the other hand,

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Speaker 1: is missing a hydrogen atom six positions up. The reason

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Speaker 1: why omega threes are so important is because they are rare.

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Speaker 1: Omega six fatty acids can be found in just about

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Speaker 1: any oil, including corn oil, soybean oil, and so on.

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Speaker 1: To get omega three's, on the other hand, you have

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Speaker 1: to work at it. Walnuts contain omega three's, and so

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Speaker 1: do flax seeds and certain kinds of fish like salmon.

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Speaker 1: In addition, you would like to have an even balance

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Speaker 1: between omega three's and omega sixes, but because omega three's

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Speaker 1: are so rare, a typical American might get twenty times

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Speaker 1: more omega sixes than omega three's, and that's bad. Heart

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Speaker 1: disease is a leading killer in the United States. One

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Speaker 1: cause of heart disease is the wrong kind of fats.

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Speaker 1: The lack of omega three fatty acids in a typical

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Speaker 1: American diet is the problem. The reason why you hear

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Speaker 1: people talking about omega three fatty acids all the time

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Speaker 1: is because if you get enough of them, it means

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Speaker 1: better heart health. So what do you need to do?

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Speaker 1: You need to start eating things like walnuts, flax seed,

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Speaker 1: flax seed oil, salmon, and other fish that contain omega three's.

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Speaker 1: That way, you start to balance out the ratio of

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Speaker 1: omega three and omega sixes in your diet and it

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Speaker 1: makes you healthier. Do you have any ideas or suggestions

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Speaker 1: for this podcast? If so, please send me an email

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Speaker 1: at podcast at how stuff works dot com. For more

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Speaker 1: on this and thousands of other topics, go to how

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Speaker 1: stuff works dot com and be sure to check out

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