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Article: Amazing omega-3s: restoring dietary essential fatty acids will dramatically improve mental and physical health around the world.(Interview)
- Article from:
- The Saturday Evening Post
- Article date:
- July 1, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2008 Saturday Evening Post Society. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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In their laboratory at the University of Minnesota in the late 1920s, researchers George and Mildred Burr made a discovery whose health impact is only now reverberating around the world. Working with rats, the Burrs encountered a new deficiency disease caused by the exclusion of fats from the diet. Rats that did not get certain essential fatty acids developed a characteristic disease and died at an early age. The Burrs later identified the fats as n-3 fatty acids, better known as omega-3s, which are found in plants as alpha linoleic acid (ALA) and in fish as eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA).
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