Rebuild from Depression Blog

Every day it seems that there is new evidence that Omega 3 fatty acids can alleviate depression, heart disease, Alzheimer's, and improve overall health. The Omega 3 supplement industry has soared.

Clinical trials on depression use high doses of Omega 3 fatty acids and find that people struggling with depression get some relief. Omega 3s are important in brain function generally and the western diet has been rather deficient in the fat for the last century.

What your best strategy is to improve your Omega 3 fatty acid status is to take an Omega 3 supplement and to add foods to your diet high in Omega 3 and low in Omega 6. (I will be writing more about these issues soon and depending on when you read this post, you might find them linked at the bottom of the post as track backs.)

How much Omega 3 do I need? Do I really need to take a supplement?

With research coming out all of the time on the importance of Omega 3 fatty acids for brain function (and particularly for depression), quite a number of people have emailed me about how much Omega 3s they need. And the answer is: it depends.

What we do know is that we need an appropriate intake of Omega 3s to balance our Omega 6 intake. Many people in the U.S. consume fifteen or twenty times the amount of Omega 6s as Omega 3s (or more) - an Omega 6 to Omega 3 ratio of over 15 to 1. It should be 4 to 1 or, ideally, even 1 to 1. A 1 to 1 ratio simply means you are consuming a gram of Omega 3s for every gram of Omega 6s.

How did we get so far from our ideal intake? The answer is at least another article if not an entire website, but the short answer is that our current diets of processed foods rely too much on high Omega 6 ingredients (most notably vegetable oils). Our meat supply has far lower levels too. Animals that eat grass have higher levels of Omega 3s in their muscles. As we have replaced a diet of wild game with meat from animals finished on feedlots, our own meat has less of the necessary Omega 3 fatty acid.

How Much Omega 3?

There are different types of Omega-3 fatty acids. The form found in plants (ALA or alpha linolenic acid) is the only form considered essential, but researchers are finding EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) to be the key Omega 3 fat therapeutic for depression. There is no question that the best food source of EPA is fish, other seafood, and fish eggs. However, if you are allergic, seafood and the fish oil family supplements themselves are a very bad idea.

If you are allergic to fish but need to improve your Omega 3 fatty acid status, you can take a three-pronged strategy:

Omega 3 fatty acids are critical in the depression fight. The fatty portion of our brains are made up largely of Omega-3 fats. Depressed folks tend to be low in them. (Actually all of America tends to be low in them.) Clinical trials show that these key fats alleviate depression.

There is a lot of information on this site on Omega 3s and depression, it’s just hard to find. I also plan to add more any day (or month) now. :) In the meantime, I put together a round-up article on the main site to help you access the information on this site a little better.

Omega 3 Fatty Acids, Food, and Depression

I was reading several articles in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition a few weeks ago about Omega 3 fatty acids and brain health. Research comes out weekly on the importance of these fats for our brains, but some words stuck with me in this particular AJCN editorial on Omega 3s.

The editorial points to other articles in the issue about the link between Omega 3s and brain health. One article studied people in their 70s and looked at the relationship between cognitive performance and fish intake. The participants with the best cognitive skills ate more fish. In another study, people with high blood levels of Omega 3 fatty acids experienced less cognitive decline.

The studies are not about people already suffering from a cognitive disease, but rather about the decline of brain function as we age. It would appear that Omega 3 intake can prevent disease or at least prevent the speed of decline in cognitive function. The editorial points to the need for more research on prevention of disease.

The words of the author have stayed with me are:

We are well aware from previous work at Oxford that the time frame over which dementia develops and brain volume shrinks can often be measured in decades.

Just for some good repetition:

Our brain volume shrinks over decades.

Omega 3 fatty acids may well be a key to reducing that shrinkage. Read the editorial.

Young or Old: Your Action Item

Younger folks among us may assume that youth is protective from processed and junk food. Indeed, young folks tend to get away with a lot more than they will as those years march on. However, young people need to appreciate the long game they are living with the food choices they make every day. You may be decades away from old age, but this current decade will affect your health four or five decades from now.

Older folks might be discouraged by their past bad decisions and wonder if they really can make an impact on their brain health if brain degeneration takes place over decades. But in the context of brain health, there are studies that show Omega-3s slow the progression of mental decline. Someone otherwise “doomed” to some degree of mental decline might make a change today that will lead to more health years in the future even if the outcome is ultimately the same. That is, you may still be able to capture a whole lot more healthy brain years by taking action now.

What strikes me about whatever our age happens to be is that Chinese Proverb someone who reads this blog once sent me:

The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time to plant a tree is today.

So I took the cod liver oil supplement today and made a big Thanksgiving meal pitch to everyone at the table to do so as well. I’ll do the same at Christmas dinner and perhaps will pass out some supplements as gifts. High Omega 3 foods are good options as well. A change in your diet is a critical element in this long-term game. Other food choices you make will affect your need for Omega-3s. Trans fats inhibit your Omega-3 metabolism. A diet high in Omega-6 fatty acids increases your need. You can read a lot on this blog about Omega 3 fatty acids and foods.

A good rule of thumb to follow in improving your nutritional status is that food sources of a nutrient will be superior to a nutritional supplement. However, a recent study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that fish oil supplements worked as well as fish at improving the Omega 3 status of the study participants.

Participants were given a daily Omega 3 supplement with 485 mg of EPA + DHA (specific types of Omega 3s) or a diet of fish with about 3400 mg of EPA + DHA over the course of a week. The fish diet group consumed an equivalent amount of Omega 3 fatty acids as did the supplement group over the course of a week. Researchers followed them for sixteen weeks.

What this means for you is that if you do not like fish or do not have access to fish you do like, fish oil is a good option for you to meet your Omega 3 requirements. Keep in mind, however, that fish itself is rich in vitamins and minerals that you will not be getting in the fish oil bottle. From an overall dietary perspective, the actual fish is going to be your best bet (with the usual caveats about finding fish low in mercury and other toxins).

Read more at this site on Omega 3 fatty acids:
Omega 3 Round-Up

Read more offsite on fish selection
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on fish
Sustainable Choices from the Monterey Bay Aquarium and from Environmental Defense (Ocean’s Alive).

In the book, Rebuild from Depression, I identify foods highest in depression-fighting nutrients. An assortment of fish and seafood made the list. Three fish would have made the list based on their nutritional content (shark, king mackerel, and tilefish) but the Environmental Protection Agency warns us of their high mercury content. Don’t eat them. Some species of mackerel and tilefish are safe and if you have access, you can consider them to be depression busters.

Of the remaining depression-busting fish and seafood, I was able to obtain the Omega-3 content and mercury content for all seafood except the most obscure. Of our depression busters, I list here the top five with the most favorable ratio of Omega-3 fatty acids to mercury. For your seafood meals, start with these choices.

• Wild salmon
• Sardines
• Anchovies
• Herring
• Oyster

To examine your seafood choices more thoroughly, visit the Environmental Protection Agency, Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch, and Environmental Defense.

“Let’s get the fish and chips.”

“That stuff will kill you. Get the steamers instead.”

“But the fish and chips are crispy goodness. You can’t come to the beach without getting fish and chips.”

“It’s the crispy that will kill you. Those restaurants are probably frying in a pool of trans fats.”

“But the Omega 3 fatty acids in the fish more than make up for the trans fats in the fries and batter.”

“Except that the trans fats in the fries and batter will reduce your absorption of the Omega 3s in the fish.”

“Do you ever have any fun?”

Somehow Easter snuck up on us this year and I am still trying to face the fact that I have given no thought whatsoever to holiday celebrations, nor am I even really ready for spring to be here. Luckily for me, I have on hand the key ingredient for Easter excitement: Easter egg dye.

We have spent the last two days dying every egg in our house. We had given my dad a dozen eggs last week and asked him to swap that dozen for a fresh batch. Eggs that are too fresh do not peel well. Use older eggs in the Easter basket.

Now we have another entire dozen to boil and dye. There is nothing more wonderful to an almost-six-year-old who is into color mixing. Luckily we all like egg salad.

Eggs are a great food. If you can find eggs from hens who are wandering eating bugs, those eggs will be far higher in beneficial fats than the regular eggs at the market. The high-fat yolks will, in fact, help you fight depression. To think that I used to eat egg white omelets.

Read more here about eggs:

• Omega 3 Eggs
  
• Deviled eggs (with boiling tips)
  
• Egg salad (stuffed in a bell pepper)
  
• Sweet Omelet
  

This time of year in California’s cattle country in the Sierra Nevada, we don’t see a lot of cattle. Ranchers have either sold their younger feeder cattle or have moved their herd to higher elevations in the Sequoia National Forest where they will summer on grassy ranges. Every summer I look for the perfect picture of cattle grazing in the Sequoias and I continue my hunt this season.

We buy a steer every couple of years from one of the local ranchers and typically have him finished on grain for a few weeks. The grain finishing reduces the Omega 3 fatty acids in the meat, but the steer never had a whole lot of Omega 3s to begin with (see Omega 3 fatty acid levels in grass fed beef). You can read here about a steer we bought last winter when “I met my meat.”

So while I’d like to claim that I buy the steer grass finished and buy it for the Omega 3 fatty acids, we actually have grained them a bit before slaughter and I also recognize that if I am really after Omega 3s, I should look to an animal that swims a little better than a steer (see fish and Omega 3 fatty acids).

We buy the beef like we do to avoid that whole feedlot stage with the food we are eating. It just seems like a crummy place to live if you’re a steer and it makes more sense to put the money directly in the hands of the rancher. Of course, he will only sell me a live steer which gives me the excitement of hiring people like Ted and taking pictures like the one below.

I just knew there was something about ice cream and perhaps eating it daily in the first trimester of this pregnancy is why I am getting along so swimmingly. In fact, in my last pregnancy I was in the depths of depression by about 28 weeks and headed into a couple of psychotic episodes. Here I am at 30 weeks still out of the pit.

Is it the ice cream?

I turned to Google Trends for the answer and check it out. When people are on the Internet searching for the word "ice cream," they are less likely to be searching for the word "depression." Wow.

In the figure below, the blue trend line is searches for "ice cream" and the red for "depression." Each year the searches for ice cream peak about mid-year and, accordingly, searches for "depression" decline. (Sorry for the "A," "B," "C," "D" in the graph. They will give you Google news stories on "depression" if you were actually in Google Trends.)

Does Google provide us with proof positive that there are foods that fight depression? Is the recent rise in searches for the term "depression" due to ice cream shortages?

The alternative theory is that sunlight in the summer improves our vitamin D status, vitamin D deficiencies aggravate depression, and that summer time is a great time for ice cream. The recent rise in searches may well be due to that other type of depression. But if you need an excuse, by all means, here's some data to justify ice cream. There is no reason to let alternative theories stand in the way of a good story. Consider having some fatty fish high in Omega 3 fatty acids as well.

Technorati Tags: depression, foods that fight depression, ice cream, Rebuild from Depression, sunshine, vitamin D

I never thought I would be an opinion leader in the politics of chickens, but a few friends have emailed me asking for advice on Prop 2. Furthermore, I am looking at my absentee ballot today. I decided I should do my due diligence and spend a few minutes looking at it.

This initiative would outlaw use of specific confinement systems for chickens, veal calves, and pregnant sows. It requires that animals be able to stretch their limbs and turn around in a circle. If you have seen battery hen cages, you would note that the egg-laying hens are sitting in a little cage with no room for a good leg stretch. Likewise, veal calves are kept from moving so that they do not develop unwanted muscle. I have never seen the sow arrangement, but they are confined in pregnancy and again postpartum to keep them from squashing their new piglet.

The pig portion of the law is one area of controversy. The law would allow pigs to be confined just before giving birth, in the last week before its due date. After the birth, the sow becomes "non-pregnant" and no longer falls under the confinement law which applies only to pigs in pregnancy. The "No on Prop 2" side is making a big deal that pig confinement is necessary to keep the pig from killing the piglet. What they don't seem to mention is that Prop 2 applies only to pregnant pigs. Unless a miracle occurred somewhere in the process, the presence of the piglet would suggest the pig is no longer pregnant.

Feeling a lot like a pregnant sow lately, I find myself somewhat predisposed to Prop 2. It sure is nice to be able to roll over and stretch my legs as much as my joints might creak to do so. I'm "yes leaning" on the pig portion of the issue.

Chickens are probably the most discussed area of the law, likely because most of us eat quite a bit of eggs. Opponents say that the legislation is poorly worded and might outlaw indoor chicken operations altogether. The text of the law doesn't suggest ambiguity or such an extreme conclusion. If a chicken's indoor yard allowed the chicken to flap its wings and turn around, it would be good-to-go.

An important argument for the opposition is the increase in egg prices likely with this proposed law. The little cages for laying hens are apparently the most cost-effective way to produce an egg. Furthermore, Capital Ag Press reports that 30% of California eggs are brought from out of state. California egg producers would be at a disadvantage competing with eggs from battery operations out of state. It is likely that proponents do not see this as a big deal since I expect they have a list of states to lobby in next for similar legislation. (I won't mention the notion of eggs from China or Mexico.)

Opponents of Prop 2 also argue that the law would be taking a step backwards in food safety. This argument appears to be their very best argument. Those little cages that laying hens get to live in can be kept much cleaner than an open facility. The hens aren't laying on the eggs of other hens. With egg layers myself here, I have some appreciation for the amount of manure that can attach itself to an egg in open laying boxes. That said, the manure potential grows in direct proportion to my laziness in cleaning those boxes. Laying boxes can be managed to reduce poop on eggs but probably not as well as battery cages can be managed.

An interesting angle on this legislation is that if farmers convert their battery operations to non-confinement operations, they are then a stone's throw from entering a higher-end egg market. They can add some flax to the feed and call the eggs "Omega 3 eggs" or they can buy organic feed and go organic. Consumers will have a more difficult time figuring out which hens actually get to forage and which are just hanging out in a big building.

Prices of eggs will go up with this initiative and it just about kills me to vote for higher food prices at the beginning of a who-knows-how-long-and-how-bad economic event. To complicate things for me, the law affects my household very little since we do raise our own eggs. It just doesn't seem right to be voting about other people's food choices, but then I think about that pregnant sow again as I sit here pregnant.

I am "yes-leaning" on Prop 2.

For more information, read both sides:
Yes on Prop 2
No on Prop 2

For sheer entertainment on our purchase of the wrong type of chick, read:
She's at least a triple D

Technorati Tags: Proposition 2, Omega 3

My life has been filled with wildly productive work cycles. I look back on a few with pride even though they required months of recovery. I don't bill my clients by the hour, but by the job, because I only work when I have the energy. When I do work, I do the work of about five people. Memorable work times are when I carry this level of work on for weeks at a time, but I can usually count on a few days of the madness every few weeks. It's simply been how I get work done.

A cycle was in the works last week: I could feel the energy, my blood pressure was up, my senses were more alert. Any other time in my life I would have said, "Hot diggity, let's get something done!" For the very first time in my life I realized that my body didn't have the energy for what was about the happen even though I had a good bit to do on this WASC project. I shut down the computer and went outside to weed. I deliberately took a week away from my for-pay work to break the cycle. I am three months postpartum and have enough energy to get by day after day, no more. I am quite sure a manic period could send me straight into the pit.

Saying "no" to mania now tops my list of postpartum survival. Other favorites:

(1) Sleep. When I have a bad night, I take an over-the-counter sleep aid the next night. I know that's cheating but it's better than Zoloft and it's better than three years of hell.

(2) Supplements. I take a liquid multi diligently and desiccated liver capsules when my stress level is high. I keep a B complex supplement in my bathroom and in my work area to take when I remember. I take about 2 grams of Omega 3 daily.

(3) Stay home. I have resisted a number of trips, both day-long and overnight. I don't need the wear and the uncertainty that comes with hauling a newborn around. The bad side of this rule is that I am feeling increasingly shut in. After nine months of pregnancy where I followed the same rule, it's about time to see things other than forest wildlife. (We live in the Sequoia National Forest away from pretty much all of civilization.) I do try to enjoy it though:

Technorati Tags: B vitamins, depression, foods that fight depression, liver, Omega 3

October's baby chicks sent us an Easter gift: their first batch of tiny eggs came on Easter weekend. The eggs will get bigger as the hens develop, but they will continue to be either white, brown, or green. We will have our own source of omega-3 eggs, fortified not with flax or fish oil, but by garden bugs gobbled up by excited hens.

Technorati Tags: eggs, Omega 3

Many folks these days seek a "traditional diet" of whole foods, just like our ancestors ate. Ancestors were less concerned about raw food. They drank raw milk, for instance, poured right from the milk pail in many cases. Today we have to worry more about the plethora of food-borne pathogens, particularly if we are not regularly exposed to them. Frederick's exposure there in the picture -- chasing chickens, slithering through their muck to catch them -- is why I don't worry too much if he has one of their egg yolks in an egg nog-like drink. When not being chased by boys, the hens have access to weeds and bugs which makes their eggs high Omega 3 eggs. Omega 3 is good for depression and brain health in general.

On the raw egg, one brush of the hand across the mouth on days like this one is far worse than anything that might be in the related raw egg.

Technorati Tags: eggs, foods that fight depression, Omega 3, raw egg, raw milk

If we ever needed a visual that eggs can be contaminated on the inside as well as on the outer shell, we've got it. Here's a gecko that took a real bad turn up the back side of a hen and spent its final days swishing around in egg white. That's a custard you'd want to cook. (Check out the story of the discovery: ABC News.)

I eat them raw or undercooked, I admit. I don't worry too much about our own eggs but not because I think they cannot contain salmonella. I just figure I get exposed to so much salmonella cleaning out the hen house here that the eggs are the least of my concerns. Same with the little folk. Eggs from hens eating bugs and weeds are a pretty good source of Omega 3 fatty acids, key for brain health.

Technorati Tags: eggs, Omega 3, salmonella

Beef liver is my "food of recovery," a food that replenishes me of nutrients when I have been through a rough patch. It is absolutely loaded with vitamins, minerals, and fats and, by chance, loaded with the nutrients that help keep our brains healthy.

Depression is complex with many causes, but some folks (like me) have had diet deficiencies that have aggregated their depression. We need good food to be healthy. Our brain needs good food for it to be healthy. It might catch up to us in our older years in the form of Alzheimer's or we might get some early warning signs (as I did) that things like low-fat diets are a real bad idea. We need healthy fats, particularly Omega 3 fatty acids, but some of the foods we shunned in the low-fat diet crazes of the 80s and 90s are foods that have other key nutrients: beef, for instance, is an exceptional source of iron. Most plant-based foods and low-fat foods in general are not. Low iron has been linked to postpartum depression.

It is worth a try if you want a boost. I wrote about my liver regimen in liver and vitamins and minerals and describe its Omega 3 content in Liver and Omega 3s, particularly liver from cattle on a grass-based diet (see figure below).

If you are stumped on how to cook it, check out Mom's recipe for flash-cooked liver. She descibes her process in our own kitchen via a YouTube video. I've got another interesting liver recipe video waiting in the wings.

Technorati Tags: B vitamins, beef, depression, fat, foods that fight depression, grass fed beef, liver, Omega 3, postpartum depression

I was strolling through some of the old content on this blog and discovered that I have apparently blogged about a good number of food science tidbits. The book Rebuild from Depression (coming this summer, really) has several chapters discussing food science. Here on this blog you can find a sampling. One great thing about a blog instead of a book is that I can include pictures more easily. Pictures of course mean graphs (or visualizations if you want to get fancy).

You will find a number of tidbits on the effects of grass feeding on meat and dairy:
Grass fed beef: An Omega 3 super food? (Two graphs!)
Beef liver and Omega-3s in grass fed beef (Graph included!)
CLA in dairy products (as a function of time on pasture) (Graph included!)

There is some good wisdom on Omega 3 and seafood:
Best Omega 3 food sources: Fish and seafood (Two graphs!)
Wild fish: Benefits and what to look for
Grass fed beef: An Omega 3 super food? (Two graphs! One graph on the Omega 3 content of fish)

Read about Omega 3 eggs and the ratios of Omega 6s to 3s in vegetable oils (Graph!)
Read the whole Omega 3 roundup: Omega 3 and depression.

There are a number of profiles of specific foods, but be careful, most came from a crazy contest:
Beef (Graph!)
Beef liver (Graph!)
Squirrel (Graph! Yes, a graph for squirrel!)
Blackeyed Peas (Graph!)
High iron foods (Graph! It includes caterpillar! Yum!)

Check out soy and phytic acid. Graph!

There are some general articles on "nutrient loss" as well. The most fascinating is "Nutrient Loss in the Food Supply" on the decline of nutrients in fresh produce over the last half-century. You can also read about all of the nutrient loss in your own kitchen due to cooking techniques.

Enjoy the tidbits. Feel free to re-post the graphs on your website if you have one attributing this blog.

Technorati Tags: B vitamins, beef, CLA, dairy, depression busters, eggs, fat, fish, foods that fight depression, grass fed beef, iron, liver, Omega 3, seafood

In our resolve to consume more liver I have been on the hunt for varying ways to prepare it. The traditional liver and onions is fine now and then (check out Mom's flash cooked liver). But if you will eat liver regularly, the old standby gets old pretty quickly. We like liver around here because it is packed with vitamins and minerals. It even has a good amount of Omega 3 fatty acids if that animal dined on grass.

Here is a liver rendition for the adventuring heart: it is tender and bursting with exotic flavor. You will find written instructions below the jump.

"There's something about liver" is my code phrase for: "We know it is packed with nutrients, but there is something else too. People can get a lift from it."

Adele Davis actually adored liver. She was the go-to person on nutritious home cooking back when my mother was raising me. Adele Davis claimed that liver has an "anti-stress factor." Perhaps the anti-stress factor is the "something," but who knows. We do know that liver is loaded with minerals and vitamins. Liver from animals grazing on grass is also high in the brain-building Omega 3 fatty acid [liver and Omega 3s].

The great thing about liver is that it really is pretty cheap. You can find organic liver for $2-3 per pound. As the center of your meal, a family of four could easily eat well on one pound of liver. Most of us are probably looking for cost-saving food strategies in these bad economic times. You will find more cost-saving ideas at The Nourishing Gourmet's Pennywise Platter.

Check out Mom's videos below with recipe ideas for liver.

If you would rather pass because of the strong flavor of liver, consider a desiccated liver tablet. The tablets do not have the fats but they are great sources of iron and are actually used in body-building to help build muscle mass. I take liver tablets when I'm dieting to curb my hunger and give me a bit of an energy boost. I take four liver tablets three times throughout the morning for a total of twelve a day. My preferred brand for quality and price is the tablet Terri just won in the last twice-weekly giveaway.

I am lucky here in the Sequoia National Forest that I have ample space for laying hens and, this time of year in particular, I have an abundant source of eggs. I can tell you that just looking at the eggs (or a picture of them) helps fight depression -- the colors and textures make me smile.

Beyond their beauty and exceptional flavor, do they fight depression? The answer is: "probably so." In the book Rebuild from Depression, I identify the nutrient deficiencies most commonly associated with depression in the medical literature. I actually did a statistical analysis of foods highest in those nutrients and create a list of depression-fighting foods in the book. Egg yolks from pastured hens make the list. (Check out the now-available book to learn more.)

I say eggs "probably" fight depression because the most effective food for you depends on what you are most deficient in.

Hens on pasture eat bugs and weeds and produce a higher content of Omega-3 fatty acid in their yolk because of their diet. The commercially available Omega 3 eggs are from hens fed flax or a fish product.

Wherever you get it, Omega 3 fatty acids are critical for brain health. Many of us would go crazy without them. ;)

Last week the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) published "The Ten Riskiest Foods Regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration." All foods on the list are healthy foods, seven or eight of the ten are quite healthy if, of course, they don't kill you. Eggs are #2 on the list primarily because they can harbor Salmonella. Something on the order of 1 in 10,000 eggs have the bad bug in them and can make you sick if you eat them raw. Yet generally, they will help keep you healthy. They are a great source of protein. Eggs from hens eating weeds and bugs are high in Omega 3 fatty acids, making them a good depression fighting food. In fact, pastured eggs make the list of "depression buster" foods here at the Rebuild website. (Read more about the Rebuild philosophy that foods can fight depression.)

A whole lot of healthy foods appear to be trying to kill us these days and it seems prudent to approach the menu with a bit of education. In the case of eggs, you cannot always wash that Salmonella off. It can be contained inside the egg shell. The graphic picture I posted this spring here tells the story. The poor gecko apparently violated the privacy of that chicken in a major way and it received the sort of punishment only a hen can give. It was found later inside the egg shell of that hen.

Eggs can certainly be contaminated with Salmonella, regardless of how the hens are raised. Your chances of exposure are pretty slim at 1 in 10,000 eggs. On top of that fairly low chance of illness, we have a bit of a unique case as well in our household since we raise our own laying hens. My exposure to Salmonella must be orders of magnitude higher when I am cleaning the hen house than when I am eating a runny egg. In addition, I have probably developed some level of immunity to the Salmonella strains we are growing on the property. My son has his own technique for building immunity. When eating at home, I do not worry about Salmonella in our eggs. On the road or at a restaurant, I do not eat undercooked eggs.

An undercooked or raw egg will have a slightly higher nutrient value, but you should consider the risk when making your food selection. Either cooked or raw, the Omega-3 rich yolk from a hen eating bugs and weeds (or even on a flax or fish diet) will help you fight depression.

To add eggs to your diet, I offer Mom's "Sweet Omelet" recipe, a great option for brunch. Mom writes:

Walnuts are a great food. They are filled with minerals and are high in the Omega 3 fatty acid ALA found in plants that our bodies convert into the depression-fighting Omega 3 EPA. I use them for salad toppers and snacks liberally. (Read more about food and depression.)

Back in the day, my dad owned ten acres of these bad boys. That meant not only did my little girl hands crack too many walnuts (my lifetime quota in fact as I claim quite regularly), but we got to be that house on Halloween. You know what I mean.

We were the guys who filled your Trick-or-Treat bags with walnuts.

I remember a woman who lived down the street who closed her blinds and hid in her kitchen with the lights low to keep kids from knocking on her door. We would knock anyway. She would answer grumpily and scream, "Don't you see the lights are off?! Stop knocking at my door!"

I don't know why she went to all that trouble. All she needed to do was post a sign in her front yard, "I give walnuts for Halloween." That would have saved everyone some time.

~~~~~

Sidebar on Halloween news: Halloween week has gotten creepy here at Hilltop House as we explore the "lost road" on our property -- a road that has not been trafficked for about 70 years. Read "Mama, I think this was a mistake..." You may also want to sign up for the raw milk e-mail list to hear tomorrow all about my raw milk Halloween costume.

~~~~~

How to use walnuts besides putting them in Halloween bags

Mom offers a couple of suggestions on using walnuts (or visit the Walnut Marketing Board site for recipes):

Walnuts make fine topping for salads, creamed vegetables, stir fry, open-faced sandwiches, cooked cereals, some creamed soups, casseroles. The possibilities are endless. Once you begin using them this way, your creativity will kick in.

Instructions for roasted toppers
1. Heat the oven to 300 degrees.
2. Lightly oil a cookie sheet.
3. Sprinkle four cups of walnuts on the sheet and roast for 30 minutes.
4. Pour the walnuts into a bowl, sprinkle with 3 tablespoons of tamari and toss well.
5. Return walnut to the cookie sheet and roast for another 15 minutes. Note: If you put the tamari on at the beginning of the roasting time, it will burn before the nuts are roasted. Stir the nuts as soon as you remove the pan from the oven. If you wait, they may stir rather stubbornly.
6. Allow to cool before using. Store in a airtight container in a cool place.
7. These will keep for about two weeks in the pantry, for a few months in the frig…as if they would stay around that long! These flavored walnuts are a great snack to set out with cheese and fruit.

Raw roasted toppers (drying walnuts)
For a more nutrient-dense walnut, take another preparation step or two.
1. Soak raw walnuts in warm water solution. Soak for 12-24 hours.
2. Drain water.
3. Dry out nuts in warm spot – in oven with pilot light on, in a food dehydrator, or near a woodstove. Keep the temperature under 120° Fahrenheit and your nuts will maintain their enzymes. It will take at least 24 hours for the nuts to dry. Sometimes ours take two to three days.
4. When nuts are nearly dry, add the tamari or other spices as described above.

Experiment! Look around for recipes. You can flavor up any sort of nut or seed. As you develop your arsenal of roasted nuts, you’ll find yourself using them as travel food, lunch bag additions, the afternoon lift you need.

This Halloween post is part of Fight Back Friday.

Studies are published regularly that reinforce the need for Omega-3 fatty acids for healthy brains. When we are newborn babies and living on our mother's milk, nature puts these beneficial Omega-3 fatty acids in her milk to provide us with this necessary fat for our developing brain. As we age, low Omega 3s are linked to Alzheimer's Disease and Parkinson's. In between, low Omega-3 fatty acids can cause depression.

We need a strategy for the short game and the long game. Both supplements and food can optimize our strategy.

Omega 3 supplements

To fight depression in the short term, we probably need an Omega 3 supplement and research suggests we need a pretty big dose of Omega-3 fatty acids to fight depression.

Supplements with other Omega fats generally are not going to be useful to improve our Omega-3 to Omega-6 ratio. In particular, avoid supplements like Omega 3-6-9 supplements. You definitely don't need more Omega-6s in your diet and if you have olive oil on your salads, you're good on the Omega-9s as well.

Omega 3 foods

For the longer-term, begin a diet make-over reducing the Omega-6 fats in your diet and increasing Omega-3s. Ultimately, you want to be consuming about equal portions of Omega-3s and Omega-6s, as your ancestors did. Middle America now consumes fifteen to twenty times more Omega-6 than Omega-3. Work on reducing Omega-6s. An easy way to do this is by selecting the right oils for your meals. Here is a list of vegetable oils and their Omega-6 content. Cut out the worst offenders.

Omega 3 fatty acids are critical to health, particularly to brain health. Deficiencies are linked to depression (Omega 3 and depression) and diseases such as Alzheimer's. They are critical to heart health and are used in patients with diabetes. We need to make sure we have Omega 3 fatty acids in our diet.

Fish and seafood are absolutely the best food source of Omega 3 fatty acids.

Which fish contain Omega 3? A good many.

Note in the figure both above and below (in data available at the USDA) that the top five fish in Omega 3 are salmon, herring, anchovy, sablefish, and whitefish.

Salmon has something on the order of 2 grams of Omega 3 for each 100 grams of fish (about 3.5 ounces). The omega 3 content will vary by salmon species and how the salmon are raised, but salmon packs a huge amount of omega 3 (even if only a still-impressive one gram per hundred of fish). For people rebuilding from depression, one 100 gram serving of salmon may meet your daily need for omega 3 unless you are mega-dosing at 4 grams or more a day. If you have depression and wonder if fish is enough, read more about how much omega 3 to take for depression.

Before shopping for fish, I like to browse the website of the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It provides a list of fish available in each region of the country which are grown or harvested in a sustainable fashion. Ocean's Alive provides lists of fish and environmental pollutants.

This post is part of Fight Back Friday.

Omega 3 fatty acids are critical to health, particularly to a healthy brain. If you are deficient, you could suffer from depression (Omega 3 and depression) or diseases such as Alzheimer's. They are critical to heart health and are used in patients with diabetes.

Salmon is a great way to improve the Omega 3 in your diet.

Based on (data available at the USDA) salmon is the fish highest in Omega 3 fatty acids. Salmon has about 2 grams of Omega 3 for each 100 grams of fish (about 3.5 ounces). The USDA data is basically an estimate -- the omega 3 content will vary by salmon species, whether the salmon are farmed or wild caught, and the temperature of the water they swim in. Generally speaking, however, salmon contains impressive amounts of omega 3.

For people recovering from depression, one 100 gram serving of salmon may meet your daily need for omega 3 unless you are mega-dosing at 4 grams or more a day. If you have depression and wonder if fish is enough, read more about how much omega 3 to take for depression.

When I shop for any kind of fish, I like to browse the website of the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It provides a ranking of fish available across the U.S. which are grown or harvested in a sustainable fashion. To examine the environmental pollutant side of fish, visit the information at Ocean's Alive.

Until then, enjoy your salmon. Our favorite way to eat it for taste and ease of preparation is grilled. Check out our grilled salmon recipe and don't forget the homemade tartar sauce.

Herring is a surprisingly healthy little fish packed with Omega 3 fatty acids. The Omega 3s in herring are crucial to health, particularly to our brain health. If you are Omega 3 deficient, you may well have depression (Omega 3 and depression) and diseases such as Alzheimer's. Omega 3s are used in a host of treatments, including the treatment of heart disease and diabetes.

Herring is a very good way to increase your dietary Omega 3s.

Based on (data available at the USDA) herring has about 2 grams of Omega 3 for each 100 grams of fish (about 3.5 ounces). You can think of the USDA data as an estimate -- the omega 3 content will vary by region, but herring contains impressive amounts of omega 3 regardless.

For people recovering from depression, one 100 gram serving of salmon meets your daily need for omega 3 unless you are mega-dosing at 4 grams or more a day. If you have depression and wonder if fish is enough, read more about how much omega 3 for depression.

When I shop for fish of any kind, I check out the website of the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It provides a ranking of fish available across the U.S. which are grown or harvested in a sustainable fashion. To examine the environmental pollutant side of fish, visit the information at Ocean's Alive.

Until then, eat up. I found a list of 75 herring recipes to browse for the herring home cooks.

Most of us like a good hamburger and if we can justify it for its Omega 3 content, then I am all for that.

How much Omega 3 is in beef? To some degree, it depends. Generally speaking however, the answer is "Surely there are other excuses for eating that hamburger."

Commercial beef versus grass fed beef
One of the reasons people eat grass fed beef is because of the higher content of omega 3 in the beef. The graph below is a good demonstration of the decline in Omega 3 fatty acids the longer the beef cattle is off pasture. The content of EPA in particular, which is the main Omega 3 fatty acid recommended to fight depression, is basically gone after three months.

It is important to note that even though Omega-3 fatty acids are present in the muscle of a grass fed steer, that steak is not an Omega-3 super food.

A 100 gram steak (about 3.5 ounces) from a grass fed steer has about 100 milligrams of Omega-3 fatty acids. In contrast, fish and seafood have very high levels of Omega 3 fatty acids.

Beef finished on flax seed and Omega 3
A second alternative that some local farmers promote is finishing the cattle on Omega 3 flax seed to increase the Omega 3 in the beef. I am told by a flax industry expert that such feeding increases the ALA in the meat, the same fatty acid found in flax seed. However, she also reported that the meat tends to be grayish, suggesting to me that the oils could be rancid. It is also cheaper simply to eat the flax seed.

Flax seed feeding works well in the case of Omega 3 chicken eggs because chicken convert the ALA into DHA, a form of Omega 3 fatty acids that may help postpartum depression.

In general, enjoy the burger for the iron and B vitamins. Any Omega 3 is a bonus.

This post is part of Fight Back Friday.

Salmon is a great fatty fish, loaded with Omega 3 fatty acids. Omega 3 fatty acids fight depression which make them my favorite fat here at the Rebuild blog.

But what about canned salmon? Do we lose something in the process of canning? We lose some flavor and texture of course, but with the great deals lately I have found on canned salmon, I tend to overlook those drawbacks.

What about Omega 3s?

Just about all nutrients decline in the canning process. I posted yesterday on Omega 3s and salmon and gave a "generic" value for Omega 3s in salmon. Back when I made the graph a few years ago I grabbed one species out of the list and it had over 2 grams of Omega 3 per 100 grams of fish. These measures vary.

To take a quick look at the Omega 3 content in canned salmon versus regular cooked salmon, I visited the USDA database and examined "pink salmon." Here are the Omega 3 values for two classes of pink salmon:

Canned: Fish, salmon, pink, canned, drained solids with bone
EPA: 0.359; DPA: 0.108; DHA: 0.693. Total: 1.16 g/100g canned salmon

Cooked: Fish, salmon, pink, cooked, dry heat
EPA: 0.537; DPA: 0.123; 0.751. Total: 1.411 g/100g cooked salmon

Canned salmon is a great source of Omega 3 fatty acids with about one gram of Omega 3 per 100 grams of salmon (about 3.5 ounces). That's a particularly good deal considering you can find a can these days for a couple of bucks.

Last week a new study on Omega 3s was published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. Four hundred and thirty-two (432) people participated in this 8-week study in which participants received either Omega 3 fatty acids or sunflower oil. After the eight week study period, those treated with Omega 3s did improve on a self-reported depression inventory.

Take Omega 3s today.

However, stay vigilant about the rest of your lifestyle as well. The fact is that over an 8-week period, treatment patients improved by 1.32 points on a scale that ranges from 0 to 84. When they separated out participants with anxiety disorders, those with depression only improved by 3.17 points on the 84-point scale.

These effects are statistically significant but you can see from a scale of 84 points, a change in one point or three points is something, but it is one factor among many. A second important factor is likely time. If these same patients were followed for six months or one year, we would likely see a bigger difference between the treatment and control groups.

The participants took about 1 gram of EPA daily. We recommend 2-4 grams (figuring your budget is topped out in there somewhere). If they had taken a higher dose of Omega 3s, they may have improved as well.

Add to this improvement a B complex vitamin for those who need it or a high-dose B12 particularly for older people with depression, we may see more improvement still. Test all of the participants for vitamin D. Send some out in the sun to improve their levels; give them supplements in the winter. You get the idea.

Better still, have the treatment group take some time to breath and unwind each day. Quit crappy jobs (I know, we're lucky to have any job these days, but you get the idea.)

In any case, a really easy place to start is with Omega 3s. I like this high-dose EPA product by Ascenta NutraSea. You can actually look up the purity test results on their website for the particular batch of oil you have purchased. That's pretty cool.