Hi Larry (tech support, see note below):

I can't find your post in which you were talking about how you could get your GLA without eating a grain (e.g., oatmeal, oat groats, steel-cut oats, etc).

There are GLA supplements in health stores, etc. The ones I'm familiar with has gel capsules with liquid GLA in them.

The problem is--and you will realize this upon studying them--is that each capsule contains something like 200 mg of GLA.

So the challenge will be for you to get just so much GLA and not too much!

I used to use a needle point and break open a capsule and dip it into the liquid. I would have absolutely no idea how much GLA was in that needle that I (carefully) licked.

Thanks for your post, I'm going back to doing this as I think I'm better off to cut out all grains actually. So I will update you guys on what it's like for me.

Sarah

To tech support: I realize that this is unusual, to post to just one person--I will avoid doing so in the future, it's just that I can't find Larry's post for some reason. Is there a way to track a specific person's posts??? Check into that person's history?

Thanks, Sarah. That's a good idea. I would also like to know if there are foods other that oats that Dr. Sears recommends for getting GLA. I found on the internet that spirulina has the highest amount of GLA. Maybe just one of those chewable spirulina pills a couple times a week would do the trick. I couldn't find anywhere that said how much GLA spirulina has in it.

Hi Larry,

Oh, spirulina pills? Great idea!

Are you saying there's no mention of GLA on the label for those pills?

I'd love to hear what Dr. Sears has to say ...

sarah

I was just reading Dr Sears' Ecosanoid Status Report. It says we only need 1 to 2 mg per day of GLA and that a small bowl of oatmeal provides that. He says that a borage oil capsule has 240 mg. I don't know if spirulina bottles list the amount of GLA.

Thanks!

I typed in "How much GLA in spirulina" and got this ..

"Aside from human breast milk and evening primrose oil, spirulina is the only food source rich in gamma linoleic acid (GLA). The GLA content comprises 25% of the total polyunsaturated fatty acid content of spirulina, a number that is much higher than the GLA content of evening primrose oil (only 7%)!"

http://www.totalwellnessconsulting....sh-oil.htm

"The oils in Hawaiian Spirulina contains 3 times the amount of GLA than evening primrose Oil"

http://www.resorthealth.com/herbs/s...ulina.html

So this is just random looking around, no hard scientific evidence, BUT, it does sound as if even a pill would be too much for me ...

I used to take evening primrose oil, via the licking-the-needle-carefully method.

Sarah

Thanks, Sarah. I looked up spirulina on Nutritiondata.com and 1 tsp (7g) of spirulina powder has 100mg of polyunsaturated fat. If we could figure out how to take just 1/2 gram (about 1/16 tsp), we'd be getting 7mg of polyunsaturated fat.

If GLA is 25% of that, you'd get 1.75mg of GLA per 1/2 gram of spirulina powder (right in Dr Sears' daily sweet spot of 1 to 2mg).

What about Omega 6? Oats have 2g of Omega 6 in a 100g serving, which isn't real bad, but I try to keep my daily intake of Omega 6 to under 10g or 90 calories (5% of my total caloric intake). The 1/2 gram dosage of spirulina powder would only have 6mg of Omega 6.

Interesting...

It seems that since we need so little GLA, I'm wondering if some other foods would provide it enough of it.

Awesome. I think there are teaspoons what are 1/8th and 1/16th ... so that's doable.

You're really very careful with Omega-6s! :-)

And, I did not realize oats had any omega 6s at all!!!!

It's a good question re: GLA in other foods ... if you decide eventually to do any further research I'd love to hear it ...

Sarah

The smallest I have seen is 1/8th.
Most sets do not have that small, but I have one, from an older set.

Huh. I misremember, possibly. Although I do remember very small sets.

But! You can get the smallest you have ... e.g., 1/4 tsp is very common.

Fill the measuring spoon up and level it. Then pour it into a plate and divide into even fours.

There ya go! A precise 1/16 tsp.

AND. There are those medicine "needles" that sucks up medicine to very precise measurements, e.g., 1 tsp, etc. I don't know if they'd be useful here, but, ...

Sandra

I have a set of measuring spoons that measures out 1/16th tsp. I picked it up at a kitchen supply store, because it actually had a 2/3 tsp measurement, which has been very useful measuring out olive oil.

Hi Sarah - I noticed they sell spirulina tablets with 500mg of spirulina in them. The usual dose is 6 per day. If we take just one that would get us the 1/16 tsp I mentioned earlier (this assumes that your "GLA is 25% of polyunsaturated fat" source is the correct amount of gla in spirulina)

This site - http://www.chlorellafactor.com/chlo...na-09.html - says "A standard 10-gram dosage of spirulina provides 131 mg of GLA" That's about 1% of spirulina. Using that, a 500mg pill would have 5mg of GLA, so you would take 1/3 pill a day. I think this is probably the right amount.

Also, I read that linoleic acid, is converted to GLA in the body of healthy people. We get that from our olive oil, almonds, etc. So, since Dr. Sears recommends such a small amount of GLA (1 to 2 mg), our bodies probably produce enough.

I guess that's the end of my research. I may try 1/3 spirulina tablet a day, just in case my body doesn't convert linoleic acid to GLA.

This is interesting ... thanks for sharing your research. I will look around for myself as to any such products. It does sound as if the % of GLA varies depending on the brand, etc., so some careful research is needed. But, most of my fat is from olive oil, so if my body IS converting linoleic acid to GLA, I should be ok. LOL.

Sarah

Just keep up with the reading on it, this is a piece of Sears Science that I often have to read over and over again... The amount of GLA that each of us needs varies greatly from one to the next. Keep some toasted sesame oil handy, you may want to use it now and again for the spillover effect from the GLA.

I used to use EicoRx fish oil a few years ago, which has GLA added to it (a proprietary blend, so had no clue how much I was getting). I can't really tell you for sure how I was feeling, but just didn't feel as if it was doing all that everyone claimed it would do for me. I later switched fish oils and no longer had the GLA in my fish oil, and I felt much better. Now, it appears that they have changed the recommendations and are only recommending the EicoRx for athletes. Back when they introduced the EicoRx, they also had an EicoPro that was a blend for athletes. Now they no longer have that product, so perhaps the science has been re-evaluated and the recommendations have been changed.

Bottom line, just be careful with supplementation, some people need very little!

Oh, toasted sesame seed oil can help with the spillover effect? I had no idea? How does that work? I would have thought it would make it worse! LOL ...

Yes, you are right, in every field, there is so much to learn, is there not? And this field of Zone nutrition is the same.

I much prefer it though when people are honest and upfront and accepting about this basic reality that we're all learning as we go along ... in personal and professional lives ... "this was what we knew at the time, we've learnt since that ..."

Thanks for the reminder, I'll be careful to not overdose on spirituna ...

Sarah

I looked up the sesame oil effect on GLA and saw that companies are now selling GLA supplements with sesame lignans added.

The sesame lignans help prevent the conversion of GLA into AA, so that's how it works. Pretty interesting.

Here's a quote from one of the companies selling GLA + sesame lignans - "Numerous studies document GLA’s multiple health effects, but new information about the ability of sesame to prevent the conversion of GLA into arachidonic acid indicates that many more people may now be able to benefit from supplemental GLA"

Really? Wow ... if that's true, that's impt to know ... I think it does sound familiar to me though from one of the zone books.

Sarah

There is a good source of info on this in the Anti-Inflammation Zone (AIZ), pages 211-218. Sesame oil is a natural D5D inhibitor (delta-5-desaturase).

I could attempt to explain all of the science, but it really is explained much better in the book. If you don't have access to the book, let me know and I will make the attempt.

Larry, the supplements the contain toasted sesame oil are still most likely going to contain too much GLA.

It is a tightrope walk to determine what is enough and what is too much. But, outside of eating one's oats, GLA is not easy to come by. I believe that the intention of the previous posts was to find a source of GLA without consuming grains.

Hi Sue - thanks for the caution but, like Cranberry says, I posted that as an example of how sesame lignets effect GLA. I think I will try taking 1/4 or 1/3 of a 500mg spirulina tablet. That sized tablet would have 5mg of GLA and taking 1/4 to 1/3 of it would give me 1 - 2 mg of GLA a day.

Listen closely to what your body tells you. You're very good at that. Please keep us updated over time. Most likely you'll note a positive difference at first. I'll be interested to see how you do in the long run with that. Keep in the back of your mind that spillover can be insidious, slowly creeping up on you over time (days,weeks or even months) without you realizing it's happening. In my case I took a teaspoon daily of Dr. Sears Zone Toasted Organic Sesame Oil (sold by Zone Labs at the time, specifically to enhance your Zone efforts) and I got deeply into spillover while taking it together with Eico Rx under the personal direction of Barry Sears. In case you're not aware, it's only toasted organic sesame oil that will contain the beneficial part you're looking for (sesamol, I believe, is the name of the beneficial component in it).

Thanks, Sue. I've been feeling so good lately. Maybe I'll wait before trying adding GLA to the diet. I was just thinking that since I have stopped the oatmeal for a while as an experiment for my sinuses that I SHOULD put some GLA back into my diet. But maybe it's not necessary.

I have toasted sesame oil from the health food store. I was taking a little about once a week but then I read somewhere here that you have to be careful about taking too much and I kind of forgot about taking it for a while.

Leaving well enough alone. Good choice, Larry.

Larry, the choice is yours.. Just make sure it is an informed one. Keep reading and reading, it will help you to understand it. I always have to read it over and over again, just to get all of the twists and ties.

One's ability to produce your own GLA diminishes with age. But, with good amounts of EPA and controlling insulin levels, hopefully this will be enough for you.

I was reading in ETZ about eicosanoid balance, there is a lot of good information in there about Barry Sears' discussion on how he had initially felt that GLA supplementation was a good thing, his search for a source of GLA (borage) and how he moved to Canada to grow it in order to get the oil and thus the supply of GLA, and how he found out that too much of it was not good, either.

Here is an excerpt that was written in chapter 12, which discusses eicosanoid balance:

"If you want to ensure that you're getting adequate GLA (which for most healthy people wil be 1-2 mg per day), eat cooked (not instant) oatmeal 3-5 times a week. And if you are adding GLA supplements to your diet, always add at least fifty to a hundred times more EPA--those are the proportions of GLA and EPA you'll need to stay in the Zone.
But remember: the best amount of supplementation is always the least amount, and the best source of activated essential fatty acids is always food"

I do believe that he has adjusted the amount of oatmeal recommended in later readings, but I believe that the overall advice is still relevant. So, perhaps, if considering supplementation, might be worth a phone call to Zone Labs to discuss how much EPA is needed, if additional GLA supplementation is desired. Maybe switching fish oil to EicoRx might do the trick, although the amount of GLA is not disclosed, and no way to decrease it if the amount if GLA is too much.