That Touch of Minke

I have long held that oily fish and fish oil are two very different things (1-4). This morning, ten years after the first paper I wrote on the subject (1), a fishing expedition into the archives turned up a couple of gems I had previously missed because they are not about fish oil. They concern cold-pressed, extra-virgin Minke oil (5, 6).

The redoubtable Bjarne Østerud, Edel Elvevoll and Karl-Erik Eilertsen, professors at the University of Tromsø and the Arctic University of Norway respectively, are pioneers in this area of nutrition. They have been casting their investigative nets into the deep waters of marine lipid research since the late 1990’s. I have enjoyed (and cited) many of their papers, and it was research from this group that re-kindled my dying interest in omega-3 PUFAs.

I know people who knew Hugh MacDonald Sinclair, the wonderfully idiosyncratic Oxford don who died in 1990. I had read about his dietary experimentation with seal meat and blubber, and was familiar with his pioneering theories concerning 3-PUFAs (7). His ideas had initially met with substantial resistance, but were supported by early fish oil trials such as the 1989 DART study (8). Subsequently, however, a series of largely negative studies curtailed the medical community’s and my own initial enthusiasm.

Then, in 2011, two decades after Sinclair’s death, Eilertsen’s team showed that an unlikely combination of seal oil and olive oil reduced atherosclerotic lesion formation in the aortas of female apoE-/-mice (9). These genetically manipulated mice are exceedingly prone to cardiovascular (and pulmonary) disease, and the level of protection was highly significant. Oily fish (10, 11) and olives (12, 13) were both known to be somewhat cardio-protective in humans, but neither fish nor olive oil on their own could do anything like this.

(NB References 10-13 are more recent papers, which extend and consolidate earlier data.)

Possible solutions to Eilertsen’s paradox began forming like bubbles in my brain, which is approximately 20% omega-3 PUFAs by weight (14). After a slow, 3-year fermentation his seminal 2011 publication (9) gave rise to my own 2015 Alga / Omega paper (1), and, indirectly, to the Balance oil I use today. It was a long ferment; but in my own defense, the path was not immediately obvious to anyone from the lower latitudes.

Norwegians hail from a whaling culture, and are familiar with the idea of eating marine mammals. This concept is utterly foreign to Americans, Brits and most Europeans; you will not find whale meat even in the farthest reaches of the Sea of Aldi, nor blubber among the Aisles of Shame. (Where I did find, on one occasion, ghee.) The Norwegian haul, however, included seals and whales, and particularly the Minke whale.

Minke blubber is chock-full of omega-3 PUFAs (see below), and while I could not find a comprehensive analysis, it is also very likely a rich source of the amphiphilic polyphenols I often refer to.

To recap, phlorotannins are a class of polyphenols that occur almost exclusively in cold water algae and those animals which consume them directly or indirectly (4). As many phlorotannins are at least partially lipid soluble, and as the omega-3 fatty acids in the Minke are ultimately derived from the same algal species that produce phlorotannins, it is unlikely that blubber does not also contain these polyphenol compounds.

Given that virtually fat-free extracts of Minke oil exert an array of anti-inflammatory effects which resemble those of the phlorotannins (5, 15-17), the most parsimonious explanation is that Minke blubber does indeed contain phlorotannins. I am not aware that anybody has explored this issue but it is a working hypothesis, and one that could easily be disproved.

In the meantime, there are various lines of circumstantial evidence.

One study found that as humans ate more fish, levels of the 6- and 3-PUFA peroxidation product malondialdehyde fell (18). In another study, a diet of cold-water fish was shown to increase antioxidant capacity and reduce malondialdehyde levels more than a diet of lean meat, with or without fish oil capsules (19). Both studies support a polyphenol component in the cold-water food webs. Other scientists have expressed different, but in my view less plausible ideas (20).

Another of the Norwegian papers was particularly interesting to me (6) because it showed clear blue water between Minke and standard fish oil.

Female ApoE^−/− mice were fed a ‘Western’ (ie high fat) diet containing either 1% cold-pressed Minke oil, cod liver oil or corn oil. In the Minke group, total antioxidant capacity was increased compared to the corn oil group; and LDL/VLDL-cholesterol and ox-LDL-cholesterol levels were markedly reduced, whereas they increased in people who take standard fish oil supplements (21).

Why did the Minke oil lower cholesterol? And how did it reduce ox-LDL cholesterol? Once again, this points to polyphenols.

Many polyphenols lower LDL-cholesterol levels in humans (22), including the phlorotannins (23), and reduce ox-LDL-cholesterol also (24). The impact of Minke oil on these parameters was therefore very plausibly mediated by the phlorotannins it contained. This suggests that Minke oil, which reduces ox-LDL-cholesterol levels, lowers triglycerides and reduces inflammation will be significantly cardio-protective; where fish oil is not (25).

One last piece of evidence. The Inuit, like Minke whales, contain high levels of EPA and DHA (26) and, also like Minke whales, do not appear to suffer unduly from oxidative stress (26) or atrial fibrillation (27).

Cumulatively, these data indicate that minimally processed whale oil contains antioxidant / anti-inflammatory compounds which provide physiological and health benefits, which commercial omega-3 oils do not. It is reasonable to infer that these compounds are algal phlorotannins.

Being reasonable has its limits, however, and I have reached mine. I think that all manufacturers of standard fish oil supplements should immediately re-formulate their shoddy and potentially toxic products (ie 28), or be sued into non-existence for making patently false claims (25).

I do not think, however, that we should be catching and consuming more whales. They are too beautiful, too intelligent and too rare, and in any case could not supply enough of the omega 3’s we need.

Rorquals are the largest group of baleen whales, and the Minke rorqual is the smallest of the great whales. In this context smallest means 5.5 meters long, and 5,500 kg body weight. Up to 250 kg of that is in the form of blubber (29). This contains up to 20% by weight EPA and DHA (30), resembling in this respect the composition of the human brain (13). Each whale therefore contains roughly 50 kg of omega-3 PUFAs.

An adult human of 75 kg requires 10g Balance oil/day to maintain a 6:3 ratio of 5:1 or less (31), the threshold below which chronic inflammatory stress is progressively damped. In the absence of chronic inflammatory stress life expectancy probably increases by a decade or so, so the committed Balance oil drinker will require a lifetime supply of circa 2.5 kg of Minke oil.

One Minke whale will therefore keep 20 average human consumers in good health for life – unless you find there is only 10% omega-3 in whale blubber (5, 32), in which case we are in decimal territory. Now, 1 Minke = 10 humans. This makes Minke suitable only for luxury consumption, if not luxuskonsumption (33-35, 36).

I can’t believe it’s not Minke

It wasn’t always so. In the 1930’s and ‘40’s vast amounts of whale oil were consumed in the form of margarine. Unfortunately this oil was hydrogenated to raise its melting point, and was thereby rendered unhealthy (37, 38). Today whales are off the menu everywhere except in Iceland, Norway and Japan.

We must therefore turn to alternative sources, the most alternative of which has to be human brains. A well-nourished adult human’s brain contains around 300 g omega 3 PUFAs (39). This is barely enough to keep a single member of the undead healthy(ish) for a couple of months, and thus fails basic zombie math (40).

I find it odd that none of the current spate of zombie movies mentions this important nutritional fact.

The real alternative is, of course, the algae bio-reactor / bio-fermenter industry. Capable of filling the omega-3 gap (41) and resolving the problems of air pollution and urban waste (42), stock pickers should go long on algae bio-reactor and bio-fermenter companies.

If you prefer the casting couch to the casting net, lay back and catch a vintage wailing film (43). The chemistry between Cary Grant and Doris Day is inorganic, but Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra get one line each.

Next week: From chaos to catastrophe; the complexity of dying.

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