Fish Oils - Omega-3 For the Nutritionally Challenged (Last of 4)

After dealing with the Essential Fatty Acids, that brings me to that good ol' food supplement, Cod Liver Oil, and other fish oils. Yeah, they're good for you. They contain two non-essential Omega-3 fatty acids, EPA and DHA, which your body does need. 

Recent research in UK schools has shown that, because of a junky diet, a lot of kids have problems absorbing and converting what little of the essential fatty acid ALA they eat. So for them, fish oil supplements give a noticeable nutritional boost, and improve their health and concentration better than, say, supplementary flax oil, which is 40%+ ALA. Eating saturated and trans-fats (as in a lot of fast foods and margarines) blocks your take-up of ALA and most people are also vitamin and mineral deficient, so this result isn't surprising.

But if your levels of vitamins C, B3 and B6, magnesium and zinc (the cofactors for utilizing ALA) are fine, your body can make as much EPA and DHA as you need from ALA. My advice is to quit fish oil supplements. They taste foul, because they're usually rancid by the time you get them, and they're not worth the cost. Instead, eat oily fish once or twice a week. Eating the skin also doubles your oil intake. That'll ease the strain on your ALA requirement. 

The fish needs to be EPA and DHA rich, so farmed fish is rarely useful -- it's fed on junk food, not small fish and the sea creatures like shrimp and other plankton that feed on the algae, that give fish their good oils. The best fish to use is caught wild in waters as close to the poles as possible. Salmon, trout, herring and mackerel are typical species. Tuna isn't good -- it lives in warmer seas and has little of the Good Oils. Some parts of other sub-arctic fish are Good Oil rich -- that's why Cod Liver Oil is good. But it's usually rancid when you get it and Not Nice!

Do you really need fish oils?

If you are short of those five nutrients above and won't eat or supplement to get them, your body will find it hard to make your own EPA from ALA. In that case, you must have fish oil, or the new and currently limited-distribution algal-derived EPA/DHA oils, which are made from tank-bred algae of the kinds the fish feed on -- ideal for vegetarians. Though that'll leave you still ALA-deficient. Flax oil is the better choice.

I'll end this whole series with a quickie advice wrap-up.

You need ALA. Flax oil in your diet is the best source by far. A tablespoonful or two a day is good. You probably eat too much Omega-6 LA. Cut down till LA is no more than three times your ALA. Some fresh, wild-caught sub-arctic oily fish is a great supplement, though not vital if you eat plenty of ALA with its cofactors.So, which is for you? Bad Health -- ignore it all and pig out? Pop fish oil capsules (Ugh!) Or balance your diet and get ALA from flax oil?

diet hylpropion news