30 seconds on Fish Oil (to get enough Omega-3's)

The Berkeley Wellness Letter has a good summary of what you need to know about Fish Oil capsules. I take 3 capsules every day (spread through the day) to get me about 1,600 milligrams DHA and EPA in total.

• It's still better to eat fish containing Omega-3's than to take the Omega-3 capsules. Berkeley Wellness thinks that the benefits of fatty fish outweights the risk of contaminants. Having said this, let's remember that the American Heart Association offers those with heart disease the option of getting to the higher levels of Omega-3 recommended by taking Omega-3 supplements.



• The American Heart Association recommends that people with heart disease take in 1,000 milligrams of EPA and DHA. (in total) every day. You can get this amount from about 3 ounces of a fatty fish like mackerel, salmon or trout. The problem is that most of us do not eat fatty fish every day. So what to do ? Eat fatty fish a couple of times a week and take 2 or 3 capsules of fish oil every day.
  


• What about eating foods fortified with Omega-3 ? Probably not the answer for most people as the amounts of Omega-3 are so small. For instance: 1 cup of Soy milk enrished with Omega-3 DHA has 32 milligrams; a tablespoon of Smart Balance has 32 miligrams of Omega-3. It needs too many cups of fortified milk and too much Smart Balance to get to the 1,000 milligrams a day.



• What about Omega-3 from plants like flaxseed, walnuts or canola oil ? Afraid not, the Omega-3 from plants is of the ALA form which our body's can, with a lot of difficulty, turn into DHA and EPA but not in sufficient quantities to make the 1,000 milligrams a day of EPA and DHA.

The Wellness Letter also has a subscribers corner for those who hand over quite a small number of dollars every year (which I do).

Omega-3 consists of 3 different fats with the initials EPA, DHA and ALA. It is the first 2 which are valuable additions to our diet; ALA not so much. However nutrition labels often lump all three together under one Omega-3 total

The Berkeley Wellness Letter added in some additional detail on supplement labels. I buy Ultimate Omega from Nordic Naturals and the label says "Pharmaceutical Grade". Apparently this term is meaningless when put onto unregulated supplements. Wellness was also spectical about another label on my bottle of Omega-3 - "molecular distillation" as an unverified term.