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WalterSear

FWIW, fish oil demand is driving overfishing.

http://www.wired.com/science/planetearth/magazine/15-06/st_i...

There are environmentally better sources, thought they are, naturally, not as cheap.

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In terms of $/gram of Omega3, flax oil is much, much cheaper than fish oil.

http://www.amazon.com/Barleans-Organic-Oils-Lignan-16-Ounce/...

http://www.barleans.com/images/supplemental/ot-lignan12oz-su...

It also has a lot of 6&9. I'm assuming that still moves you towards a good balance. Can someone tell me I'm mistaken?

flax has a lot of ALA omega 3's, which are less usable than the EPA/DHA in fish oil

I am not an expert, but I've read in many places that the omega-3 in flax oil is far inferior, to the point of almost being worthless, compared with fish oil. IIRC the problem is that flax contains omega-3 in the form of ALA, in contrast to fish oil, which contains EPA and DHA -- the forms we actually need. The body can convert ALA to EPA and DHA, but the conversion process is extremely inefficient (something like only 5% get converted).

"The body can convert ALA to EPA and DHA, but the conversion process is extremely inefficient (something like only 5% get converted."

Interesting. I wonder if that would be practical to do synthetically.

There are companies working on growing omega-3 using algae.

It's already being done. Horizon organic milk has DHA and Omega-3 added from algae products. "While some DHA is derived from fish, we use only plant-based, water-extracted DHA": http://www.horizondairy.com/products/milk-plus-dha-omega-3/w...

I have a fish allergy that makes me a bit nervous to take fish oil. I tried fax seed and stopped after reading about its ineffectiveness. How much milk should I be drinking for the Omega-3 benefits?

Edit: let me be specific. According to the web, each serving of this milk contains 32mg DHA Omega-3. The fish oil recommendation seems to be 3 grams of fish oil. How do these equate?

You have been able to buy it at fancy health food stores for several years now.

You can already buy several different kinds of algae-derived omega-3 DHA supplements on Amazon. But the best deal there is Ovega-3, which at $0.29 per pill is about twice as expensive as fish oil.

You are mistaken. The ration of 6&9 to 3 is what you want to reduce. And as the others have said, ALA is a drastically less useful version of o3.

Now..feeding flax seed to the chickens in your backyard and eating those eggs is an even better (and sustainable) way to get omega 3s.

I am not a fan of flax. Let me suggest walnuts as an alternative. Let me also suggest that consuming less of the "bad" oils is a much more effective preventive measure than eating whatever crap and then trying to supplement with a "good" oil.

Due to the nature of the preferential binding, the 3/6 has to be 1-1 or greater to do >any< good, and since walnuts have a 0.24 : 1 ratio in favour of omega-6s, unfortunately, you wont getting any benefits of omega-3s from walnuts.

Apart from algae sources, the alternatives are a couple of pints of flax seed every night, or going without so many things that you run risk of malnutrition. So, nuts/seeds aren't a solution.

I am curious what your background is/where you get this info? Because that does not fit with my personal firsthand experience with getting well in spite of an incurable inflammatory condition that is supposed to kill me and frequently makes me suicidal if I eat the wrong things (especially the wrong oils).

Thanks for the feedback.

Perhaps you had much worse than a 0.24 : 1 ratio.

Many diets eschew flax seed in general, but something to keep in mind is that unground flax seed itself is a good source of fiber. Mind, I'm not saying it's the best source of EFA's, but it's far better than junk food or fast food. I typically will put a very large spoonful of flax seed into about 3/4cp of Greek yogurt and add a little honey for a tasty treat, but I do also supplement with fish oil pills. I'll also add glazed walnuts to a bowl of plain old oatmeal for a filling and healthy breakfast.

Unfortunately, due to the nature of the 'balance' (preferential binding), anything less than 1-1 in favour of Omega-3 is as useless as nothing. So, something with close to 1-1 ratios, like flax seed won't make any difference unless you eliminate omega-6's from your diet entirely. This isn't just impractical - it's so limiting, you'll have trouble with other nutritional requirements.

I've switched from using fish oil capsules to eating sardines as they are quite high in Omega 3 (around 1g per 3oz), low in mercury, in no danger of overfishing, and relatively cheap.

I've heard good things and I'm seriously starting to consider adding them to my diet, how do you prepare them?

Tinned sardines gently mashed on toast with a splash of Worcestershire sauce or similar.

They're also good with lemon juice on top if you're not a fan of Worcestershire sauce. Or you can melt cheese on top for a variation of the classic tuna-melt.

Also, if you want to avoid the extra omega 6 fatty acids, get the sardines that are packaged in water or olive oil (which is mostly monounsaturated fatty acids) rather than soybean oil.

Add an egg or two and make Fisherman's eggs. (Random google recipe: http://thingsmybellylikes.com/2013/03/25/fishermans-eggs/ ) Super high-protein and IMO tasty. Add some cheese on top for a bit more flavor.

Personally, I just eat them as a snack or light lunch straight from the can. Or perhaps chopped into bits over a salad. Sometimes I even mix them with a little brown rice.

All you need is a few drops of lemon juice.

Mash up with a fork plus half of a raw shallot (diced), optionally a bit of chili powder or black pepper. Spread on toast. Adding some slices of tomato, cucumber, or hard cheese is nice of you have them.

This is one of our fallback lunches/snacks when we haven't made it to the store recently and/or don't have time to cook.

Sardines are also a fantastic source of calcium. They're a super food. And sustainable to boot.

Well, not perfectly sustainable:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannery_Row

There exist other places where sardines are fished other than that one place that overfished.

Right, that's the "perfectly" part.

Seafood watch says they are ok: http://www.montereybayaquarium.org//cr/SeafoodWatch/web/sfw_...

Costco sells Wild Planet brand -- cheap, tasty, and sustainable.

I believe that it is certain types of fish oils that are leading over fishing.

For instance if you were to buy salmon oil and the salmon was farmed raised then farmed issues aside you wouldnt be overfishing.

I believe that generic fish oil does lead to overfishing but if you by fish oil from Wild Salmon chances are they arent fishing solely for the oils.

http://www.seafoodwatch.org/cr/SeafoodWatch/web/sfw_factshee...

Farming salmon contributes to overfishing

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-02-24/your-best-s...

... along with a host of other issues.

And someone once said, "This farmed salmon tastes like cardboard." To which the old fisherman replied, "That is very unfair. There are some palatable cardboards out there."

Farmed salmon doesn't have the useful amounts of omega-3s, since they don't produce actually produce them. Wild salmon eat krill, which eat algae, that are ultimately the source.

Any source on that? Here[1] it says otherwise : "farmed salmon generally has more omega-3s, it is sometimes a more healthful choice than wild."

[1] http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/why-farmed-salm...

how depressing.

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