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Comment by corysama | Hacker News Reader

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corysama

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?

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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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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