Healthy fats are an essential part of the diet, and omega-3s are especially important. The best type of omega-3s are found in fish, but most people cannot get enough without consuming fish oil. Because our oceans are polluted, contamination concentrates in fish and then in us limiting the amount of fish we should consume. To get the healthy benefits we need while avoiding those unhealthy toxins we turn to purified fish oil.
Why Omega-3s?
Fat is an essential nutrient along with protein and healthy carbohydrates. Fat has gotten a bad rap since it is dense in calories and people associate the fat they eat with the fat on their bodies. Healthy dietary fats support brain and spinal cord function, the immune system, your eye sight and much more. It also helps to control hunger and balance blood-sugar levels. Some sources of healthy fat would be olives and olive oil, canola oil, avocado, nuts, seeds and sea food. We want to avoid trans fats in processed foods and some margarine and limit saturated fat from fatty meats, fried foods and full-fat dairy products.
Omega-3s are one very important subcategory of healthy fat.
Why fish oil?
Not all omega-3s are the same. The omega-3s from fish are different from those found in plant sources. Those found in fish are especially powerful and are anti-inflammatory at the cellular level.
Plant sources such as walnuts, flax, chia seed, hemp seed, sea vegetables and some leafy greens are also important sources of omega-3s, but not the same as those found in fish. It’s good to have sources of both.
There have been efforts to find cheaper and more plentiful sources of omega-3s. Once again, not all omega-3s are the same. There is no reason to believe that substitutes will be as healthy as fish oil.
Why purified fish oil?
On the one hand, we need the healthy benefits of fish and fish oil. On the other hand, we are at the top of the food chain, and toxins, including those from man-made pollution, concentrate as we move up the food chain. The solution is purified fish oil from a reliable and trusted source.
For more information, see Barry Sears, PhD. Dr. Sears is the leading source of scholarly research on the science behind fish oil and omega-3s. In particular I appreciate his book Toxic Fat, When good fat turns bad, ISBN 978-1-4016-0429-5. (I have many of his other books too. Some are great sources for recipes.)
Choose the best. This is what I use and what I recommend for my clients.
