Something's Fishy!

Omega-3, one of the primary components contained in fish oil, is an important tool for becoming healthy and nutritionally balanced.

Many people are unaware of the benefits that omega-3 has to offer. This little supplement can help decrease the risk of heart disease and cancer, improve brain function and mood, reduce inflammation in joints, lower triglycerides and increase HDL (good cholesterol) and help control insulin levels. Fish oil is actually a fatty acid which provides many essential nutrients that our bodies are physically unable to create.

Your body extracts omega-3 from different kinds of seafood—like salmon, tuna or halibut—and the American Heart Association recommends eating fish at least twice a week. If you are anything like me, eating seafood twice a week isn’t realistic. Plus much of the fish that is commercially available is “farm raised” and is therefore not as high in omega-3 as it would be if it were “wild.”

The reason for this is that omega-3 in predatory fish like salmon comes from algae eaten by smaller fish which are then, in turn, eaten by larger ones. Farm raised fish are not eating smaller fish that contain omega-3 oils, rather they are fed corn and therefore are relatively low in omega-3. By the way, the same comments can be made about commercial beef, which are also fed corn. Grass-fed beef contains significant levels of omega-3 because, you guessed it, it comes from grass.

So what should you do? I personally resolve this dilemma by taking omega-3 in supplement form to get the recommended amount of fish oil into my diet. I know that when I am taking fish oils with omega-3 I am doing one more thing to help my body function to its fullest potential.