Plant- and Marine-Source Omega 3: Where are You Getting Yours?

Restaurants, Grocery Stores or Fish?

There is no question we need these 3 essential PUFA's (polyunsaturated fatty acids).

Our bodies need Omega 3's derived from plant sources (ALA) and Omega 3's derived from marine sources (EPA DHA) in an equal balance. An important note: Omega 3's derived from plant sources are converted in our bodies to Omega 6's. Why is this so important? 

According to Dr. Joseph Hibbeln, National Institutes of Health, "Not all polyunsaturates are the same. Omega 6 fatty acids from seed oils - eventually the body converts them to a compound called arachidonic acid and arachidonic acid is good in low amounts but in high amounts it makes a lot of inflammatory compounds that make your joints ache, compounds that increase inflammation in your blood stream and leads to arterial sclerosis" The critical distinction is the amount we consume in seed oils for the higher the amount, the more excessive inflammation and arachidonic acid

How much Omega 3 ALA's are Americans consuming?

Data collected by the USDA from 1909 to 2000, show that "Omega 6's were a very small tenth of a percent or hundredth of a percent of the calories in the US diet in evolution and at the turn of the century. Now they are 20% of all calories in the US diet. Where do you find it? Every time you pick up a pre-manufactured food and it says vegetable oil. Soybean oil is called the lubricant of the food industry and it literally is" according to Dr. Hibbeln.

It is more than alarming that in the last 60 years of the evolution of the American diet the ratio of our consumption of ALA to EPA and DHA from fish is 9 to one in favor of ALA. In our evolutionary days this percentage was equal, one to one. A typical American diet contains 11 to 30 times more Omega 6 than Omega 3 fatty acids. "The general balance between Omega 6 and Omega 3 should be 1:1" according to University of Maryland Medicine.