The Food Industry's Greed: How Misleading Labeling of Omega-3 Foods Undermines American Health

There's an Omega-3 travesty afoot and if American consumers don't t become aware of it very soon, they'll unfortunately know first hand the day inflammation rears its ugly head - and according to Harvard, for 3 out of 4 Americans, it already has.

FDA Qualifying Health Claim for EPA and DHA

In 2004 when the FDA issued a Health Qualifying Claim for two essential fatty acids we must have, EPA and DHA, found in fatty fish, Omega-3 became big business. So big, food manufacturers began freely substituting ALA (plant derived alpha-linolenic acid) to boast an Omega-3 label. Never mind it wasn't the real thing - they added it anyway.

Suddenly Omega-3s were in everything from bread, cookies, pasta to yogurt and now a line of soybean-fed pork items that claim to be "enriched with Omega-3 fatty acids." The double-whammy contained in one ounce of those soybean-fed pork items is frightening with no end, supervision, or control in sight.

Is Anyone Home at the FDA?

Not only was ALA not part of the FDA Qualifying Health Claim, science conclusively shows we convert Omega-3 ALA seed and plant oils into inflammatory Omega-6. And the end result? Consumers are being hoodwinked into purchasing these products while awareness of the health benefits from EPA and DHA are being compromised. How big of an issue is this? Read on and you'll see why the word "travesty" applies.

Omega-3 ALA

Omega-3 ALA is plant and seed oils, soybean, corn, safflower, flaxseed, all polyunsaturates, and while they may be lumped together and referred to as "Omega-3 fatty acids" all they share in common with EPA and DHA is the classification of "Omega-3 fatty acids." There's a far cry between any health benefits from ALA plant and seed oils and those science has conclusively contributed to marine-sourced EPA and DHA.

An astonishing 94% of Omega-3 products lining shelves today have ALA liberally added while only 6% contain minute amounts of marine-sourced algae or algal oil.

Omega-6s