Eating Fish. Is This The Best Way To Get Your Omega3 Fatty Acids?

Now that's a good question. We all need more omega3 fatty acids in our diet, but should we eat fish. Fish is contaminated with mercury.

And if eating fish is a bad idea because of the mercury, how else do you get that Omega3 in your diet?

Ive pointed out before that Omega 3 fats are most prevalent in fish, but that there are plant sources like flax seeds but they don't have the optimum types, or amounts, of Omega 3 fats that you need.

But surely there's a problem with eating fish, because we all know that now fish is contaminated with mercury.

The EPA says that there is mercury contamination in all fish.

And it's not a good idea to get mercury into your body, particularly for children. Your body doesn't get rid of it.

But notwithstanding, the EPA doesn't tell us to remove fish from our diet. Fish is ok in small quantities and they do offer some guidelines for how much, and what type, you should eat.

2 serves a week is fine, but for children and pregnant women they do offer some more guidelines about the types of fish to avoid.

Pregnant women and children ought to avoid eating shark, swordfish, king mackerel, or tilefish. These fish are high mercury fish.

But dont eliminate all fish from your diet just because you're worried about mercury. If you like fish you can eat it, sensibly and in relatively small quantities.

But of course if you understand the importance of omega3 fatty acids in your diet you need a regular supply of fish oil. Preferable a daily supply. And there is the rub. You see for most of us ordinary people eating fish regularly is really expensive. Fish is getting more and more expensive all the time, and as it gets scarcer it gets more expensive.

And it's ok to eat it in small quantities, but if you're just eating it for those good fats there are better ways. Of course if you love eating fish then no problem. Eat it.

And there is still mercury in fish, albeit in small amounts, and there is a solution to getting your Omega3 that doesn't involve eating fish, that is cheaper than buying fish a couple of times a week, and overcomes the problem with mercury contamination.

Use the best fish oil supplements. You can get Omega3 fatty acid supplements. They contain fish oil, and they are extremely clean, sourcing their oil from fish that live in the cleanest ocean in the world, the southern ocean, and then this is put through a molecular distillation process until contaminants are undetectable.

There's no binding standards for levels of contamination allowed if fish oil capsules, and some are cleaner than others.

So if you love to eat fish, and you're independently wealthy, go for it. But if you're eating it to get your Omega3 fats, then there's cheaper better ways, with no risk of eating any mercury.

You're Looking For The Best Omega 3 Supplements. But how Do You Choose?

You start researching Omega 3 supplements and you start finding out all about DHA and EPA and lots more. You're confused. How do you choose the best Omega 3 capsules?

You know what it's like. The more you read the worse it gets. You start learning about EPA and DHA, and long chain and short chain omega 3 fats. About ALA and converting ALA to DHA.

For example a reader recently asked me about how to choose his omega 3 fish oil capsules. He was confused about the difference between long chain and short chain Omega 3 fats, and confused about which were the best Omega 3 supplements.

I can understand his confusion. Here's a short explanation, and then well have a look at how to choose the best Omega 3 fish oil supplements.

The three Omega 3 fats we've mentioned (DHA, EPA and ALA) are polyunsaturated fats. They are all good for your body but by far the best and most important is DHA. Remember DHA is the fat that makes up a large part of your brain, though of course that isnt the only reason.

ALA is primarily found in plant foods like flax, whilst EPA and DHA are found in sea foods like fish. ALA is the less important Omega3 nutrient. And ALA is a short chain fat. No need to go into complete detail on what a short chain fat is as its really complicated.

But DHA, the most important Omega 3 fatty acid along with EPA, is what you need from your Omega 3 supplements. And all Omega 3 fish oil capsules contain DHA.

Every fish oils capsule has DHA regardless of the brand.

So it seems that fish oil supplements are better than flax seed Omega 3 supplements, but how do you choose between the different fish oil supplements?

Theres 2 things you need to look for to find the best rated Omega 3 fish oil capsules. You need to look for the quantity of DHA in the capsules, and the purity of the oil.

You can't decide which are the best value fish oil tablets without knowing how much DHA you get from them.

Supplements with a third of the amount of DHA than other supplements are not good value even if they are half the price, because on a price/DHA quantity comparison they are actually more expensive.

And thats not all, you need to consider the purity of the oils too, because, sad to say, many of our fish are contaminated with toxins. You wouldn't want to take Omega 3 capsules with traces of mercury and PCBs would you?

That's the 2 things you need to consider when choosing your Omega3 capsules.

It isn't easy to do that comparison though. I have spent some time doing it and the good news is that there is a brand of Omega3 capsules that do offer good value on DHA quantity as well as the highest purity in the industry.

But actually doing that comparison isn't as easy as you'd think and you may struggle. I have run the sums and one brand comes up as the best fish oil supplement on both DHA quantity and also on oil purity. The very best Omega 3 supplements are made by the small New Zealand company Xtend Life.

That's not really a surprise as they also make some of the worlds best nutritional supplements generally.So you may not find it easy to do the comparison yourself. But it's all done for you. Here is where you find the worlds best Omega 3 capsules.

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