How does this article miss the single most significant study on the issue. It turns out it’s the EPA and not the DHA that leads to substantial benefits in terms of cardiovascular health and lowering strokes. It requires taking 4 g of EPA per day to be effective and the FDA has now approved it in prescription form.
https://www.tctmd.com/news/reduce-it-prescription-fish-oil-prevents-cv-events-patients-high-triglycerides
33
Omega 3 is vital for our long term health and should be taken by everyone, including the "healthy people". Let me elaborate.
Our body needs Omega fatty acids (like 3, 6, 9) but because we are getting too much Omega 6 from western diet (burgers, chips, food drown in oils, etc) and low amount of Omega 3, in time the body is affected by Chronic Inflammation(CI) . Some of the health problems related to CI are auto-immune, brain and heart, bones and muscles diseases. To avoid this we need to use Omega 3 food (and add Omega 3 supplements).
It is recommended to eat WILD fish 2-3 times a week but unfortunately our oceans are contaminated (risk of heavy metals poisoning).
Now, most of Omega 3 (fish oil, vegan Omega 3) are not working because they need to be together with polyphenol (antioxidant) and D3 vitamin.
Today you can also use a test that measures the fatty acids from your blood( shows basically if your diet is balanced or not)
My humble advice, include Omega 3 foods in your diet, cut fast foods as much you can, be active person and use an Omega 3+polyphenol+D3 vitamin, all in one.
25
I too used to take mega-supplements 20 years ago and due to familial cholesterol took fish oil. done with all that silliness.
I now take only 2 things to counteract the effects of my statin (but will quit it when I lose last 10 lbs and my body will correct itself and not need modern pharma), 2 things for specific condition and vitamin D. I no longer take things to maintain muscle mass like when power lifting. I'm as strong now with crossfit yet I weigh 20# less due mainly to better technique.
no longer will my pee be yellow as the sun from too many water soluble B's and C's nor will I have inflammatory reactions from some silly herb my friends say will help my whatever.
good old greens and vegetables, alot but still less protein and fat, and cutting out as much sugar and processed carbs and I wake up feeling like a million bucks. nature evolved a great machine, this human body. now if i can just provide for its basic needs, I'm in clover.
no longer will I enrich
27
The latest meta-analysis does show Fish oils decrease CVD events:
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/in-major-meta-analysis-of-clinical-trials-omega-3-fish-oil-supplements-linked-with-lower-cardiovascular-disease-risk/
14
Interesting -- do you have a source that proves benefits of long vs short chain?
I wonder if the author of this article considered the possibility that not everyone enjoys the freedom or opportunity to eat fish a couple of nights a week?
43
The article is about the wrong topic.
Quality fish oil loaded with DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) is essential for the eyes, as many commenters have pointed out. DHA a major constituent of the photoreceptor cells of the eyes.
In addition, about 60% of the dry weight of the human brain is fat, the most abundant of which is is the omega-3 fat, DHA. The body cannot make omega-3 fats. Low levels of DHA are strongly linked to Alzheimers, among other diseases.
So why does this article concentrate on heart health and arthritis?
I would like to suggest the author of the article is not an expert in the field and is misleading the readership about health issues.
51
Fish oil pills drove up my cholesterol levels. I stopped taking them and my cholesterol levels went back to normal.
1
I am surprised that the suggestion to take a vegan, algae-based supplement isn't mentioned until the last paragraph of the article. Wouldn't this be the very logical place to begin, since algae is the source for fish and a much planet-friendlier way to get this important nutriment?
41
My felines love Omega-3 capsules which I open and put directly on their food. It seems to improve their fur and it helps with flakiness on dry skin. Meow!
16
The only FDA approved fish oil is Vascepa. 99% pure epa. Check out the Reduce-It trial conducted over 5 years and 8500 people worldwide. This is the only drug to take to reduce cardiovascular diseases , with no side effects !!
8
Fish oil tablets gave me a foul odor where, to put it delicately, "the sun don't shine." I switched to flax seed, and I eat fish.
3
The more I read this kind of articles, the more I become confused. Until proven fish oil supplement is bad for my health, I will continue to take it without hesitation.
12
Lots of good information in this article especially concerning the loss of habitat due to high demand for fish oil. Then it makes sense to replace fish oil supplements with vegan, algael based Omega 3. The only point in the article that I disagree with is that there isn't any scientific evidence supporting the need for Omega 3s. There's plenty of evidence that most of our American diet is high in Omega 6s & that this type of ingested fat leads to high cholesterol, high triglycerides, high blood pressure, heart disease, strokes, diabetes, & poor mental health spurring on brain diseases like Alzheimer's. If people eat a healthy diet including good fat like avocados, olive oil, eggs, nuts, olives, flax, hemp & chia seeds for example (or follow a Mediterranean diet) and avoid transfats & less Omega 6s, then they will be much healthier overall.
https://www.helpguide.org/articles/healthy-eating/choosing-healthy-fats.htm
6
Those of us allergic to fish will continue to take supplements.
6
It is interesting that from the same authoritative corners we are told : (1) Take this expensive medication whose NNT is 20 (it will help 20 people in one thousand; see the NNT for statin drugs for example) and whose miserable-to-awful side effects make you feel that you need to see a doctor— but —- (2) Don’t take these inexpensive supplements because they really help very few people (maybe only 20 in one thousand !) and you may be wasting your money. I find it easier to be suspicious of the efficacy of a high-profit, highly expensive artificial drug than simply eating a lot more fish.
16
I'm not a vegan, but I can't stand the taste of salmon. It's ubiquity at business banquets got so bad I started asking for the vegetarian options. Flax seed oil has been the answer for me, and it makes a very nice salad dressing with tarragon vinegar.
15
I don't eat seafood-- won't contribute to the overfishing and pollution of the sea, on my small part.
You can get omega-3 fatty acids from other sources too...including vegetarian pills.
9
@Anna Yes, Algae Omega from a number of brands
7
@Anna Why not just take flax oil?
3
If you don’t need it, don’t take it. Arthritis can be managed by acupuncture, especially cumulatively. You can take too many blood thinners and end up with blood blisters. Some of these include fish oil, borage oil, turmeric, tart cherry juice, Less is more.
5
Fish oil tablets gave me indigestion, which if I'm not careful about my diet I suffer to this day. Sardines in olive oil are a much better solution.
9
I take Omega 10 from Metagenics, which is only available with a doctor's prescription. It is Omega 3 + Omega 7, mostly from sardines and anchovies.
For years, my cholesterol was high but I have virtually no blockage according to an untrasound, no symptoms of blockage, etc.
Since none of these tests relate to Omega 10, I'll keep following my doctor's advice for now.
5
I feel like we are at the end of the line in terms of destroying the environment for the global capitalist system. No matter what we do in this system, even when it is well-intentioned, the end result is greater destruction of Earth's ecosystems. Help me out in the logic here: The supplement industry is going to harvest all of the krill and small fish out of the ocean. The ecosystems in the ocean that depend on these fish (pretty much all of the ecosystems in the ocean) are going to suffer irreparable damage. The planet that sustains the human race is going to suffer irreparable damage. But we'll get to reduce our "bad" cholesterol (maybe) by 5%. Oh, boy! Hip-hip-hooray! Surely, there is a better way than this, isn't there?
76
You raise the question of fish oil having a possible positive effect on arthritis but dont mention this in the assessment of the benefits if FO.
6
I take fish oil supplements (as well as flaxseed and evening primrose oil) not for my heart but because I think it has had a positive effect on my complexion. I have been told I have very good skin and I am nearing 70. Less expensive than wrinkle creams.
10
Life time fish averse ever since, in a little row boat at four or five, watching a fresh catch flopping about in agony of suffocation right under my feet. All the same flaked tuna with chives, hot sauce, mayo, lettuce and a little butter on fresh baked french bread can't be beat.
7
I believe that the high demand for fish oil supplements is harming the environment and accounts for the majority of the fish farms.
Call me old fashioned, but how about eating a piece of fish.
21
I stopped all my supplements I had been taking for many years. I feel no different now than when I was gobbling down multiple
Vitamins. Another scam fostered on the American public. It has been over 2 years.
36
@robert blake Vitamins are a multi billion dollar industry with much of the manufacture in Utah. Many are just placebos but if you live in a state where you don't get much sunlight by choice or by chance, you could do worse than to supplement your diet with Vitamin D3. And there are situations where cognitive confusion has been alleviated with B12. But one sip doesn't require a swallow so take vitamins very selectively and in moderation
11
@robert blake
I started smoking cigarettes two years ago. I feel no different now from when I was not smoking cigarettes. Smoking is bad for you? Another scam foisted on the American public. It has been two years, and I still feel great.
Your comment and mine are equally sensible .
24
I had a vegan friend in my 20s (I'm now 46) and she got this weird rash on her face. We were waitresses together and it was awkward for business because it sort of looked like it was coming from her mouth and could be contagious.
She explained to us she'd seen a Naprapath who'd sorted it was a nutrition imbalance, and she needed more Omega-3. So I said, this is a sushi restaurant go eat a piece of salmon! Being vegan, she refused. She said she was going to try eating flaxseed and other vegan sources.
But weeks passed and it didn't get better, it was taking over her face. I was the dining room manager and my boss tasked me with asking her to take time off until she could sort her issue because it was really freaking customers out.
So I went to my sushi chef and asked for 2 Salmon nigiri. I sat her down and said, listen, if you eat this, you can work tonight and we'll see if it gets better. If you don't, you gotta come back when it's gone.
So she ate it.
And as the hours passed, it went away that very night.
I would never forget that the rest of my life, and I eat salmon every week.
So, all the people saying "take a vegan form" - they need to do a study on that, because it's not the same.
72
@Dollyrkr Salmon today (as opposed to 26 years ago when your story happened) is not healthy to eat. As large predator fish, salmon will accumulate in their bodies the toxins from the smaller fish they eat—the mercury, the micro plastics, and all the other pollutants in the ocean. Better to eat the bivalves—mussels, clams, oysters.
14
@Dollyrkr There is a difference between short-chain Omega 3s (flax, chia) and long-chain Omega 3s (algae, fish). As a strict vegetarian who hasn't eaten animal or fish flesh in years, I use high quality long-chain vegan Omega 3s sourced from sustainable algae. The flax, hemp, walnut sources of Omega 3s aren't indicated to restore imbalance to the central nervous system nor should they be compared. This is not something that was widely known 20-25 years ago, and even 15 years ago, when Dr. Barry Sears wrote about Omega 3s, he attributed the major benefits to EPA rather than DHA in a 2:1 ratio (the reverse is now recommended: 2:1 DHA-to-EPA). Keep in mind that fish get their long-chain Omega 3s from eating algae, not from their own production of it. Accordingly. wouldn't it make sense that we can skip the middle-fish and go to the source directly? Sadly, because the animal exploitation industries are highly subsidized, it is much, much cheaper to buy high quality Omega 3 fish oil than it is to buy high quality Omega 3 algae oil. Only in the past year have I found high potency (and high quality) vegan long-chain Omega 3 to make it worth my while to supplement. To be sure, I have observed neurological benefits that have been documented with repeated testing since supplementation began three months ago. There are sustainable ways to consume for those who need it. Ocean ecosystems do not need to be destroyed in the name of health.
43
@Greg Very cool information! Thanks for letting me know that I've always been fascinated by that little anecdote of mine and wondered about why the flax seed didn't work for her. Can you tell me the brand of the algae supplements you found? I'd be happy to switch to that going forward :) I did know that fish get their omegas from what they eat, and I love seaweed and eat it all kinds of ways, but didn't know there were supplements that I could take daily. Cheers!
15
About 60% of the dry weight of the human brain is fat, the most abundant of which is is the omega-3 fat, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). The body cannot make omega-3 fats. Low levels of DHA ares strongly linked to Alzheimers, among other diseases.
DHA a major constituent of the photoreceptor cells of the eyes.
DHA is found in multiple species of wild ocean fish, notably salmon.
So why does this article concentrate on heart health?
35
@Svirchev
which other diseases? i have read that there are links between dha and epa and blood cholesterol, which can be associated with cardiovascular health.
please elaborate about the alzheimer's link. many, including this reader, would be interested.
3
@Svirchev Seriously! All it talks about is the heart, and I never have even thought about fish oil as related to the heart, I've always thought it was brain food and good for your skin.
I read this as one of my free articles of the month and was really disappointed it went on about the heart when I wanted to hear more about what we know about the brain. Isn't there some theory that we got more intelligent and evolved into homo sapiens because of eating fish? Like isn't there some school of thought that since monkeys are vegetarian and we're not then maybe because we started eating protein and fats our brains grew?!
6
I totally agree. Fish oil was recommended to me for mood disorder issues by a psychiatrist in addition to my medication and it definitely makes a difference. Because it’s not a prescription I wasn’t always diligent about taking it and I could tell when I was slacking on it. Now I take it once a day religiously. This article is irresponsible in “debunking” things in such a narrow way.
9
Taking fish oil supplements might not help your heart, but it is guaranteed to give you the most expensive urine on the planet.
5
Omega-3 thins the blood, so people should be aware of that side effect.
9
Hemp hearts. Shelled hemp seeds. Good and good for you.
10
I am not a religious fanatic, but with all my heart believe in God as the creator. I only eat what he creates. If our bodies need it, he provided for that.
My diet normally consists of two eggs and diced ham omelette with an orange for breakfast. Triple Zero Greek Yogurt with blueberries and banana chunks for lunch and evening snack. Canned Albacore tuna also for lunch occasionally. Evening meal skinless boneless chicken breast with Brussels and Salmon Grilled a couple times a week.
I enjoy all the holiday feasts and occasional pizza parties with the Grand Kids. Just not a steady diet of the stuff. Everything in moderation. Fast Food Franchises would go bankrupt if they depended on me to support them. I don't even take the Grand Kids to them.
I am 75 year old male. I take ZERO prescription drugs or supplements. My Lipid is perfect. BP below 130. I have no cataracts or arthritis. Don't wear glasses. Active life style, no TV to speak of.
My Grand Daughter at 3 told me her Papa took Fish Oil tablets and they look like Cochroaches was her definition. LOL!! He's the same age as me with arthritis, heart by pass, immune deficiencies and all sorts of other ailments. We both have VA Medical.
I just feel lucky I guess.
7
@GARRY
Lucky, healthy and wise.
And a positive attitude.
2
Interest in the effects of fish oils (especially its eicosapentaenoic acid content) as a general anti-inflammatory led to investigations in conditions such as asthma, inflammatory bowel disease, autoimmune arthritis and skin diseases.
I was part of a team (early 1980s) that looked at fish oil effects in chronic plaque psoriasis. We published - but got scooped by a prestigious American group by a couple of weeks. They got their paper into Nature journal (unlike our more modest journal) so they, not us, still get all the citations. C'eat la vie in academia.
Both groups made near identical findings. Patients showed DRAMATIC improvements, some cleared completely of psoriasis. Almost all were able to discontinue topical medications. But, the miracle was short lived. Most patients began to relapse within weeks, all had done so by six months - despite continuing, even increasing, the fish oil treatment. The effect was completely and permanently lost.
I wasn't surprised. Our concept of how fish oil was modifying inflammation posited a very fundamental alteration in the final pathway of the immune response. Somehow, I doubted that the body would tolerate this sort of meddling for long before reasserting control. That seemed to be what happened.
32
Didn't you have an article yesterday about how fish raises IQ and reduces ADHD, when eaten by pregnant women and children?
And if fish don't make Omega 3s, why are we told that the omega 3s in fish are far more beneficial to us than that in plants? If the "answer" is that omega 3s taken with fat (e.g., that of fatty fish) are more beneficial than plants chewed with water, that shouldn't be so hard to figure out. Then again my science / doctor type knowledge is limited largely to life experiences and the NYT...
4
@AJ
According to Robert Abel, Jr., Md., 'The DHA Story...'
(2002), flaxseed offers alphalinolenic acid, an 18carbon chain with 4 unsaturated bonds. In fish oil there are EPA and DHA. EPA is 20carbon chain with 5 unsaturated bonds; DHA is 22carbon chain with 6 unsaturated bonds. {numbers maybe off, but close!}
Flaxseed seems very good for improving cartilage and skin.
DHA (from fish or certain algae) is employed by human bodies for nerve conduction & insulation ...
; it provides the structure for about a third of brain tissue, and is also important in the retinal nervous tissue of the eyes, and in the lens of the eye.
DHA (like omega-9 olive oil) improves LDL/HDL ratio, triglycerides levels in blood, but DHA also Increases VLDL, which increases stroke&heart attack incidence. Since ~2014 cardiologists prescribe esterified EPA rather then DHA for cardiovascular issues (to avoid increased risk ischemia/infarction).
So: flax for general soft-tissue healing; DHA/EPA for higher functions (brain/eyes)... but limit/avoid DHA
in cases of cardio issues.
Also note: In cases of significant aerobic activity, the omega-3 fats can cause an "accelerated aging" response which can be frightening/counterproductive. This negative effect can be avoided by taking small amounts of vitamin E
(alpha tocopherol, etc 20-50 IU) before aerobic intervals.
6
Like much of the nutrition and natural supplements industry, including vitamins, the whole industry is built on selling things that people don’t need or benefit from. For example, margarine was sold as a more healthful alternative to butter. The reality was that the food industry discovered a way to make corn oil and other plant based oils. They were looking for a new market for all this oil and chemists discovered a method of turning it into a solid at room temperature, adding yellow food coloring, and voila, a much healthier alternative to animal fat butter. Except margarine is not healthier than butter.
Don’t buy Omega-3 fish oil supplements. They completely ruin the ecology of the oceans. The removal of the billions of small fish eaten by the bigger fish eaten by humans means there are millions fewer bigger fish to catch and eat ourselves. Furthermore, not looking at it from an anthropomorphic centered view, but as a self sustaining ecological system, as the article pointed out, we are removing the primary consumers of the food chain which accounts for most of the biomass and energy of the marine ecosystem, which much of all life ultimately depends on.
41
@Maurie Beck
The science on which research into fish oils was sound. It looked very promising. Academic researchers into the health benefits of EPA/fish oils were not interested in 'selling stuff that people didn't need'. I was one of them.
18
@Maurie Beck
If concerned about depletion of ocean stocks:
- just eat flaxseed. OR
- procure a supplement made from algae selected for DHA produced in a bioreactor (no effect on oceans!)
6
Don't write: "The [VITAL] study is considered the medical gold standard." Write: "The study was a large-scale, hard-outcome randomized controlled trial, considered the medical gold standard." Your readers are smart enough to draw their own conclusions.
And if the VITAL will soon "be reporting results on several ancillary studies of omega-3 on areas like cognition, depression, autoimmune disorders, kidney function and respiratory health," then why not wait to publish then?
Those are the results that readers need to know.
You have already published on the VITAL cardiovascular and cancer results.
24
@SRP
Well done. I am on a campaign to get rid of journalism's use of the vague. Words like 'many', 'some', 'considered,, etc. should be discontinued. Additionally I think all adjectives should be banned from initial news reporting and then added in (rarely) to enhance the narrative. If I want someone's opinion I'll ask for it.
20
I’ve been having major gut/microbiome issues like Candida, which gets worse with antibiotics, and after one illness where I had to take an antibiotic, I ended up with these huge eczema patches on my skin. (Apparently an overgrowth of yeast can cause this.) Anyway, I noticed once when I wasn’t eating as much fish, they got worse, but then once I started eating more fish again (like salmon, sardines, etc.), the patches got much better. I ended up getting rid of them completely with diet and also putting manuka honey on the eczema. I never took fish oil but I definitely did see very clearly how beneficial fish was for my health.
10
Stop taking krill oil because we are farming out masses of it contributing to the starvation of baleen whales that live off of it. If you want the oil, use borage instead. It's a plant.
20
@Joanne Brothers
Krill is hurting because GW/CC is melting sea ice.
Borage oil is omega-6, possibly good for diabetis melitus. Omega-3 has different specific benefits.
Omega-3 sources:
1. Flaxseed 2.fish oil 3.algal bioreactors
4. walnuts/pecans (in combination with omega-6)
3
@Fourteen14
astaxanthin is also available from non-oceanic bioreactors...
Unlike vitamins E & C, which can become 'pro-oxidant' in some conditions, and then promote disease, astaxanthin is always anti-oxidant.
2
I have taken fish oil daily for years and quit on two different occasions. Once was because of the possibility of it contributing to prostate cancer and a second time for another reason I cannot recall. In both instances, within a few weeks, I started getting some stiffness in my back when I would get up in the morning. Both times, when I began taking fish oil again, my symptoms went away. So I take fish oil for my joints and it seems to help. No stiffness in my joints anymore.
18
@Ed Binford When I stopped drinking beer for a time, I got a stiff neck. I started drinking beer again, and the stiff neck went away. But, these results may have been because while I was not drinking beer, I watched less television. Or maybe because I didn't go fishing as much. Hmmm..... .
8
@Ed Binford You are correct. DHA is an anti-inflammatory. I take the DHA from algae, and it reduces stiffness in my joints, too. Less risky than beer, also. :-)
I exercise and eat fish and so on, but the DHA still makes a difference.
10
I tend to have salmon every one to two weeks. Always buy the fatty end, about 1/3 to 1/2 of a pound. You don’t have to get to fancy with it for it to be tasty. Season with salt, pepper, and oil. ~ 7 minutes skin side up, then ~5 skin side down at medium heat (depending on thickness of cut).
Now the farm versus wild matters greatly to a lot of people. I go back and forth between the two, though I prefer wild - farm-dyed fish just seems odd, though tastes fine.
Goes well with baby bok choi and rice. Tasty and healthy.
5
@Tempest Farmed salmon is fed fish and krill meal, about ten pounds of meal for a pound of salmon. Further, wild fish populations living near to the giant net pens the salmon are grown in have much higher parasite rates than wild fish populations living in other areas. Still further, the waste generated in the net pens pollutes the surrounding area. There are no sewage treatment facilities in an estuary.
If you are going to eat fish, eat sustainably harvested wild fish, which btw includes sockeye, coho, chinook, king, pink, and keta salmon from Alaska. Pink and keta salmon, however, have much lower fat content, and therefore are drier and less tasty than the other species.
11
@Dave
I wonder how much plastic there is in these desirable wild fish. I have read that every fish in the Pacific Ocean has ingested micro or larger plastics from our refuse.
4
It is easy to say, "just eat fish," but some people (and I know several of them) cannot stomach the taste of fish or the smell of fish cooking. In my experience, very fresh salmon, caught earlier that day by a friend, does not have that problem. However, that is difficult to come by, so one is left with fish oil capsules as the only alternative.
9
@Eileen Hays Fish oil capsules are not the only alternative. Buy your fish fresh from vendors who care, and you will not have a problem. The people I know who have complained of the smell of fish cooking and the taste of cooked fish have been converted when they had a chance at good, fresh fish. It does not have to be caught the day eaten, though that is indeed better.
Your fish doesn't have to be salmon, either. Pacific cod, a sustainably harvested species that usually is less expensive than fresh, wild caught salmon, is a much milder tasting, less oily alternative. And despite being less oily than salmon, it also has high omega-3 fatty acid levels.
Any fish that is not fresh will have a strong taste, but salmon generally is stronger tasting when fresh than many other species, because of its high fat content.
7
I'm an 84-year-old physically active, retired MD. I have coronary artery disease. I have a pacemaker. I have taken a statin for the past thirty-years, given more as a protocol-based routine than because of significantly out-of-whack blood lipids. My blood lipids are normal. Here's the question (which is relevant to millions of people): If my lipids are normal, are dietary fats still a risk factor for me--why do I need fish oil; why must I limit my intake of saturated fats? I've never been able to get a clear answer from the cardiologists I've seen. Any answers?
6
@lois “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.” Michael Pollen. 2009. This advise holds strong, a decade later.
7
part of your answer assumes aw plans to replace carbs with that extra fat. LDL is good as long as carbs aren't the main energy source. my own information about this comes from the Grain Brain, which you might be referencing. In that book, research made clear associations between high overall cholesterol and health benefits.
2
@lois eat more fish for the brain, eat saturated fats because high cholesterol seems protective of the heart according to research in the Grain Brain, and LDL is only bad if you eat the usual diet sourcing energy from carbs. the endocrine system, nervous system, lymphatic system and the immune system are benefitted by more good fats, less carbs, and even no gluten
I do not know about heart benefits, or HDLs, but I have discovered that fish oil stops arthritis pain within two or three days. If I stop the fish oil, joint discomfort and then pain restarts.
13
Will regularly eating lox bought at the local kosher deli do it?
8
@Giskander According to this posting, https://healthyeating.sfgate.com/health-benefits-lox-vs-baked-salmon-3778.html, a 3 ounce serving of lox has 1/3 the amount of omega-3 fatty acids compared to the same size serving of baked salmon. I wept when I read this, not because I now have an excellent justification for eating more lox, but the cost of good lox.
13
I eat salads most days, and I include walnuts. I eat fatty fish at least once per week. I take a fish oil pill on days when I don't eat walnuts or fatty fish.
9
Fish oil consumers are directly destroying US marine species and habitat.
Ms. Martin appears to be absolutely ignorant of the havoc that the reduction fishery, including Omega Protein (a Canadian company), is wreaking upon Atlantic and Chesapeake Bay species (including striped bass, bluefish, and tuna) and the ecosystem.
In addition to killing millions of pounds of filter-feeding menhaden, Omega Protein indiscriminately kills hundreds of thousands of pounds of other species as by-catch and ignores US fishing rules and quotas.
37
@Mack
I agree the menhaden are overfished.
I think it mostly goes to animal feed and fertilizer.
Omega-3 dietary lipids including DHA can be sourced from bioreactors which Raise algae and harvest them for human consumption without bothering the oceanic food chain.
6
Another example of the scam-strewn landscape of so-called alternative medicine. If there really was anything to this and other remedies, isn’t it obvious that big pharma would have been all over it for selfish financial reasons? If it sounds too good to be true, it isn’t true. Caveat emptor.
3
@Mark Siegel
Not necessarily. It's hard to patent fish oil.
7
@Mark Siegel
If one reads nutrition research, one discovers that nutritional components found to be useful are often chemically modified (oft to increase their potency), and then sold in prescription form.
2
@Mark Siegel based on a significant study thAt demonstrated EPA lowered cardiovascular events and strokes there is now a prescription version known as Vascepa. It is only EPA and you have to take 4 g per day. You can Google and read more
3
Always on the lookout for a fountain of youth or magic elixir. Try cooking from scratch, walking as much as possible, keeping the weight at a BMI of 23, don't drink and drive and wear a seat belt. Then stop thinking of your health and enjoy life.
There is no magic, only hard work and hopefully a few friends to share life with.
56
I love fish and would eat a pound daily but for being cautioned by the potential, being a scrawny old woman, for accumulating mercury to a toxic level. NPR reported that Howard Stern, for one, suffered from mercury poisoning from eating too much fish. I do limit my intake to species reported to have the lowest relative levels. I'd value any advice or experience fellow fish eaters might offer me.
26
@Janice Byer great comment, I was surprised there was no discussion of mercury in this article, I *love* fish and lately am nervous to eat it too much so I bought some fish oil supplements which is why I read this article
2
@Janice Byer
Most fish oil supplements are refined to minimize mercury content.
DHA supplements made from algae in bioreactors do not include mercury.
Also, flax seed is a good source of omega-3 fats, and it has no mercury.
7
And how, pray tell, am I going to get the extra hours in the day to cook and shop for good quality fish?
4
@wbj : Buy in bulk when grocery shopping, rinse, dry, cut in portion size pieces and freeze what you don’t use. Take out of freezer to thaw in fridge before you go to work for use in evening. Cooking salmon filet takes no more than 15 minutes including prep. Find instructions on web. Enjoy!
5
@wbj seriously? There's fish at every single grocery store here in California. There's fish in pretty much every menu at every restaurant. We live next to an ocean. If you are so busy you can't go to the grocery store maybe consider how healthy your lifestyle is in general?
9
So, why do we take the oil out of tuna, and then take fish oil supplements?
1
@Frances Lowe
oil added to tuna is vegetable oil
7
@Dookie is that true? I didn't know that! Thanks! But still, wouldn't it have been better to leave the fish oil in?
@Frances Lowe
I think it is problematic to leave the oil in the fish...
it tends to become rancid/oxidized.
Flax seed. Cheap, abundant, sustainable. A source only briefly mentioned...
25
@Rick Pedretti Flax seeds pass right through you undigested, and so are great as fiber, but get the oil for omega-3 supplementation.
2
Fish Oil plus a Vitamin B12= NO PMS DEPRESSION. I had all of my co-workers taking it too because it worked!
6
All I know is the supplements helped cure my depression.
15
Lots easier to take that one tiny pill a day.
4
I don't take fish oil but my pot plants sure seem to love the stuff.
8
I take Move Free Ultra Omega and it really helps. Without it, even while regularly consuming salmon, walking can be painful. My knees just HURT. With it, I can run 20 miles per week, ice skate, ride my bike. Age 71.
15
@Jones
Finding my CRP (C-Reactive Protein) continually too high I found nothing to lower my inflammation until Life Extension suggested I try 1400mg EPA and 1000mg DHA from fish oil capsules daily. That did the trick. I turn 87 in March.
15
I stopped taking fish oil when I heard a story on NPR about all the fish required to produce one capsule of fish oil. Super wasteful and terrible for the environment. Now that we know there are no beneficial health effects all the more reason to avoid fish oil.
8
It's easy to say, "just eat fish once in awhile". But once a month isn't enough and it is a quite limited type of fish that fills the bill: salmon, sardines, anchovies and herring (and mackerel?). I don't like any of those fish and I certainly can't get them fresh or even decently frozen in the midwest. So I'll take a quality supplement and be done with it.
9
@Renee Hoewing Those are not the only fish that have benefits. Pacific cod for one is a great source of omega-3 fatty acids. Granted, that one may also not be readily available where you are, but I used to find it in ample supply in Oklahoma, which is a few miles from Alaska. Any cold water marine fish will suffice.
And, there are plant sources aplenty. Flax seed is rich with the stuff.
2
@Renee Hoewing
So you don't care about depleting the total fish population of the oceans so that we humans can use a fish oil that has highly questionable value.
1
Informative article--for a year or so I ate salmon a couple times a week. (Thinly-sliced scallions sautéed in 2/3 butter 1/3 olive oil until crisp is righteous with salmon, and with steak.) This inspires me to resume. But I'd like to know which "certain omega-3s contribute to prostate cancer." A concerning detail to leave dangling.
12
@Joseph Leiper
Sir, i dunno.
I searched google:
"NCBI omega3 > prostate cancer"
returns 5 articles:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3828934/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5736071/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5763552/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4677810/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30202928
Apparently the author is not aware of v a s c e p a, a prescription pill containing only EPA. It does not include the other oils found in over-the-counter fish oils. The results of Amarin's REDUCE-It study were reported about a year ago and showed a major decrease major adverse cardiovascular events.
6
@SF
Thank you. We need epidemiologists, public health people and contributors like you.
Without objective science, consumers would be hopelessly vulnerable to bogus claims like 'major reductions'.
4
@Barry REDUCE-IT showed a 4.8% decrease in various combined cardiac events, and a 0.9% decrease in cardiac death; no overall increase in lifespan; increased rates of bleeding and hospitalization for cardiac arrhythmia. Interestingly, the most commonly reported adverse effect of the pill was joint pain. Also, in this study the drug was compared to a "placebo" that was actually mineral oil, which may in itself have harmful effects, and may have reduced the absorption of the statin drug which all the participants were taking. The drug costs a little under $400 a month, so it would take about $2.5M worth of drug to prevent one cardiovascular death over 10 years
11
@SF Interesting comments, but I've read the research synopsis, and I don't believe your claims. I would appreciate if you could provide the math to support: ..."take over $2.5M drug to prevent one death over 10 years." IMO Vasecpa is highly effective.
2
@Rupert
I used to love red snapper but I haven't eaten that (or clams) since the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Not only the oil, but the chemical dispersants they used to break up the oil both make me nervous. Red snapper in the US is mostly from the Gulf of Mexico. I LOVE clam sauces and chowder but don't eat it any more because a lot of clams come from the Gulf of Mexico.
There is a lot of counterfeiting of fish and seafood, and we know they are still harvesting a lot from the Golf of Mexico. Does anybody expect vendors or restaurants to TELL you it's from the polluted, toxic Gulf of Mexico?! Of course not. I'm not risking it.
After the nuclear power disaster in Japan, which released radio-active waste water into the Pacific, they found that radioactivity in fish off the coast of California! (They KNOW the source based on the isotope profile.) That makes me worry about Alaskan seafood as well despite reassurances. I'm risk averse.
After the Japanese nuclear disaster, at least one top seafood restaurant in NYC bought a Geiger counter! One lawsuit from an radio-active customer could destroy their business.
The one source I do trust (and perhaps I'm still too naïve) is the Gulf of Maine. It runs from the North side of Cape Cod to Nova Scotia. I seek out fish and seafood from that area. But who really knows for sure, especially with all the counterfeiting?
11
@NY Times Fan - "But who really knows for sure, especially with all the counterfeiting?"
Simple, just go down to the Ballard Locks and get it directly from the fisherman who just caught the stuff.
No matter what I do, I will die. Even the Messiah died. But I need to make sure I live first and if I hide in my apartment fearing the next whatever (and I have literally done this) than I am already dead in a breathing body.
I have never had radioactive sushi. Do they charge more? Do I need to wear something special?
My biggest fear these days is store bought lettuce so I now grow my own year round in the front living room closet next to the Jalapeno plant and the green beans and peas.
8
Haven’t eaten any fish from Pacific since radioisotopes were found off Alaska due to nuclear meltdown in Japan; only buy fish from North Atlantic but then one wonders if Russia is polluting there also.
Also, too many cadavers and pollutions in the seas; if the seas are not suitable for marine life, humans beware.
1
@tom harrison "Even the Messiah died. "
But he didn't stay dead.
9
Best health advice: Eat once in a while, period! Whatever you feel like..
9
Inuit people have been shown to have genetic protections that northern Europeans don't have. They don't need vegetables like white people do, in the amounts white people do. The Europeans never accepted the fish diet of the indigenous peoples in Greenland and mostly starved from relying solely on beef and dairy for protein, decimating the limited forests for eternity! Read Jared Diamond's "Collapse."
4
@Eleanor Kilroy
What 'genetic protections'? What on earth does that mean?
Inuits might have lower incidence of diseases and morbidity/mortality than Europeans. They also have higher incidences of others. Gunshot wounds, liver cirrhosis and accidents coming to mind.
2
Eat Chia seeds instead.
14
@Sutter
And /or ground flax and hemp seeds.
And nuts! And dark leafy greens.
6
And ingest plastic and mercury? I'll go for the supplement.
@Speedo The supplements are made out of fish, so I'd expect traces of plastics and heavy metals in them, too.
20
@Speedo
FDA approved supplements include Lavaza and Vascepa. These require a prescription if your TG's are high enough for your doctor to prescribe it. I'm not sure if there are any other indications for the prescription.
https://www.singlecare.com/blog/vascepa-vs-lovaza/
Then there are the OTC supplements. These are not covered by prescription-drug insurance plans as far as I know.
But do we really know if all of these oil capsules are safe from contamination? I would HOPE that the FDA checks on the purity of the prescription brands, but I really don't know.
If you can get your TG's under control with a low carb diet wouldn't that be a much better (safer and cheaper) way to go?
3
All nutraceutical reductions, extractions and formulas are basically worthless.
Eat a real, organic, plant-based whole-food diet and you will get everything you need... and your body naturally knows how to metabolize it.
15
I am old enough to have noticed this: vitamin fads come and go, and sometimes the dosages that are first extolled as "miraculous" become known as dangerous.
I used to take handfuls of fish oil and other supplements, but after watching various vitamins rise and fall in favor, I came to this conclusion instead:
Eat foods. Mostly plants. Not too much. I think Michael Pollan was right, and I think that we're all looking for shortcuts about how to avoid taking his advice. For those with serious deficiencies, sure, vitamins might be the answer. But for the majority, we just need to go back to basics. I don't take fish oil anymore, but I enjoy salmon and other fish sometimes.
(A side note: I had anemia. I was prescribed horrible iron pills that upset my digestion and did not entirely improve anemia. I read an article about cooking in cast iron, and bought a couple of cast iron pans, and quit the pills and started doing about 25% of my cooking in cast iron. Almost instant results: my iron levels went into normal range, no more anemia, my digestion returned to normal. My doctor was shocked, but it taught me a good lesson: sometimes, the answers are simple, but they're rarely contained in a pill, and more in food and lifestyle choices.)
119
@Kristina - Thank you for sharing about the cast iron pans. As you know, most of us get Vitamin D prescriptions from our doctors and I'm tired of non-stick and whatever it was made from so going back to old school pans sounds like a win-win.
14
@tom harrison One of my pans is from a hardware store (I think it was about $25) and the other was from Goodwill for about $5; I also have a fancy griddle pan gifted to me from a friend (purchased from a high end kitchen store). I use them regularly, and figure that they have the added bonus of increasing my hand/wrist strength because they're so heavy! (smile)
I gave up on Teflon a long time ago. Besides, a well treated cast iron pan will act as well as non-stick - I make the best scrambled eggs in my favorite cast iron pan!
18
Wonderful testimony, Kristina.
You are a delight.
13
I take large doses of fish oil at the recommendation of my Duke eye specialist to treat my severely dry eyes. It has helped a good deal - it also makes me feel cold when it is 80 degrees outside lol. I am very pleased to pay the big bucks to get relief from dry eye and protect my eyes. Thanks for the article but I wish you had addressed the omega-3 and eye care.
34
@Doug I take mega doses of fish oil for my eyes, too. It was a miracle. No more eye drops every hour. There is still a reason to take fish oil and in high doses. It is never discussed in articles like this one.
29
You don’t need fish oil to get you Omega-3. There are plant based sources that are just as good for you and don’t result in the overfishing caused by the fish oil fad. As one commenter said, eat chia seeds - they aren’t just good for growing “hair” on a Chia Pet.
9
@Doug
Among the first observed benefit of flax consumption was eyelids were lubricated. But, there was some drag as from grease.
When transitioned to a DHA supplement all the drag was gone -- like a fine light machine oil!
4
I take fish oil supplements for peripheral neuropathy, as recommended by my neurologist. For mild symptoms, it absolutely does work. My eye doctor recommended taking both flaxseed oil and fish oil for chronic dry eye. They seem to help. As others pointed out, the admonition to "just eat fish" is unhelpful to those of us who can't stomach it.
36
@Helena - Even if you could stomach fish, could you afford/eat enough to get the amounts you need?
6
@tom harrison I've never priced fish, since I hate it, but my answer to your question is probably not.
1
The fish oil industry is absolutely environmentally devastating. There is no way for all humans to be able to take this marginally beneficial supplement. I do not recommend it to my patients.
26
There is an alternative- DHA and EPA derived from fermentation of marine algae. You can find it in a well stocked supplement store. It’s the original source of the healthy fats in fish - not the fish themselves.
Avoid further decimating our oceans. There’s no need to harvest the krill or menhaden or larger fish to fulfill our dietary need for omega 3 polyunsaturated fatty acids.
21
@Bill The Cat , Does anything get better after you pass over the rainbow bridge?
1
@ChinaDoubter The article suggests wild-caught salmon in lieu of fish oil. I don’t believe there is enough wild-caught salmon to feed all humans, either.
18
One way to lower TG's is a low carb diet. (Not no carb or keto which can be dangerous!) Of course, carbs are also implicated in Type 2 Diabetes (DM 2). Both are huge risk factors for cardiovascular disease.
A low carb diet is easier than I thought.
Sugary soda and fruit juices: NEVER! Diet root beer tastes fine to me on the rare occasions that I'm craving soda. (No cola drinks. Phosphates in cola drinks may contribute to bone loss.) Eat the fruit; don't drink the juice.
I gave up cooking potatoes, rice and pasta at home. I don't even buy potatoes any more. Even this potato-loving, Irish-American has been able to adjust.
Order Chinese food with no rice. They'll quickly understand.
Bread: open-face sandwiches, and I remove the crumb (the inside "stuffing") from bagels and Italian bread. An artisan bakery offers a thin ("pencil") baguette.
Ketchup is history. Cocktail sauce is replaced with melted butter and Tabasco. Spices on hamburger, etc. Ketchup covers up delicious meat flavors anyway.
If I do all this, I can still have occasional treats: some dark chocolate, a slice of artisan cloud cake, etc. And serum glucose and TG's now stay WNL's.
If you slip by indulging in something decadent, just get back on the wagon and move on. No big deal...
If you do all this, weight loss is almost assured as well.
15
@NY Times Fan - I lost 10 pounds this summer (doctors confirmed it on their scales) and I ate chocolate croissants, ice cream, and Coke like no tomorrow. I bought a secondhand mountainbike and started using that instead of the bus here in hilly Seattle. And just adding the regular cardio exercise to my lifestyle was all that was needed to start burning calories. No Keto necessary. Now, if I make a few tweaks to this lousy diet, imagine what I could accomplish?
Half of my diet though is homemade Asian cooking and Survivor night is definitely Mediterranean night when I surround myself with stuffed olives, nuts, stuffed grape leaves, cheese, fine bread, strawberries and cream so I can empathize with some poor skinny girl whining about how hungry she is.
7
@tom harrison
i still like the way you think and eat!
The essential problem with all these studies and the journalism that reports on them is that where humans are concerned.. they are often no better then "annecdotal" and hence are largely meaningless.
Humans are complex biorganisms, with many unknowns based on genetics, environment, nutritional intake, etc.
One thing that I do feel medical research has simply not gotten their arms around, and may never do so as long as they do research based soley on "data sets" collected.. is they will not properly represent that much about the human body boils down to it's extremely complex immune system.
Our immune system is not well understood beyond surface effects such as simple infections (immune system firing properly) and allergies (immune system misfire).
As such.. the same exact nutritional plan (including food based supplements) for one human that shows positive results may quite likely show very different results in the human standing next to them.
I suspect that for some people the addition of regular daily intake of Omega-3 does have some positive benefits.
I also suspect that for some people, the addition of regular daily intake of Omega-3 has no benefits, nor any harm.
I also suspect that for some people, the addition of regular intake of Omega-3 has some negative effects.
Now I sound like the average medical researcher.. inconclusive... don't I? :) And we wonder why humans distrust medical research findings.
15
@Chuck
very true
some nutrition studies call out compounds/components which are 'immuno modulating' or 'immuno regulatory'.
I had more or less cronic pain in my shoulder and hip. Then I read that having your Omega 3 and Omega 6 out of balance, espically too much omega 6, could lead to inflammation.
I also discovered most of the oil, and nuts I eat are loaded with Omega 6.
So I started to take a tablespoon of flax seed oil each morning (for Omega 3) and simultaneously cutting back on my high Omega 6 fats (veg oils and nuts). And the pain in my shoulder and hip went away in about a week and a half.
After having shoulder pain for probably 10 years, now it is gone.
And no doctor ever mentioned this to me. Although surgery has been suggested.
91
@may21ok
Thanks for that!
Some suggest a good ratio of omega6-omega3 as 4:1.
Also report western diet more like 26:1.
5
The suggestion to just eat fish once in a while doesn't work for many reasons other commenters have covered. For me, I absolutely cannot stand the taste and smell of fish or seafood of any kind, and have felt this way since early childhood (when I had fresh caught Lake Superior fish available to me). So I am grateful for my very high quality cod liver oil supplements. I plan to continue taking them.
28
@S.G. I don't eat fish for the same reason- just cannot stomach it, despite repeated attempts. But given the...not great evidence of value of fish oil supplements, I don't take them either.
3
@S.G.,
No fish and chips for you or jellied eels on your next visit to London? Same here. A delicious tuna sandwich on white bread is just fine, and of course, the smoked salmon platter when it is in reach.
Most of my friends (I have two at last counting, three is a stretch) have turned into fish-eaters recently, with salmon in the lead. A cousin of mine once the head of a leading Alaskan fishery used to bring heaps of the above when attending a family reunion. It tasted like cardboard and fishy to my palate, but a good dousing of dill sauce made it palatable.
Cod liver oil was used as medicine for British children in the last century, and a healthy treat were mice fried in oil with a sugar-coating on a stick.
To the honest, I enjoyed magnificent plump sardines in tins with olive oil growing up in Catalonia as a child, but have not been able to find these here in the market.
If you feel the benefit of taking cod liver oil supplements, it sounds all to the good, hale and hearty.
5
@S.G. I agree. I don’t like a lot of fish, especially oily varieties. I don’t enjoy cooking the fish I do like and fish in restaurants is expensive (used to be the cheap thing to eat when I was growing up). Telling people to just eat fish a few times a week is not realistic for many folks - including financially. No, I will not eat fish from a can.
6
It would have been nice to see the article address the other potential benefits of fish oil, such as help with mental health issues like ADHD, depression and anxiety.
6
@Daniel Please read the article in full:
"The impact of omega-3 has been studied as it relates to the nervous system and brain health and in conditions like ADHD, Alzheimer’s disease and autoimmune diseases, for example.
But so far, the results have been inconclusive and inconsistent."
8
The assumption that everyone benefits from either taking omega-3 pills or eating some fish is not valid. Research has shown that some people remain healthy without taking omega-3 pills or eating fish. Other sources of omega-3, such as flax seeds and walnuts, can provide all that is needed for some people, but research supporting that fact seldom appears in the media.
2
@William In the article they said exactly what you're saying. Read it carefully.
4
My daughter's ophthalmologist recommended she take fish oil supplements after she started developing chronic chalazions on her eyelids, possibly as a side of effect of T1D. The idea is it increases the lubrication in the eye so that dried cells aren't being rubbed off and then lodging in the inner eyelid. Within days of starting the fish oil the chalazions she had disappeared and she has yet to develop another in the past year while taking the supplement (having developed 4 in the 6 months following T1D diagnosis). It's not heart disease and the pills are smelly, but she hasn't had to have further eye operations! A total win!
45
There are odor free Omega 3 fish oil caps. I buy them at Trader Joe's.
5
Fish now live in an environment contaminated with toxic substances including plastics, nanoparticles, synthetic organics, radionuclides, etc. Inevitably, the potential toxicity profile of fish and their oil will reflect their environment.
15
@RC
Not just fish..... so do humans.
Your point?
2
I think the point is that our thoughtless pollution of the planet has contaminated our food supply, thus coming back to bite us. This is especially true of fish. I consult mercury contamination data carefully and have narrowed my fish intake down to very small fish such as sardines, herring and anchovies, with some wild-caught salmon. I no longer buy tuna, for example.
7
@RC , I will just eat an egg instead. It is cheaper.
1
First, the article doesn't make clear but the amount of fish oil on the label is irrelevant, the key factors are the amount of EPA and DHA found in the fish oil. The more EPA and DHA the more expensive the cost. I took large doses of EPA/DHA, about 1.1 grams/day for osteoarthritis in my knees. I found a dramatic lowering of pain relatively quickly. I can't say if it was a placebo effect but some research shows that EPA/DHA reduce swelling and so the beneficial effect may well be from swelling reduction. I am clear that EPA/DHA doesn't reduce osteoarthritis. One of the side effects of Fish Oil is that it works as a blood thinner. After years of taking the large doses of EPA/DHA (about 3 gr. of fish oil for the 1.1 gr. of EPA/DHA) I began to get spontaneous bleeding after only the smallest knock of my arms against something. The bleeding looked much like a black and blue mark (although red). If you are going to take Fish Oil make sure, if you're about to have an operation, that you tell the dr. who probably won't be familiar with the literature. Mention it has similar blood thinning effects to Wayfarin. I have successfully reduced my knee pain by a significant daily exercise routine, esp. to build up the muscle strength of the thigh muscles and hamstrings and no longer take fish oil though for arthritis pain I would give it a try. Check out www.labdoor.com for impartial tests on various fish oil for purity, quality, etc.
17
@Eric Small correction to my post. Labdoor tests are at https://labdoor.com. The www bit needs to be left off. One other point, check the container, some brands like WHC claim to be sourced from sustainable fisheries and filtered to eliminate mercury.
3
@Eric
A high potency DHA/EPA fish oil - MaxEPA, Seven Seas Pharma - got licenced for UK prescription (and state provision) - for hyperlidaemia and hypercholesterolaemia of all types. It was expensive, unpalatable and not obviously an improvement on standard interventions like statins. MaxEPA lost its medicines licence and has dropped out of over the counter availability in UK.
Disappointing, I'm afraid..
My ophthalmologist suggests fish oil supplements for my eye disease and I've been taking it for a few years. Though I still have multiple eye issues which appear to worsen with age.
7
The admonition to "just eat fish" is all well and good if you happen to live in the Pacific Northwest where you can get good, healthy, fresh fish. But what about the rest of the country? My nearest large body of water is the Gulf of Mexico, where all the fish are either too polluted to eat (high mercury) or not particularly healthy to eat (low in Omega 3 fatty acids). We're pretty much stuck with eating frozen fish shipped to us from the Pacific Northwest, which is neither tasty (because frozen) nor environmentally friendly.
57
@Rupert - I live in the Pacific Northwest and could go the rest of my life without ever seeing salmon again. I'm tired of it.
But recently, I opened my freezer and pulled out some frozen salmon burgers that I had gotten from a foodbank. I was expecting dry, lifeless, worse than canned-salmon taste. Well, the label said "Wegmans" on it which the NYT just did an article about the other day (local NYC grocery). And I got to tell you, I was VERY impressed with these frozen salmon burgers. Enough so that I ate them two nights in a row.
The only thing that would be environmentally friendly would be if we took a hook and line in a row boat and caught something. As soon as we head out in a motorboat we lose that friendly label. Lettuce grown in Arizona then shipped across the country is not environmentally friendly but its the best we have to work with at the moment.
10
We would be better eating a fish a day - until conclusive evidence is in regarding benefits is in. But for those who don't eat fish add an Omega-3 supplement. That would prevent the unnecessary killing of millions of fish for 1 oz. of fish oil!
6
@NNI
We should be eating a balanced diet that contains a mix of everything - like the experts have been telling us for decades now.
Too much fish - daily - puts you at risk for mercury exposure.
14
@NNI -- It sounds like the supplements are, in fact, made from fish. Flax oil and other vegetarian sources don't contain enough Omega 3 to be a realistic source.
3
@NNI Omega fatty acids are available from a number of other sources. One that is non-animal based is Hemp Oil. Since is plant based, the issue of mercury contamination is avoided.
2