Sunday, August 30, 2009

Should I Be Eating Foods Containing Omega 3 Fatty Acids?

By Peter Bertonich

It's pretty well established by now that Omega 3 fatty acids are good for us. You find them mainly in fish oils. But should you be eating foods containing Omega 3 fatty acids like bread?

There's basically 2 forms of Omega 3 fats, plant based and marine based. It's generally considered that the marine based Omega 3 fats DHA and EPA are better for you.

And as a result of the new research food companies are now starting to manufacture foods containing Omega 3 fatty acids. But should you be eating them?

Firstly lets say that there's nothing wrong with eating foods containing Omega fats. The manufacturers generally use fish oil for the fortification process and fish oil is good for getting those healthy polyunsaturated fats DHA and EPA.

But that isn't the full answer to the question.

Demand for these foods has increased so food companies see an opportunity, and are charging a lot more for foods high in Omega 3.

So you have to consider how much Omega 3s you are getting and at what price to answer the question. And generally speaking you don't get a lot of good fats in most of the fortified foods, and you pay for the privilege.

One serving of an omega 3 enriched bread, for example, gives you around 120mg of good fats. Nothing wrong with that, but it's not a lot compared to the 3000 mg you get from a serve of oily fish. And you're often paying a lot more for that bread.

Eating fish isn't cheap and you run the risk of getting a little dose of PCBs and mercury too.

By far the most cost effective way to increase your intake of Omega 3 fats is to do so by using fish oil supplements. They're clean, they cost less for the amount of fish oil that you're getting and they can be taken easily every day.

So although there are no known health risks to eating foods containing Omega 3 fatty acids they aren't a cost effective way to get more Omega 3 fats in your diet. But they do help a little.

Note that not all fish oil capsules are the same. Visit my website to find out how to compare fish oil capsules.

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