Permaculture sources of omega-3 fatty acids

Hi,

i'm a bit concerned by the way to obtain omega-3 required by growing my own food


ALA : wallnuts are a good source (but i read that it contains to much Om6 in proportion). Flax, rapeseed, purslane too, but are annuals (and i'm lazy about annuals)

DHA : no veg sources (as far i know). Best converters are chicken throught their eggs. Flax feed chicken eggs (yellow part) have 2,2% of acid fats that are DHA. Cows via milk are not good converters *.
(flax enhanced eggs have also more ALA by ten folds)

EPA : hard to obtain !
- Wild Fish : best of non frigthned species are are (with g of EPA by 100g) :  Mackerel (1,2g), Sardine (1,1g)
- Some can be obtained by flax-feed chicken eggs (but not much : 0.3% of fatty acid)*
- Fishes on farm : EPA can be enhanced with flax seed, but only with vegan fishes (eg carp) cause carnivore fishes are bad converters of veg ALA (for example trout feed with flax seeds have just a 5% increase in EPA *). But i assume trout can be feed with flex-enhanced fishes


have you some good infos about chicken/fish fodder wich contains ALA and are more permaculturish than flax ?

For example i discovered that elaeagnus angustifolia seed oil contains 12.2 % ALA, but i dont know if chicken eat those, and if so if they eat or poop the seeds ...

Also snails should enhance omage 3 acids content


(i'm also interested by numbers on flax enhanced fishes)

* Source in french : http://books.google.fr/books?id=Ftl5JYK6GYEC&pg=PA232&lpg=PA232&dq=omega+3+poules+lin&source=bl&ots=CrYmRscioo&sig=OOID8FgVneHNvlPTccGlTZFF85o&hl=fr&ei=w2YlTZ2gEcep8QOes7jZAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CEwQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q&f=true

Most herbivores that are not put on a grain diet have a good balance of Omega 3 to Omega 6. A variety of greens will result in eggs, milk and meat that is natural with respect to this.

Most fruits and vegetables have a good balance of O-3 to O-6, even if the absolute amount is rather small. If a person is eating refined oils from corn, soy, etc, then the amount of inflammatory omega-6 will swamp the anti-inflammatory omega-3s.

For example, 1 grape leaf has 33.7 mg total Omega-3 and 5.8 mg total Omega-6 fatty acids. Not very high, but if one eats 10-15 grape leaves, that is 300 to 500 mg.  I assume most of this is ALA. If this is supplemented with naturally raised meat, olive oil, or coconut oil, then I think the results are generally healthy.

As far as I can tell, DHA and EPA are scarce or not to be found in land plants. They are either found in algae, seafood, or in animals that have transformed ALA.

PURSLANE!!! a delicious, scrumptious, drought tolerant, you dont have to pant it, dont water it, just eat its omega 3 rich goodness for free because 99% of the people consider it a weed.

There's a good section on this in Carol Deppe's new book The Resilient Gardener. She recommends eggs and fat from forage-fed animals.

Ran Prieur wrote:
There's a good section on this in Carol Deppe's new book The Resilient Gardener. She recommends eggs and fat from forage-fed animals.

I think it's time someone started a whole new thread to discuss that book!!!  Anyone up for it?

Ran Prieur wrote:
There's a good section on this in Carol Deppe's new book The Resilient Gardener. She recommends eggs and fat from forage-fed animals.

I've read it but it miss some numbers ... (e.g. what and how much amount of omega 3 does her duck eggs contain ?)

I have not been able to get purslane to grow for me! 

I have not been able to get purslane to grow for me! 

your not supposed to try and grow it, your supposed to pretend you dont want it. it shouldnt need propagation( it self seeds), shouldn't need watering( resists the hottest driest days ), no fertilizer. the only thing i do to it is cut it back, eat it, wait for it to grow, then cut it back again. I find that it does like to grow in rock mulch though, so that may be worth trying. screened 1/2 inch river rock is what we have, it loves growing there.

isn't this a lot of work compared to taking omega 3 fish oil from capsules like Maxalife? i also wanted to get my dose of omega 3 from natural sources but i realized that it'll take time.

I don't worry about how much I get, I try to eat my home-grown eggs from my hens that are eating lots of grass.  I also try to eat my beef from grass fed herds (local is best) that way I know the omegas are already there.  If the animals are eating grass, they will provide the omegas. 

Tami

Rapeseed oil is very rich in omega 3 and other omega oils. It stores well and if used in cooking from time to time can help. The oil has a strong mustard flavor (it is also called mustard oil) and therefore needs to be used in foods where the flavor matches such as some sauces. After pouring it in a pan the oil should be heated until some smoke starts rising out of it to improve flavor and to burn off some undesirable components before any other ingredient is added. This information is traditional south asian knowledge where this oil has been used for centuries especially by non fish/egg/meat eating vegetarians.

Nice thing about purslane is you don't have to put any work into it (weeds all the way!). I just chucked some seed on the ground and up it came.

Literally every fruit and vegetable you grow in your garden is a good source of omega-3. You literally can not grow anything that doesn't have it in there. True, the form is ALA which is not the long-chain form that your body uses for the brain and cell membranes, but the conversion is easily done in the liver. If you are still concerned, try growing chia plants. The grow really fast and tall and produce edible seeds that are extremely high in omega 3

BenB wrote:True, the form is ALA which is not the long-chain form that your body uses for the brain and cell membranes, but the conversion is easily done in the liver.

Can you give some ref ?

Subsequent studies by Pawlosky et al. (2001) using similar technology and that more recently by Hussein et al. (2005) showed estimated conversions from ALA to DHA of less than 0.1% and a conversion to EPA plus DHA combined of less than 0.4% efficiency overall.

ref here

Hemp and chia seeds.

permaguy wrote:
Can you give some ref ?

ref here

Unfortunately a lot of the studies that are done use people who are on high LA (linoleic acid) diets to being with. This type of omega-6 fat is found in nuts/seeds and vegetable oils and is highly inflammatory and competes for the enzymes that the ALA uses to upconvert to EPA and DHA. To make matters worse, the typical diet is also high in animal products which have the highest levels of AA (aracidonic acid). This is another upper chain omega-6 fat that will increase the inflammatory load and create the illusion that we ALL need to have high levels of EPA and DHA in our diets. This is not the case at all. I have been vegan for several years now and don't use anything with fish or flax in it. I do however, eat a TON of leafy green vegetables and fruits. I keep my omega 6 to omega 3 ratio from 4:1 to 1:1 range. This is easily achieve from eating a diet high in raw fruits and vegetables. I recently had my omega-3 levels tested by one of the pioneers of the field Doug Bibus. After he saw my sky high levels of EPA and DHA he told me to "Keep with your dietary plan, it's obviously working!" Needless to say I am convinced.

BenB wrote:
Literally every fruit and vegetable you grow in your garden is a good source of omega-3. You literally can not grow anything that doesn't have it in there. True, the form is ALA which is not the long-chain form that your body uses for the brain and cell membranes, but the conversion is easily done in the liver. If you are still concerned, try growing chia plants. The grow really fast and tall and produce edible seeds that are extremely high in omega 3

Conversion is easily done in liver, but from what I understand is extremely inefficient, thus it's not wise to rely only on ALA for the essentials. IMO, humans *need* other sources of EPA and DHA in the diet to compensate. Since our ancestors regularly ate a wide diversity of foods including wild game, shellfish, fish, eggs, seaweeds, etc. they weren't lacking EPA or DHA.

From the Linus Pauling Institute:

http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/infocenter/othernuts/omega3fa/

Studies of ALA metabolism in healthy young men indicate that approximately 8% of dietary ALA is converted to EPA and 0-4% is converted to DHA (7).

Linseed/flaxseed is about as high in omega-3 as it gets. Gandhi was pretty excited about flaxseed as a vegetarian source of omega-3.
I have no idea about growing requirements though...

To my knowledge, flax is about as high as you can get, without going to animal sources.  But be forewarned, as far as I know, mammals are incapable of digesting any cereal/grain in whole form (without minimal processing).

BenB wrote: I recently had my omega-3 levels tested by one of the pioneers of the field Doug Bibus. After he saw my sky high levels of EPA and DHA he told me to "Keep with your dietary plan, it's obviously working!" Needless to say I am convinced.

Again there is no scientific ref given about all what you say, links would be very appreciate.

it is great if you can meet your om3 supply only by veg, but not all humans are equal in term of conversion (of om3, of beta carotene, etc ...), it is the main health  advantage of an amnivore diet.


By the way, replacing corn by millet increase the levels of om3 in eggs by 50% ([url=http://ps.fass.org/cgi/content/abstract/76/2/326]source[/ref])

Unfortunately there have been no large studies done on the omega 3 levels of low-fat vegans who eat a lot of raw food. If there were, I bet you would see all of them having optimal levels of high chain omega-3s just like mine were

Until then, here is a really well written article by a friend of mine in school to be a Naturopath. It is well-cited and should provide you with all the answers you need if you can read it all the way though

"It is "common knowledge" right now that polyunsaturated fats are generally a health food, and are excellent replacements for "disease causing" saturated fats. This logic came about many decades ago when this country decided to blame heart disease on the overconsumption of saturated animal fat. It was suggested that a great way to wean ourselves off saturated fat was to replace it with polyunsaturated fats found in seeds.

There are so many contradictions and confusing and seemingly conflicting information about these fats. I'll discuss some of these issues shortly, but first we should get just a brief idea of the history of these fats being incorporated into our diet and where we are now.
Essentially, our public health authorities began to blame saturated fats and cholesterol on the incidence of heart disease. Seed oils took the place of animal fat and other saturated fats like coconut oil. Many of the seed oils were high in omega-6 fats however. It wasn't until just a few decades ago that we started recognizing the inflammatory effects of these omega-6 fats, such as soybean oil, canola oil, safflower oil, etc. All PUFAs contain multiple double bonds in their structure. These double bonds are very reactive and unstable and are prone to oxidation. The omega-6 PUFAs invoke highly inflammatory cascades in the body, and consuming too many can lead to systemic problems that stem from this inflammatory signaling.
Here is a basic chart that shows the omega-3 and omega-6 family cascades:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/58/EFA_to_Eicosanoids.svg

Notice, omega-6 fats are listed as creating  "more inflammatory" signaling molecules, while omega-3 fats create "less inflammatory" signaling molecules. We tend to think of omega-3 fats as anti-inflammatory, and omega-6 fats as pro inflammatory. However, it's not really the case. Both of these PUFAs are pro inflammatory. The omega-3 fats happen to not be inflammatory to such a degree. And this is ONLY regarding the signaling molecules they create. The one thing almost everyone overlooks is the most obvious and basic fact of biochemistry:
Fatty acids that are fully saturated are virtually unreactive and do not oxidize very easily, while fatty acids with double bonds in their structure are prone to oxidation, and are prone to increased oxidation in accordance with the number of double bonds in their structure. And indeed, this is where omega-3 fats actually surpass the omega-6 fats as being more harmful to us.

In a study published in 1996 by Mata et al, we can see a general trend based on oxidized LDL, and we can see how fats with more double bonds in them, oxidize more:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zULJExxrW54/SnuoTuo7AmI/AAAAAAAAAiQ/W0yT3BKhyh8/s1600-h/oxidized_ldl_on_four_different_diets.png

But here's the thing. When we found out that omega-6 fats were pro inflammatory, we didn't do the logical thing, and suggest to people to simply stop eating so much omega-6 fat. No, instead, we discovered that omega-3 fats are less inflammatory, and in fact compete with the same enzymes as the omega-6 fats. Based on this knowledge, we suggested to people to get the ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fats back to healthy or "normal" ranges. This is where I think the omega-3 health claims are totally nonsense, and are in fact damaging to us.
While it is true that the omega-3 fats will competitively inhibit the omega-6 fats from producing highly inflammatory signaling molecules, they still do produce inflammatory molecules themselves (just not as inflammatory as the omega-6 fats), but that's not the worst thing. The worst thing is that the omega-3 class of fats are probably the most prone to oxidation, free radical formation, and therefore tissue damage and therefore disease.
The effects of omega-3 fats being "anti-inflammatory" are short term. The signaling molecules have short half-lives and one needs to continuously take more omega-3 fats to continue blocking the omega-6 inflammatory pathways.
The problem though, is that in the longterm, the oxidation of these fats is what progressively will do harm. Indeed, most of the studies which are done that look at omega-3 fats and show a benefit, are almost always short term studies. This is because they are looking at the short term benefits of competitively inhibiting the omega-6 fats and reducing the level of inflammation.
Long term studies tend to be just the opposite.

Continued...

I've forgotten most of what I learned, but I did an Open University course a few years ago about fats and one of the main things I came away with was that the functioning of the cell membranes was crucially dependent on the ration of Omega 3s to Omega  6s.  But the body had no way of selectively uptaking the relevant omegas as our natural diet was already perfectly balanced.  The imbalance has come about by us now overeating fats that are high in Omega 6.  The way to correct it is to simply cut back on those so the ratio reverts to normal. 

I forget the details, but I removed all generic 'vegetable oil' from my diet, replacing it with olive oil, which doesn't upset the balance.  Then attempted to remove animals that had been raised on grains from my diet.  And then tried to increase home-grown 'greens' in my diet. 

The course was based on a book called 'The Fats of Life' by Caroline Pond, which is well worth a read by anyone interested. 

permaguy wrote:
Hi, i'm a bit concerned by the way to obtain omega-3 required by growing my own food

This has been a preoccupation of mine as well.  Ocean sources of fish oil are becoming too polluted for me to put into my body with a clear conscious.  You almost need to grow fish under very controlled conditions to maybe? produce a clean product.  A very good summary of the misconceptions regarding "good and bad oils" can be found in Sally Fallon's "Nourishing Traditions" cookbook and quality of life reference.

If you go to a health food store and search for healthy oils, you will find borage and evening primrose oil, both very pricey.  Borage produces a very hard seed and is not especially prolific, so i decided to grow evening primrose (Oenothera biennis) which i have used often in restoration projects as a colonizer on heavy soils.  It is very prolific, producing a boat-load of seed, even in poor soils and is drought tolerant.  However, it is a biennial, so crops would be staggered.  I currently have it planted in rows and will initially place seed in the morning smoothy (hopefully mr. vitamix will actually shatter the seed to release the oil), until i figure out how to press the oil and keep it from going rancid.

Oh, that's cool, I'm a lacto-vegetarian and we get a lot of spontaneous purslane here and I am just sprouting chia for salads, but I was also going to plant it for a renewable resource, together with flax for the cows.

does anyone know if flax seeds are good sprouted?

hubert cumberdale wrote:
PURSLANE!!! a delicious, scrumptious, drought tolerant, you dont have to pant it, dont water it, just eat its omega 3 rich goodness for free because 99% of the people consider it a weed.

i think ive got tons of that stuff. i didnt know it was good to eat!

Perenial flax :

Perennial sunflowers and flax are being developed at the University of Minnesota (UM).
“The flax is overwintering and producing viable seed yields,” says UM agronomist Don Wyse. “Some of our lines are producing 1,000 pounds per acre, and with additional selection and breeding, yields may increase.”
The perennial flax has levels of omega-3 fatty acid comparable to those of annual flax. Feeding trials with poultry show that the perennial flax produces similar levels of omega-3 in eggs as does annual flax.

http://www.landinstitute.org/pages/SuccessfulFarming-future.pdf

I wonder about the already known perenial flax (linum perenne) ?

permaguy wrote:
I wonder about the already known perenial flax (linum perenne) ?

An answer here in the attached picture,

seems to have a good omega 3 content but not sure if it is safe for poultry cause of the presence of cyanide in raw seed ...

Eggs of the hens that foraged grasses had
23% more (P < 0.0001) vitamin E than eggs of hens that foraged clover. Compared to eggs of the caged hens, pastured hens’
eggs hadtwice as much vitamin E and long-chain omega-3 fats, 2.5-fold more total omega-3 fatty acids, and less than half
the ratio of omega-6:omega-3 fatty acids (P < 0.0001). Vitamin A concentration was 38% higher (P < 0.05) in the pastured
hens’ eggs than in the caged hens’ eggs, but total vitamin A per egg did not differ. At

http://www.windyridgepoultry.com/docs1/eggstudy.pdf

You can eat eleagnce seed, apparently it tastes of, peanuts i think it was.
  Horses are mammal and they eat corn and oats dont they, they can get all oated up too excited, does that grain have to be processed before you give it to them? Rats amd moice and spquirrles chew it up process it for themselves. birds eat the grain out of horse dung but cows have much beter digestive systems tha horses may be they sprout the seed in their first stomach and eat that when they chew the cud you dont see grain in cow pats as far as i know. Horses eat linseed but cooked linseed and cooking seems to do for cynide, bamboo shoots have cynide and we eat those cooked.  I have made bran mash for horses, you put a iron bucket full of bran lightly dampened wirth boiling water on the stove, supposing you have that sort of stove whose outside bits are warm not hot enough to cook on, you add linseed to the bran mash, you cook up some linseed in water and add that to the mash, i dont know the proportions, not much linseed as far as i recall and a good half bucket of bran, don't know what it does for them, it is given after a days strenous exercise.
Jonathon Byron says that vine leaves have omega 3 they are used to feed sheep here in spain cut leaves i supppose the prunning of vine fed to sheep are called pampama. Maybe vines are a good food source for live stock in hot countries they dont mind a dry season have green leaves all through it may be they would make a good fire break a¡na area of green that being so green did not catch fire from the flying cinders of forest fires easily. agri rose macaskie.

The DHA and EPA Omega 3 components of fish oil that make it beneficial for our health are not actually synthesised by the fish themselves but are actually accumulated in their bodies from the food they eat. The prime source of the DHA and EPA comes from various marine species of algae which produces the Omega 3 oils. This is why fresh water fish are lacking in these omega 3 oils as they do not eat the omega 3 containing marine algae. Marine life eats these bacteria where it accumulates higher and higher up in the food chain. Unfortunately as most of us know the harmfull products such as mercury and PCB`s also accumulate in increasing quantities with the fish oil and as most of the posters here have mentioned sourcing omega 3`s from fish is perhaps not sustainable considering the state of the oceans.

However more than 30% of our brain is composed from DHA and other omega 3`s, and as humans synthesise in only small amounts dietary sources are important.

However there are supplement makers who extract the pure DHA and EPA directly from the algae itself instead of from fish. These forms of Omega 3 are vegetarian/vegan friendly as they are only sourced from the algae and they place no strain on marine life stocks. If you google `Vegetarian DHA` you can find a range of these algae derived products.

Some people skip the commercial products and instead consume microalgae in their diet as a natural Omega 3 source.

Although these sources are natural they still don`t come from your garden unfortunatey unless you want to go to the trouble of setting up a saltwater garden pond for and growing your own DHA algae.

I`ve been using an dietary supplement to provide 600 mg`s of DHA and 260 mg`s EPA a day over the last two years and it did produce a marked increase in beneficial effects for me.

kinshijou Hatfield wrote:The DHA and EPA Omega 3 components of fish oil that make it beneficial for our health are not actually synthesised by the fish themselves but are actually accumulated in their bodies from the food they eat. The prime source of the DHA and EPA comes from various marine species of algae which produces the Omega 3 oils. This is why fresh water fish are lacking in these omega 3 oils as they do not eat the omega 3 containing marine algae. Marine life eats these bacteria where it accumulates higher and higher up in the food chain. Unfortunately as most of us know the harmfull products such as mercury and PCB`s also accumulate in increasing quantities with the fish oil and as most of the posters here have mentioned sourcing omega 3`s from fish is perhaps not sustainable considering the state of the oceans.

However more than 30% of our brain is composed from DHA and other omega 3`s, and as humans synthesise in only small amounts dietary sources are important.

However there are supplement makers who extract the pure DHA and EPA directly from the algae itself instead of from fish. These forms of Omega 3 are vegetarian/vegan friendly as they are only sourced from the algae and they place no strain on marine life stocks. If you google `Vegetarian DHA` you can find a range of these algae derived products.

Some people skip the commercial products and instead consume microalgae in their diet as a natural Omega 3 source.

Although these sources are natural they still don`t come from your garden unfortunatey unless you want to go to the trouble of setting up a saltwater garden pond for and growing your own DHA algae.

I`ve been using an dietary supplement to provide 600 mg`s of DHA and 260 mg`s EPA a day over the last two years and it did produce a marked increase in beneficial effects for me.

As a side note, I have consumed both the fish DHA and the algal DHA. The fish DHA is cheaper at the store but made me belch fish *yuck*. I did not have any issues with the algal DHA. I also consume 2 tablespoons of flax meal every day (ground fresh from seed and eaten raw in my oatmeal). The only reason I consume DHA is because I read that some people can't convert ALA at all and I don't know if I am one of those. Flax is a truly awesome food. Recovery time from workouts are faster when I consume it and it has massive amounts of fiber too.

If you are producing most of your own pastured meat and eggs you probably have little to worry about when it comes to omega 3 and omega 6.
This guy has done a lot of research on the subject. Much of it totally contradicts what most of us have been lead to believe about various fats. http://www.brianpeskin.com/index.htm

Warren David wrote:If you are producing most of your own pastured meat and eggs you probably have little to worry about when it comes to omega 3 and omega 6.
This guy has done a lot of research on the subject. Much of it totally contradicts what most of us have been lead to believe about various fats. http://www.brianpeskin.com/index.htm

I'm skeptical. Mary Enig is a real authority on lipids, not an electrical engineer:

http://www.westonaprice.org/know-your-fats/brian-peskin-and-efas

Chefmom Hatfield wrote:I don't worry about how much I get, I try to eat my home-grown eggs from my hens that are eating lots of grass.  I also try to eat my beef from grass fed herds (local is best) that way I know the omegas are already there.  If the animals are eating grass, they will provide the omegas. 

Tami

+100!
ps
Guy, if you feed your chickens lots of corn, you loose the o-3!

Among aquaponics enthusiasts, the Australian jade perch is well known as a very good source of O3. At 2.48gm / 100gm, it has almost 3 times the amount of O3 as Atlantic Salmon.

http://www.ecofilms.com.au/2010/08/02/jade-perch-the-perfect-aquaponics-fish/

Victor Johanson wrote:

Warren David wrote:If you are producing most of your own pastured meat and eggs you probably have little to worry about when it comes to omega 3 and omega 6.
This guy has done a lot of research on the subject. Much of it totally contradicts what most of us have been lead to believe about various fats. http://www.brianpeskin.com/index.htm

I'm skeptical. Mary Enig is a real authority on lipids, not an electrical engineer:

http://www.westonaprice.org/know-your-fats/brian-peskin-and-efas

I have read a lot of Peskins articles. He likes to read up on a whole load of studies and then compare the methods and conclusions and draw his conclusion from that. Unlike some so called experts who pick a side and then go looking for studies to support what they have chosen to believe in.
I have nothing whatsoever against Mary Enig. I am a fan. Enig and Peskin are pretty much on the same side.
Enigs complaints seem to be that Peskin is saying a lot of the same things that the Weston A. Price Foundation are saying but not giving WAP credit for it and also for some "Over-Simplification". I doubt anyone is going to fall into poor health simply because they read an article that didn't give credit where credit was due or because it was over-simplified.
The difference between his opinions and Mary Enigs are so small that choosing Enig over Peskin or vice versa is unlikely to make much difference to anyone's health either way because both are suggesting getting back to a more natural human diet. It's the modern diet that puts the omega 3 and omega 6 oils out of balance.
Anyway, all of this splitting hairs between these experts is unlikely to affect the diet and health of somebody that is raising their own pastured animals and growing their own fruit and veg. That person is probably doing as much as needs to be done to get their 3-6 balance correct.

Another interesting (but fairly long) article on the subject and also from the WAP site. http://www.westonaprice.org/know-your-fats/precious-yet-perilous The long and the short of it is eat more like your ancestors ate.

Pastured Pork fat. Not "pastured" where they are really being fed grain as their main diet but I mean really pastured. When animals eat forages they store higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids in their fat. Same for fish (phyto-plankton) and cattle that are really on grass diets. We raise pastured pigs (it's our main thing at our farm) so we are doing lab research into the exact levels of Omega-3 fatty acids and other things and how they vary over the seasons.

Any animal that is eating lots of greens is likely to be a good source of the Omega-3 fatty acids.

The problem with the Weston A Price philosophy is that it only shows a clear benefit when compared to the standard western diet. Weston Price, if you read his book, was never out to promote animal foods or to bash vegetarian diets. He was showing that processed foods are the main causes of tooth decay and overall disease in the body. Yes, special compounds in animals such as vitamin K2, carnitine, carnosine, DHA, EPA, etc all have benefits but these are all compounds that humans are SUPPOSED to be be producing themselves when eating a plant-based diet. Grass-fed meats, butter, and fish oil only shows a clear benefit when added to a diet deficient in the precursors of those nutrients OR a an abundance of junk clogging up the conversion process. In our case here of omega-3, feeding fish liver to a famished native living on rice and corn would improve their health dramatically. They weren't previously getting adequate nutrition for their body to synthesize all the nutrients that it needs. In addition, giving that same fish liver to a 40-year old overweight computer programmer would improve their health. The high amounts of arachadonic acid from animal products and polyunsaturated omega 6 from oils out-competed for the enzymes that convert short chain to long chain omega 3: desaturase and elongase. This causes an imbalance in fatty-acid profile and thus the need to supplement or eat animal foods. I'll admit, the omega-3 could be even life saving in both cases. I won't argue that.

But what about the third option? What about someone who has their body in good working order and follows a low-fat vegan diet high in fruits and vegetables. What's their omega-3 status like? Watch my my video and find out