Tag Archives: nutrition

Changing my opinion on Omega-3 supplementation

Leave a reply

For the past few years I have been very clear that I believed that everyone needed to supplement with fish oil or an equivalent omega-3 supplement. The research on our fatty acid profiles being out of line of normal, cardiovascular disease, and general dietary insufficiencies is what led me to this conclusion. I myself have been supplementing approximately 1 gram a day of omega-3s in a fish oil supplement myself for years.

Early in my career I believed it was possible to fulfill this need through diet, and today I am coming back around to this perspective. The fatty acid profile I now believe IS actually able to be normalized by simply reducing your Omega-6 fatty acid intake to a more natural level while taking care to consume a healthy amount of Omega-3s. Our food supply is chock full of omega-6s. Virtually any processed food will contain them. Seed oils primarily contribute to this. You CAN avoid them if you are cooking at home, from scratch, not using these vegetable oils. Instead use fruit oils like olive or avocado if you are feeling fancy, even lard, tallow, butter, or coconut oil can be used in cooking and not change your ratio. Obviously don’t overdo the saturated fats, a ballpark of 10% of your diet is a benchmark to not exceed in that department.

All this said, DO NOT neglect eating healthy long-chain omega-3s. Our main source is fish in the diet. 1 gram/day is the goal, that’s a combination of EPA & DHA. Because these are fats, if you eat something high, you can effectively roll that over to your next daily target. Some of the fish can last you several days! I don’t always eat fish every day or high level fish every 4 days. We eat fish maybe 2-3x/week here and sometimes it’s one that isn’t high in Omega-3s. That doesn’t mean its a bad fish, e.g. clams are excellent nutritionally, but not in the omega-3 department. How are you doing on this? Are you and your family eating 1 gram of long chain omega-3s? Here is a great chart from OSU:

Click to access omega-3-content-in-fish.pdf

The thing is I am eating 2 eggs most days. A high quality egg yolk has 0.8 g of long chain omega-3s according to OSU. Because we make almost EVERYTHING from scratch at my house and don’t even eat out once a month, I can confidently say that our diet is not overwhelmed by an excess of omega-6 fatty acids by cooking fats. Our beef is grass fed and finished, we also eat a fair amount of wild game. These have a different fatty acid profile than corn fed cattle, which also helps decrease the omega-6 amount. So, in our case I think the omega-3 supplements may be overboard.

I will finish our current bottle of fish oil and after that, we’re dropping it. I will be more mindful about cooking high level omega 3 fish more often and getting those high quality eggs regularly. Diet diversity and from scratch cooking for the win.

My new recommendation is to check in if your balance is off with your omega intake, if you’re avoiding omega 6 cooking oils and consuming an average of 1 g omega-3s/day in your diet-skip the extra fish oil. Keep taking that Vitamin D if you live north of Arizona, and a good food-based multivitamin/multimineral will do you good.

Pass On the Package

Leave a reply

This Earth Day and beyond do your planet and your body a big favor and pass on packaged foods.

Packaging is out of control you get little wrappers inside of a big bag.  Even if you recycle what you can, you will still end up trashing the cling wrap and wrappers of most packaged foods, they aren’t recyclable.  Recycling takes energy, which is why it’s the last of the ‘Rs’ (reduce, reuse, recycle).  Plastics are finding their way into our oceans, there is a big mass of it in the Pacific Ocean.  They are leaching into water supplies.  For more on the impact of food packaging on our environment read this article.

Let’s face it, the better food is for you, the less packaging it typically has.  Apples, carrots, and beets come naked in the produce section…or at most wearing a twist tie that you might actually reuse.  It’s the bad stuff that comes with several layers of packaging like that package of mini snickers bars, a big bag with a bunch of tiny wrappers inside.  Stick with mostly those naked, or minimally packaged foods in the produce section, the bulk bins of whole grains, minimally processed dairy, fresh meats and fish.  Avoid the processed foods like candy, cereals, soups, chips, crackers, box macaroni & cheese.  All of this stuff comes not with just excess packaging but a lot of other baggage such as added salt, sugar, preservatives, and chemicals.  Also, GMO foods won’t sell well in a produce section, so they are sold to the companies that make processed foods; avoid this controversial ingredient by buying fresh and making your own at home.

How to get out of the package for healthy options:

  • buy the big, plain yogurt:  divide it into your own containers and add your own fresh fruit and honey/maple syrup if you like
  • Avoid pre-sliced and packaged produce:  buy the bulk veggies and fruit and cut when you need it, it doesn’t take that much time
  • Cheese is a nice treat once in a while:  buy the block and slice or grate as needed.  This will make you eat those saturated fat calories less because you can’t mindlessly grab a quick pre-cut slice, cube, or stick from the fridge.
  • Bulk grains and beans are just as good as the ones in bags, and you typically have a bigger selection.
  • Take your own snacks:  buying a single serving size typically means buying lots of extra packaging too.
  • Make your own bread.  It isn’t as time-consuming as you think…especially if you get a bread machine.

Following the minimal packaging lifestyle might take some getting used to, but eventually you’ll notice a difference in your health and likely your bank account too.  And you will be making an effort to making our planet a healthier place to live too.

Related articles

Spring Detox Plan

2 Replies

 

Lemon water argggg

Lemon water argggg (Photo credit: César Poyatos)

It’s spring!  The ‘cool’ thing to do these days is a detox or a cleanse, these become really popular after the holidays and right around the beginning of spring.  While a juice or water fast does have some spiritual and/or mental benefits, they aren’t proven with science to get rid of toxins in your system.  If you are looking to spring clean your body, a better method is to stop exposing yourself to toxins along with optimizing your elimination systems.  Try some or all of these suggestions below to ‘detox’ this spring.  Stress is likely one of the biggest toxins that we all experience, so if you only do one or two things let it be meditation and/or sleep.

Eliminate the bad stuff:  cigarettes (including 2nd hand smoke), alcohol, drugs (including that Tylenol and Advil; but don’t stop your prescribed drugs without your doctor’s permission), caffeine, processed foods, refined sugar, white flour, saturated fats.  You might consider taking a hiatus from meat as well due to the biomagification that you don’t experience with primary producers.

Optimize:

  • liver:  get lots of antioxidants, ingest veggies with sulfur compounds like broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, onions, and garlic,
  • kidneys:  lots of water
  • skin: sweat and shower
  • lungs:  aerobic exercise, breathing exercises
  • colon:  lots of fiber and water
  • mind:  meditate daily, start with 10 minutes a day if you are new (just sit still and focus on your breath)
  • body:  get adequate rest

Basically daily drink at least 2 quarts of water, meditate, go for a decent walk that makes you sweat a little, shower and get at least 8 hours of sleep.  As for what you should eat:  

  • make a juice to drink with your breakfast with beets, greens, carrots, and some fruit, this boosts your antioxidant intake right away, first thing
  • EAT:  not junk food, but rather foods with fiber like brown rice, veggies, and fruit.
  • If you are having caffeine withdrawal headaches, try some herbal tea with dandelion root in it.

If you want to further your detox, look at your environment at home and work.  See if you can replace any chemical exposures with natural alternatives.  Get a water purifier, your water source might be clean, but what is leaching into your water on the way from the reservoir to the facet?

I will be ‘detoxing’ in this way this week.  Join me and let me know how it works out!