My recent blood analyzes (due to my traffic accident against wild boar with car, I had 3 blood tests with fatty acid analyses) clearly show that I have no deficiencies in DHA and EPA and I never eat fish, never algae oil, never fish oil capsules.
More importantly my alpha-linolenic acid and linoleic acid values are within the healthy upper range of the fork. Perfect I can say. My vitamin d is also in the fork. Occasionally I take my vit D from the agaricus mushroom plus saffron. Our blood values are considered to be between a lower value and an upper value of the average Belgian. The fork values.
Should we take DHA and EPA from fish oil or algae oil?
This is of course old fashioned and nothing new. It has been scientifically proven that we do not need to take fish oil or algae oil to get enough DHA and EPA. In addition, men and women are different with different needs, fortunately. That is how nature has provided it.
The fear mongering about the conversion of alpha linolenic acid to DHA and EPA is great
We must not forget that our body is the hero. The result of thousands of years of evolution. The elongase and desaturase enzymes do their job when your body asks for it. There is no competition in our body.
Many became fixated on non-essential fatty acids DHA and EPA through the fish oil farmers.
But our body has 50 fatty acids, all of which have their own importance. Of which DHA and EPA are just two. I assure you that in the future people will glorify and dramatize other non-essential fatty acids.
But the fact remains, with contemporary insights and science, that our body cannot produce alpha-linolenic acid and linoleic acid itself and that these fatty acids in themselves (without conversion) provide health and that without these two essential fatty acids no health is possible.
And have a different use than DHA and EPA, (which can be made from ALZ and LZ). That is why linoleic acid and alpha-linoleic acid are called essential. That’s the definition. Fortunately, your body can make all 50 fatty acids from these two parent fatty acids, each with different benefits for the body. Via elongase and desaturase enzymes.
Your body is the hero and has the knowledge after thousands of years of evolution.
Comparison : proteins with fats (DHA and EPA)
The definition : There are 9 + 1 essential amino acids. Without them no health is possible, therefore they are essential.
Your body will make dozens of amino acid composites from these 9+1 essential amino acids.
Your body is the hero and has the knowledge after thousands of years of evolution.
Fear-mongering that this is going wrong would also be largely unjustified here.
and then start glorifying a non-essential amino acid squared by the industry
because, for example, this would be in a lot of stuff somewhere, it would be inappropriate here too.
that’s what one does with EPA and DHA.
Advice for the DHA and EPA believers
The insufficiently informed and insecure people can safely take DHA and EPA. As long as they remember that this doesn’t dissolve their supply of linoleic acid and alpha-linolenic acid. In addition to DHA and EPA, I advise all these people to also ensure an adequate supply of linoleic acid and alpha-linolenic acid. For example Okinawan Omega.
Plastic pills from a plastic jar
Also don’t forget that DHA or EPA from fish oil or algae oil is little or never organic.
Or the capsules are cheap and contaminated with microplastics, heavy metals and all the junk we dump. Or they are more expensive capsules and here EPA and DHA have been isolated and these capsules have lost their cohesion.
DHA from algae oil is also a highly processed product and falls under the same heading as cheaper or expensive fish oil. The production process does not allow a certificate of organic !! That actually says enough. And to these isolates, for example, chemical Vit E should be added, because the Vit E has disappeared in the refining process.
My advice for DHA and EPA believers (the uninformed or insecure consumers): Go for small fatty fish. Better than most capsules and don’t forget your intake of alpha-linolenic acid and linoleic acid, because without them no health is possible.
PS The 6 bold axioms of Bart Maes :
- Vary fats as you vary vegetables and fruits.
- The quality of the fats is much more important than the type.
- There are fats that you can heat and others cannot.
- Healthy oils are just as important as fruits and vegetables.
- For the essential fatty acids, enough is enough. Too much increases oxidative stress.
- Only alpha-linolenic acid and linoleic acid, the parent fatty acids of omega-3 and omega-6, are essential. We cannot make these two fats ourselves and without them no health is possible.
