The Core 4 Essential Supplements Every Body Needs for health: Omega-3s
Brian Strickland 00:06
Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of Nutrition Made Simple, where we take a look at some common or even some complex ideas surrounding our health and provide natural, easy to understand and actionable steps that anyone can take. And today, well really this month, we're centering our focus on our core four products. These are four supplements that we consider essential for everyone to feel and function their best. I'm here again with the owner and the founder of nutritional world, Mr. Ed Jones, And today we're going to talk about omega three fatty acids. Now, we consider these an essential part of any supplementation routine. But before we get to the why we need to talk about what they are. So Ed, can you just give us a brief rundown on what omega three fatty acids are and the role that they play in our health?
Ed Jones 00:58
Thank you, Brian. Well, omega three fatty acids as they sound are fats. We have many fats in our diet and in our world. But there are two components of what we call omega three, and they're called EPA DHA. They are not produced by the body. So we have to take them from the outside world within us. They comprise so much of our cellular body, which means that the outside of the cell is made of fats. If you don't have the right fats, they're going to be less than optimal, which means negative things can happen. Well, with omega three, you always have to take in fairly large amounts, because we've done a lot of testing, where through fingerprick test or blood testing at the labs, I would say 80% of all people are very deficient in that. And that is one of the most important numbers I want to see on myself and other people is what we call the omega three index. And so omega three is from foods and most of the time they're coming from wild caught fish. Beef and chicken have very little of it. In fact, the problem is, and I don't want to get too complex here, there's something called omega six, and omega three. Omega three we know is super healthy, omega six can be moderately healthy in the right amounts. The problem is the ratio between those two. Back in the days, when we had a much healthier society, much more home grown foods less processed. The ratio between omega six and omega three might have been two parts of omega six, one part of omega three. It was about maybe double the amount what today, it's 20 to 50, parts omega six, to omega three, totally destructive to everything for the macula of the eye, to triglyceride levels, to cholesterol levels, to inflammation, to memory, to total brain health, heart rhythm. You know what? You always hear about people not uncommon that they're just basically sitting or walking and they drop dead. Many times it has to do with the heart get out of such rhythm that it just started kind of fibulating is what is called. Omega three has significant research to show that it helps to maintain a healthy rhythm of the heart. Studies with 10 to 50,000 people have been done many of them on PubMed, you can read that verifies the life saving effects of intaking, the right amount of omega threes.
Brian Strickland 03:32
Okay. So they're what's considered an essential fatty acid, right? The body doesn't produce them on their own. They're found mainly in fish or things like krill. Flaxseed is another really good source, right. So with those food sources in mind, we obviously are big proponents of supplementation. And that's what we're talking about here today. Is it possible for people to get enough omega threes from their diet alone?
Ed Jones 04:00
It is possible, Brian. In fact, it's not probable, but it can happen. I've only got two people who have come for blood testing, either on their own or through the lab that we do at Nutrition World. And these two people never had taken a supplement of omega three, they did others but they didn't do that. And they had some of the best levels. Well, so me being of course, Mr. Curious, I want to know everything about people's health so that I can turn around and share it to help others. The reason they did this and ability that had to get to those levels, were based on eating a can of sardines every day. Now, that's a great source if you get quality sardines. Most people won't do that. So I have to say supplementation is probably the only way to get what we call an 8% index on omega three. I mean, I eat better than almost anyone. I'm not perfect, but I really focused on the right foods. And the last test I did I was on a report card, I was a B plus. I wasn't an A. And so I upped my levels and now on an A level because I now know what to take.
Brian Strickland 05:09
Yeah, so let's talk about that for a while, because you said you increased your levels. And let's talk about how to do that and kind of what dosing you're kind of looking at to get to that optimal level. And let's talk about the different sources of omega threes too because, as we mentioned before, there are multiple sources. Most people are familiar with fish oil, but there's actually flaxseed oil, there's krill oil, there's also even vegetarian sources of omega three, like algae sources. So let's just spend a brief moment to just give a general overview of those different ones and why you consider fish oils to still be the best?
Ed Jones 05:47
Well, one is you always have to know the purity of the manufacturer. At Nutrition World, we vet everything we demand the testing, full transparency, because if the fish swim in polluted waters, you're going to get the mercury. You know what I heard once that we are what our food eats. That is so true of everything, but especially fish. You know, the health food industry has based decades of hope and promise on flaxseed oil and flax seeds. Flaxseeds has a benefit to us great fiber, May in some health disorders be something very valuable to transport bad stuff out of our body, but it has too much omega six in it. What does omega six do? It creates inflammation. I speak and have for decades about the evidence showing that chronic disease is based in inflammation is very sound. We don't want this omega six to go down this pathway that creates something called arachidonic acid. That's going to create more inflammation. Nothing wrong with small amount of flax, but do not in my opinion, rely on flax for your omega three. Secondly, omega three from flax is hard to convert, it's not in there already, we have to make it by turning it into something. Many of us don't have the enzyme. So I'm not a fan of that being your source. Straight capsules, or liquid of extremely pure omega threes from fish that were caught in unpolluted waters, but also harvested extremely quickly after they caught it.
Brian Strickland 07:20
Right. So somebody told me along the way, in my career of working at Nutrition World, that a good way to, to kind of check that purity, and even to see if the product has gone rancid is to bite into this fish oil capsules. If it tastes really, really fishy, then you're likely not getting a very good product is that something you've heard?
Ed Jones 07:41
It's reasonably accurate. There can be some fish that just have a fishy smell. But I like the idea of that home test. Secondly, if you continue to burp it with that taste, find another brand. It may not just be the fish oil, it may be not compatible to your digestive tract, we can get capsules that will not burb on you even if they have to be enteric coated. But so don't give up because you say to yourself, well, I tasted it all day long. We can find a solution to that because it's life saving to raise your levels of omega three.
Brian Strickland 08:15
Alright, so lastly, let's talk about picking a quality omega three supplement, just as far as parameters go with dosing and EPA and DHA content. What are some of the things that you're looking for or what you would recommend?
Ed Jones 08:30
You know, if you have a bottle at home or you're coming to purchase it, I must say you may have to ignore the directions. What I want people to realize the magic of omega three happens when you consume 2000 milligrams of EPA DHA. This can be a little confusing because some brands will list 1000 milligram on an outside of the bottle. That means nothing. It means that's how much oil's in the capsule. It does not mean how much active ingredient. So look at the back of your label, add up the EPA DHA. Yake what it requires to get a 2000 milligram dose and probably that will be enough. I actually do about 2500 myself.
Brian Strickland 09:15
Yeah, and so for our core four product we actually have a triple strength omega three product by Nutrigold. It is by far one of the purest products that we've seen. It is sourced the right way the fish are caught, they're processed immediately. And it's great I mean for the levels that it offers because it does get you to that 2000 milligram level of EPA DHA but you're only taking two capsules a day, which is awesome if you're taking a bunch of supplements to begin with. Or you can do the liquids as well but a lot of people don't like the liquids because of the taste and the texture but that will easily get you to that 2000 milligram dose as well. So that it?
Ed Jones 09:55
Last point krill is a very excellent supplement, but the dosage within that capsule in my opinion is too low for you to get to the level that I think people should require is way too much money. So I will usually pick the regular omega threes like Nutrigold or other brands before I will do krill unless someone needs a little small pill because they do come in small ones, but do again know that the probably the recommended dose will not get you to the optimal life saving level of omega three and it is life saving.
Brian Strickland 10:26
Yeah, absolutely. Cardiovascular disease, mental health, depression, I mean, the benefits of omega three are pretty astounding, especially when you start digging into some of the research behind it because it is a very well researched nutrient. So we hope this was helpful everyone thank you so much for watching. Next week we'll be covering the next on our core four products, which will be a greens powder with probiotics built into it. So be sure to check it out next week and until then we'll see you next time.
Ed Jones 10:54
Stay healthy. Thank you