There is much debate and confusion surrounding which has better health benefits fish oil or flax seed oil. There are distinct and important differences between the two oils, with a true healthy choice winner.

The most important essential fatty acids are the omega 3s and omega 6s. The body requires a correct balance of omega 3 and omega 6 essential fatty acids. Flax seed oil contains the right balance of these two essential fatty acids. However, the typical American consumes great amounts of vegetable oils, which only contains omega 6 oils. Ingesting too much omega 6 with too little omega 3 creates a tendency towards inflammation, high blood pressure and other imbalances. If the typical American takes a flax seed oil supplement, chances are, they will have an imbalance of too much omega 6 over omega 3:

“Fish Oil provides Omega 3 fats and very little in the way of Omega 6. It also provides almost all of its Omega 3’s in the form of EPA and DHA. It essentially skips the conversion process and gives the body what it needs immediately.” (From Fish vs. Flax)

Most people need to intentionally ingest more omega 3 to balance the vegetable oils prevalent in their diet. There are three dependable sources of omega 3 oils: wild game, small fish and fish oils. For proper nutrition and a balancing of the fatty acids, most people would be better off consuming a fish oil supplement:

“But omega-3s, nutrients that have antiinflammatory properties, may have a rainbow of other therapeutic uses, including treatment of arthritis, Alzheimer’s disease, exercise-induced asthma, macular degeneration, depression, attention-deficit disorder, autoimmune disorders and breast and liver cancer, just to name a few.” (From The Chicago Tribune)

Fish oil supplements are available from your local health store or click here to purchase from Physician’s Preference.

Note: We would like to see more information on this topic. For example more on fish oil support, phystoestrogen effects, long term use, high dosage use.

Also point out that flax is best obtained through grinding up flax seeds and that flax has a low conversion rate of ALA to EPA and DHA (only 5-15% conversion rate to proper form) whereas the majority of omega 3’s from fish does not require conversion process.

We can send additional information form Nordic Naturals fish oil company if needed.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 16th, 2006 at 3:04 pm and is filed under Health & Wellness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.