I am not an expert, but I've read in many places that the omega-3 in flax oil is far inferior, to the point of almost being worthless, compared with fish oil. IIRC the problem is that flax contains omega-3 in the form of ALA, in contrast to fish oil, which contains EPA and DHA -- the forms we actually need. The body can convert ALA to EPA and DHA, but the conversion process is extremely inefficient (something like only 5% get converted).
I have a fish allergy that makes me a bit nervous to take fish oil. I tried fax seed and stopped after reading about its ineffectiveness. How much milk should I be drinking for the Omega-3 benefits?
Edit: let me be specific. According to the web, each serving of this milk contains 32mg DHA Omega-3. The fish oil recommendation seems to be 3 grams of fish oil. How do these equate?
You can already buy several different kinds of algae-derived omega-3 DHA supplements on Amazon. But the best deal there is Ovega-3, which at $0.29 per pill is about twice as expensive as fish oil.
I am not a fan of flax. Let me suggest walnuts as an alternative. Let me also suggest that consuming less of the "bad" oils is a much more effective preventive measure than eating whatever crap and then trying to supplement with a "good" oil.
Due to the nature of the preferential binding, the 3/6 has to be 1-1 or greater to do >any< good, and since walnuts have a 0.24 : 1 ratio in favour of omega-6s, unfortunately, you wont getting any benefits of omega-3s from walnuts.
Apart from algae sources, the alternatives are a couple of pints of flax seed every night, or going without so many things that you run risk of malnutrition. So, nuts/seeds aren't a solution.
I am curious what your background is/where you get this info? Because that does not fit with my personal firsthand experience with getting well in spite of an incurable inflammatory condition that is supposed to kill me and frequently makes me suicidal if I eat the wrong things (especially the wrong oils).
Unfortunately, due to the nature of the 'balance' (preferential binding), anything less than 1-1 in favour of Omega-3 is as useless as nothing. So, something with close to 1-1 ratios, like flax seed won't make any difference unless you eliminate omega-6's from your diet entirely. This isn't just impractical - it's so limiting, you'll have trouble with other nutritional requirements.
Many diets eschew flax seed in general, but something to keep in mind is that unground flax seed itself is a good source of fiber. Mind, I'm not saying it's the best source of EFA's, but it's far better than junk food or fast food. I typically will put a very large spoonful of flax seed into about 3/4cp of Greek yogurt and add a little honey for a tasty treat, but I do also supplement with fish oil pills. I'll also add glazed walnuts to a bowl of plain old oatmeal for a filling and healthy breakfast.
I've switched from using fish oil capsules to eating sardines as they are quite high in Omega 3 (around 1g per 3oz), low in mercury, in no danger of overfishing, and relatively cheap.
They're also good with lemon juice on top if you're not a fan of Worcestershire sauce. Or you can melt cheese on top for a variation of the classic tuna-melt.
Also, if you want to avoid the extra omega 6 fatty acids, get the sardines that are packaged in water or olive oil (which is mostly monounsaturated fatty acids) rather than soybean oil.
Personally, I just eat them as a snack or light lunch straight from the can. Or perhaps chopped into bits over a salad. Sometimes I even mix them with a little brown rice.
Mash up with a fork plus half of a raw shallot (diced), optionally a bit of chili powder or black pepper. Spread on toast. Adding some slices of tomato, cucumber, or hard cheese is nice of you have them.
This is one of our fallback lunches/snacks when we haven't made it to the store recently and/or don't have time to cook.
And someone once said, "This farmed salmon tastes like cardboard." To which the old fisherman replied, "That is very unfair. There are some palatable cardboards out there."
Farmed salmon doesn't have the useful amounts of omega-3s, since they don't produce actually produce them. Wild salmon eat krill, which eat algae, that are ultimately the source.
http://www.wired.com/science/planetearth/magazine/15-06/st_i...
There are environmentally better sources, thought they are, naturally, not as cheap.