top | item 46937188

(no title)

svara | 21 days ago

It's really unclear unfortunately.

The correlative effect is quite clear, i.e people who have high omega 3 levels (eat a lot of fish) have health benefits.

But in random controlled trials Omega 3 supplements have not had convincing effects.

It might be because the supplements aren't very good, or because there's actually something completely different going on, like fish displaces less healthy foods from the diet.

discuss

order

terribleperson|21 days ago

'the supplements aren't very good' would be believable - a quick glance at the market shows a whole lot of fish oil supplements that provide low amounts of Omega 3s in large amounts of fish oil. Look closer, and you realize a bunch of them are rancid too.

MarkMarine|21 days ago

what is "a lot of fish" in this context? Sushi for lunch every day? Thanks for engaging with this in a helpful way.

ifwinterco|21 days ago

Fatty fish (salmon, mackerel, herring) has quite large amounts.

Some people aim for huge amounts of EPA/DHA but I don't think there's really much evidence that you need 3g/day or whatever the latest broscience is.

Mackerel is particularly high although it doesn't taste great to me compared to salmon, 100g of mackerel has ~4g of EPA/DHA so eating that a couple of times a week is probably more than enough.

Also there is some (although much less) in white fish, there can be significant amounts in shellfish, and tinned tuna has a surprisingly high amount. So all of that adds up if you eat those as well

darkerside|21 days ago

I wonder about cultural and ethnic confounding factors