What’s missing from this is how much omega 3 containing food, how often you need to get this protective result.

Do I need to eat fish twice a week? 5 times? Do I need to supplement because there is no way to eat enough fish?

Would love some practical guidance tacked on to this

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.

▲

terribleperson 12 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

'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.

▲

5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

[deleted]

▲

MarkMarine 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

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

▲

ifwinterco 3 hours ago | parent [-]

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

	▲	apothegm 3 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Sardines, too, which are also fishier than salmon but tend not to be salted the way mackerel is. Unless you’re also consuming all the oil from the can, prefer fish canned in water to canned in oil — because apparently the omega-3s can leach out into oil, but they’re not water-soluble. Btw, trout is also up there (though not as high as salmon) and is a lovely mild-flavored fish.
	▲	birdsongs 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Not sure what you can find in your country but we have tinned mackerel (with tomato typically) in Norway. I can highly recommend. It's not thaaat fishy, I didn't grow up eating it. After having it a few times it really grew on me. Super cheap and an easy way to get it into my diet. I have 2-3 tins per week. I eat it for breakfast mashed on bread (our bread is like a hard cracker), sometimes with a bit of mustard, or butter spread first.

▲

darkerside 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I wonder about cultural and ethnic confounding factors

▲

boston_clone 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I like to get my omegas from the following sources, no fish needed!

- hemp hearts (complete protein, goes best with oatmeal for breakfast, on salads, or in soups for an extra bit of nutty / fatty flavor)

- pumpkin seeds (also good source of iron, iirc)

- algae-based supplement (currently taking an omega3 + vit D + vit K combo capsule from nordic naturals)

▲

CWIZO 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

It's really surprising how many people don't realise where omegas come from and just default to "more fish". Fish get omegas from alge. Simply skip the middle man and all the nasty side effects that has in the form of animal exploitation and harmful substances for humans they contain.

	▲	cogman10 4 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Fish metabolize and concentrate the oil. Cows eat grass for protein, we can't really skip the middle man and eat grass to get protein. I don't know if it's true, but it wouldn't be unusual for there to be benefit from getting omega 3 from fish rather than algea because of something like this. AFAIK, we mostly only know about the benefits of eating fish.
	▲	goodpoint 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Fish contains a lot of microplastics. Algae-based omega oils do not.

▲

Finnucane 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Note that one of the authors received funding from Big Walnut.

▲

cromka 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

What's also interesting that some recent studies show eating eggs every day actually is harmful, most likely due to the Omega3 to Omega6 ratio.

So here we go again. First it was cholesterol, which was then rebutted, so people (myself included) started eating eggs every day. And now this. You can't win!