Everyone knows, by now, that staying sharp and alert depends heavily on your diet. GIGO, or “garbage in = garbage out”, is an old adage in the computer world and it applies equally well to nutrition. Eat junk food and your body will eventually become junk. There is mounting evidence that pharmaceutical grade fish oil is key to keeping your body, and especially your brain, running at peak efficiency.
A healthy brain relies on getting regular doses of two fatty acids called EPA and DHA. People are always struggling to get the fat out of their diet but these two fats are critical for health. They produce powerful compounds called eicosanoids that virtually every system and every cell in your body depends upon. Our bodies don’t make EPA and DHA so we have to rely on our diet to get them. The richest and best sources of these fatty acids are fish, like salmon, sardines, mackerel, and herring. Not many people include these in their diet on a regular basis.
The reason for taking fish oil supplements is simple and compelling. Our modern diets provide us with plenty of foods that contain omega 6 fatty acids and very few foods that provide omega 3. Vegetable oils, processed foods, milk, cheese and meat are good sources of omega 6 fatty acids and make up a huge bulk of the American diet. If our brain doesn’t get the omega 3 fatty acid that it needs it will use fatty acids that aren’t ideal and don’t contain the levels of EPA/DHA that it needs.
One obvious solution to the problem is to just eat a lot more fish. This is less than ideal because then you run the risk of becoming exposed to high levels of harmful pollutants such as mercury, PCB, dioxins and other environmental contaminants. Minimizing exposure to these toxic substances is a good idea for anyone but particularly important for pregnant women, women who are planning to become pregnant, nursing women and young children.
What’s so important about taking only pharmaceutical grade fish oil supplements? Some people are reluctant to take fish oil supplements because they have had a bad experience with upset stomach and “fishy taste”. Most of the fish oil supplements on the market have 30% or less of the healthy omega-3s EPA and DHA, with the rest of the 70% of the capsule containing other, lesser refined fatty acids that contribute to the bad taste and upset stomach. They may be cheaper but you have to take a lot more capsules to get meaningful levels of EPA/DHA. By supplementing your diet with fish oil that has been designated “pharmaceutical grade” you will be getting a highly filtered dosage that delivers up to 8 times more omega-3’s than the typical retail fish oil supplement.
Taking fish oil supplements has been shown to cut down on the risk of developing a significant number of health problems before they get started. Keeping your brain and body healthy means getting the proper nutrition and not just leaving it up to chance.
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