Omega 3s: as easy as A-B-C

An early Jack­son 5 song sings in my brain when I think of sup­ple­men­tal nutri­tion. “A-B-C / It’s easy as 1–2-3 / As sim­ple as do-re-mi. A-B-C, 1–2-3. Baby, you and me girl.”

The first deci­sion is which tablet to pur­chase to enhance and sup­ple­ment your health: Vit­a­min A, or which B, or C. Then the dosage chimes in with 1, or 2, or 3. Its as easy as do-re-mi to pick the brand that is the most pure and reliable.

Don’t let any­one kid you, sup­ple­men­tal nutri­tion is not like the Jack­son 5 song. It is any­thing but easy to decide and then choose to con­sume sup­ple­men­tal nutrition.

Nutri­tion experts and med­ical pro­fes­sion­als are in con­stant con­tro­versy over this sub­ject. The recent dis­cov­ery of the body’s use and need of Vit­a­min D is a per­fect exam­ple of sup­ple­ment mis­rep­re­sen­ta­tion. Dr. Michael F. Holick was shunned by his peers but he believed in his research to per­se­vere. Now Vit­a­min D is the most pop­u­lar sup­ple­ment taken.

The purity or impu­rity of sup­ple­ment and vit­a­min tablet or cap­sule is pro­tected by the Fed­eral label­ing laws. I tend to stick to the name brands of sup­ple­ments when pur­chas­ing them for myself.

My biggest dilemma in the deci­sion to sup­ple­ment or not is cen­tered around Omega 3s. Since the 1970s the oils from cer­tain cold water fish were found to improve car­diac health. Unfor­tu­nately the rec­om­men­da­tion to con­sume more fish to main­tain a heart healthy diet resulted in more fast food fish sand­wiches pur­chased. These meals con­sist of a type of fish that is not even one of the rec­om­mended ones that is coated in car­bo­hy­drates and bathed in fat. Result­ing in a coun­ter­pro­duc­tive move for the proac­tive diner.

I started to take Omega3 fish oil cap­sules years ago since heart dis­ease runs deeply in my genetic make-up. My dear sweet­heart, you-know-who, took the advice of his wise wife and began down­ing a cap­sule as well. Since I eat a hearty oat­meal, raisin, wal­nut break­fast daily, I have no prob­lem with the unde­sir­able belch­ing of odif­er­ous fish oil hours after­wards. You Know Who on the other hand often com­plained about the bout of burps and the dis­agree­able odor and taste.

A bit of research lead me to rec­om­mend that we switch to flaxseed cap­sules. Fish oil sup­ple­ments sup­ply the essen­tial nutri­ents labeled EPA and DHA which are vital to the brain and car­diac sys­tem, to name a few ben­e­fits. Flaxseed con­tains ALA which even­tu­ally breaks down into EPA and DHA in the body with­out the burps.

Not want­ing to depend upon the prac­tice of not-belching to pre­dict my risk of a heart attack, I did some seri­ous research on these two oily gems that poten­tially sup­ple­ment my already bal­anced diet. In short, I rec­om­mend that we go back to the fish oil com­pound Omega 3 because it is bet­ter absorbed and used by the body.

I am not a veg­e­tar­ian, I have no objec­tion to switch­ing back to or even adding the fish oil cap­sules to the flaxseed that I take each day. You-know-who, on the other hand, still balks at the belch.

My research has dis­cov­ered two ways to con­trol the fishy burp. One solu­tion is to take the sup­ple­ment prior to a full meal so that the con­tents of the cap­sule mixes well with other food­stuffs. Another idea is to keep the cap­sules in the freezer before swal­low­ing. The gel con­tain­ing the fish oil will not defrost until it passes through the gut into the small intestines where it will be absorbed with­out the fear of regurgitation.

A-B-C / It’s easy as 1–2-3 / As sim­ple as do-re-mi. A-B-C, 1–2-3. Freeze the Omega3s. A catchy tune for a health­ier you.

Bob­bie Ran­dall is a cer­ti­fied dia­betes edu­ca­tor and a reg­is­tered, licensed dietit­ian. She super­vises a dia­betes self-management train­ing pro­gram at Aultman-Orrville Hos­pi­tal, Orrville. Con­tact her at bobbie.randall@aultmanorrville.org or 330–684-4776. 

Posted by Bobbie Randall on Mar 1 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.