Fish Oil Omega 3 content page

[mdlaw]

I was just shopping and looking at fish oil. Maybe I am missing something, but if the pills are 1000 mg, but they are listed as containing 300ish mg of omega 3, what is in the rest? I am not talking about the ones marketed as omega 3 and omega 6 (no thanks!) but the supposedly pure ones. what does this mean for finding an appropriate dose- should I go by omega 3 content or total fish oil content? I admit I am confused here

[Nethru]

I get confused on those as well. I'm guessing it's 300mg total of both the EPA/DHA?

[twinmama]

Dang... I don't know the required amount. Which means It's time to re-read the PB!

However, I just p/u'd a bottle of natural FActors, at whole foods, RX Omega 3 Factors, Meats GMP.... and has 400 mg EPA, and 200 DHA, and was only $12ish. Noticed a bit of a "fishy"taste for an hour or so... but not much after that.

[batty]

the robb wolf fish oil calculator can help you figure all that out:

http://whole9life.com/fish-oil/

[Selah]

the robb wolf fish oil calculator can help you figure all that out:

http://whole9life.com/fish-oil/

I could not get this link to work. Sure sounds interesting though and seems to make it much more personal.

[paleo_rob]

Stay away from the generic brand fish oils. They say 1000mg but generally the EPA/DHA proportion is something like 180mg/120mg for a total of 300mg per 1000mg capsule. (not sure what that other 70% is!)

Using the Robb Wolff calc, of about 1g per 10pounds body fat multiplied by say 0.7 that would turn out to something crazy like 40capsules a day.

@Selah
if you cant get it to work just quickly do the following calculation. Divide your bodyweight by 10. Then depending on your current health status multiply it by 1.0 if you are just going paleo and unhealthy. 0.5 if you are pretty paleo and generally healthy and 0.25 if you are super awesome (can pick any number in between. The number you get is how much pure omega3 you should have based on Robbs recommendations. Personally I think its a touch on the high side but to each there own.

So for me it would be 190pounds/10 = 19
Multiply by 0.5 (i consider myself pretty paleo/healthy) = 19*0.5 = 9.5g Omega3 per day
Now if your fish oil tablets only have 300mg of Omega3 that means it would be 9500/300 =32 Tablets per day!!!

Go get some fish oil liquid like Carlsons or Nordic Naturals. It has 800mg EPA and 500mg DHA per teaspoon (5ml). I generally have a couple tablespoons per day.

[Stabby]

the robb wolf fish oil calculator can help you figure all that out:

http://whole9life.com/fish-oil/

+1 to the ALMIGHTY ROBB WOLF FISH OIL CALCULATOR. Praise him!

The answer to the question of how much fish oil will ideally be "however much it takes to get a balanced tissue ratio". We store omega 3s and omega 6s in cellular membranes and use them to make molecules to signal for inflammation. The ratio in the tissues will be reflected by the ratio of omega 3:6 fats in the diet, as they displace each other. Generally a 1-2:1 6:3 ratio is best, as we don't want the balance to be too in favor of omega 6, lest we have too much inflammation and more negative effects of too much inflammation. Also ideally we want to not be taking massive amounts of fish oil after a while, since it is highly reactive by itself. But taking fish oil is better than having too much inflammation.

So be sure to track your omega 6. I don't track many things like carbs and protein, but I think that it is good to track omega 6 and try to keep it lowish.

[cillakat]

but I think that it is good to track omega 6 and try to keep it lowish.

+1 Will try to write more on this later. But I might not get to it. lol

K

[strom]

I think the liquid is a more effective way of taking it. I take a tablespoon or more a day, which is about 3 grams of DHA/EPA. Its a much higher concentration than the pills so you don't need to take as much.

[Selah]

+1 Will try to write more on this later. But I might not get to it. lol

K

I'd love to hear more about documenting omega 6's and how to do that. Bring it on,cillikat!