Our health always stands on several pillars. Besides exercise, nutrition also plays a major role. But how useful is Omega 3 in the form of capsules and oil really? Here you can find out everything you need to know about Omega 3.
The origin of many diseases is chronic inflammation in the body. The body's susceptibility to inflammation also increases with sport, stress, poor nutrition and obesity.
Silent inflammation causes other problems such as joint pain, rheumatism, digestive problems, poor regeneration after sports or constant chills. The symptoms are manifold and mostly conventional treatments are only successful in the short term.
In the past, people had clean air to breathe and nutrient-rich soils that provided fruit trees and plants with valuable vitamins, minerals and trace elements. Also species-appropriate and drug-free animal husbandry and sufficient exercise were quite normal in the past.
Food we buy in the supermarket today has up to 80 % less nutrients compared to those of 30 years ago.
Today, flavor carriers are predominantly sugar and bad industrial fats. Cereal products dominate our daily "bread".
The missing nutrients and inflammatory food components like gluten harm our intestinal flora, can make the intestines leaky and are bad for our immune system. Environmental toxins and medications also play their part.
As a result, our immune system creates many small inflammations in response to the "new" invaders. Suddenly you suffer from symptoms like food intolerances, a weakened immune system, diarrhea, arthritis, mood swings and much more.
With Omega 3 against inflammation
Omega 3 fats are key players in the body to reduce inflammation. But they can also do much more!
Omega 3 fatty acids help us in sports and make us healthier. They support normal blood pressure and cholesterol levels and let us regenerate faster. They turn off inflammatory processes that you know as muscle soreness after intense exercise. In addition, growth hormones need omega 3 fats for our immune defense.
Through the ability to promote blood clotting and oxygen transport, it also comes to a better activation of fats from our unloved fat stores. So even when losing weight, these omega 3 fats are important - Genius: who would have thought!?
Animal or plant omega 3?
Omega 3 fats are basically composed of 3 major groups: ALA, DHA and EPA. All 3 are equally important for our body. In plant sources we find mainly ALA components. For a balanced diet we still lack DHA and EPA, that is 2/3 of the important components.
The endogenous conversion of ALA to DHA and EPA is unfortunately insufficient. Studies show that the conversion rate is only about 0.5 - 5%. Thus, animal sources of omega 3 cannot be replaced by plant sources.
To be sufficiently supplied, you should eat fatty cold water fish such as salmon, herring, mackerel or anchovies 2-3 times a week. If you don't get this considerable amount, I recommend pure omega 3 fish oil.
Oil or capsule?
Like any other oil, especially sensitive omega 3 preparations can lose quality during processing and storage. The European Totox value indicates how rancid an oil is and classifies in levels. The average value is 26. My preferred product of the brand Eqology reaches a Totox value of 4 and is therefore currently the highest quality product on the market.
If oil is packed in capsules, there is often the problem that it becomes rancid. This is because heat is needed to seal the capsules. A simple test to check capsules for good quality is to open them and smell or taste the oil. If it smells like fish, the oil is unfortunately inedible and does more harm than good.
Conclusion
Our health and well-being always stand on several pillars. Endurance training in the fresh air, strengthening exercises for our muscles and the right fuel for our complex engine mesh like cogs in clockwork. They determine our biological age.
Unfortunately, as is often the case in life, we cannot stop time or turn it back. Therefore, we should try to make the right decisions every day when it comes to our most valuable asset: the health of our cells and our well-being.
Stefan is a personal trainer and founder of the VEEV Health and Fitness concept. He sees himself as a mental gardener who sows seeds in the form of information to help people make healthier choices in life. Info: www.veev.at
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