Fish Oil Pills – What Are They and Why Should You Eat Them?

Fish oil pills are big business. In fact sales of fish oil pills, or what can be known as Omega 3 capsules or even as omega 3 supplements, are growing faster than any other nutritional supplement in history. Lets have a look at why and consider whether you should also be taking daily supplements of omega 3.

There are 2 essential fatty acids known as omega 3 fatty acids. These are called DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) and EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid), and they are good fats. Contrary to what you may have heard about diet fats in your diet are not all bad.

There are some bad fats, in particular saturated fat which is primarily found in animal products such as red meat and chicken. However there are also good fats which are extremely important to your health. The omega 3 fatty acids called essential fatty acids are extremely important to your health and are not manufactured in your body. Therefore the only way you can get Omega 3 fatty acids into you is by taking fish oil pills, or eating a lot of fish.

Estimates are that the vast majority of people in the US have way too little essential fatty acids in their diet. Studies have shown that populations of people who eat lots of fish are healthier, and in particular have better heart health than so many of our citizens and studies have linked this good heart health to their high intake of fish and other seafood products.

There’s a wide range of health benefits from increasing your intake of essential fatty acids. These health benefits include improvments in heart health and these are now recognized by the American Heart Association which recommends minimum intakes of DHA and EPA for each of us every week. They suggest eating more fish or else taking Omega 3 capsules.

The health benefits include a reduced risk of death from heart disease and heart attack, lowering triglycerides, lowering blood pressure and reducing the build of plaque in the arteries. Other health benefits include an improvement in brain function and memory, a reduction in the risk of macular degeneration causing blindness in older age and a reduction in a range of inflammatory diseases such as arthritis and lots lots more.

There is also ample evidence that pregnant women should be taking Omega 3 supplements because DHA and EPA, and in particular DHA, is an essential part of brain development and that if pregnant women are DHA deficient this can negatively affect the brain development of the fetus. Equally it is important for breastfeeding women to supplement with DHA and EPA because these become available to the infant through the breastmilk, and are important to the infant for the same reason. Studies show that children with an adequate supply of Omega3 fats through their developmental years do better on IQ tests.

Clearly we should all be increasing our intake of DHA and EPA, but how do you do that? Eating more fish is one option. However fish is very expensive and there are only certain fish which have high levels of these essential fatty acids. And fish is generally contaminated with nasty toxins such as PCBs, mercury, pesticides and various heavy metals and the EPA tells us not to eat too much fish because of this.

However fish oil pills offer the perfect solution. These are small capsules of fish oil which can be taken easily. For children it is simply a matter of cutting the top off the capsule and tipping the oil onto their food. The best fish oil pills are entirely contamination free and a much more cost-effective than eating fish, and can safely be taken daily.

Note that not all Omega 3 capsules are as good as others and the best fish oil supplements contain way more of the active ingredient DHA than the worst

For more information go to www.maculardegenerationassociation.org