Omega-3 Benefits & Best Sources - Ask A Nutritionist

Transcript:

BRANDY: Welcome to Dishing Up Nutrition's “Ask a Nutritionist” podcast brought to you by Nutritional Weight & Wellness. We're thrilled to be celebrating 20 years on air discussing the connection between what you eat and how you feel while sharing practical real life solutions for healthier living through balanced nutrition.

Thank you all so much for your support over the years. Now let's get started with today's show. Today I'll be answering a question we received from one of our Dishing Up Nutrition listeners. Today's question is, “What are some suggestions for increasing omega-3 intake?”

What are omega-3’s & why are they important?

Now, I love this question because I'm always encouraging my clients to make an effort to increase their intake of omega-3s. And I think this question opens up a few additional questions, especially for some of our listeners that may not be familiar with what omega-3s are and why they're so important. And that's where I want to start today. I just want to give you a brief overview of what omega-3s are and why we're so concerned about getting enough of them.

And then I'll share a few ideas for how to boost your omega-3 intake. So what are omega-3s? Omega-3s are a fat. They're a type of fat that's considered an essential fat. This means that our bodies can't make this type of fat. It must come from a food source. And this can be kind of challenging because there's not a lot of food sources of omega-3 fats.

Not every food that has fat contains the specific type of omega-3 fats. And I think omega-3 fats are essential for another reason. They play a very crucial role in many aspects of our health. So it is important to be intentional about regularly incorporating foods that are rich in omega-3 fats. For one, omega-3 fats help build the cell wall of every single cell in our body, and I think that's pretty impressive all on its own.

But omega-3 fats also contribute a lot to the structure of our brain. About 65 percent of our brain is made up of fat. And at least half of that is made up of omega-3 fats. This is also true for the retinas in our eyes. So our brain, our eyes, also our heart. Our heart relies on omega-3 fats. Omega-3s can help control cholesterol and our blood pressure.

Omega-3’s reduce inflammation

And in general, when you consume enough omega-3 fats, you can reduce inflammation in the body. And I think that's a key takeaway that I hope you walk away from during this episode is that omega-3 fats help reduce inflammation. There are so many health conditions that stem from too much inflammation in the body that I'm guessing you or someone very close to you could benefit from extra omega-3s in their life.

So I just want to give you a few examples of some health conditions that are related to not enough omega-3s or too much inflammation. We have cardiovascular disease, diabetes, joint pain, arthritis, autoimmune diseases, depression and anxiety. Even cancer can be traced back to inflammation. And because omega-3 fats are so important for our brain health, getting enough omega-3 fats are really important for anybody thinking about getting pregnant or people that are already pregnant.

It's also pretty important for folks on the other end of the spectrum, older adults who might be starting to experience memory loss or cognitive decline or folks with dementia or Alzheimer's disease. So I hope you have a sense of how many aspects of our health can be impacted by omega-3 fats.

The importance of balancing omega-3 & 6 fats

But now I just wanted to touch on one other aspect of this topic that I don't think a lot of people know about. It's really not enough to simply consume some omega-3 fats in order to get those anti-inflammatory health benefits. Research has shown that the balance of how much omega-3 fats you consume compared to how many omega-6 fats you consume is what makes the difference. The challenge with this is that omega-3 fats are very easy to come by in our standard American diet.

And for that reason, most people are consuming way too many omega-6 fats compared to the omega-3 fats, and that's what's driving a lot of inflammation. So in order to reduce inflammation, the ideal balance of omega-6 fats compared to omega-3 fats is estimated to be around 1 to 1 up to 2.3 to 1. And this is pretty difficult to do because omega-6 fats are very plentiful in the American diet.

Just to give you an example of where you can get these, omega-6 fats are found in abundance in processed foods. Those processed, refined oils like soybean oil and canola oil are very high in omega-6 fats. So something like French fries, anything deep fried, chips most processed desserts like muffins will have those omega-6 fats because they have those refined oils in them. And for that reason, the average American consumes around 10 to 25 times more than the optimal amount of omega-6 fats, and they're under eating omega-3 fats.

So it can be very difficult to strike that perfect balance. To put it simply, if you are consuming a lot of processed foods, a lot of refined oils, and not adding omega-3 fats, you're going to end up with a lot of inflammation. So, given all of these numbers, it's pretty safe to say that most of us, in order to reduce inflammation, we have to not only increase our intake of omega-3s, but also reduce our intake of omega-6s by reducing the amount of processed foods and refined oils we consume.

Best food sources of omega-3 fats

So now we're getting to the original question. What are the best food sources of omega-3 fats? Well, the richest food source of omega-3 fats are going to be your fatty fish. And I like to remember which fish are the highest in omega-3s by using the acronym SMASH.

S. M. A. S. H. That stands for salmon, mackerel, anchovies, sardines, and herring. Wild caught fish would be the best choice, but if you live in a region where that fresh fish is really difficult to access, canned fish or frozen fish fillets will work just fine. About one ounce of one of these fatty fish contains somewhere around 300 to 500 milligrams of omega-3s.

And just so you're aware, I typically recommend to most of my clients that they strive for about 2,000-4,000 mg milligrams of omega-3 fat daily. Some people need more than that, and especially if you're reducing your intake of processed foods, you can get away with less. Other food sources of omega-3s would be pasture raised eggs and grass-fed beef.

They do contain some omega-3s, but not at the same concentration as those fatty fish. It's still a great way to incorporate a little bit of omega 3 fats here and there when you can because it all adds up and it is worth it to choose the grass fed beef and the pasture raised eggs when you can because the omega-3 content has been found to be much higher in animals raised under these conditions.

So grass fed beef, pasture raised eggs. There are several plant sources that contain omega-3 fats, and I just want to list those out. This is chia seeds, flax seed, hemp seed, walnuts, and pumpkin seeds. And while these seeds and walnuts, they do contain some omega-3 fats, I should point out that the type of omega-3 fats in here are not as efficiently converted into the most beneficial type of omega-3 fats, which is the EPA and the DHA fats.

The EPA and the DHA omega-3 fats are the type of fat that we're after. These are the types of fats that help drive down inflammation, support good brain health and support our heart. So that's all to say fish at the end of the day is the most reliable and efficient source of getting enough omega-3s to help reduce inflammation.

And if you're unfamiliar with how to prepare fatty fish in a way that you like, we do have some really great recipes on our website, weightandwellness.com. One of my all time favorite recipes is the salmon cakes. So look for that one. I have mentioned it on the podcast before, so maybe this is your reminder to finally try it if you haven't yet.

And I think this recipe is a great avenue to substitute some canned sardines or maybe even halibut if you want to experiment with some different kinds of fatty fish. Another one that I like is the sheet pan Asian salmon. This is a really easy way to make salmon, but it's super flavorful. It's really good.

The salmon salad is another really easy recipe, really quick, and it's another place that you could try to add some canned sardines or anchovies into the mix just to get that variety. I would say smoked salmon is another one of my favorite ways to eat salmon. It's very easy to add to a salad or sometimes I'll even add it to scrambled eggs.

One of my favorite snacks is topping a fresh cucumber slice with a little cream cheese, some everything bagel seasoning, and some smoked salmon. It's simple. It's helping me get my omega-3s in, and I think it really works as an appetizer if you're ever wondering what to bring for a potluck or something. Those always go over really well.

So given, I've given you a lot of ideas for salmon, and I think that might be because that's like one of the fatty fish I'm most comfortable cooking with, but I don't think we should look over the sardines and the anchovies. There's a lot of ways that you can use them.

Homemade Caesar dressing, for example, is one of my go to ways to use anchovies. I didn't realize this until recently, that's where the delicious savory flavor comes from in Caesar dressing. It's anchovies pretty easy to make. There's a lot of recipes out there, but the base is a little olive oil, some lemon juice, anchovies, and then you can add flavor with some garlic, a little mustard, and salt.

I really love to use this as a veggie dip for snacks, or just make a classic Caesar salad, maybe a little grilled salmon on top; really good. One of my clients actually gave me this other idea. A great way to use sardines is to use it to make a spread or a veggie dip, almost like a pate. So what you do is you get a food processor or a blender.

You blend some canned sardines with a little lemon juice, shallot, butter, and fresh herbs until it forms a paste or a spread like consistency. So this is a great veggie dip. I think it would also be a really impressive addition to a charcuterie board when you have friends over.

One thing you might notice about a lot of recipes that use sardines or anchovies is that they use a lot of pasta. At least that's what I found. And pasta is just one of those processed carbohydrates that I typically recommend scaling back on to help reduce inflammation. But I found that you could easily substitute some zucchini noodles or spaghetti squash in these recipes and still get the benefit from those anchovies and those sardines that's in those flavorful sauces without relying on all of those processed carbohydrates.

And I think this is the time of year to experiment with something like that because zucchini and spaghetti squash is in season in Minnesota, and it seems like we just have too much to handle right now. So try one of those pasta recipes, substitute zucchini noodles, and see what you think.

How much omega-3 is recommended for anti-inflammatory benefits?

So coming back to that idea of getting enough omega-3s, but also trying to reduce your omega-6s to get the optimal balance to reduce inflammation, I'm sure some of you are asking, well, how much is recommended in order to get those anti-inflammatory benefits. So I just want to put this into perspective a little bit.

The research has shown that for most Americans, if they were to change nothing about their omega-6 intake, they would need to eat about 11 ounces of salmon every single day in order to strike that optimal balance. But if you were to make the effort to reduce your omega-6 intake, you could reach a healthier balance with omega-3 by consuming only about four ounces of that fatty fish three times a week.

Now that last approach seems a little more attainable to me. I can't imagine eating 11 ounces of salmon every single day. That would be pretty difficult to keep up with. So I think a good takeaway is do your best to reduce your omega-6 intake by reducing those processed foods and dining out less.

It's pretty easy to avoid those refined oils when you're cooking at home because you can choose the type of fat that you use. You can use those natural fats like butter and coconut oil and olives in your cooking. But the processed foods and the foods made in a restaurant, especially the fast food, 99 percent of the time will contain those refined and processed oils.

So hopefully that is something that seems a little more approachable to you. And if fatty fish is not appealing, or maybe you live in a region where fatty fish is difficult to access on a regular basis, you might want to consider a good quality fish oil supplement.

It's best to look for a fish oil that is derived from wild caught fish. And the next step I would suggest is taking a look at the actual omega-3 content in that fish oil supplement. There are some fish oil supplements out there that don't actually have that much omega-3 fats per capsule. So I suggest just reading the label to find out how much omega-3, how much EPA and DHA is in each capsule.

I typically recommend that my clients is take around 2,000 to 4,000 milligrams of omega-3 every day. So if you take a look at the back of the package and see how much is in each capsule, you can do the math from there.

Quality Omega-3 Supplement Options

Well, I hope this information gave you some new ideas of how to add more omega-3 fats into your diet. And hopefully it gave you an understanding of why these omega-3 fats are so important and how to get the most benefit from them. Thank you all so much for listening to Dishing Up Nutrition's “Ask a Nutritionist”.

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