Why Fish Oil Sometimes Doesn't Do You Any Good

Here's a simple fix.

Damn it. I feel like I've just been slapped on the head with a cold mackerel. I don’t often take omega-3 fatty acids any more, but it seems that when I do, I’ve been screwing up mightily. Maybe a lot of you have, too.

Here's the thing: It seems that you need to ingest fish oil with a fat-rich meal in order for fish oil to do all of its pro-cardiovascular, anti-inflammatory health things.

A study in Germany (Rauch, et al.) showed "no significant benefits" of omega-3 fatty acids when they were ingested with a relatively low-fat breakfast meal. Another study (Lawson and Hughes) found that the absorption of DHA and EPA, the predominant omega-3 fatty acids crucial to human health, was three times higher when volunteers ingested them with a fat-rich meal (44 grams of fat) than when co-ingested with a low-fat meal (8 grams of fat).

I'll give you one more: Kling, et al. found plasma concentrations of DHA and EPA were five times higher when administered with a high-fat meal than with a low-fat meal.

Ack! I've habitually been taking my fish oil with breakfast for years, and my breakfast, except for a dash of kefir, is about as low in fat as a brick! I suspect this is the case with a lot of other breakfast fish-oil users, too. Unless you're eating whole eggs and bacon for breakfast, your breakfast is probably pretty low in fat too, and you're thus not reaping the benefits of fish oil.

The same, of course, goes for those who take their fish oil supplements with their protein shakes, or with some other low-fat meal.

The Obvious Solution

Dinner, typically, is the fattiest meal of the day. It's when we usually eat the bulk of our meats (the leanest of which is still pretty fatty) and the majority of our olive oils or other cooking oils. It's then that we should be taking fish oil capsules.

Granted, I’ve gone on record voicing some suspicions about omega-3 fatty acids. For one thing, taking “too much” (probably over a gram a day of combined DHA and EPA) can, at least according to one scary study, cause atrial fibrillation (a-fib).

Secondly, I’ve always worried that the omega-3 fatty acid “chain of command” wasn’t up to snuff, i.e., it was, at some point in its travels from the coast of Chile or wherever, left too long in extreme temperatures and gone rancid.

Still, if you find a reputable brand and are comfortable with the company’s integrity, I say go for it – provided you have them with that fatty meal. ###

Source:

Jia Li, Bernard, L.R. Pora, Ke Dong, Jovin Hasjim, "Health benefits of docahexaenoic acid and its bioavailability: A review," Food Science & Nutrition, 23 July 2021.