Showdown: Fish Oil Vs Flax Seed Oil

Flax Seed Oil

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Flax has one very beneficial characteristic: it contains a substance called ALA, from which the body can manufacture all necessary omega-3s. Just to review, omega-3 is a range of essential fatty acids which your body needs to ingest or manufacture from other nutrients in order to maintain basic functions of the cardiovascular and nervous system. You may already know that most people take flax seed oil because it contains ALA.

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In the war of fish oil vs flax seed oil, there is one critical battle.

You may not be aware of the effect ALA has on many cellular enzymes. To put it simply, cells chemically prefer not to make their own omega because it is very energy inefficient.

In fact, almost 10% of your brain is actually composed of omega-3 fat, so it's got to be important. Furthermore, omega-3 supplements have been linked to improved cardiovascular health and mental performance.

Unfortunately, vegetable oil is not the best place to find these fats, and you'll soon see why.

Fish Oil

Fish oil already has large amounts of EPA and DHA, the fats that your body wants to manufacture in order to function at its peak.

So if flax seed oil has everything the body needs to manufacture these, then you don't need to ingest them, right?

Wrong. In fact, it takes huge amounts of ALA to manufacture EPA and DHA. That's why it's better to just ingest a small amount of fish oil, unless you do all of your cooking with flax oil, everyday, for every meal.

For this reason, most studies indicate that taking a small amount of EPA and DHA will prevent the need for taking other kinds of oil which may actually throw off the body's balance of other kinds of omega-3. For example, a person needs much more omega-3 than omega-6, and most vegetable oils contain too much omega-6.

Complicated? Not really. If you take a supplement high in EPA and DHA, then the body has everything it needs to be well supplied with essential fats. As long as you're not exposing yourself to certain toxins, which I discuss extensively elsewhere, there's no reason not to pursue a lifelong relationship with the benefits of fish oil.

Fish oil vs flax seed oil: I don't know if we can declare a winner today, but remember that you're getting different things from both of these sources. Ultimately, though, I have to admit that the similarities between flax seed oil and other commonly available vegetable oils cause me to lean toward fish oil. Of course there seems to be nothing wrong with taking these in tandem, as long as you're keeping the balance as far as the types of omega. There are actually many different types, and it is possible to ingest toxic amounts of one in particular.

Showdown: Fish Oil Vs Flax Seed Oil

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