November 15, 2020: Best form of Omega-3

At this moment, if you were to go online and try to determine the best type of omega-3 to buy, you'd run into many different results. There are plant-based sources and animal sources. Within animal sources, you will mainly hear about marine animals, but you may hear about the omega-3 in chicken or beef. Then you may hear that there are various types of omega-3 out there. So with all of this information, it can be difficult to distill the truth.

So I will try to simplify things as much as possible so you can make an informed decision. You may say that this is a seal oil website and obviously I would recommend seal oil as an omega-3 supplement in that case. However, instead of just saying seal oil and leaving it at that, I would like to provide an explanation.

First of all, plant-based sources of omega-3 come in the form of ALA. ALA must be converted to DHA and EPA in order to be useful by the body. Depending on various factors, estimates for the conversion rate range from around 5-15%. Therefore, if you see that a plant-based omega-3 supplement contains 100mg of "omega-3", you must convert that to between 5 and 15mg since that is what your body will ultimately end up getting. On top of that, the source is simply not very direct, so there are drawbacks to that as well.

The next possibility is fish oil. Fish oil contains EPA and DHA, so that's a good point. There are however several issues with fish oil. First of all, 99% of the time, it only contains 2 forms of omega-3. It does not contain DPA, which is a valuable form of omega-3 which is not present in fish. The body can convert DHA and EPA into DPA, but again it's not a direct source and thus less effective. The other issue with fish oil is that its source is often unknown or shady in two ways. First of all, it may be hard to tell which types of fish were used in its production. Also, one may not know if the fish used is farmed or wild. These are important factors. The second way is that where the fish came from may also be unknown. Did it comes from a sustainable fishery in Canada or a horribly unsustainable fishery in a third-world country. There are many questions which surround this question and answers can be hard to come by.

The third type of omega-3 is seal oil. Why do I believe this is the best type? Well, for three reasons. Number one, it's a complete form of omega-3 as it comes from a mammalian source. Because humans are mammals, we more easily absorb and assimilate the nutrients of mammal-based nutrients. The supplements contain the correct ratios that correspond with our bodies. Secondly, seal oil contains DPA, which is almost never found in fish oil. DPA has some very powerful medical benefits, which I have written about in other posts. Thirdly, we know the type of seals and where they come from. Terra Nova Seal Oil always uses Atlantic Harp Seals from the North Atlantic waters around Newfoundland. It's that simple. All seals used are wild and in relatively pristine waters.

Now, I must also mention algae oil as a source of omega-3. Yes, it is a plant-based source but it does contain DHA and EPA. I have not done extensive research into this particular supplement, but whenever you are dealing with plant-based sources such as this, there are questions regarding purity and quality.

Thanks for checking out the blog once again. Enjoy your day!