DHA - The secret to Fish Oils

After a nice little break attending conferences in Florida, I'm right back into attending seminars in Canada.

Normally, I probably would have taken a day or two off, but yesterday's seminar was on a topic I've always found somewhat confusing - fish oils.

After sitting through a very entertaining lecture, I can tell you that the most important thing you need to know about fish oils is actually the three letters. D-H-A.

These three letters stand for the omega 3 fatty acid Docosahexanoic Acid, but since that's a bit of a tongue twister, everyone just says "DHA".

For all purposes DHA is the reason omega-3 supplements are so popular right now.

DHA is the component of fish oil that plays an important role in the development of brains and eyes of children, and may play a role our brain development even as adults.

The 'Secret' of fish oil is that the daily intake of DHA in North America is incredibly low. North American women tend to average around 80 mg per day of DHA, while children under the of 3 have a daily intake of less than 20 mg. So even the smallest amount of extra DHA in your diet could double your intake!

Now, increasing your intake of omega-3 oils from plants like flax seeds or flax seed oil will do very little to help boost your DHA levels. As it turns out, the best way to increase your DHA levels is by eating DHA. And that means eating more fish, fish oils, or some of the new algae based products that have also appeared on the market.

Now, before you start saying "but Brad, I hate fish and I hate the fish burps I get from fish oil capsules", let me tell you the good news- There are other options.

The next time you go to the grocery store, keep an eye out for foods that now have extra DHA in them. There are eggs and milk that have the added DHA, and of course my favorite, the chocolate milk with DHA. A food that adds as little as 10 mg of DHA to your diet per serving could drastically improve your DHA intake.

Here's my tip for you today - If you don't like fish and don't like taking pills, you can increase your DHA with these new functional foods (and they still taste great). A little extra could go a long way in helping you reach optimal health.

Brad and the team at grrlAthlete.com


PS- If you want to learn more about the health benefits of DHA you can visit the website DHAomega3.org

Can Fish Oils Make You Thin?

If you've read the news in the last couple of days then you've probably read all the headlines about a new study that shows that the combination fish oils and exercise can help you lose fat.

To quickly summarize the study, researchers randomly assigned 75 overweight men and women to one of four groups:

• Group One took 6 grams of fish oil per day,
• Group Two took 6 grams of fish oil per day and exercised 3 days per week;
• Group Three took 6 grams of sunflower oil (the placebo), and
• Group Four took 6 grams of sunflower oil and exercised 3 days per week.
  

After 12 weeks, the results showed the subjects in Group Two (The people taking fish oil and exercising) lost body fat.

The subjects in this group lost a little over 3 pounds of fat in 12 weeks. Definitely not extraordinary, but significant nonetheless.

So people who exercised lost some fat. In my opinion this was expected. What was not expected was that the sunflower plus exercise group did not lose any fat.

Now, these people also added exercise to their lifestyle, so you would expect them to also lose fat. So either the combination of fish oil and exercise somehow 'created' this extra fat loss, or, pardon the pun, something is fishy with this study.

On closer inspection of the data I noticed something that may account for these results.

While the fish oil plus exercise group reported that their daily calorie intake pretty much remained the same for the 12 weeks of the study, the sunflower plus exercise group saw their daily caloric intake increase by 327 Kcals per day by week 6 of the trial, and stay elevated by 230 Kcals at week 12.

While the researchers make no mention of this as being significant, it may help explain the lack of fat loss in the sunflower plus exercise group.

At the end of the day, caloric restriction and exercise are the only way to lose fat. The better your exercise program and the better your diet, the more fat you will lose. Plain and simple.

However, don't rule out fish oils. Most fish oil research finds that they can benefit blood lipids and your cholesterol profile.

Bottom line, Fish oils are good for you, just don't get your hopes up about them making you lose weight.

BP

Fasting Diet, Circuit Training