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Why Fish Oil? It is More Important Today than Ever for Maintaining Optimal Health

Our modern life style is a major risk factor for heart disease, certain types of cancer, type 2-diabetes and a host of other chronic illnesses.  One hundred years ago, the incidence of these maladies was nowhere near the level of today. Our long-ago ancestors would not have died from most modern illnesses, even if their life spans were as long as ours are today. Nutritional science and medicine has explained that diet plays a key role in increasing our health risks. Our diets have changed radically over time, with major changes in the last fifty to one hundred years, while the same period has seen large increases in these illnesses. The emergence of farming and herding and advances in food processing changed our natural diet, not always for the better.

The key essential fatty acids are omega-6 and the omega-3. Omega-3 fatty acids are abundant in the oils of fish, particularly fatty fish. Omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids are essential because we cannot make them and must obtain them in our diet. In the human diet of yesteryear omega-3 fatty acids were found in all foods consumed, meat, wild plants, eggs, fish, nuts and berries.

Research indicates that the balance between omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids is a critical factor in determining our risk of acquiring a number of chronic illnesses. Our genes today are similar to the genes of our long-ago ancestors, but our eating habits differ greatly, or to put it another way, our genes have not changed to keep pace with our diet. This is highlighted by the type and amount of essential fatty acids in the foods eaten by most Americans today. Our diet has created an “imbalance” that too often manifests itself as chronic illnesses, some of which have become endemic.

The rapid change in our diet has produced one rich in omega-6 fatty acids and low in omega-3 fatty acids.  These high omega-6/omega-3 ratios have been shown to correlate to higher instances of many diseases, including cardiovascular disease, atherosclerosis, essential hypertension, obesity, diabetes, arthritis, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, and many cancers, especially cancer of the breast, colon and prostate. 

The belief is that our ancestors ate a diet that maintained the desirable ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 of approximately 1 to 1. Research has seen ratios in our modern diets to be as high as 15 to 1 and even 20 to 1 due to a diet deficient in omega-3 fatty acids and rich in omega-6 fatty acids. When the omega-6/omega-3 ratio imbalance is narrowed towards the 1 to 1 ratio, a beneficial effect is noted. 

A pioneer in omega-6/omega-3 research wrote, “The beneficial health effects of omega-3 fatty acids… were described first in the Greenland Eskimos who consumed a high seafood diet and had low rates of coronary heart disease, asthma, type 1 diabetes mellitus, and multiple sclerosis. Since that observation, the beneficial health effects of omega-3 fatty acids have been extended to include benefits related to cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and psoriasis.”

Omega-6/omega-3 research continues, time and again, to substantiate the critical importance and role of maintaining the proper balance of these essential fatty acids. 

So, take your Nordic Naturals fish oils and do yourself and your family a good turn, and those around you, they will be happier as well.

Chris Janelli

 

These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. These Products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.