Should You Eat Fish To Get Your Omega3 Fatty Acids?
Now that’s a good question. We all need more omega3 fatty acids in our diet, but should we eat fish. Fish is contaminated with mercury.
And if eating fish is a bad idea because of the mercury, how else do you get that Omega3 in your diet?
There are other places to find Omega3 fatty acids, like some plant sources, but by far the best place to find the right types of Omega3 is fish.
But there is a problem with eating fish isn’t there? What about mercury contamination? Isn’t fish contaminated with mercury?
The EPA says that there is mercury contamination in all fish.
And it’s not a good idea to get mercury into your body, particularly for children. Your body doesn’t get rid of it.
But notwithstanding, the EPA doesn’t tell us to remove fish from our diet. Fish is ok in small quantities and they do offer some guidelines for how much, and what type, you should eat.
Its ok to eat around 2 serves of fish a week. However for children or pregnant women theres some more things to think about, because mercury is more of a risk to children or developing fetuses.
Pregnant women and children ought to avoid eating shark, swordfish, king mackerel, or tilefish. These fish are high mercury fish.
But dont eliminate all fish from your diet just because youre worried about mercury. If you like fish you can eat it, sensibly and in relatively small quantities.
But there’s another problem before we conclude that we all ought to be eating fish for our Omega3 fatty acids. Fish is scarce and getting scarcer. Have you seen the price of fish lately? It’s really expensive.
And although the EPA says its ok to eat it, if youre eating fish to get your Omega3 then there is a better way. Of course if you just love fish then go for it.
And there is still mercury in fish, albeit in small amounts, and there is a solution to getting your Omega3 that doesnt involve eating fish, that is cheaper than buying fish a couple of times a week, and overcomes the problem with mercury contamination.
Its using Omega3 fatty acid supplements. These contain fish oil, but the very best fish oil supplements source the cleanest fish in the ocean and then put it through an extremely robust molecular distillation process that means that levels of mercury, as well as other common contaminants of fish oil, are undetectable.
But be aware that although many fish oil supplements claim to be contamination free, there are varying standards, none binding, and not all fish oil supplements are truly contamination free.
So if you love to eat fish, and you’re independently wealthy, go for it. But if you’re eating it to get your Omega3 fats, then there’s cheaper better ways, with no risk of eating any mercury.