The Hemp Connection:
Fish oil and Flax seed

This is to address some great questions about fish oil that Katie sent in.

Katie asked:
after reading about fish oil and its obvious benefits, I finally bought some Carlson Super Omega-3 Fish Oil Concentrate soft gels yesterday at Whole Foods.

I have several questions I have tried to get answered via this site and the Internet, but can't seem to find clear answers, so I am throwing them out here, in hopes you can help.

1. The bottle says"Each Carlson Super Omega — 3 soft gel contains 1000 mg (1 gram) of a special concentrate of fish body oils from deep, cold-water fish which are especially rich in the important Omega-3's EPA and DHA." However, the Supplemental Facts read EPA 300 mg DHA 200 mg Other Omega-3's 100mg. I believe that adds up to 600mg. Right? There is no mention of the other 400 mg. Where are they? I'm very confused about this. Can you explain this to me? There is also Natural Vitamin E — 10 IU…incase that means something.

2. How many pills/mg am I supposed to take? I read between 1000 mg and 3000 mg. Which makes me confused again because even though the bottle says 1000 mg in each pill I can only find 600 of them! I want to make sure that I am taking enough, but not taking too much! How much do you take? Also, do I work up to that or just dive in?

3. Last question…is there anything else I should be taking with the fish oil? I know that sometimes if you take something you need to supplement with something else. Is that the case here?

Thank you in advance for your advice and information!

My response:
Katie, these are really great questions and something that I am often asked by my clients. Here's the scoop:

1. The dosage on the ingredient list can indeed be very confusing and frankly I believe it is a way in which some supplement companies try to give the impression that you are getting a better product with higher potency, but it can be misleading. When the label states something like…"contains 1000 mg marine oil", you are not getting the complete information.

The critical ingredients and the amounts you need to know about are — how much EPA (eicosapentanoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) are contained in each capsule.

EPA and DHA have been shown to support healthy functioning of the cardiovascular, immune, gastrointestinal, and musculoskeletal systems. EPA is also an excellent anti-inflammatory and helpful in conditions such as insulin resistance, diabetes and auto-immune related inflammation.

DHA is an important factor for those with PCOS as it supports many aspects of health including pregnancy, fetal development, and healthy neurological function.

The other"marine lipids" are simply the total fat of the fish, where the EPA and DHA are the active portions of that fat. It is the"actives" that are providing the therapeutic value. The vitamin E in the capsules is for preservative purposes and helps prevent rancidity of the fat.

2. Regarding the dosage you should take, that is a harder question to answer because it will depend on what you are trying to target. Those with PCOS should be targeting anywhere from 500 — 1000 mg. DHA. So you need to know how much DHA is in each cap, for example if the capsule has only 200mg. of DHA, you'll need to take 3 of them to get approximately 500mg. You can then work up to a higher dose, always start with the lower dose and work your way up. Sometimes it is easier to get a liquid version that is high potency versus taking handfuls of pills to achieve the same dose.

I do not recommend that you take a liquid fish oil that is derived from Cod Liver Oil as the source as it usually has a high amount of Vitamin A and it is possible to get toxic doses of vitamin A. Another thing to note is that in a combination EPA/DHA cap, the dosage EPA will usually be higher than the amount of DHA, that is no problem. The EPA will only be of additional benefit.

Don't hesitate consulting with a registered dietitian knowledgeable both in PCOS and supplements in order to have your supplementation tailored to your specific health needs — remember we are all different, with unique physiology, medical history and requirements.

3. Fish Oil does not have to be taken with anything else to enhance its function. It can be taken all at once, with meals, between meals — it is very flexible this way.

Here are a couple of additional tips:

- if you tend to"burp" back fish oil, make sure to buy a brand that comes in an"enterically coated capsule", they might cost a few cents more, but it's worth it.
- refrigerate your fish oil to protect it and this also can help reduce"burp back".
- contributes to creating beautiful, healthy skin.

One last fun fact about fish oil. Most of it actually comes from the southern hemisphere not as you might think from the deep waters off Norway!

Here's to fish oil!

Carmina McGee, MS, RD, LE
Ventura, California
805.816.2629
info@carminamcgee.com

As you know, I have a huge allegiance to omega-3 fatty acids and their potential for our readers. So much so that my friends are convinced that under the mask of my smiling face there is a giant fish head. I have done my best to steer clear of allegiance to any particular brand, but I do have a strong allegiance to integrity. I ran across something recently that felt really wrong, and I'd like to bring it to our fans' attention, so that their choices for who to support in the quest for hormone balance are informed choices.

From time to time I've mentioned a line of products I thought were really nice omega-3 options from a company called Barlean's, their Omega Swirl line. Pictured here is their packaging, including their lemon-flavored fish oil and their strawberry-banana flavored flax oil.

Yesterday I ran across a new line of products.

Here's a picture of their lemon fish oil product.

And wow, here's their — whaddaya know — strawberry banana flax oil product.

Same flavor, same concept…they didn't even bother to package in a different bottle.

As for what's inside, the original (Barlean's) contains 365 mg DHA, 365 mg EPA, and 970 mg total omega-3 fatty acids. The other company's product? 360 mg DHA, 360 mg EPA, and just over 1000 mg total omega-3 fatty acids. A little too close to be considered coincidence.

I know there are certain rules by which the US Patent and Trademark Office define how we each can play the intellectual property game. And I know for every rule there are always 2 or 3 or 4 ways around it.

But I also know what integrity looks like. This is not it.

Be good to the Barlean's people. They're the ones who did the hard work and the ones who deserve our support.

**I receive no compensation from Barlean's and never have.

Last night I settled in to watch the evening news, in time to see an ad for Country Crock's Omega 3 Plus brand margarine. With my reputation as somewhat of an"omega 3 queen," I figured I'd better pay attention. And by the time the ad was over, I knew I had today's post.

This label is a perfect example of why consumers are confused, and why they can have a hard time achieving the benefits of good nutritional choices.

First, the good news.

The margarine has no trans fats, because it contains no hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils. For fertility, this is a huge plus--with as little as 2% of your total calories per day coming from trans fats (about 2/3 tsp for the average woman), fertility can drop by as much as 73%.

Secondly, one serving provides 500 mg of omega-3's in the form of ALA.

Now for the confusing and potentially detrimental news.

When the professionals on this blog talk about what we're doing to enhance fertility and reduce inflammation, and we refer to omega-3's, we are primarily referring to EPA and DHA, the omega-3's that, except for omega-3 eggs and foods supplemented with algal DHA, contain either fish or fish oil. (Menhaden oil, which is what is found in Smart Balance Omega 3 Margarine, is a type of fish oil.)

Any other type of omega-3 is likely to be ALA. This type of omega-3 is found in canola oil, and flaxseed oil, among other things. In this margarine, the ALA source is canola oil.

But there is no fish oil or marine algae to provide a similar nutritional feature.

There are some things that flax and canola can do, and there are some that flax and canola simply cannot do.

Many people, nutritionists included, operate on the assumption that since the omega-3 found in canola and flax can be converted into EPA and DHA, that you can get enough of the latter two without having to eat fish. Most respected omega-3 chemists will tell you this is highly unlikely.

On a good day, when your diet is as perfect as it can possibly be (which, even in the case of the person writing this post is never), only about 2-3% of your flax and canola can be converted into the other omega-3's.

Bottom line, it's pretty non-negotiable, you are highly unlikely to get the amount of omega-3's your body needs, especially if you are trying to conceive, if you are assuming you can do it without fish.

Secondly, the primary oil in the margarine appears to be liquid soybean oil. Remember the rule about"S" and"C" oils? Soybean is one of those"S" oils with a tendency to be pro-inflammatory. It was impossible to tell from the label what the ratio of soybean to canola oil was, and I would suspect that it was higher than you're going to want if you're trying to choose fertility-friendly foods.

I immediately became suspicious about this Country Crock product when I went to the website and nowhere, I mean absolutely nowhere, could I find a plainly stated ingredient list. Sure, there's a label to look at, but it's strategically posted in a way that all the nutritional information is there except for the ingredients. Hmmmm…

…so I went to the FAQ section. Couldn't find it there either. I found a lot of long-winded explanations of trans-fat labeling, and that was my second red flag.

Since I had to go to the grocery store anyway, I stopped in and looked at the label. Here, for the benefit of the rest of the people on the Internet, is the list of ingredients from the side of the container of this product:

Vegetable oil blend (liquid soybean oil, canola oil, palm oil, palm kernel oil, water, whey, salt, vegetable mono and diglycerides, soy lecithin (potassium sorbate, calcium disodium EDTA), citric acid, artificial flavor, vitamin A (palmitate), and beta carotene.

For more information on healthy fats, go to http://www.zingbars.com/science-of-zing.html, where my Zing Bar friends describe why they did--and didn't--include certain fats in their new product.

Any fat that is going to be solid at room temperature is going to have to have some saturated fat in its formula. Otherwise, it would melt. So even though the total saturated fat content is low, the type of fat being used to provide the solid quality is not one you want to get much of in your diet.

I'm not really a butter or margarine person so giving those up was not an issue for me. But I did start my career in the Chicago area, and I remember how people used to look at me like I was purple-polka-dotted if I even hinted that dairy intake might need to be adjusted. So I know it's an issue for some of you.

Bottom line--if you choose to use the product, do so only once in awhile and sparingly. I'd rather see people use olive oil-based dipping sauces for breads and cook with either canola or olive oil.

If you're interested in learning more, the authors of the study below also wrote a recently released book in plain English entitled, The Fertility Diet. I'd check it out.

Chavarro JE, Rich-Edwards JW, Rosner BA, Willett WC. Diet and lifestyle in the prevention of ovulatory disorder infertility. Obstet Gynecol. 2007 Nov;110(5):1050-8.