The evidence is convergent. Multiple independent sources reach the same conclusion, the underlying mechanism is well-characterized, and even the field's most cautious voices treat it as worth doing.
But, if a person is a vegan or a vegetarian, their best bet is to actually get microalgae oil. And you can supplement with microalgae oil because microalgae, they do make the DHA. And so that would be a better source for people that are vegetarian and vegan rather than doing the flaxseed oil because that conversion inefficiency, the enzymes that convert ALA into EPA and DHA, again, it's inefficient.
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And ALA, it can be converted into EPA and DHA, but the conversion is very inefficient and very dependent on a variety of factors, including genetics. Genetics, a huge regulator. Some people can do it much better. Others, you're getting like 5% of conversion to EPA. Estrogen is a major regulator of making that more efficient.
Plant derived Omega-3 (Alpha Linoleic acid) is beneficial but less efficient than marine and algal Omega-3.
alpha linolenic acid from plant foods is not going to get converted to EPA and DHA very well excuse me yeah DHA very well animal foods are your best source
DHA cannot take a la alpha linoleic acid from chia seeds or flax seeds and convert that into DHA or EPA
as I talked about in my book and as you've talked about the human body is really miserable at converting alpha linolenic acid to usable omega-3s EPA & DHA
as we know in many vegetarians or in people uh generally in the population what you will find is that the conversion of ala to EPA and DHA is really low actually and that is because they are overloading their system with Omega 6 is yet another problem with excess omega-6's like linolic acid in the human diet
by a group of desaturases ala can get transformed into dha and epa however it is widely believed that only 0.5 of dha and epa are made from conversion of ama that number though you have to take it with a grain of salt because there might be evidence that in diets vegetarians or vegans who do not eat fish that conversion rate may actually be much higher
the reason people talk about omega-3s and they make a big deal out of it it's because the human body doesn't have an efficient system to make them from scratch in fact you can't make them from scratch if you want to make them you need a precursor known as alpha linoleic acids or ala
Fish or algae-based supplements may be more effective due to the inefficient ALA conversion from plant-based sources.
there are common Gene polymorphisms in the Delta desaturated Gene fads that affect the ability to convert the plant omega-3 fatty acid alphal linolenic acid ala into icosapent enoic acid EPA which is often found in Marine sources this polymorphism can either increase or decrease the efficiency to convert ala into EPA because this conversion efficiency is already so low having the polymorphism that decreases efficiency even further is not a good thing
this is particularly relevant for vegetarians that often take ALA as their primary source of omega-3 fatty acids and may want to consider supplementing with another option such as microalgae oil which has more EPA and DHA and doesn't R in having to convert it from Ala
So you can convert ALA into those, but it's not very efficient. Women can do it much better because estrogen...At least pre-menopausal women can do it much better, because estrogen activates the enzyme that converts it into it, but...And there's gene polymorphisms, which are variations in sequence of DNA, which changes the function, or changes the function of the gene, in a way. So some people have ones that they can't convert ALA into EPA and DHA very well.
the plant omega-3s ala um get ala gets converted into epa in the body correct and can be yes it can be
in my view that ala has not got the cardio protective benefits of epa and dha i mean there's some studies that have shown some benefit and it's good i'm all for it but people very often confuse those two sources they think that they'll list good sources of omega-3 they'll say salmon and sardines then they'll say chia seeds and black walnuts and just throw it all in together and it's very misleading because the plant-based omega-3s are not nearly as potent as the marine omega-3s
I would say the majority of people have another version that are not so great at it. And to kind of add fuel to the fire, having too much of vegetable oils, omega-6 fatty acids, I don't want to demonize them so much because, like, you can get...you need linoleic acid, you need arachnidonic acid. It's part of your cell membrane, they have important functions. Getting them from whole food sources, like nuts, is great. But the vegetable oils are very, very concentrated and a lot of cooking, if you eat out, if you buy processed foods, they're usually cooked and processed with vegetable oils. That omega-6, when it's too high, can compete with that enzyme that's required to convert ALA into EPA.
That omega-6, when it's too high, can compete with that enzyme that's required to convert ALA into EPA.
The problem with that is that the conversion of ALA into EPA, and then subsequently DHA, it's very inefficient and there's widespread genetic differences with respect to that conversion.