Paul Saladino· MD
the human body's really miserable at converting alpha linolenic acid to usable omega-3s EPA & DHA
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the human body's really miserable at converting alpha linolenic acid to usable omega-3s EPA & DHA
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alpha linolenic acid is doesn't really convert well to epa and dha it's not used in human biology so that's pretty basically a worthless precursor
I personally wonder if a lot of the omega-3 deficiency we're seeing is because the omega-6 in the diet that's excess linoleic acid is kind of gumming it up
Plant-based omegas have ALA and are not a great source of EPA/DHA.
The body can convert ALA into EPA then DHA but not efficient.
~ 5% of ALA is converted to EPA, whereas, < than 0.5% is converted in to DHA.
Conversion of ALA into EPA and DHA is very inefficient.
our bodies can convert some of the ala into epa and dha but it's not a very efficient process so eating foods that are rich in epa and dha or supplementing can help boost your levels