Can Calamari Cure Cancer?

Omega-3 Essential Fatty Acids are fattening the wallets of supplement distributors. These sources of healthy fats that we can only get from food are clinically proven to reduce the risk of heart disease and other early death sentences.

It's no wonder Omega-3s are one of the top-selling supplements in the $60+ billion dollar supplement industry.

I've jumped on the Omega-3 bandwagon, having purchased several bottles and capsules...even waffles.

But as mentioned in a previous article for MNN.com I covered on Omega-3s for vegetarians, not all sources of 3s are created equally. Humans tend to absorb plant-sources of 3s (ALAs) pretty easily but ALAs don't efficiently convert into the more potent EPA and DHA forms of Omega-3s that are primarily found in cold water oily fish like wild-caught salmon.

Though plant sources don't contain enough EPA and DHA, can it be concluded that vegetarians aren't as healthy as those who eat cold-water sources of oily fish that are rich in EPA/DHA?

That wasn't meant to be the focus of this week's Fit Friday, but it does pose an interesting question, one that was answered at the end of the blog I linked to earlier on Omega-3s for vegetarians who don't eat fish or pop fish oil pills: Does a vegetarian's health suffer by not consuming EPA/DHA-rich fish?

Not if they:

• Eat several meals a day, all with protein
• Doesn't over-compensate for the loss of animal protein by eating lots of quick-burning carbs
• Combines the right foods to get all essential amino acids 
• The obvious: doesn't smoke or abuse liquor or drugs or eat lots of unhealthy fats (anything hydrogenated or trans fats and too many cooked polyunsaturated fats) and junk food

Although my parents manage to eat salmon the recommended two to three times a week (Good for them!), I don't eat it religiously like they do. So, should I take fish oil supplements? Even if one researcher I interviewed for the Omega 3 for veggies article said until research proves it, supplements aren't necessarily as effective as natural sources. 

I'm banking that DHA/EPA supplements are at least partially as potent as cold water oily sources. We don't need that much to begin with (despite what the health marketers would lead us to believe); we primarily need to make sure we don't consume breads and other baked goods that lead to inflammation throughout the body. 

The overwhelming majority of traditional cultures that have been studied and been documented with very little chronic modern diseases like heart disease have included animal sources of Omega-3s. 

Almost everybody by now has heard about Eskimos being very healthy despite eating whale blubber (not despite; because of!). Eskimos also consume fish oil and krill oil, supplements of which have flooded the markets. 

And before long, you'll likely hear about squid (calamari), particularly wild line caught from Scandinavia. Squid is especially rich in DHA. Although DHA and EPA are often lumped together as especially rich Omega-3s, DHA, some researchers believe, is the body's preferred Omega-3. 

So don't be surprised if you soon see in your local health food store squid in a bottle. 

Just don't eat it fried too often.