Most of your clients probably associate
omega-3s with fish oil supplements, but in
fact they originate in algae.
kilogram of wild fish is required to produce half a kilogram of farmed
fish, because many larger farmed fish consume diets containing
smaller wild fish.
The problem touches other aspects of the human diet, as well.
Along with factory-farmed fish, pigs and poultry consume 28 million
tons of fish each year (roughly fifty times the amount of seafood
eaten by Australians).
2. Contaminants
increase in your ALA level (which might have some
benefits), but EPA and DHA could still be low.
Various factors diminish our ability to convert
ALA into EPA, including:
• a diet high in saturated fat, trans fat,
cholesterol, and sugar
• elevated blood sugar
• genetics
• high stress
• deficiency of zinc, magnesium, calcium, biotin,
vitamin C, vitamin B3, or vitamin B6
• excessive vitamin A or copper
• unbalanced fatty acid ratios (too much
omega-6)
• medications
• high alcohol intake
• gender (women seem to convert ALA to EPA
better than men)
• advancing age (older people don’t convert ALA
to EPA as well).
So, while flax can be a moderate help in improving
fatty acid balance, it probably won’t do much good
for clients whose overall diets are poor.
Why not just stick with fish oil?
Fish oil supplements may seem more familiar to
your clients, but once you clue them in, they may
be inspired to replace it with algae oil.
Beyond the lighter dosing you get with algae, the
following reasons may affect their decision:
1. Overfishing
If everyone decided to eat more fish and/or take fish
oil, we wouldn’t have enough fish.
One study found that if current overfishing
and pollution patterns continue, we can expect
to see a complete collapse of world fish
populations by 2048.
Ninety per cent of the small fish caught in the
world’s oceans each year are processed to make
fishmeal and fish oil. While these species, including
anchovies, sardines, mackerel and menhaden, do
tend to be more resilient to fishing pressure since
they reproduce faster, that’s not enough to slow the
overall decline in marine populations.
According to the United Nations, two-thirds
of the world’s fish are already either depleted or
fully exploited.