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Should Everyone Supplement with Fish Oil?

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Fish oil may not be all it was cracked up to be, especially in the case of heart disease prevention. In this podcast I'll discuss what the latest research says about fish oil supplementation.

Revolution Health Radio podcast, Chris Kresser

Maybe two or three years ago most patients that came to me were taking some kind of fish oil supplement because the idea was we weren’t getting enough omega-3 in our diets, and there were studies that suggested that fish oil goes a long way toward preventing heart disease. But there have been some chinks in the armor this hypothesis over the past few years and especially so over the past year.

In this episode, we cover:

0:24  My two upcoming London seminars
6:43  The latest research on fish oil supplementation
10:47 Testing for omega-6 and omega-3

Links We Discuss

Chris Kresser: Hey, everybody, it’s Chris Kresser from Revolution Health Radio.

My Two Upcoming London Seminars

Today I’m going to answer a listener question, but before I do that, I want to remind you that my two events in London, October 31 and November 1, are coming up, probably only a few days away by the time you hear this.

The Saturday event is geared toward the general public and will cover a broad range of topics in the ancestral nutrition and health and functional medicine world. I like to do those events in a way that’s driven by the interests of people in the room. That one is nearly sold out, I believe, but I think there are still a few spaces. It’s going to be at King’s College, and a paleo lunch will be provided. It’s from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

And then the Sunday event is geared more toward clinicians and healthcare practitioners, though all are welcome to attend. I’m going to focus here more on trends that will define the future of medicine, functional medicine, and the crucial role of the exposome in health and disease. I’m going to present a systems model of functional medicine that I’ve developed to guide my own practice and also for my clinician training program. I’m going to talk about how to structure and layer a treatment for maximum efficacy, how to customize nutrition plans for individual needs, and of course, we’ll have a Q&A as well. That’s also from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., will also include lunch, and is also at King’s College. There are still a few spaces left in that one as well, and this is going to be my first trip to the UK and probably my last trip, at least for a long while. I don’t have any plans to come back in the near future, so if you’re interested, I would love to meet you and see you at the events.

For the public event, you can find more information and register at ChrisKresser.com/UKpublic, and for the practitioner/clinician event, you can go to ChrisKresser.com/UKclinician.

OK, so now let’s dive into the show today. We have a question from Daniel from Sweden, so let’s give it a listen.

Question from Daniel: Hello, Chris. Daniel here from Sweden. In a local paleo forum, we have been discussing supplementation with omega-3 and if it’s needed or not, and there are quite a few people pushing a product from Zinzino, which is called Balance Oil or something like that. They have a test where they test out the ratio between omega-6 and omega-3, and I just wanted to hear your thoughts on it because it seems like their test almost always shows that the ratio is bad, which is in conflict with my own thoughts. I mean, if you eat a varied paleo diet and avoid excessive amounts of nuts and so on and you eat a lot of fatty fish, I think you should be able to have a good ratio without supplementing. It would be great to hear your thoughts on this and maybe get a better understanding if these tests are legit or if you think it’s just bad, bad testing. Thank you. Bye.

Chris Kresser: OK, so, yeah, this is a really good question, and I think a lot has changed in this area over the last even maybe three or four years, but certainly over the past 10 years. I think maybe 10 years ago, the vast majority of people would say, yes, everyone should be taking a fish oil supplement, and in fact, most patients that come to me, maybe not quite so much now, but maybe two or three years ago almost everyone that came to me was taking some kind of fish oil supplement because the idea was we weren’t getting enough omega-3 in our diets, and there were studies that suggested that fish oil goes a long way toward preventing heart disease, so this led to people taking sometimes quite high doses of fish oil capsules, maybe 3 to 5 grams a day or even more, and it became a really large industry and business with a lot of money at stake. But there have been some chinks in the armor this hypothesis over the past few years and especially so over the past year.

I actually recently published an article on this subject called “Should You Really Be Taking Fish Oil?” That was back in June. If you haven’t read that, I would definitely recommend googling it and reading it because I summarize a lot of the more recent evidence that suggests that fish oil may not be all it was cracked up to be, especially in the case of heart disease prevention.

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The Latest Research on Fish Oil Supplementation

Initial studies suggested that fish oil was beneficial for heart disease, particularly over the short term, and for people who had already had a heart attack—so this is secondary prevention, people with pre-existing heart disease—but several studies since then, including large studies and reviews of randomized clinical trials, have found that in adults even with pre-existing heart disease, long-term supplementation over three years with fish oil had no significant impact on cardiovascular endpoints. There were a few other trials that have looked at the effect of short-term fish oil supplementation on atrial fibrillation, and none of those trials—there were three of them—found that fish oil improved patient outcomes.

And then the meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials focusing on cardiovascular endpoints, like heart attack and stroke, found that fish oil did not reduce cardiovascular events or death and concluded that the evidence doesn’t support using fish oil supplements for secondary prevention of heart disease, meaning, again, people who have already had a heart attack. There is not much evidence to support that taking fish oil in that population will really do much of anything. And lest you think it was a problem with that meta-analysis, there were two other meta-analyses that were published right around the same time that came to similar conclusions.

Now, this isn’t to say that there isn’t any research that supports the use of fish oil for cardiovascular health. There was one meta-analysis in 2013 that found a protective effect on fish oil for preventing sudden death and heart attack, and certainly you can find studies that have had positive results, but I would say overall when you look at some very large recent studies and meta-analyses, the evidence supporting fish oil for preventing cardiovascular events is pretty weak.

What about metabolic syndrome? Because it’s obviously possible that fish oil could not be helpful for cardiovascular disease but could be helpful for metabolic problems. It’s another reason that it’s typically prescribed. If somebody, for example, has high triglycerides and low HDL, they might be given a higher dose of fish oil to deal with that. There is a recently published randomized clinical trial that looked at adults with metabolic syndrome, and they found that supplementation of 3 grams a day of fish oil along with 10 mL per day of olive oil for 90 days improved a lot of blood markers that are associated with metabolic syndrome. But it was interesting to note in that study that the fish-oil-plus-olive-oil group had better results than the group that took either fish oil alone or olive oil alone, and one reason for that may be that olive oil is rich in antioxidants and may have protected against the potentially greater risk of oxidative damage that comes from consuming a lot more polyunsaturated fat, which is what’s in the fish oil. So we might be seeing a scenario here where a higher dose of fish oil has some benefits, but because it’s polyunsaturated fat and has the potential to oxidize, there is also harm, and so we see no net change or in some cases even adverse effects when someone takes a high dose of fish oil, but when you add the olive oil, it has antioxidants and kind of cancels out some of that potentially harmful effect that the higher doses of fish oil have.

Testing for Omega-6 and Omega-3

But let’s bring this back a little bit more to Daniel’s question because he specifically asked about the ratio between omega-6 and omega-3 and some of the tests that are available to determine that ratio. I’ve seen a similar thing, too. I do a really advanced blood panel for patients that has, among other things, the omega-3 index as part of it, so it looks at the ratio of omega-6 fats and omega-3 in the blood, and it creates a scores. And I’m trying to remember if I’ve ever seen anyone that has had a normal score in the green. They rate the score in a kind of like traffic signal fashion with green being normal, yellow being intermediate or caution, and then red being really bad. Almost all of the values that I’ve seen have been in the yellow category, and this is probably a consequence of the fact that there’s so much omega-6 in our diet that it’s really, really difficult to get back to that historical ratio of omega-6 to omega-3, which was about 1:1 in some populations, maybe 2:1 in other populations. But in Western populations these days, the average is probably more like 9:1 or 10:1, and in some cases, on the Standard American Diet, if someone’s eating just tons of processed food with soybean oil—which can comprise up to 9 percent of total calories for some people—the ratio can be as high as 30:1.

Earlier on—and anyone who’s been following my work for a while will know this—I used to put a lot of emphasis on the omega-6-to-omega-3 ratio and it’s importance, but over the past couple of years, I’m changed my mind about that and gradually revised my views, and I’ve been writing about that and speaking about it, so this probably won’t be news to you, but it seems now that there’s less evidence really supporting the importance of the ratio and more evidence just supporting the overall intake of omega-3.

For example, if your intake of omega-3 is really low or nonexistent, you’re going to have problems. Of course, your ratio will be high because you’re almost certainly getting omega-6 from the diet. It’s much harder to avoid than omega-3 is. But if your intake of omega-6 is higher, especially if it comes from real, unprocessed food—which I’ll come back to in a second—let’s say you’re eating avocados and chicken skin and nuts and natural foods that are high in omega-6, but you’re also eating some preformed EPA and DHA from cold-water fatty fish and some other omega-3’s, plant-based omega-3’s from vegetables, walnuts and flaxseeds, etc., from my reading of the research and a lot of discussion with Chris Masterjohn, whose opinion I really respect on this issue—he’s done a ton of research on the polyunsaturated fats—and in my reading of the literature, there’s not a lot of evidence supporting the idea that that person who’s eating real-food-based omega-6 even in substantial amounts and omega-3’s is going to be at increased risk of disease. The omega-3 index was created with this whole ratio in mind, so even someone like that, who’s eating healthy omega-6’s and a fairly substantial amount of omega-3’s, will still probably score in the yellow category on that test, but I don’t really think that you can say that that person is going to be at significantly increased risk of disease.

Now, let’s consider another scenario where someone is eating, again, a Standard American Diet. They’re eating a lot of chips and fried foods, foods that have been fried in omega-6 polyunsaturated seed oils like corn oil, cottonseed oil or soybean oil, sunflower or safflower oil, and they’re eating out in restaurants all the time—unfortunately, restaurants tend to use those oils because they’re so cheap—and then their intake of omega-3 is really low, and they come back with a score of yellow on that test. That person’s going to be in a different position than the person who has a high or even medium-high intake of omega-6 from, like, avocados and nuts and chicken, and also has a pretty substantial intake of omega-3, but the ratio is still putting them in the yellow versus somebody who has a low intake of omega-3 and a pretty high intake of omega-6, all from processed and refined foods. Those people both would show up as yellow on that omega-3 index test, but they’re clearly not going to have the same risk, at least in my opinion, because it matters a lot where these fatty acids are coming from in the diet.

So I think that the ratio should be taken with a grain of salt, and there’s no reason, in my mind—I’m not convinced that it’s necessary to avoid or restrict omega-6 as it occurs in foods like avocados and nuts and seeds and chicken skin, all of which have a lot of health benefits. What’s interesting is that so many studies show that consumption of tree nuts is inversely associated with heart disease, and those are some of the richest sources of omega-6 fats, so I don’t see a need to restrict omega-6 from those foods, but it is important to get enough omega-3, and the recent studies suggest that fish oil is not the way to do that. They suggest that eating cold-water fatty fish and shellfish is consistently still in studies associated with improved outcomes, both cardiovascular and metabolic, and also improvements in overall health, cognitive function, etc., and they’re pretty significant differences, and that may be because fish does not just contain fish oil; it contains a lot of other beneficial nutrients that are important for humans. And then finally, you would want to reduce your intake of industrially processed vegetable and seed oils because they would tend to be oxidized because they’re heated at high temperatures and they don’t provide a lot of nutritional value.

So there are kind of three things there, and I think if you just get a good amount of omega-3 from food, don’t worry about your omega-6 from nutrient-dense real foods, and limit your omega-6 from industrially processed sources, you’ll be in good shape. It all kind of falls into the category of “eat real food!” I think over the past several years we’ve gotten a little too obsessive about some of this stuff. I never personally saw anyone improve symptomatically by minimizing their intake of omega-6 from real foods, and I don’t think that the research is there to support it.

I hope this answers your question, Daniel. As you said, if you eat a varied paleo diet and avoid excessive amounts of nuts—I don’t think the reason, necessarily, to avoid them is because of the omega-6, but if you’re trying to watch your weight, that might be a reason to moderate your intake—but you should be fine even if your ratio is in the yellow range.

All right, so that’s it for today. Again, if you’re interested in seeing me speak in the UK, you can go to ChrisKresser.com/UKpublic for the public event or ChrisKresser.com/UKclinician for the healthcare practitioner/clinician event. That’s it for today. I’ll see you next time.

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105 Comments

Join the conversation

  1. Hello Chris,

    Before I ask, just wanted to mention that I’m a huge fan of your work. I have both your books, I’ve read all your ebooks, and have enrolled in your 14 Four program which has done wonders for me. You’ve made a true difference in my life, the improvement is unbelievable. Thank you so much.

    My question is, I’m in the process of healing my gut, fish did not appear as one of my allergens on the IGG tes, but every time I eat it, I flare up, so it’s still out of the question. I haven’t eaten any sources of omega-3 in over a year. I also eat cafo meat, because it’s not available where I live, so I can’t really rely on omega 3 in my meat sources. What would you suggest. Any Canadian brands of fish oil you’re familiar with that you could refer me to? Also, what dosage would you suggest?

    I appreciate your time.
    Thanks again for everything,

    Anita.

  2. Fish oil is one of the few supplements that reduces the feeling of pressure I have in my head because of myalgic encephalomyelitis. The others are vitamin D, calcium AEP and colostrum.

  3. A client of mine with prediabetes eats sources of natural Omega 6 including avocados and nuts as well as fatty fish and shellfish for Omega 3. I added an EFA supplement as well because her HDL has been too low and her triglycerides have been too high.

  4. Hi Chris/Staff,

    Related to this article and the general advice of consuming fatty cold water fish, is there any concern with the radioactive material that is still contaminating ocean water and traveling to places like the Pacific Northwest from Fukashima? I see a Health coach/Nutritionist with a background in radioactive materials and cautioned me about consuming seafood like wild salmon from the Pacific Northwest. Are you aware of any risks or any thoughts about this? I’m not sure if this is too far outside of the scope of the conversation but I’ve been curious if any of the Health experts, especially in the Paleo community, such as yourself are following this.

  5. Chris, my rheumatologist started me on fish oil years ago to help dampen the inflammation in my body from Rheumatoid Arthritis. I take at least 3,000 mg daily. Do you consider this a valid reason to keep taking it?

  6. Chris, I wonder whether you have come across the website http://www.brianpeskin.com? Are there any points of agreement, bearing in mind your reservations about the use of fish oil supplements?
    I would also query our individual needs. Reading about the condition Pyroluria, there seems to be a greater need for healthy Omega 6 oils.

    • Although he is controversial, he is also right and the science is hard to dispute. Some of the biggest names in functional medicine that I have talked to personally have assured me of this, though publicly, they are not commenting because of his controversial nature.

  7. Chris, Regarding omega-6 and seed oil intake, I notice that commercial corn, soybean, sunflower and safflower are mentioned as being bad but what about organic, expeller pressed canola oil such as Spectrum brand? Doesn’t that avoid many of the negatives? Doesn’t canola oil have lower omega 6 compared to those others? I understand it has a MUFA content similar to olive oil. I understand your point that it is best to get any omega 6 you are eating from whole foods rather than oils but I have always considered good canola nearly on a par with olive oil.

    • Avoid canola oil, 80% is GMO and it can’t be cold pressed as the myrosinase enzyme in canola has to be heat inactivated before pressing or it will taste like wasabi. The heating damages the Omega content.

  8. I started eating more pumpkin and sunflower seeds and that made a big difference in how I felt. Now I just take fish oil after I binge on parties like Thanksgiving or Christmas, where I indulge in sweets, munchy snacks and other dietary lapses. The one thing that actually made a big difference in my heart heath was oil pulling with coconut oil.

  9. It may not just be the other nutrients in cold-water fish and shellfish that create better outcomes. From what I’ve read, the processing of fish oil for supplements oxidizes it (along with storage at higher temperatures — these are cold-water creatures); the free radicals would negate any benefits.

  10. Chris, I’ve been avoiding all fish in any form due to the high amounts of mercury and other toxins. Occassionally I will eat small fish like anchovy and some wild caught salmon, but it makes me very uncomfortable. Could you comment on the risk versus benefits of eating any fish consideration the high levels of pollution in the oceans now?

    • Janet,
      I think Chris already wrote about that. Maybe you could search his articles to find it. Sorry I don’t have time to do it and provide you with a link.

  11. Dear Chris,
    I wonder what you think of Dr Kruse`s idea of the primordial importance of DHA. He looks at it from a completely different nutritional perspective.

  12. “The Blue Zones” is a book about the five longest-lived groups of people in the world. In reading about their diets, it’s clear that they’re not super-high in omega-3’s, yet these people consistently live into their 80s, 90s, and past 100.

    The Sardinians eat mostly fava beans, zucchini, tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, pecorino cheese from grass-fed sheep, bread, goat’s milk, occasional meat (maybe twice a month or less), and red wine (their local wine has 3x the flavonoids of other reds). Homemade bread is by far the main food. These people live in the mountains, so fish isn’t part of the diet. The pecorino cheese is high in omega-3 fatty acids, but that’s about it!

    The Okinawans (the old ones, not the modern city dwellers) eat garden-grown veggies year-round (daikon, bitter melon, garlic, onion, peppers, tomatoes), lots of sweet potatoes, some fish, some tofu, some rice (including millet rice), miso soup, seaweed (kelp, etc.), and herbs like mugwort, turmeric, ginger, and fennel. So fish is what’s giving them the omega-3s here, but from what the book says, the old ones don’t eat a ton of fish, mostly veggies and rice. They have pork maybe once a month, if that. They also have their daily sake.

    The Seventh-day Adventists in Loma Linda, CA, are mostly vegetarian. The ones that do eat meat rarely eat it. They eat a lot of nuts, at least 5 times a week. So these people mostly eat fruits, veggies, whole grains, and nuts. The book didn’t say much about dairy, so I’m not sure how much of that they eat, but it didn’t seem like a lot because it just wasn’t mentioned. Not sure where these people are getting their omega-3s, but they’re living into their 90s and beyond.

    The Costa Ricans (Nicoya) eat mostly corn, beans, squash, garden veggies, an abundance of fruit — and high-sugar fruit at that — (papaya, mango, chico zapote, oranges, and more exotic fruits like maranon and anona), eggs, and occasional pork (and pork fat mixed into rice, etc.). The foundation of the Nicoyans’ diet, however, is homemade corn tortillas, beans, squash, and fruit. So where do the omega-3s come from? I have no idea. Eggs? Pork fat? They even routinely have a cup of heavily sweetened coffee in the mornings and afternoons, and still manage to live into their 90s and beyond.

    And, lastly, the Ikarians (Greece) eat lots of olive oil, veggies, low dairy, low meat (for festivals only), bread, potatoes, goat milk, beans, fruit, and daily wine. There are more than 150 varieties of wild greens that grow on the island that are a big part of their diet. They eat very little fish, because they’re mountain people and the hike down to the water is a long one. They also drink lots of different herbal teas including marjoram, mint, olive leaf, dandelion leaves, etc. They use a lot of honey as a sweetener, sometimes starting the day with a spoonful of honey, as medicine. So, no huge source of omega-3s in this diet, either.

    I think this supports Chris Kresser’s idea about how consuming an overabundance of omega-3s isn’t as important as people thought. None of the traditional diets summarized above have an abundance of omega-3s (they do have some, however), yet these people are the longest-lived in the world with a high quality of life into their 80, 90s, and beyond.

    • Useful summary, many thanks. A clear common denominator is low consumption of meat. I think this is important unless you can be completely sure you are buying grass fed meats and also perhaps if you are not APOE type 4. Despite what all the Paleo pushers may say if you are in doubt adopting a veggie lifestyle with one eye on the potential weak points of pure vegitarianism, will do you no harm. I get regular emails from a veggie group here in the UK and they seem to have no idea what a healthy diet is and yet the core principle is healthful

      • Yes, it’s very confusing to me to read so many things showing the benefits of a paleo diet (including many people’s stories saying they feel so much better on paleo, including people I know, and can actually *see* that they’re doing better), and then read things like “The Blue Zones” that prove that people can be healthy and live very long lives on diets that are relatively meat-free and relatively high in grain consumption.

        Of course, there are other factors at work, like the huge amounts of time these people spend outdoors, moving around, working in their gardens, herding their animals, etc. Also, the tight social networks these societies tend to have, and their reverence for their elders. But when I read that the Nicoyans (Costa Rica) thrive on a diet of mostly corn tortillas, beans, and veggies, that just blew my mind, because corn (grains) and beans (high-carb, allergenic) have been kind of demonized in some health-conscious circles in recent years.

        It’s so hard to know what to believe, but I do agree with you that you could do worse than follow a high veg, very low meat diet like the people described above!

    • This is for Karen in ref. of her Oct. 28, 2015 comment.

      Re. the book “The Blue Zone,” you have to consider “when” this book was published. It does not contain a lot of information that
      we know today, for instance, re. our gut’s Microbiom. (See the many books like Dr. David Perlmutter’s currently on the market discussing this).

      Its to a very significant degree responsible for a vigorous immune system, which in turn combats MANY diseases. (Chrs
      has also made ref. to this!)

      My ancesters come from the Caucasus region in southern Russia where many people lived to be well over 100 years old. I’ve always been told it was probably due to the fermented milk products (like Kefir!) they consumed.

      Today we know that this is a very important source of probiotics which contribute to a healthy microbiom in your gut.

      So, its prossible that NOT only the foods these people ate that the “Blue Zone” book mentions contributed to their longevity, but maybe primarily those that helped the health of their guts!

  13. What about supplements in pregnancy? You had recommended in the healthy baby cod about FCLO but not sure if that has changed?

    • James,

      I did not say anywhere in this podcast that fish oil is inappropriate for all people at all times. I still think it can be useful in some situations, for a limited period of time, at moderate doses. The title of this podcast is “Should everyone supplement with fish oil”, not “Should fish oil be avoided by everyone”.

      Furthermore, if you’ve followed my work for any length of time, you would know that I change my mind and recommendations when new research becomes available. Like many, I used to recommend fish oil for secondary prevention of heart disease, which is one (but not the only) reason that it is in my store.

      • Drug companies get a lot of stick and rightly so for conflicts of interest. It also worries me that we now have a spate of medical advisors coming from a no pharma basis who at the same time are selling their own supp’s. Why should we trust these people any more than the drug companies ?. One thing I like about Esseltyn is that he appears to be giving away nothing other than advice unless he is a paid member of the veg’ marketing board,

      • Hi Chris,

        I very much appreciate that you change your recommendations when new research becomes available. It’s one of the things that really makes you stand out from other practitioners.

        Do you no longer think fish oil is good for preventing heart disease? I tend to get queasy if I try to eat much fish, and I do use plenty of extra virgin unrefined olive oil.

      • I’m happy to see that Chris is open minded regarding FO and CLO. I would suggest that his skepticism should have occurred many years ago. Problems with FO and CLO have shown up in the literature for over 30 years. Being a published researcher myself (not in this field) I recognize good research and I would recommend the papers cited in Ray Peat’s article from around 2004,
        http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/fishoil.shtml

        It is quite possible that we the people have been the subjects of a massive PR campaign.

        • So Ray Peat is correct on fish oils but avoiding all PUFA’s is just not possible as all living things depend on them for some very basic reasons.

          • One cannot avoid naturally occurring PUFAs in food. One can avoid, however, unnecessary addition of such oils/fats to the foods in one’s diet or as supplements, the long term effects of which are uncertain at best…

            • Well the 2 essential fatty acids are PUFA’s, LA and ALA and supplementing with unadulterated sources of these 2 fatty acids are highly advisable to combat the overabundance of the processed forms of these in our diets.

  14. Chris,

    Here in Columbus Ohio I attended a number of lectures by Dr. Glen F. Aukerman with OSU Integrative Medicine and eventually went through his program. Dr. Aukerman tended to mostly treat terminally ill cancer patients (not me). He had researched this topic extensively in his own practice. There are a number of discoveries I’m not seeing others like you talk about. Not all fish oils are the same. The ratios of DHA and EPA matter a lot. Dr. Aukerman only recommend triple strength fish oil where the ratios of DHA and EPA where higher then the other omega 3 fatty acids, else the oil would only contribute to more omega-6 toxicity. The fish oil should be consumed with other food, and all other sources of high omega-6 oils need removed from you diet. Dr. Aukerman recommended the KIM-2 database from NIH to help develop an balanced omega 3/6 diet. I found that after I completely removing all the bad foods from my diets that I still needed to add daily fish oil to get close to that 1:1:1 balance of omega 3:6:9. Other items Dr. Aukerman pointed out, the ALA found in nuts is mostly converted to omega 6 fatty acids in humans. And, the diets feed to chickens, turkey, and farm raised fish matter as when they are feed diets high in omega-6 fatty acids (aka corn and soybeans) those end up stored in their tissues. Beef and pork are less of an issue because they are able to break down the omega-6 oils.

    That’s interesting you found that fish oil taken with olive oil had the highest benefit. But olive oil also goes rancid over time. Has anyone determined (measured) the rate of rancidity change over time with both olive oil and fish oil at specific temperatures? I keep both my fish oil and olive oil in the refrigerator. I’m assuming that rate of rancidity is reduced by more then a factor of 10 in the refrigerator.

    -Travis

    • First of all, olive oil is an Omega-9 and is non-essential. The fish oil is 320 times more unstable than the true 18 carbon, plant-based versions LA and ALA, so keeping it in the fridge to be swallowed and put in a warm, acidic gut makes no sense. The problem is processing which involves heating of these delicate oils and Omega-6 is the most important one (LA). We need lots of it, in its native state for our cells to function correctly, look it up in any biochemistry textbook.