The normal ratio of omega 3 to omega 6 has been 1 to 1-4 for eons. Recently, due to industrialization, our diets ratio moved from 1:1 or 1:4 to 1:20. This has led to an epidemic of inflammatory diseases, heart disease, increase in violence, hypertension, diabetes, etc ► http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12442909.
The richest vegan sources of omega 3 are
walnuts - 4 times the omega 3 in salmon, 5.4 times the omega 3 in sardines, 41 times the omega 3 in tilapia, 32 times the omega 3 in tuna ► https://plus.google.com/+AlexP/posts/4eaSGEwuNiS
No nut comes even close, the only one close in omega 3 to omega 6 ratio are macadamia nuts, but those have 44 times less omega 3s. Walnuts have 9.1 g of omega 3, 38 g of omega 6 in 100 grams ► http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/nut-and-seed-products/3138/2.
flax seeds - 10 times the omega 3 in salmon, 14 times the omega 3 in sardines, 103 times the omega 3 in tilapia, 80 times the omega 3 in tuna ► https://plus.google.com/+AlexP/posts/6JTzFJ5AaaY
Flax seeds are very cheap (compared to walnuts or chia seeds) and have 22.8 grams of omega 3, 5.9 grams of omega 6 in 100 g ► http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/nut-and-seed-products/3163/2
chia seeds - 8 times the omega 3 in salmon, 11 times the omega 3 in sardines, 82 times the omega 3 in tilapia, 64 times the omega 3 in tuna - 17.6 grams of omega 3 in 100 g, 5.8 g of omega 6 in 100 g. ► http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/nut-and-seed-products/3061/2. For more on these seeds you can go to https://plus.google.com/u/0/+AlexP/posts/iNnEtutSc8w.
I know a lot of MDs (Ornish) suggest avoiding oils, all foods with fat added, even nuts and seeds to maintain perfect arterial health and just relying on vegan DHA-EPA and the ALA and fats in normal foods - so many people used a low fat diet to reverse diabetes and heart disease. I avoid all vegetable oils (even olive oil has a bad omega 3 to omega 6 ratio, 1:12, and little omega 3, 0.76g, compared to walnuts, 9.1 g) Some people eat avocados for omega 9, but i almost never eat avocados either, being a low fat vegan to prevent heart disease. Avocados (http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/fruits-and-fruit-juices/1843/2) have omega 3 to omega 6 1:15, very bad, and just 0.1 g of omega 3 per 100 grams, 90 times less than walnuts. I don't think eating walnuts, chia or flax seeds rarely is an issue, it's just some people don't digest them well unless soaked.
Flax seeds and chia seeds have far less omega 6 than walnuts, so they are superior from that point of view (flax seed oil has omega 3 to omega 6 ratio about 4:1, while walnut oil has this ratio 1:5), but not many people eat flax seeds, even if they are cheaper. With a coffee grinder, one can grind them and add them to foods. Or one can go to Walmart or amazon and buy algae vegan DHA or DHA-EPA capsules.
Omega 3 fatty acids increase brain volume. People thought the brain shrinks with age always, but it's not true. DHA-EPA can reverse that shrinkage. DHA is 97% of all omega-3 fats in the brain and 93 % of omega-3 fats in the retina. 8% of the brain is omega 3 fatty acids. ► http://www.lifeextension.com/magazine/2010/8/omega-3-fatty-acids-increase-brain-volume/page-01.
The vegan algal plain DHA or vegan DHA-EPA supplements are way better than "mercury free" fish oil supplements for those few people (usually men) who cannot turn ALA into DHA. Today many fish oil supplements are mercury free, but there are PCBs and other heavy metals sometimes in fish oil - besides saturated fat and cholesterol. The animal saturated fat and cholesterol in fish (which was shown to affect heart and vascular health of babies in the womb) and fish oil supplements are working against recommending intake of fish during pregnancy or at any other time, since vegan DHA exists.
Violence increases when there is low omega 3 in diet ► http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2006/oct/17/prisonsandprobation.ukcrime.
Notice how ALA conversion to DHA is men is 5 times less than in women sometimes, leading to low DHA. Could this explain why we got so much more men engage in violent crime? Perhaps that's why men should always take vegan algal DHA if they are vegan, since almost everyone gets too much omega 6, which furthers lowers ALA to DHA conversion and the uptake of DHA by the brain.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12323085 explains that in healthy young men 8% of ALA (alpha linoleic acid) is converted to EPA and 0 to 4% is converted to DHA. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12323090 shows that in healthy young women 21% of dietary ALA is converted to EPA and 9% is converted to DHA. So, women have far less issues with DHA than men. Even so, it's better to get some DHA (the typical 200 mg per day found in most algal DHA capsules) to be safe, especially since most women today get too much omega 6 from vegetable oils.
DHA can convert into EPA at a rate of about 9% ► http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9076673. Therefore, many people choose to take DHA only or DHA mainly supplements, such as vegan algal DHA supplements. There are also vegan DHA-EPA supplements, but there is a huge debate whether DHA is more useful than EPA and should be used in larger quantities - so many people who believe DHA is more useful tend to go for DHA supplements, as they view EPA as secondary and anything needed is made from DHA anyway. Also many papers showed too much fish oil leads to cancer and that some algal vegan DHA oil has more DHA than fish oil percentage wise and is better than fish oil for a variety of reasons related to fats interfering with the fatty acids biochemical cycles in the human body and the prostaglandin synthesis as relating to inflammation. I myself just use vegan DHA algal oil supplements, since I think DHA is more important than EPA and any EPA is made from DHA and ALA.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20861171 was a 4900 people study that showed that vegans and fish eaters had almost the same level of EPA and DHA in their blood plasma, with vegans having more DHA (286 micromoles per liter instead of 271) but less EPA (50 instead of 64). These studies indicate that when we eat less DHA, the body increases the conversion rate of ALA to DHA and makes better use of DHA. Hence, DHA supplementation may only be needed for pregnant women and those males (females convert ALA to DHA much easier) who have very low DHA in their blood due to poor conversion, or those vegans who eat very little ALA due to being on a very low fat diet to prevent heart disease or diabetes. There are many studies that show ALA to DHA and EPA conversions being low (you will see that there is a wide variation in these studies where they give people ALA and measure blood level of DHA and EPA), but in the end all we need to look at is the final DHA and EPA concentration in the plasma, not what happens when you increase ALA in the diet. The body is very intelligent and knows when it needs more DHA and it produces more regardless of how much ALA is in the diet.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3164236 has the full free paper that found that the Japanese (the longest living nation on Earth, Monaco lives longer but it's just a town of 37000 people) have 2 times the EPA-DHA level in their blood compared to Americans. However, other studies found that Norwegians eat as much DHA-EPA as Japanese and have poorer heart health, probably due to eating more fat. The Eskimo studies have shown that just eating 4 times the DHA-EPA omega 3 that Japanese eat doesn't improve heart health, since they get too much saturated fat. Apparently, DHA is only effective as dietary intake method to prevent atherosclerosis, etc when the total fat is low and people avoid too much saturated fat. The blood levels of DHA and EPA are affected by the amount of EPA, DHA and ALA ingested, smoking, diet, omega 3 to omega 6 ratio, and lots of other things. Every second a million trillion chemical reactions take place in our body, so it's very hard to determine which people may have their ALA (the omega 3 precursor to DHA in most plant foods) to DHA (the omega 3 in algae that is used by the brain, eyes, etc a lot) and EPA (the other major omega 3 used by the body) conversion working better. Even when 2 people have the same blood level of EPA-DHA, one cannot really know how much DHA is made from ALA and is being taken by the cells or stays in the blood. So, while we may look at a lot of biomarkers and assess these concentrations over a few weeks after a rise of ALA consumption, it's hard to know precisely what is going on at the cellular level. Some people pick and choose a study or two and write a general nutrition article and then come up with a conclusion, but with the hundreds of related studies and issues of the fatty acid cycle biochemistry, things are quite complex - so it's very hard to make any preliminary conclusion or hypothesis into a "science fact".
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nhs.12182/abstract is a very good study too ► Low DHA in blood was found in depressed women ► Nursing & Health Sciences, Volume 17, Issue 2, pages 257–262, June 2015
The richest vegan sources of omega 3 are
walnuts - 4 times the omega 3 in salmon, 5.4 times the omega 3 in sardines, 41 times the omega 3 in tilapia, 32 times the omega 3 in tuna ► https://plus.google.com/+AlexP/posts/4eaSGEwuNiS
No nut comes even close, the only one close in omega 3 to omega 6 ratio are macadamia nuts, but those have 44 times less omega 3s. Walnuts have 9.1 g of omega 3, 38 g of omega 6 in 100 grams ► http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/nut-and-seed-products/3138/2.
flax seeds - 10 times the omega 3 in salmon, 14 times the omega 3 in sardines, 103 times the omega 3 in tilapia, 80 times the omega 3 in tuna ► https://plus.google.com/+AlexP/posts/6JTzFJ5AaaY
Flax seeds are very cheap (compared to walnuts or chia seeds) and have 22.8 grams of omega 3, 5.9 grams of omega 6 in 100 g ► http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/nut-and-seed-products/3163/2
chia seeds - 8 times the omega 3 in salmon, 11 times the omega 3 in sardines, 82 times the omega 3 in tilapia, 64 times the omega 3 in tuna - 17.6 grams of omega 3 in 100 g, 5.8 g of omega 6 in 100 g. ► http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/nut-and-seed-products/3061/2. For more on these seeds you can go to https://plus.google.com/u/0/+AlexP/posts/iNnEtutSc8w.
I know a lot of MDs (Ornish) suggest avoiding oils, all foods with fat added, even nuts and seeds to maintain perfect arterial health and just relying on vegan DHA-EPA and the ALA and fats in normal foods - so many people used a low fat diet to reverse diabetes and heart disease. I avoid all vegetable oils (even olive oil has a bad omega 3 to omega 6 ratio, 1:12, and little omega 3, 0.76g, compared to walnuts, 9.1 g) Some people eat avocados for omega 9, but i almost never eat avocados either, being a low fat vegan to prevent heart disease. Avocados (http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/fruits-and-fruit-juices/1843/2) have omega 3 to omega 6 1:15, very bad, and just 0.1 g of omega 3 per 100 grams, 90 times less than walnuts. I don't think eating walnuts, chia or flax seeds rarely is an issue, it's just some people don't digest them well unless soaked.
Flax seeds and chia seeds have far less omega 6 than walnuts, so they are superior from that point of view (flax seed oil has omega 3 to omega 6 ratio about 4:1, while walnut oil has this ratio 1:5), but not many people eat flax seeds, even if they are cheaper. With a coffee grinder, one can grind them and add them to foods. Or one can go to Walmart or amazon and buy algae vegan DHA or DHA-EPA capsules.
Omega 3 fatty acids increase brain volume. People thought the brain shrinks with age always, but it's not true. DHA-EPA can reverse that shrinkage. DHA is 97% of all omega-3 fats in the brain and 93 % of omega-3 fats in the retina. 8% of the brain is omega 3 fatty acids. ► http://www.lifeextension.com/magazine/2010/8/omega-3-fatty-acids-increase-brain-volume/page-01.
The vegan algal plain DHA or vegan DHA-EPA supplements are way better than "mercury free" fish oil supplements for those few people (usually men) who cannot turn ALA into DHA. Today many fish oil supplements are mercury free, but there are PCBs and other heavy metals sometimes in fish oil - besides saturated fat and cholesterol. The animal saturated fat and cholesterol in fish (which was shown to affect heart and vascular health of babies in the womb) and fish oil supplements are working against recommending intake of fish during pregnancy or at any other time, since vegan DHA exists.
Violence increases when there is low omega 3 in diet ► http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2006/oct/17/prisonsandprobation.ukcrime.
Notice how ALA conversion to DHA is men is 5 times less than in women sometimes, leading to low DHA. Could this explain why we got so much more men engage in violent crime? Perhaps that's why men should always take vegan algal DHA if they are vegan, since almost everyone gets too much omega 6, which furthers lowers ALA to DHA conversion and the uptake of DHA by the brain.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12323085 explains that in healthy young men 8% of ALA (alpha linoleic acid) is converted to EPA and 0 to 4% is converted to DHA. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12323090 shows that in healthy young women 21% of dietary ALA is converted to EPA and 9% is converted to DHA. So, women have far less issues with DHA than men. Even so, it's better to get some DHA (the typical 200 mg per day found in most algal DHA capsules) to be safe, especially since most women today get too much omega 6 from vegetable oils.
DHA can convert into EPA at a rate of about 9% ► http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9076673. Therefore, many people choose to take DHA only or DHA mainly supplements, such as vegan algal DHA supplements. There are also vegan DHA-EPA supplements, but there is a huge debate whether DHA is more useful than EPA and should be used in larger quantities - so many people who believe DHA is more useful tend to go for DHA supplements, as they view EPA as secondary and anything needed is made from DHA anyway. Also many papers showed too much fish oil leads to cancer and that some algal vegan DHA oil has more DHA than fish oil percentage wise and is better than fish oil for a variety of reasons related to fats interfering with the fatty acids biochemical cycles in the human body and the prostaglandin synthesis as relating to inflammation. I myself just use vegan DHA algal oil supplements, since I think DHA is more important than EPA and any EPA is made from DHA and ALA.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20861171 was a 4900 people study that showed that vegans and fish eaters had almost the same level of EPA and DHA in their blood plasma, with vegans having more DHA (286 micromoles per liter instead of 271) but less EPA (50 instead of 64). These studies indicate that when we eat less DHA, the body increases the conversion rate of ALA to DHA and makes better use of DHA. Hence, DHA supplementation may only be needed for pregnant women and those males (females convert ALA to DHA much easier) who have very low DHA in their blood due to poor conversion, or those vegans who eat very little ALA due to being on a very low fat diet to prevent heart disease or diabetes. There are many studies that show ALA to DHA and EPA conversions being low (you will see that there is a wide variation in these studies where they give people ALA and measure blood level of DHA and EPA), but in the end all we need to look at is the final DHA and EPA concentration in the plasma, not what happens when you increase ALA in the diet. The body is very intelligent and knows when it needs more DHA and it produces more regardless of how much ALA is in the diet.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3164236 has the full free paper that found that the Japanese (the longest living nation on Earth, Monaco lives longer but it's just a town of 37000 people) have 2 times the EPA-DHA level in their blood compared to Americans. However, other studies found that Norwegians eat as much DHA-EPA as Japanese and have poorer heart health, probably due to eating more fat. The Eskimo studies have shown that just eating 4 times the DHA-EPA omega 3 that Japanese eat doesn't improve heart health, since they get too much saturated fat. Apparently, DHA is only effective as dietary intake method to prevent atherosclerosis, etc when the total fat is low and people avoid too much saturated fat. The blood levels of DHA and EPA are affected by the amount of EPA, DHA and ALA ingested, smoking, diet, omega 3 to omega 6 ratio, and lots of other things. Every second a million trillion chemical reactions take place in our body, so it's very hard to determine which people may have their ALA (the omega 3 precursor to DHA in most plant foods) to DHA (the omega 3 in algae that is used by the brain, eyes, etc a lot) and EPA (the other major omega 3 used by the body) conversion working better. Even when 2 people have the same blood level of EPA-DHA, one cannot really know how much DHA is made from ALA and is being taken by the cells or stays in the blood. So, while we may look at a lot of biomarkers and assess these concentrations over a few weeks after a rise of ALA consumption, it's hard to know precisely what is going on at the cellular level. Some people pick and choose a study or two and write a general nutrition article and then come up with a conclusion, but with the hundreds of related studies and issues of the fatty acid cycle biochemistry, things are quite complex - so it's very hard to make any preliminary conclusion or hypothesis into a "science fact".
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nhs.12182/abstract is a very good study too ► Low DHA in blood was found in depressed women ► Nursing & Health Sciences, Volume 17, Issue 2, pages 257–262, June 2015
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