Vegan Omega 3 DHA/EPA

[EquALLity]

Everywhere I look says you can only get them from fish (or for one seaweed or something).

One place says that bodies can convert ALA to EPA and DHA, but that for DHA, you need to have a lot of ALA to do so, and that too much ALA is bad for the eyes.

Is there anything I could do other than supplement?

Yes there is it's called drinking flax seed milk !!

Let's understand what ALA, EPA and DHA really are...

There are two diiferent types of polyunsaturated fats Omega 3 and Omega 6
Polyunsaturated fats are called EFA's (essentail fatty acids) because our bodies can not create them on our own.
ALA is Alpha linolenic acid or otherwise know as OMEGA 3.
Linoleic Acid is OMEGA 6.

Omega 3 play's the role of anti-inflammatory and omega 6 inflammatory...

Clearly we want to have more anti-inflammatory cells than inflammatory cells to maintain balance.

Our bodies convert ALA into EPA and DHA in small amounts .
Studies will say that fish eaters have higher rates of DHA and EPA in there blood but if you look
the conversion rate of vegan's and veggie's from ala to epa and dha is higher than the conversion rate of fish eaters even though
it may show that they have higher amounts of dha/epa in there blood does not mean that their bodies convereted the ALA properly.
MIND BLOWING.

Now there is,

Omega 9 monounsaturated fat OLEIC ACID

Omega 9 is not an EFA because our bodies do make omega 9 but in small amounts.

Omega 9 helps us absorb omega 3 and omega 6, with out enough omega 9 you will not absorb all of the omega 3 or omega 6's!

Now here is the tricky part ever seen on cooking oil labels
"HIGH OLELIC"
or
"HIGH HEAT"

that means that these oils are high in :drum roll:

Omega 9 or monounsaturated fats

the higher the amount of omega 9 an oil has the higher the "SMOKE POINT" AKA the temp. at which the oil will "HYDROGENATE"

when an oil "HYDROGENATES" it turns into a TRANS FATTY ACID

which should be avoided at all times!

Don't get confused olive oil is not as high in omega 9 as one would think olive oil's smoking point is 350 degrees ...
I use safflower oil it has a smoke point of 490 degrees..

There is different smoke points for different degrees of refinement of oils ... It's actually not a pretty process.. There are a lot of chemicals that go into it..

I would recommend buying an unrefined expeller pressed oil for cooking ...


Also I'd like to note that the garden of life kind organic vegan d3 plus omega's I suggested is ORGANIC NON GMO and only $15 and lasts about 3months I know I posted a link but you can buy that at any health food store

Oh, well that's kind of upsetting, because I just bought a vegan D3 supplement.
Whyyyy?! Hahaha.

Thanks for all of the information!

But doesn't flax seed milk just have ALA? Or is that not so?

[miniboes]

Avoid high Omega 6 oils. Choose those high in Omega 3 (for baking, or using in thing), or high in Omega 9 (monounsaturated fat) for frying if you do that.

Will do. I don't use oil a lot, but I replaced my olive oil with flax seed oil. I also put chia seeds on my bread spread and mix them through smoothies. I'll add up the numbers tomorrow.

[brimstoneSalad]

Will do. I don't use oil a lot, but I replaced my olive oil with flax seed oil.

You know not to ever cook with flax seed oil, right? And keep it refrigerated.

Flax seed oil is just for salads and cold pastas and such. Topping and dipping, cold, no cooking or heating (and keep it out of the air unless you're eating it immediately).

Olive oil is for cooking.

Canola oil (low acid rapeseed oil) is fine for baking needs. That can be cooked a bit.

I'll add up the numbers tomorrow.

Cool, I look forward to hearing the ratio.

[miniboes]

You know not to ever cook with flax seed oil, right? And keep it refrigerated.

Flax seed oil is just for salads and cold pastas and such. Topping and dipping, cold, no cooking or heating (and keep it out of the air unless you're eating it immediately).

Olive oil is for cooking.

Canola oil (low acid rapeseed oil) is fine for baking needs. That can be cooked a bit.

I didn't know these things actually, thank you.

I'll add up the numbers tomorrow.

Cool, I look forward to hearing the ratio.

7.7, I'm pretty sure that is a better than average ratio, but it's still way too high.

The largest offenders (omega 6 sources) seem to be my nuts, soybeans and morning oats. I don't think I should eliminate these foods from my diet as they have great benefits on other grounds. I already calculated that increasing my chia seed intake to 50g a day would get me down to 3.38. That's a lot of seeds though.

What do you recommend?

[brimstoneSalad]

7.7, I'm pretty sure that is a better than average ratio, but it's still way too high.

Yes, quite too high. The good news is that your diet is pretty low in fat generally, so it should be easy to fix.

Do you have canola (rapeseed) oil there? That's the cheapest way to balance things out, usually.

The largest offenders (omega 6 sources) seem to be my nuts, soybeans and morning oats.

If you switch the type of nuts you eat a little, that may help. What kinds of nuts are you eating? You might be able to reduce the amount, or change to more beneficial nuts.

Walnuts are excellent, and have a good ratio already (should be neutral).

Definitely don't cut out soy or oats. Soy is important both as a protein source, and for choline. Those aren't very high in fat anyway.

You could look at eating TVP/TSP, which has had the soybean oil extracted from it (it's what the leftover protein after oil extraction is made into); I'm not sure how many fat-soluble vitamins are lost in that process, though, or what the choline content is. It's just about the most concentrated protein source there is which is a food, per calorie.
If you did that, you would probably need to eat more cauliflower, or get some Soy lecithin (which is high in choline).

I already calculated that increasing my chia seed intake to 50g a day would get me down to 3.38. That's a lot of seeds though.

What do you recommend?

Try ground flax seeds, if you can get them not-rancid (preferable, since it's a whole food). If not, see if you can find low erucic acid rapeseed oil. It wouldn't take much to get your ratio in the right range. That's what Dr. Greger recommends, I think.

You can probably cut calories elsewhere by eating some potato instead of carrot, and removing some of the bread if you're over your calorie goal.

[garrethdsouza]

There is one vegetable called PURSLANE which does have EPA. Although idk whether its as widely available.
Also at least one rodent study suggested incorporating turmeric in your diet might increase the conversion to DHA.
I have seen some vegans like the bite size vegan having excellent dha levels despite not supplementing.

[garrethdsouza]

Has anyone who doesn't supplement with microalgae based supplements but does have other whole plant foods like flaxseeds done a blood test for epa/dha? What were the results like and what is your omega3 source and daily quantities?

[aniketvichare]

Hi.. I don't know more about this. To reduce cellular inflammation require EPA greater than DHA. Omega 3 fatty acids gets from fish and fish oil supplements. You can take [] foods high in Omega 3 like walnut, soyabean,flax seed and other sea food. At [] you can get more info about Omega 3 fatty acids.

[probable spammer, link removed]

[aniketvichare]

Hi.. I don't know more about this. To reduce cellular inflammation require EPA greater than DHA. Omega 3 fatty acids gets from fish and fish oil supplements. You can take foods high in Omega 3 like walnut, soyabean, flax seed and other sea food. At Nutralite you can get more info about Omega 3 fatty acids.

[aniketvichare]

Hi.. I don't know more about this. To reduce cellular inflammation require EPA greater than DHA. Omega 3 fatty acids gets from fish and fish oil supplements. You can take foods high in Omega 3 like walnut, soyabean, flax seed and other sea food. At Nutralite you can get more info about Omega 3 fatty acids.