Good Fats For Mental Health - Sources of Omega-3

Written by Cory SerVaas, Patrick Perry Saturday Evening Post

Sources of Omega-3

Q: Do you think people in the United States need to be concerned about getting more omega-3s into their diet?

A: Yes. A very good description of the whole omega-3 phenomenon is in a book called The Omega Plan by Artemis P. Simopoulos, M.D., and Jo Robinson. I don't endorse the book, but I think it is a good layman' s literature and reference. Your readers would probably appreciate it.

Dr. Simopoulos bases much of her work on the Crete diet and study. In the seven-country Crete study, men from the Greek island of Crete had the longest lifespans and lowest incidence of cardiovascular disease of men studied. [The six other countries in the study were Italy, the Netherlands, Finland, Yugoslavia, Japan, and the United States.]

The Crete men basically achieved this state of health and longevity by consuming fish, or foods that contain omega-3s, with almost every meal. Secondarily, they used olive oil for their salad dressings, instead of corn oil or soybean oil, as we do in the typical American diet, in which vegetable-oil-based salad dressings and margarines are rich sources of omega-6s.

Q: If fish are farm-fed using corn, would the fish then contain higher levels of omega-6s?

A: That's quite right. Fish farmers have realized that if they just feed their fish with corn and soybeans, the fish don't grow as well and don't reproduce. Fish farmers now give a minimum amount of fish protein by farming menhaden-a source of fish protein-from the ocean. Apparently, the menhaden provides just enough omega-3s so that the farm-raised fish will reproduce.

Q: What about ersatz, or imitation, fish sold in the fish market as sea legs?

A: Almost any seafood, even if farmed, will probably have more omega- 3 fatty acids in it than will, for example, hamburger meat. Of course, wild seafood will probably have more omega-3s than farmed seafood, but you almost have to analyze omega-3 content on a case-by-case basis.

Overall, you are better off getting omega-3s from seafood.

Q: Are there manufacturers of fish-oil products who are superior to others? Are there products that our readers should look out for?

A: The general rule of thumb is that if you cut the capsule open and it smells like rotten, spoiled fish, it is spoiled fish. When you buy fish from the store and it is fresh, it doesn't smell fishy. I don't feel that I should pick on anybody in particular.

I will tell you that a good, common concentration in a one gram capsule would be 300 mg of EPA and 200 mg of DHA per gram. That's pretty good. That concentration gives 0.5 g omega-3 fatty acids per gram tablet. It makes it pretty easy to calculate. If you take two capsules, you are getting one gram of omega 3s. If you take four of them, you get two grams. With six, you get three grams, etc.

Q: In our grandparents' day, parents gave their children cod liver oil.

A: Yes, but they didn't give six grams. I want to mention that people should not consume large amounts of cod liver oil in order to get omega-3s into their diet. Cod liver oil also contains a lot of vitamin A. If you were going to get three grams of omega-3s from cod liver oil, you would quickly reach toxic levels of vitamin A, so avoid cod liver oil.

Q: Do fish oil supplements provide the same benefits?

A: Your body pretty much doesn't know whether you are getting it from fresh fish or a fish oil supplement.

Q: What about canola oil?

A: Canola oil is better; it has a better ratio of omega-6s to omega- 3s-around five or seven omega-6s to one omega-3.

Q: Is flaxseed oil the best source of omega-3?

A: Right, of the direct oil sources.

Q: What about nuts, such as walnuts?

A: Walnuts are good. I haven't looked at the data carefully. But nuts, in general, are a pretty good bet. If you go with the principles of the paleolithic diet, it's clear that we were eating a lot more fruits and nuts than wild game.

Q: How much omega-3 do you take?

A: I take about one gram per day and eat a lot of different types of fish.

Q: Deep-sea fish, not farm-fed catfish?

A: Farm-fed catfish are going to have less omega-3s, but they are going to have some.

Q: What is your next research project?

A: I am looking at whether consuming these omega-3 fatty acids reduces hostility and aggression. We looked at 235 subjects on whom we have performed lumbar punctures and taken cerebrospinal fluid for analysis. One of the markers of brain neurochemistry in the cerebrospinal fluid is a metabolite, or breakdown, of serotonin called 5HIAA. It is well known in biological psychiatry that people who have low concentrations of this 5HIAA are especially prone to suicidal and impulsive behaviors. What I found among normal subjects was that low concentrations of DHA in the plasma correlated to low concentrations of 5HIAA in their cerebrospinal fluid. This finding is important because 5HIAA predicts serotonin levels, and serotonin is really key to the biochemistry of depression and the biochemistry of suicide and violence.

Q: Serotonin levels should be high, right?

A: Right.

Q: Do you have access to prison inmates who have been given spinal-fluid taps from which you could determine whether the impulsive, violent person is low in omega-3s?

A: We are engaged in that work right now. We are taking cerebrospinal fluid samples before and after giving them either the omega-3s or placebos.

Added Material

Cory SerVaas, M.D., & Patrick Perry

Walnuts are especially good for their omega-3 content.

Flaxseed for salads and baking.

"The research being conducted is fascinating and potentially very important to the understanding and treatment of bipolar disorder," commented Kay Redfield Jamison, M.D., of Johns Hopkins University on the role of omega-3 essential fatty acids and psychiatric illnesses. Dr. Jamison, who controls her manic-depressive illness, is a prominent researcher and has authored several books on the disorder.

An omega-3 fatty acid called DHA is highly concentrated in the synapses where brain cells communicate and plays a key role in brain development and function. A vast communications network within our brain is formed when chemical messengers, or neurotransmitters, are released from the axon, cross the synapse, and bind to receptors on another neuron.

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