People ask me all the time if they should be taking vitamins, or if supplements are really needed. Well, after the hundreds of hours of research I do on all this stuff….my opinion is YES.
First, let’s be clear about one thing. A supplement is just what it says it is. It should be used to supplement- fill in the gaps, let’s say- a healthy diet. They can’t “un-do” a morning donut, or “cancel out” that fudge brownie you couldn’t resist, BUT in an otherwise healthy diet, your body may be better equipped to handle the occasional birthday cake when you supplement it regularly with quality and daily needed nutrients.
Also, what I deem to be the most important nutrients for life functioning are actually nearly impossible to consume in pure food amounts.
So I know you’re going to assume a good multi-vitamin is on my list. It’s not. It’s important yes, particularly with most of our food being grown in increasingly nutrient deficient soil (another reason why it’s important to choose organics over conventional, as they have higher nutrient levels). However, that’s an obvious one, and if you eat a diet full of organic fruits and veggies you should still be in pretty good standing. Look for the least chemicalized vitamins from health stores though, over the overwhelmingly poorer quality supplements sold in drug stores.
The most crucial missing element in most people’s diet though, (besides green leafy vegetables, which with effort could be consumed more) is Omega 3 fatty acid. I know you’ve heard of it. Marketing companies are now catching on and trying to fortify everything with it. It’s all marketing folks.
Omega 3 fats are what your brain is largely made of. Regular consumption has been shown in many studies to affect any degenerative diseases of the brain, even memory-loss. Omega 3’s also have enormous benefits in your cardiovascular system. They are a great anti-inflammatory and are one of the warriors against plaque build up from high “bad cholesterol”, LDL. Omega 3’s have been shown to raise HDL levels, the good cholesterol that in high levels protects against heart attacks. Low levels of it raise your risk of heart disease.
So you should eat lots of fish, right? Wrong. The ocean is extremely toxic these days. It’s a very sad fact, but almost anything that comes out of the water is filled with dangerous chemicals, as Nemo’s friends in the fish tank put it, “everything ends up in the ocean.” That Drano you used to unclog your drain? Compounds of it are probably in your flounder, also. This doesn’t mean you can never eat fish, I said before with a healthy diet regularly- your body should be able to overcome a rare toxic load. There is also the well publicized warning about high levels of mercury in fish. For a list of the safest fish to eat, based on chemicals and mercury, check out these sites: Mercury Levels List and Fish Advisories.
In brief, the best fish to consume for cleanest water and highest Omega 3 levels is WILD Pacific Salmon. I stress the WILD part because farmed fish is often artificially colored and fed foods they don’t eat in the wild compromising their should-be healthy nutrients. Don’t be afraid to ask in restaurants if the fish is wild, but know that when you see the phrase “Atlantic Salmon” it is almost always a farm raised fish.
But we need Omega 3 fats more regularly than what most people can consume in wild Pacific/Alaskan salmon. This is why Fish Oil is #1 on my list of Caitlin’s Favorite Supplements. You have to be careful about the brand you choose and make sure it says it has been “molecularly distilled” meaning it’s been filtered and free of ocean chemicals. Carlson’s Cod Liver oil which can be found in health food stores is a great one as it also has a great dose of Vitamin D in there which after more research might be on a revised list of Caitlin’s Favorites. I typically don’t trust anything GNC puts out, so I’d stick with the health food stores. They usually know a lot more about this stuff anyways. I personally consume Krill Oil that I purchase online. Krill has such a short life span in the ocean that it doesn’t really have time to absorb any chemicals and it apparently also has its own built in anti-oxidants, which are important to consume as regular fish oil can oxidize rather quickly, producing the free radicals that Omega 3s are supposed to protect from.
There are vegetarian sources of Omega 3s also, but they are in the form of alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) as opposed to the DHA and EPA forms that are in fish oils. The body tries to convert ALAs into EPA and DHA as it is in that form that we can truly use and benefit from the fat. So vegetarian sources of Omega 3 (walnuts, ground flax) are still healthy things to have on hand, but true fish oil is far superior and helpful to our bodies.
It can decrease your risk of heart disease and attacks.
It keeps your brain in tip top dementia decreased shape.
Its anti-inflammatory effects help soothe every system in your body.
It keeps your skin and hair silky and smooth, and chances are people just aren’t getting it in their food…..
It is Caitlin’s #1 favorite supplement….FISH OIL!
