The Mystery Ingredient, or, If it Doesn’t Work Why Are They Still Doing It?

I gotta tell you, I have to laugh sometimes. I think as mentioned in past blogs and emails there has been a stepped-up effort to discredit any beneficial effects of fish oil, especially in heart disease. The most ludicrous of these attempts has been what I call the “mystery ingredient”.

The mystery ingredient theory suggests that there are as yet some unknown uncharacterized magical ingredients in fish that account for the health benefits ascribed thereof. No one knows what they might be, and there is no research to support their existence, but they are out there somewhere in fish and only in fish so don’t take fish oil.

If that smells fish to you it should. Eating fish has a series of risks conveniently left out but easy to research

There are many agendas at work here but if you follow the money you wind up looking at Big Pharma and squarely in the eyes. Now if that is OK with you far be it from me to make waves but at least do your research and find out the truth.

Along those lines I will get back to fish oil supplements in a moment, but I want to ask you to look at something else and this time we have to blame the supplement industry for hyperbole and agendas.

There is a fairly common defect called 5-MTHFR that affects folate metabolism in about 15% of Americans (some estimates are higher). Folate is a critical player in methylation pathways which are in turn critical players in epigenetic regulation our genome and Genome repair.

The supplement industry has tried to convince everyone they need a “reduced folate form” to correct this deficiency. This form is considerably more expensive and is probably needed by very few people. Increasing the folic acid form by 2-3X the dose will probably do the same thing and save you some money.

I am not “against” the reduced form of folate but its not as necessary as the industry would convince you it is. I am against misinformation.

So here is some more: Folic acid is an “acid” e.g. it must be bad because its an acid and acids are bad right. In addition, the “natural” form of folate is non-acid reduced and far more complex in its chemical appearance. This makes it better right.

Actually, it means that even in the harvesting of folate rich foods such as green leafy vegetables you may destabilize folate and lose as much as half of it. Also, true if you cook it so now you are down again on your folate. Now add the purported poor soil and you’ll see why I wrote “The Case for a Multi Part 3”.
Folic acid is FAR MORE stable and works just fine to raise folate levels in the body even if you have the 5-MTHFR deficiency. You just have to take enough.

Another example of supplement company hype is “reduced glutathione” versus N-Acetyl Cysteine. Big cost differences, no studies by non-agenda interested parties and the continued use of N-Acetyl Cysteine in alcohol and acetaminophen overdoses leads me to conclude you are fine with N-AC!

Ok now back to fish oil. What I have tried to demonstrate above in the process of busting some balloons and undoubtedly setting myself up for the usual “you are so ignorant hate mail” is that sometimes the simple tried and true non-sexy non new stuff is all you need.

Case in point- Fish Oil!

There have been many new sources of Omega 3’s out there both marine and vegetable but not one of them has been around nearly as long as fish oil as a supplement and not one of them has the huge body of non agenda funded research for (or against it!).

Trust me if krill were more than 13% of the market share or mussels were the new source for marine lipids 4 things would happen.

1) You would see an explosion of scientists using these forms of Omega 3 to evaluate their benefits. This clearly has not happened and what few studies are done are almost always paid for by these “alternative” manufacturers.

2) The words fish oil would be dropped from other marine lipid sources completely and their uniqueness would be touted. You do not have to look far to find brands that are krill based but contain the words “fish oil” in the title. That tells you what people are really looking for.

3) The Pharmaceutical industry and their mouth pieces would claim that krill is not useful and “gives you expensive urine” or some other nonsense. You do not see an attack on these alternative forms because they are not the perceived source of the problem from an industry stand point because they are not making enough of an impact on Pharma and other profits to be worth attacking.

4) Finally, you would see tons and tons of beneficial headlines using these forms, and see drug companies trying to usurp Mother Nature and patent these other oil formats for their own benefits as well. All you ever see both “good” and “bad” is fish oil.

The truth is that every Omega 3 based industry from krill to hemp to chia, to algae is all built upon the back of the genuine article.

After 18 years making and taking my own, I do know a thing or two!

Best, Dr. Dave

Remember we offer big discounts on cases of the real deal!

 

 

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