Fish Oil

Fish Oil Concentrate: Standard fish oil tablets contain 180 mg EPA and 120 mg DHA.

Dosage: Fish oil is now a major factor necessary in the diet to retain optimal health! In June 2006 a symposium summarized the phenomonal strides made in recent years. In general, everyone ought to be getting one gram per day for fish oil, and those with risk for heart disease ought to receive 3 g per day. As stated above, many major brands of fish oil contain about 0.3 g of the important components of fish oil. To review the symposium summary written for Nutrition Investigator, click here.

HOWEVER, the American Heart Association recently endorsed much higher dosages. The AHA recommends that those persons at risk of cardiovascular disease consume from 1 to 3 g/d of EPA and DHA as supplements. That would be 4-10 fish oil tablets per day! In the report linked above, it was found that doses over 1.6 g/d may be hazardous, so taking more than 4 per day does not seem prudent.

In addition, I have found some evidence that omega-3 fatty acids may be related to weight loss. For this reason, it might be worthwhile to take a fish oil tablet daily when trying to lose weight.