Vegetarian source for Omega 3?

hooplah

Hi folks,

I've been reading some of the threads here on nutrition and omega 3 is mentioned quite a lot as being useful as a source of fats and as an anti-inflamatory.

Fish oil seems the most common source. I'm a vegetarian for ethical reasons so thats not much of an option for me. What alternatives do I have? I've looked up flaxseed oil and some stuff marketed as being good substitutes but think I've heard before that even if these oils contain omega 3 they're not as readily absorbed by the body. Would this be the same with omega enriched eggs? I'm finding it hard to find decent sources for any of this online.

Anyone else found a good veggie substitute source for Omega 3? Is it that big a deal even?

flywheel

Flaxseed oil, Milled (Ground) Flaxseed too...

Transform

walnuts have higher concentrations of O3 than all other nuts

Overall, any veggie source will NEVER be as good as fish oils because you have to convert the O3 into EPA and DHA both of which fish oils contain and do not need your body to convert. If your lucky you will convert say 80% of the O3 into EPA and DHA but if you have digestive problems and certain systems are not working as well in your body compared to others you could be down at 30%

Eat plenty of flax/linseeds and walnuts and remember all starchy carbs (bread, potatoes, pasta, rice etc) have a pro-inflamatory response so no over doing it on those also

hooplah

Ok, thanks for that Transform, that explains things nice and clearly!

Khannie

Yeah, walnuts and flax seeds. Lidls do 200g of delicious walnuts for 2 euro.

Moving this to diet and nutrition.....

_Nuno_

There's no Omega 3 in flaxseed oil. There's alpha lipoilic acid, which does get converted in the body to some extent to EPA (at around 3-4%) and to a very low extent to DHA (1%). To get the same amount of omega 3 you can get from any fish oil, you will need very large quantities of flax seed oil or nuts.

There's no effective way of getting omega 3 from vegetable sources, like there's no way of getting proper blood plasma iron levels for females.

Please see this link

I think it's very honorable that you don't want to take any animal life, but I hope you are aware that you do so at the expense of your own health and of the environment by supporting extremely destructive crops such as soy.

flywheel

_Nuno_ wrote: »

There's no Omega 3 in flaxseed oil. There's alpha lipoilic acid, which does get converted in the body to some extent to EPA (at around 3-4%) and to a very low extent to DHA (1%).

imagine trying to give a simple answer / suggestions to a question, rather than descent into a chemistry debate / lecture

where you get your % from by the way as they appear on the low side?

and if were going with random linking, here's another one google popped back with with different values:
Vegetarian Soc.

_Nuno_

DubWireless wrote: »

imagine trying to give a simple answer / suggestions to a question, rather than descent into a chemistry debate / lecture

Point taken, but unfortunately the websites I usually use for info on these subjects use this terminology. Anyone can type EPA and DHA in google and check what they mean, if they're interested.

DubWireless wrote: »

where you get your % from by the way as they appear on the low side?

From the link in my post, which has references to the studies that provided those values, in case you want to check them out. Unfortunately the same can not be said of the link of the vegetarian society.

DubWireless wrote: »

and if were going with random linking, here's another one google popped back with with different values:
Vegetarian Soc.

Quoting from the website you linked:

"(conversion rates are around 5-10% for EPA and 2-5% for DHA)"

Without references, I can not take these figures as reliable, since vegetarianism is pretty much a belief driven life philosophy, much like religion, as far as I'm concerned.

Edwardius

_Nuno_ wrote: »

There's no Omega 3 in flaxseed oil. There's alpha lipoilic acid, which does get converted in the body to some extent to EPA (at around 3-4%) and to a very low extent to DHA (1%). To get the same amount of omega 3 you can get from any fish oil, you will need very large quantities of flax seed oil or nuts.

That's alpha linoleic acid. It is an omega-3 fatty acid alright but it does need to be converted to EPA and DHA to be useful.

Alpha lipoic acid is something different, it's a shorter chain and has some sulfurs tacked on.

_Nuno_

Dead Ed wrote: »

That's alpha linoleic acid. It is an omega-3 fatty acid alright but it does need to be converted to EPA and DHA to be useful.

You are right, my apologies.

I typed it wrong, but that's what I meant.

sunshine rose

Boots have a vegetarian omega 3 supplement which i use.

They also have a multivitamin which is geared towards vegetarians, it has the RDA of the B vitamins etc.

yoshytoshy

are synthesized vitamins a good alternative to natural ones .

Parnassia

Have a look here:

http://www.vegetarian-dha-epa.co.uk/

Here are some vegan DHA supplements:

http://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Omega-3-DHA-90-Vcap/dp/B000OUNYY0