Good for heart and vessels
Eat fish twice a week, at least once of which is oily fish. If you follow that advice, you will get enough omega-3 fatty acids. And that is important for your heart and for the blood vessels.
It remains a difficult story, that of the fats. Roughly speaking, you can say that saturated fats are bad for you, and most unsaturated fats are good. One of the various unsaturated fats are omega-3 fatty acids (or to be more precise, n-3 long-chain fatty acids).
EPA and DHA
Omega-3 fatty acids in turn also consist of various fatty acids, of which alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) are the best known. EPA and DHA are in fish.
Fish do not make these substances themselves, but get them from algae. So much for the complicated story surrounding the classification of fats. Much more important is that omega-3 fatty acids are simply healthy.
Heart and vessels
Where most unsaturated fatty acids have a positive effect on your cholesterol and saturated fatty acids a negative effect, omega-3 fatty acids have no effect on cholesterol levels.
They do, however, have a beneficial effect on many risk factors for cardiovascular disease. For example, they counteract inflammatory reactions and they have a positive effect on the heart rhythm. Omega-3 fatty acids are therefore healthy for your heart and blood vessels.
In particular, the risk of acute cardiac arrest decreases when you get enough omega-3 fatty acids. You are also less likely to have a stroke. These health benefits are even greater if you have previously had a heart attack or stroke.
Fish twice a week
However, it is not the case that you need to consume as many omega-3 fatty acids as possible in order to reap the greatest possible health benefits.
The official advice for adults is to “eat” 450 milligrams of omega-3 fatty acids per day. You can already achieve this amount if you eat fish twice a week, of which at least once is oily fish. With fatty fish you should think of herring, mackerel, sardines and salmon. This is because it contains higher amounts of EPA and DHA than in lean fish such as cod and pollock.
Eating more than 450 milligrams per day will not provide any additional health benefits. At most, for people who have a high risk of cardiovascular disease or who have previously had a heart attack or stroke. But for most people, fish more than twice a week does not provide any additional health benefits.
Meat and egg
Most omega-3 fatty acids are found in fish: EPA and DHA are found almost exclusively in fish. But omega-3 fatty acids are also found in green vegetables and meat. Grass and other feed that animals eat also contain omega-3 fatty acids, either naturally or sometimes added. In this way, there are also omega-3 fatty acids in egg.
In addition, more and more products are coming onto the market to which omega-3 fatty acids have been added, such as margarines, bread and meat products. There are also fish oil capsules for sale that contain the fatty acids.
It is also true that it is possible that there are more substances in fish that contribute to the health benefits. It is therefore always best to get the amount of omega-3 from fish.
Omega-3 is not harmful
Omega-3 fatty acids are completely safe. It is true that the most important source, fish, is regularly in the news negatively because of harmful substances such as dioxin and mercury. Eating some types of fish, such as swordfish and fresh tuna, could therefore be harmful.
But the highest European food safety organization, EFSA, says that if you eat a variety of fish, there is no risk. So alternate swordfish or fresh tuna with other types of fish, then you’re on the right track. It is better not to eat only eel from the major Dutch rivers, because of an excessive amount of dioxin. But the omega-3 fatty acids in themselves are not harmful, on the contrary.
Children and omega-3
Children’s brains develop at lightning speed, they learn new things every day! Sufficient omega-3 is important for a good mental and physical development of your (grand)child. It helps children to concentrate better and is good for their memory.
But children are not always fond of fish. As a supplement to the diet, you could therefore opt for an omega-3 supplement (fish oil capsules) especially for children.
