Talk:Oily fish

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Anyone interested in taking the fish vs. plant debate further, these references are from an essay about monbiot (a vegan).

  • CM Williams and G Burdge, February 2006. Long-chain n-3 PUFA: plant v. marine sources. Proceedings of the Nutritional Society. Vol 65(1), pp42-50.
  • BC Davis and PM Kris-Etherton, September 2003. Achieving optimal essential fatty acid status in vegetarians: current knowledge and practical implications. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Vol 78(3 Suppl), pp640S-646S.
  • H Gerster, 1998. Can adults adequately convert alpha-linolenic acid (18:3n-3) to eicosapentaenoic acid (20:5n-3) and docosahexaenoic acid (22:6n-3)? International Journal Vitamin and Nutrition Research. Vol 68(3), pp159-73.
  • Diane H. Morris Metabolism Of Omega-3 Fatty Acids. Flax Council of Canada. http://www.flaxcouncil.ca/english/pdf/FF_Metabolism_R2.pdf

The bellman 12:06, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

I think there could be some clarification about the lactating women study that found no increased DHA levels after flax oil intake. It is now mentioned that the study found significant increase of ALA in the breast milk which is then processed into DHA.


Contents

[edit] distinction between linolenic and linoleic omega 3 fatty acids

regarding references to linolenic and linoleic omega 3 fatty acids throughout various wiki articles on essential fatty acids and omega 3 fatty acids:

1- seems to be a lack of rigor in the maintaining the distinction which is a very important tho subtle one

  a- linolenic is plant based and needs to be metabolized to linoleic for nutritional benefit as an essential omega 3 fatty acid 
  b- linoleic is animal [fish] based and is the essential omega 3 fatty acid

66.191.165.36 03:27, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Sardines: less mercury

I read somewhere that sardines are better to eat because they have less mercury in them (per unit bodyweight) due to being younger and hence having less time to accumulate it. They also contain high amounts of calcium and very high amounts of vitamin B12.

[edit] Paragraph needs citation

I think the following paragraph is frankly, bullshit - it's a lot to say without citing a single source and I'm skeptical. Without a good source and citation, it looks like original research to me, and given the advertising-like nature of some of the other contributions to this page, I'd rather leave it out until someone comes up with a real citation.

However, some studies suggest that these plant sources may be less effective than oily fish. The most effective component of Omega-3 fatty acids is docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and to a lesser extent eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA). The fatty acids in flaxseed oil and other plant oils contain only the precursor to DHA and EPA, alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), but they do not contain DHA and EPA themselves, so the body must convert the ALA into DHA and EPA. A healthy person's body converts only 19% of the ALA, and this figure falls when a person is elderly, unfit or ill. Since plant sources already contain smaller quantities of fatty acids than oily fish, this means that a much greater amount of the plant sources must be consumed in order to equal the effects of a smaller amount of oily fish.

WLU 13:59, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

I also re-wrote the paragraph on breastmilk and plant sources of omega fatty acids. As is, it almost shouldn't be in the page as it's mention of fish oil is almost non-existent, bordering on original research to put them together. WLU

[edit] Which fish?

Which fish are considered oily fish? --JHP 07:46, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

That was my first question as I read the article. It needs a list of "oily fish". Silverchemist (talk) 17:58, 29 February 2008 (UTC)
I think salmon are allegedly among them, but we'd need a verifiable source. 69.224.182.55 (talk) 17:19, 16 May 2008 (UTC)