Eat The Fish, Not The Fish Oil Pills

Forget the omega-3 pills; eat the real thing. That’s the verdict of researchers at the University Hospital of Ioannina, in Greece, who pooled results from 20 randomized studies of more than 60,000 people who took omega-3 supplements for an average of two years. The Tufts Health & Nutrition Letter reports that the average dose of omega-3s was 1.51 grams daily, about the amount in four or five commercial fish-oil pills. The researchers report, unfortunately, that there is no statistically significant association between omega-3 supplementation and heart-related medical events. Better to take the advice of the American Heart Association and eat at least two 3.5-ounce servings a week of fish, preferably the fatty fish high in omega-3s—salmon, mackerel, herring, lake trout, sardines and albacore tuna. Read more from the Tufts Health & Nutrition Letter.