If you’re on this page right now, you’re probably wondering what the real benefits to taking fish oil are.
You’ve probably heard somewhere that you should probably be taking fish oil, and that it’s good for you, but you don’t know exactly why you should take it, how much to take, or why type to buy.
I completely understand, and I want to help you, so I’ve done a ton of research and I’ll try to distill it down to the most important stuff.
In this stage of the “natural health industry” there are a great deal of half truths, misunderstandings, and outright scams. And that’s why I’m so excited you found this website so I can give you the honest truth, and you can start moving forward in the right direction.
Lets get started, and keep things really simple.
Why do you need fish oil?
Fish oil is really just code for “Omega 3 fatty acids.”
But what are those?
Simply put, it’s just a type of good fat that helps your body fight inflammation, create healthy skin and hair, help brain function, etc.
We *used* to get a good deal of omega 3 into our diet before the invention of modern day oils, but now that most of our fats are centered around vegetable oil, soybean oil, etc, we get too much omega 6 instead of omega 3.
Omega 6 is good, but too much leads to inflammation, and other possible health issues.
The truth is that you should get a healthy balance of omega 6 and omega 3 fatty acids. They actually balance eachother out, and if you have too much omega 6 and not enough omega 3, then the omega 6 actually “eats up” the omega 3 and your body can’t use it very well.
An “ideal” ratio of omega 3 to omega 6 is below:
For every 5 grams of omega 6 you eat, you should eat 1 gram of omega 3. (If that’s confusing to you, no biggie, just get some high quality fish oil pills, take the recommended dosage, and you should be fine.)
Right now, the average American gets 14 times more omega 6 than omega 3, and this causes all kinds of unwanted health problems.
Health dangers associated with increased Omega 6
- -General inflammation
- -Cancer
- -Heart disease
- -Arthritis
- -Skin damage
- -Accelerated aging
- -Decreased sex drive
Health advantages to increased omega 3 (or balancing your omega 6 to omega 3 ratio)
- -Improved heart health
- -Improved brain function
- -Improved skin
- -Decelerated aging
- -Anti-inflamatory
- -Increased sexual drive/performance
- -Many more
But how do you get omega 3 into your diet?
You can simply eat more fish like wild caught salmon every day, (emphasis on the *wild* because “Atlantic salmon” is code for farm raised, and farm raised does not have the same omega 3 quantity as wild caught) or you can get some fish oil tablets instead.
Fish oil tablets allow you to get a better omega 3 to omega 6 balance, and it allows you to spend less money, and lets you eat what you want instead of chowing down on salmon every day.
Summary
If it were a perfect world, you wouldn’t need to supplement with fish oil, but in our current environment we get way too much omega 6, and we need to balance it out to be optimally healthy. We can do that by eating much less omega 6 (which is very hard to do) or we can simply take fish oil supplements (which is much easier and less expensive.)
The truth is that fish oil tablets aren’t magic pills, they work on real measurable science, and it basically has everything to do with restoring balance to your omega 3 to 6 ratio. And you don’t *need* omega 3 tablets to achieve this. It’s just the simplest, and most realistic way to do it.
