The advice and informational content does not necessarily represent the views of mother's market and kitchen mother's recommends consulting your health professional for your personal medical condition.

And then I'm Kimberly king, and welcome to the mother's market radio show, a show dedicated to the Truth, Beauty and Goodness of the human condition. On today's show, by now, you may have heard that it's very important to get omega-3 fatty acids in your diet. But not all are created equal. So listen close and find out what works best for you.

Later, we'll tell you what's going on around town and what's new at mother's market, but first up, jarl in Swindell is an educator for Nordic Naturals and she began her studies in the herbal apprentice program at North Carolina herbal studies in Ashville. Later, she studied body and energy work at Natural Health Institute in Nashville, Tennessee, and then broadened her scope in the MD program with Clayton College of Natural Hill.

Drawing on her 20 years of experience, Darlan continues to teach and coach within her community, and we welcome her to the mother's market radio show. How are you?

I'm doing fantastic. Thanks for having me, thanks for being here, and why don't you fill our audience a little bit in on your mission and your work before we get to the show's topic... Absolutely, so I'm an educator with Nordic Naturals. Nordic Naturals is a company that produces a very high quality fish oil, and Nordic Naturals philosophy overall is to reduce this global shortage, this global deficiency that people have in omega 3s, and of course as an educator for them, I am also interested in doing the same thing but we like to get the word out so people understand why Omega-3s are so important.

Excellent, well, today we are talking about the benefits of omega-3s, and so why don't we need to supplement our diets with omega 3 fatty swell?

One of the biggest reasons we need to supplement with omega-3s is because we consume, especially in this country, so much omega-6 and omega 6... Well, it's also necessary, we have to get that in our diet, just like Omega-3s because of the way we eat in this country and in many other countries as well, we get way too much omega-6, way, way too much. And a balance between the two of them in the cell is really important to the functioning of the cells. And why are Americans getting enough omega tries through their diet?

It's really what we eat, if we consumed a whole lot of cold water fish, if we were really into eating things like anchovies and sardines and had lots of access, which is okay, but a lot of people don't know to get that wild caught cold water fish to get plenty of the omega-3s, unfortunately, with a lot of farm-raised fish, those fish are fed the same types of diets that we tend to eat, and so they're even gonna be lower in Omega 3s, so a lot of people don't understand how to get enough in their diet, and then of course, our diets in this country are just filled with omega-6, is the seed oils, the grain oils, those are huge. We get a lot of those, especially eating out. We get a lot.

And they even realize it. I was just gonna ask you to explain what those masses, that's what... Those are the... The oils, and can you get enough omega-3s from plant sources like flax or... To you, it's difficult and you have to really understand the difference because what you have through the plant source, through the things like CIA and flexed, you have the short chain Omega 3, it's still considered an omega 3, so you'll hear that they're high in omega 3s. Great foods, don't knock them, I use them all the time. But as far as a source of EPA and DHA, which are those long chain... That's what we need. That's what the cell needs... The conversion rate is really low.

Most people are gonna convert the short chain to the long chain at about a one to 5% at best, and the issue with that is that you're getting very, very little, so you can take in a lot of the short chain, but you're gonna make very little of the long chain, and that's what we really need in those cells, so they're great foods, they're healthy foods, I love them, not a terrific source of EPA and DHA.

Wow. Can you explain the relationship between the omega-3 and the omega 6? You talked a little bit about that, but... Absolutely, absolutely.

So in ourselves, we have 60 to 100 trillion cells throughout our body, and each of these cells needs to function optimally, that membrane that coats the cell, it's responsible for doing things like letting in nutrition and letting out waste and helping cells to communicate with each other and those cells need to communicate because they're creating things like tissue and organs, and so you want them to be able to communicate very efficiently, and that membrane is what regulates all of that, and the membrane is filled with fats, it has facts in it, a bunch of fats in it, and what you want is you want plenty of balance between six and three, because each of them does something a little bit different, the sixes are going to signal what we call stress signals, so if I sprain my ankle and it swells, that's part of the stress response, if I cut myself on my blood clots, that's part of the stress response, and we need that to happen. The problem is, if we don't have enough omega-3s in that cell to shut that off, when we're done, we get stuck there, and that's when you twist that ankle and three years later, it's still not the same, those cells are stuck in that stress signaling and the omega-3s help to kind of turn that off when we don't need it anymore, so we need both, we need it to turn on, but then we need it to turn off 'cause we don't wanna be stuck there, so just how deficient in Omega-3s are the American population are we... The vast majority of us are very deficient, and it's kind of a tough call because you'll get a lot of people that will say, Oh, I eat a very healthy diet, but there are very healthy foods that are actually high in omega 6 and very low in omega 3s, things like homes and avocados and nuts, things that we know are good for us, but they're very high in six, very low in threes, and we get that imbalance, and then when you look at things like these concentrated oils, the Cornelis, the cotton seed oils, the canola oils, very high in omega 6s as well. So it's... The imbalance is rampant, and in fact, most people in the US, if you look at their blood, you're gonna find just over 2% omega-3s that are gonna be in there, and almost 37% will make a 60, and like we said, we want almost of an even balance, so that you've got the on and that off-switch both working properly and most Americans are not getting anywhere near that.

Can you explain the DHA EPA relationship?

Absolutely.

So if you think about protein and amino acids are the building blocks of protein, EPA and DHA are fatty acids that are kind of those building blocks of omega-3, they're the small components of omega-3, they do things a little bit differently in the body, both of them are that long chain omega 3, but they do things a little different in the body, so a good example is the brain, if we look at an actual brain, it's going to be jam-packed with DHA, it's part of the building blocks of the brain, our eyes have a ton of DHA that are in our OST, the EPA, while we may not find it in those places, we are beginning to understand that it creates function in those things as well.

So DHA is considered more of a structural fat, it's part of the building blocks, and EPA is going to be more of a functional... That it helps with the function of the organs and the cells in the body, so they do a little bit different work, both of them are very important. Both of them can overlap for things like brain and heart, and that type of thing, the one exception is when a woman is pregnant or for a young child, before to let's say when that brain is developing, you need copious amounts of DHA to be able to build that structure appropriately.

Yeah, you kinda answered that question or maybe when is a good time to start taking this... A pre-Birth and the eye, so it's... The DHA is crucial, and a lot of people know this, we're getting more and more media these days, it says Women have got to get enough DHA when they're pregnant, the baby still needs it, the mom still needs it after she's had the baby, because at that point, her body in all of its wisdom, if the baby needed it and she had it, the baby got it, and so whatever she had available, a lot of that may have been passed on. So they both need it. The child needs the DHA up until about two years old, and then like we talked about, our cells need these fats, we need Omega 3, so there's really no cut-off, there's no point at which you're good and you just do... This is a nutrient, so you're not trying to get over an issue, you're trying to support healthy cells, and if our cells are healthy, then what becomes ourselves, which is tissue and organs function properly and then we feel better.

Okay, yeah, thank you for explaining that. When you say long chain, what does that mean? It's just a molecular structure, so that when you look at things like ceased and flax seed, it is category omega 3, those fats are considered on omega 3, ALA-Alpha-linoleic acid, but it's a shorter chain, so there's just less on there, it's a different structure, is what that is... And then the body can turn it into... It can actually create that long chain EPA DHA, but again, for most people, that happens at a really low rate, and that's where the issue comes in, so they're both categorically omega-3s, but they don't perform the same or do the same things in the body, and we need the EPA and the DHA in the cells.

Okay, and what are some of the benefits of omega 3? I know we've talked a little bit about that, and you know what, it's interesting because it's so easy to answer this question by sort listing off all the things that helps with... But for me personally, it's so important to go back to the cell because essentially the answer is omega-3s help with anything that's made out of the cell, which is pretty much everything in our body, right, our brain, our skin, our hair, our eyes, all of our organs, our cardiovascular system, everything is made of cells. And a lot of people in this industry, it's been interesting, having been in it for 20 years and watched this sort of progression, where it used to be that when you would talk to someone about their diet and what they ate and how important nutrition was an exercise and fresh air and all of these things, and now we find people will come in and they'll say, Oh no, it just make me feel better, I just want something to feel better, so this is really one of those things that's foundational, so we need it for ourselves to be healthy. And there's all... I could give you a whole laundry list of things, but the bottom line is, it's sort of like saying, what is vitamin C-4 in a really short answer is... You won't get scurvy.

That's a short answer, and this is much the same way, it's a nutrient, we really need it in ourselves, so it's going to support a healthy cell is gonna support everything in our bodies, there is no system that doesn't benefit from healthier cells. And can you have too much or too little? It's just like the omega 3s, right?

Man, you do want balance, and I suppose we could possibly find that if someone got no omega 6 in a lot of Omega 3, that that would create some sort of an issue that we don't currently know about right now, but we don't currently know about it, and even the Inuit Eskimos who ate so much, they consumed huge amounts of Omega 3s, they had nuisance nose bleeds, and that was pretty much the issues that they dealt with, so just looking at it that way, I suppose there's a number... Because we need sixes and we need trees both, but in this country and in most countries, it would be an anomaly to find someone that really had too much omega 3 and not enough omega 6. that's so interesting. Well, great information. We have to take a quick break, but we're gonna be back... I don't go anywhere. We'll be right back.

Thank you.

And welcome back to the mother's market radio show. And we wanna remind you that if you've missed any portion of today's show, you can find us on iTunes by searching mother's market or download the show from our website, mother's market dot com, click the link for radio and listen to the past shows, plus download our Healthy Recipes and money savings coupons, all available at mother's market dot com. And now back to our interview with health educator jarl and swindle, and we're discussing the benefits of omega 3s, and this is very interesting information, let's talk about how we shop for Omega-3 are the best short... Yeah, it's a big question. Where do I get the best one?

So my personal philosophy, I wanna start with that. My personal philosophy, and I've shared this with a lot of people, is that there's certain products, if you're purchasing them, I'm not overly concerned if you want to get an inexpensive one, but there are a handful of things that need to be done right, and that are so easy to mess up, and when you go really cheap, you tend to get an inferior product, and fish oil is definitely part of that, things like enzymes and probiotics and fish oils, these are very sensitive products that take a manufacturer who really knows what they're doing, and that becomes my big concern. Can you buy these things cheaper... Absolutely. Is it the same product? Is it the same quality? Can you trust it? At the same level, I don't really think so.

And there's a lot of things that go into that.

So one of the big things about it is the form of oil, so there's something called triglyceride form, and people can get a little bit scared with that because they hear triglyceride in a medical setting, but triglyceride only refers to the molecular structure of the fat itself and it has to do with the little three chains of the fat, and then you've got your backbone that holds it all together, it really only refers to the molecular structure, and the reason that medically they use the word Triglyceride is because that's the molecular form of fat in our bodies, that's what you find in our bodies, and the reason you find it in our bodies is because that's the form of fat in our food, that's what we consume, and so the Triglyceride is how nature gives us... Fat is the way nature gives us fat, so here's what happens, so when you get fish oil out of the fish, it's going to be in triglyceride form because that's how the fish give us the oil, if you concentrate that oil, let's say to get a higher potency which more and more people are wanting these days, you have to molecularly deconstruct it with an enzyme process, and then once you have taken out some of what's not EPA and DHA, you now have a concentrate in EPA and DHA concentrate, you can go more EPA, more DHA whatever you wanna do, but a lot of companies will stop there and they'll just kind of put a cap on each of those chains and send the product on its way, it's a cheaper product, they can make it faster, they can fit more in the soft cell looks really impressive on the shelf, but here's the problem, it's not the form of fact that our body is ready to get, it's not the form of fat that our body most appreciates and recognizes, because that's how we get it in our food. And so when you take it in a form that's not triglyceride form, it's typically called an ethos Ter, when you take it in that form, the body wants to put it back into triglyceride form, but it doesn't have all the pieces, so it has to go get the rest of the pieces, when you take it in triglyceride form, you have it all right there, the body is ready to put it back into triglyceride form after digestion, and it's readily and easily able to do that, so the form really matters and triglyceride form is one of those ways that it rises the cost of a product, the other issue will have to do with freshness that you'll hear things like heat oxidizes the oil well, that is true to an extent. Except that oxygen has to be present, that's why we call it oxidation because it involves oxygen. So one of the things that we do at Nordic Naturals is We will keep it in an oxygen-free environment, and we do that because you need a little bit of heat in order to go through this entire process, and we use as little as possible, but we do it in this oxygen-free environment, and that makes a huge difference. And one of the ways that you can kind of tell how fresh or fish oil is, if someone says, Well, how do I know, just take your soft gel, invite it and let that oil just straight into your mouth, and if it tastes like fish or smells like fish, particularly old fish, and if you've ever smelled that smell, it's unmistakable, then your oil is oxidized, it is not a good oil anymore, and that oxidation level is not something we wanna consume on a regular basis, so that's an easy way to tell is just taste it okay, that's good. I'm making a face over here going to the AI out, but it's true, and as not pretty as it is to taste it or smell it, it's even worse to have that in our bodies because it's not helpful, so you go... It's not helpful.

I'm glad you said that. That's the taste test. Yeah, that's it.

Okay, well, thank you.

So, okay, so along those lines, how can a consumer tell...

Oh, that's it, that's what the Theresienstadt NG... I wanna mention about that though, because there is something else that in this industry now, more and more companies and consumers actually are wanting to know about the companies that they're purchasing from, every consumer walks in the door of a store... And they have a super computer in their hand and they want information, they want it right then and there.

And one of the things that they can get, hopefully from a reputable company is something called a Certificate of Analysis, and what they can do with that is they can get information, it's about the manufacturing process, and hopefully, if a company is really doing it right, they're very transparent, they get this information to the consumer on request, it'll involve information such as the purity of it, that there's not heavy metals and PCBS and that type of thing, also the potency that what they say is actually in it is in it, and then oxidation levels because that's part of that process as well. And so it'll let the consumer know directly the quality of the product, the potency of the product, the purity of the product and the freshness of the product, and that's valuable information, so bite into it, taste it, but if you really wanna see the hard and fast numbers call the company and ask them for it.

Excellent, right. I appreciate you explaining that because again, so many people just wanna just cut corners, get the coupon that... Exactly, right.

That's right.

Great, what is oxidation and how does it affect the quality of the oil?

Well, oxidation is this process that takes place, really it's rancid, that's what most people are going to understand it as is rancid, so when an oil gets Rani, you have your olive oil next to the stove, it's been open a little too long, you kinda take a whiff of it, if you've ever smelled a Ramat oil, it is unmistakable, you know exactly that smell, and that's essentially what it is, the oil has aged or decayed, and once that happens and we ingest it, that's actually creating... It's putting an oxidative load on our body, so whenever it's the same idea, they talk about a char boiled meat, you get that little Blackness on the outside that is a stress their body has to deal with, that our anti-oxidants have to go in and handle. And so you don't wanna keep... We get enough of that, we are bombarded all the time with things that our body has to deal with, and one of the things we don't want that to be as our supplements, and so that's where having a fresh fish oil, you're gonna get the benefits without having to deal with this degradation or oxidation of the oil... Okay, that's a good explanation of that as well, there's a conflicting information in the media about omega 3 health benefits, and again, you've been talking about them, but can you help consumers make sense of all the conflicting information... Absolutely, so it's pretty standard. comes with a territory.

There's a couple of things. The main thing about conflicting information is to get information yourself, and many of these studies are now available to the average person, again, the super computer, they can walk in, they can pull it up on their phone. They can read a study.

So when you're going to educate yourself and read a study, my suggestion is really know what you're looking at, because there's a couple of things that can be happening here, one of them is fish oil, omega 3, it's a nutrient, it's not a pharmaceutical, and a lot of the studies were set up to look at pharmaceuticals, you have a problem, you take a pharmaceutical and in very short order, you want to have results, that's how that works. And so for a nutrient, when you're replacing needed nutrients, it can take a minute to look at how long the study was, how long was it a two-week study, was it a six-week study, was it a year-long study, what was it... The other issue is that some of the things that get out in the media are actually more of kind of information gathering, it's not an actual study that they do with humans, but they kind of go out and look at information and then compile the information and then come up with what they see as the result of that information, be discerning and know what you're looking at.

The other thing is... Just look at how much they were using. I've read some studies as well that said, You know, the fiscal didn't really do very much in the study, and they were giving something in the vicinity of 400 milligrams of EPA and DHA, and with the kind of deficiency we talked about earlier that will barely move the needle for most Americans.

So it's important to understand what you're looking at. There's some good resources, if you go on the Nordic natural website, there's great resources for being able to look at more information as far as research is concerned, look at real research and just look at what each of them is and how they did it to really understand what the results mean? And that can help you lead through conflicting information.

Thank you.

Is it best to take... The Omega-3 is a liquid or what's the best to... Everyone has their preference. I like taking it in the liquid when I'm at home, but of course, I travel as an educator and I use the soft shells when I travel, from personal experience, I have not noticed a difference between either one, I do great on both. Some people don't like the texture of oil in their mouth, that can be a real issue. One of my favorite recipes though, for someone who wants to use the liquid is less expensive, it's had to go through less... So it's first serving. It's less expensive.

One of my favorites is to use the lemon liquid and some either plain or vanilla yogurt, and I add the oil directly to that, I squeeze half a lemon, the juice of half a lemon, and then either a little bit of maple syrup or Stevia, and you stir that up, and it tastes just like lemon yogurt and it's delicious, and it's a great way, that's how I do it, if I just am not interested in that teaspoon of oils straight in my mouth, that's how I do it. But both of them are great. The liquid can be a little bit more cost-effective because you're not having to pay for the soft gel production... Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, that's good to know too. Some recipes on there. What would you say to someone wanting to take it for the very first time, do it... That's what I Isaias.

There's a couple of things. You can start slow sometimes with a really high quality fish oil, you can wind up with a little bit of sticker shock, you can look at that and think, Wow, that's a really expensive supplement that happens sometimes, and you can start, like I said, with a liquid... A liquid, you can have one serving as a teaspoon and it's much more cost effective, you can also start with a lower potency, you can start with just a regular cod liver oil. How many people didn't hear their grandmother, their great grandmother, you know cod liver oil every day, so go in, talk to the professionals in the store, have them give you some guidance about what's available, and then find something that you feel comfortable with and get started on it. And then do a little bit of homework, look at your diet, look at what you get some idea as to what sorts of foods you're consuming on a regular basis, and then make decisions from there about what amount you feel the most comfortable with.

Well, this is all great information. Is there anything that I've left out at all that you wanna cover about the Omega-3... Oh my goodness. Don't leave it wide open.

We'll be here all day.

Are there any side effects from megara other than the fact that there's some people that really don't like the texture of oil in their mouth, that can be a real issue for people. That's probably one of the number one things. If you wanna talk about all fish oils, then some people will have a little trouble with what we call repeat, which is where after taking it, you'll sort of burn this taste of fish, what we have found is that that is actually oxidation in the oil.

Some people have compromised digestion, I have a very compromised digestive system, I will every once in a while, get a little bit after taking it, but I taste Lemon, I don't taste fish, so that's a huge difference, that just means that it's my digestive system trying to deal with it, not that the oil is old, so that's another big test, if you say, Oh, I can't stand taking fish oil, I get fish pups from it, that's an old oxidized oil. The only other thing would really be the digestion, some people have trouble digesting fats in general, and in that case, again, that professional in the store can help them navigate ways to digest fats a little bit better.

Excellent, well, this has been a great topic and much and you've covered it well, so thank you.

Thank you, I appreciate it. Yes, and great advice. We appreciate your knowledge and look forward to having you on again, but in the meantime... You can get more information on the website. It is Nadira dot com. Thank you for your visit. Thanks so much.

Thanks for listening to the mother's market radio show, and for shopping at mother's market, the advice and informational content does not necessarily represent the views of mother's market and kitchen, mother's recommends consulting your health professional for your personal medical condition E.