It’s a modern fact that fish oil supplements, or omega-3 and omega-6, improve your heart wellness, but according to groundbreaking research at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus, there may not be any value in fish oil-based supplements as a way to combat cardiac and inflammatory disease, and, worse, they could actually harm your wellbeing.
For the study, which was led by assistant professor of biology Sanjoy Ghosh and published in the British Journal of Nutrition, the researchers fed fish oil supplements to mice who were already on a diet rich in vegetable oil, and found that this interfered with the cells in the gastrointestinal system’s ability to repair themselves, and additional results pointed to a similar effect on cardiac tissues, though these were unpublished.
Much previous research has been done to prove that consuming large amounts of omega-3 fatty acids as part of your normal diet can protect you against cardiac and inflammatory disease, but, according to Ghosh, a combination of omega-6 fatty acids in vegetable-based oils and the omega-3 fatty acids in fish oil can cause damaging oxidative stress to your body.
Ghosh explained, ‘Our hypothesis is that levels of omega 6 are so high in our bodies that any more unsaturated fatty acid — even omega 3, despite its health benefits — will actually contribute to the negative effects omega 6 PUFA have on the heart and gut. When there is too much [polyunsaturated fatty acid], the body doesn’t know what to do with it.’
He warned, ‘Vegetable based oils like corn and canola were promoted to the public as a healthier alternative to animal-based fats, but there was never any research that said they are any healthier. Excessive levels of omega-6 have even been linked to colitis, insulin resistance, diabetes and obesity,’ he said.
Though many people take vitamin and mineral supplements, Ghosh said that they may be damaging their health, and ‘there is no magic pill that fixes a bad diet.’ He added, ‘the vast majority of studies that show omega 3 oils are beneficial are based on eating fish, not pills. When you eat a lot of fish you automatically eat less of other oils and it’s a healthier balance.’ Therefore, he recommends a diet that includes foods rich in saturated fats, such as cheese and butter, and healthy unsaturated fats, such as those in olive oil and nuts, to promote a more natural balance of fats.
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