Why all the buzz about Omega 3 Fish Oils?

Ask most CrossFit trainers and long-time CrossFitters “do you recommend any supplements?”, almost all will answer “Yes, High Quality Fish Oils”. When it comes to diet supplementation, according to the CrossFit community as well as highly regarded academics, nutritional scientists and biochemists, High Quality Fish Oil is the secret (or not so secret) elixir we have all been searching for to successfully keep us all healthy and free from disease for the rest of out lives…..coupled with a diet based on lean meat, fish, vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruits, a little starch and NO SUGAR….of course. 

I could enter in to a long winded and geeked out description as to why this is the case but that would firstly, take me ages to trawl through all the scientific evidence, and secondly, would make you reach for your pillow and pre bedtime horlicks within a couple of paragraphs. So, I’ll keep it simple:

A diet rich in enough Omega 3 Fatty Acids (EPA and DHA) in the correct proportion helps to reduce and even eliminate inflammation throughout the body. Inflammation is the body’s way of protecting itself from all things that might damage it, like pathogens, damaged cells, infections and other irritants. You might be thinking, “So if inflammation is the body’s natural way of protecting itself, why do we want to reduce it?”. Basically, if your body has to constantly produce inflammation inducing white blood cells to fight disease then it enters into a state of “chronic inflammation”…..this is not a good state to be in. This state can be caused by many things but is most commonly found in those with a very poor diet, a reliance on sugar, caffeine, alcohol and other harmful toxins that can place a person in an almost constant state of almost pathological illness.

According to Dr Barry Sears, successful author of the Zone Diet and the Omega 3 RX Zone, high levels of dietary Omega 3 rich fish oils helps to “Dilute toxic fats within the body, make it almost impossible to have a heart attack, reduce cancer risk, alleviate arthritis, combat depression, limit ADHD in children, reduce the risk of developing Alzheimers and other neurological diseases, increase fertility and reduce obesity”. These are just a few of the many benefits of a diet consisting of high levels of quality fish oils found in a wide range of scientific studies undertaken over a number of years.

So, as you can see, supplementing your diet with fish oils has many benefits and we at CrossFit Avon highly recommend you look into adding it to your shopping list. As with most things in life the quality of the product you buy is very important. Unfortunately most fish oil products found in high street pharmacies and supermarkets are generally of poor quality and you would have to take a handful of capsules a day to get a decent enough amount of EPA and DHA. A lot of these products also contain fillers and other undesirable ingredients, which are of little benefit. Luckily we have managed to source a quality product at a great price which will be available to all CrossFit Avon members……just ask Andrew for details.

If you want to find out more about the benefits associated with High Quality Fish Oils here are a few links you might find useful:

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/fish-oil-health-benefits/

http://thehealthyskeptic.org/the-fish-vs-fish-oil-smackdown

http://journal.crossfit.com/search.php?IncludeBlogs=1&limit=20&search=Fish+Oils

http://whole9life.com/fish-oil/

The above link is a really useful fish oil calculator, which uses the wonders of maths to work out the ideal amount of fish oils you should be taking based on basic information about you.

Enjoy !!