Short for Omega 3 Fatty Acids, Omega 3’s are a type of fatty acid found in food, predominantly fish. They are what is known as essential, meaning we must get them from our diet. There are many fatty acids included in the Omega 3 family but the most relevant ones are known as:
- EPA
- DHA, and
- ALA
ALA is mainly found in plants, whilst the other two are mainly from animal foods.
ALA are most common from our diet, and whilst the body mainly uses it for energy, it can convert a small amount into EPA and DHA.
EPA is mainly from fish products, with a plethora of functions within the body including some being turned into DHA, its used to form signalling molecules called eicosanoidswhich can help reduce inflammation.
DHA, is the most important due to its structural component of your eyes, brain and more. Also mainly coming from fish sources, as well as meat and dairy. For this reason as a vegetarian you should be aware of your DHA intake and consider supplementing.
You can identify Omega 3’s from other fatty acids due to their double bond being placed 3 carbon atoms away from the Omega end.
Health Benefits:
Before we get into the sporting impacts of Omega 3s, it’s important to cover some of the basic health benefits including, but not limited to:
- Helping Prevent Asthma
- Decreased blood triglycerides
- Reduced risk of certain cancers of the colon, prostate and breast.
- Reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety
- Reduce general Inflammation (that seems handy) *the western diet containing an abundance of Omega 6, can counteract this property*
- Reducing menstrual pain
Now, these may not be direct ergogenic aids but alas we are all human and above sporting performance we should all be taking care of our bodies first and foremost. So, even if you are skeptical about the upcoming sporting benefits perhaps you should consider taking these anyway…
Omega 3’s & enhanced sporting performance !
Reduced Inflammation – post exercise its common, and almost encouraged that you’re muscles are a tad inflamed- its part of the recovery process- this can decrease your range of motion if you’re training through this, Omega 3s can help increase that range of motion through reducing the inflammation.
Increased Muscle Protein Synthesis – Recent studies have come out to show supplementing 4g of fish oils per day increased MPS.
How much do we need?
The general recommendation is that if you eat 2-3x servings of fish a week you will have plenty. If however, you don’t like/or eat fish, supplements containing anywhere between 1000-3000mg per day should suffice.
That said, if you do eat fish, but perhaps a lazy with cooking- you should consider picking this up- food first approaches are always optimal and often provide complementary nutrients to aid absorption and/ or digestion.
- Salmon: 4,023 mg per serving (EPA and DHA)
- Cod liver oil: 2,664 mg per serving (EPA and DHA)
- Sardines: 2,205 mg per serving (EPA and DHA)
- Anchovies: 951 mg per serving (EPA and DHA)
- Flax seeds: 2,338 mg per serving (ALA)
- Chia seeds: 4,915 mg per serving (ALA)
- Walnuts: 2,542 mg per serving (ALA)