[nickparker]

I have a fun omega-3 anecdata point going right now. A friend of mine researches the stuff in mouse models and told me it's extremely beneficial, but you need to buy a fancy brand to avoid rancid oil or heavy metal contamination both of which ~null out the benefits. She recommended Sports Research.

I bought some and started taking it and my 1:1 bullet chess ELO jumped from 850 to ~1070 over the next couple weeks.

I play chess a bit like sushi ginger for the mind - purge working memory with a short intense task to context switch. I intentionally don't study openings or anything so I can use it as a benchmark for mental horsepower with a reasonably slow drift in the baseline from 'actually learning chess'.

My friend says this effect is way too big to actually attribute to the vitamins and it has to be placebo etc but I'm thoroughly enjoying the idea that omega-3 Nick would win 3/4 bullet matches against deficient Nick.

https://www.chess.com/member/nickparkerprint/stats/bullet?da...

[theologic]

Consumer Labs offers as a subscription service testing of various vitamins Including fish oil. They perform a great service, and I think it's economical in terms of determining if what you're buying is really what you want.

Heavy metal contamination is classically not a problem because the fish oil is distilled. My guess is your researcher friend has fallen victim to the marketing of the pharmacological industry-- Although I do want to indicate they do have value, probably not the 500 percent markup that they put on what in essence is a generic product.

Some natural fish oils are not distilled and do have this problem-- These are normally marketed as natural or cod liver oil or something that should hit your radar pretty quick. Your friend's concern about rancidity is clearly a problem And pretty well understood by people for years if you have any familiarity with chemistry. Omega threes get their name from the fact that you have a weird bend on the end of a long carbon molecule. This is susceptible to oxidation. This is true for any Omega 3 molecule regardless of its length Or it's sourcing.

This includes omega-3 "drugs" like Vascepa (pure EPA) and Lovaza (EPA and DHA combination).

Fortunately in testing, they have not found widespread issues with rancidity, although they definitely have found pockets. My normal suggestion to everybody is by a high volume manufacturer that you know is tearing through the product quite rapidly. My top suggestion is Costco. Then make sure you keep your fish oil in the refrigerator, and churn through it on a regular basis.

[p1esk]

If I eat raw salmon (sashimi) a couple times a week, would I still benefit from consuming fish oil?

[Aurornis]

Sashimi is typically served with very small portion sizes.

You're not getting as much fish oil from sashimi as someone taking concentrated pills every day. However, whether or not it matters is a different story. The benefits of fish oil appear be inversely proportional to the size of the study (as in this 1000-person study that has some hints of p-hacking) so I wouldn't worry about it.

[theologic]

It's strange to being using Hacker news as a nutrition advice, but this is something that I have been reading research on Pubmed for years. (Actually going back to the grateful med....).

Approximately 50-60% of brain weight is made up of lipids, of which about 35% consists of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). Of the omega-3 PUFAs present in the brain, DHA accounts for more than 40% of total omega-3 PUFAs in neuronal tissue, especially in gray matter.

Now I know this is slightly different than the OP, but I consider the primary reason for incorporating Omega3 in your diet is specifically to give your brain the basic building blocks that it needs to create the right structure. And the issue is you have to eat Omega-3. It's not something that you can manufacture: you can take a shorter chain and potentially increase the length of the carbon to get it all the way up to an EPA or DHA, but even this falls off as you age. So I don't consider taking flaxseed oil a good idea.

Without spending a long time on this, Long term supplementation I believe we can come up with an extremely strong line of evidence that suggests it helps neurological and emotional health. Now while there may be other benefits, this one is so massive and so clear to me, this is the reason that you want to make sure that you get this basic building block.

What is clear the western diet for the most part is severely lacking in in Omega-3 (or often called N3 PUFA in research), therefore if you're not thoughtfully measuring what you take in, you very well possibly could be running low especially considering that there is a significant Sigma in terms of what people need to have a healthy brain.

So now let's talk about the food supply. The problem is virtually every fish in the world has mercury higher than what you want. The only fish that looks like it has an acceptable level of mercury is salmon in certain geographies such as Alaska. My guess is you're actually eating some type of farm raised salmon, And I would have concerns unless you exactly understand the sourcing.

Without getting into the details, It is phenomenally difficult to come up with clear guidelines for biological humans that have wild diversity in terms of genetics and how your body processes food stuff. If anybody tells you they absolutely know the right dosage for you, immediately you should call BS. The data is way too far ranging to suggest a simple and clear case of what any individual needs.

Now keeping that in mind, I would suggest that most people probably need around one gram worth of EPA slash DHA in their diet basically forever. Depending upon your genetics maybe you could go down to half of this.

This is not a number you should guess at, and with things such as perplexity, You can find out how much EPA and DHA you are taking in in your salmon. You should be able to find out the number of ounces and talk to the cook about what they are serving. And 100 grams of salmon depending upon if you're eating clean salmon which has lower levels of EPA/DHA or farming salmon which has more oil but normally is dirtier, you should see somewhere between 1 to 2G.

[unsupp0rted]

> It's strange to being using Hacker news as a nutrition advice

Bodybuilding forums are always like 10-20 years ahead of cutting edge research in terms of off-label uses for things, hyper-efficient non-mainstream protocols, etc. Granted they're also 10-20 years ahead in terms of BS generation.

But I've learned a ton of useful things about nutrition from HN. It helps that nobody knows anything about nutrition anyway.

[FollowingTheDao]

I agree with all you say here. I’ve been studying this for over 15 years because my family suffered from early heart attacks, like below 50 years of age. My brother died of a heart attack at 48.

This heart disease risk along with psychiatric problems my family, including suicides led me to getting my genetics. Once I had them, it became clear how much I need long chain poly unsaturated fatty acids and specifically higher omega-3 than the normal European Caucasian population.

This is primarily because of polymorphisms I have in two genes FADS1 and FADS2.

Currently, I pretty much eat negligible amounts of short chain poly unsaturated fatty acids. The major components of my diet are cold water seafood, and muscles and oysters. Plus a lot of seaweed (this is from another prism I have, I am a FUT2 non-secretor. I also eat a very low amount of carbohydrates.

Now I’ve had serious psychiatric problems in my life. Three attempted suicides, for hospitalizations, and I was on a ton of medications. But guess what, I’m no longer on any medication‘s, my blood pressure has normalized, and my lipids are normal. And I can’t count the other of other minor bothersome symptoms I’ve had that have vanished.

No, I am a huge outlier, but I am also sort of a canary in a coal mine. Because while I am extremely sensitive to deficiencies of omega-3 fatty acids. Anyone who does not get at least the minimal amount of polyunsaturated fatty acids will end up having health problems. Whether you need long chain or short chain polyunsaturated fatty acids is going to depend on your genetics.

My genetic haplotype is K1, which is uncommon for Europeans to have. The dates back to over 10,000 years ago during the Ice Age. I also seem to have a lot of finish heritage, which I can possibly trace back to the Sami people who are a very high fat high omega-3 diet.

But anyway, you’re right, this is not a number. You should guess that because omega-3‘s can really thin out peoples blood. I need this but for other people this might be a huge problem.

[theologic]

By the way, thanks for sharing. Super interesting and I love the personal vignette.

[johnyzee]

Yes. A real, raw source is almost certainly better than a processed and treated source. Packaged fish oil is sometimes rancid, unnoticeable to you, and those oxidation products are harmful. It is also heavily loaded with antioxidants, without which fresh fish oil goes rancid within hours, and which have their own detrimental effects when in excess.

[anonymars]

I'm confused, it sounds like you very much don't recommend supplementing if already eating enough fish?

[johnyzee]

Sorry, that's what I meant (misread the OP). Better to just eat fish.

[jajko]

Well they are not that healthy these days (salmon or tuna). Maybe 1x a week is still fine, but we are just guessing the long term toxicity thresholds.

[wahnfrieden]

Isn't algae DHA better than fish oil for several reasons?

As I understand it the fish oil only has it because the fish consumes the algae, also.

[FollowingTheDao]

The best source is always going to be from fish. That’s because it comes with other things such as calcitonin and D3.

[pers0n]

Why not just get omega3 from flaxseed? No worries about mercury

[aziaziazi]

Flax only contains ALA, not DHA or EPA. You need three of them and your body can create the 2 later from the former, however that capacity degrade with age hence the EPA/DHA recommandation.

[bnycum]

I also started taking the Sports Research omega-3 capsules early this year. Seems the consensus for taking any omega-3 is that it's single-source and wild caught which is why I chose that brand. My biggest benefit has been my eyesight with way less floaters.

However I started taking creatine this summer to help with my recovery from running now that I'm older. I will say I feel it's done more for my cognitive function than the omega-3 did.

[RankingMember]

> biggest benefit has been my eyesight with way less floaters.

Huh, did you also have to get any laser surgery done to get rid of them totally? My research always indicated that once you had floaters, they were basically just there forever and your brain just learned to work around them.

[wil421]

My eye doc said I had a slight case of blepharitis and that I should use high quality fish oil and eye lid cleaning wipes. The oil would help the membranes or gland in the eye lid, can’t remember which.

[pretzellogician]

I hadn't heard that! I'll have to take good fish oil religiously.

Blepharitis is just the worst.

[lawlessone]

Think i had this before. had a lump on one eyelid.

Went to GP and asked him if was cancer.

He just recommended a clean warm wet cloth and prescribed me some peroxide eyedrops.

All seems to be working and it's going away.

I think it's worth mentioning that when it started i wasn't eating well and had lost weight due to stomach issues.

[bnycum]

No surgery and I don't wear any vision correction, they aren't gone 100% just reduced greatly. I really only ever notice them when going from dark to light. Typically never inside my house under normal light, mainly just outdoors.

My diet does lack seafood overall. While I love salmon my family doesn't. If we eat seafood it's mainly catfish and shrimp though, as we are in Louisiana.

[mark_l_watson]

I was advised by a doctor to take Omega 3 for the same reason.

[j45]

Not all floaters. The information in the doctors clinic can lag behind 10-20 years, best to keep an eye on studies that might not reach them, since no doc can read everything.

[adastra22]

> wild caught

Wouldn't wild caught have more heavy metals?

[maxboettinger]

How much do you take? Evidence-based dosage guidance for supplements is hard to find. Pointers to primary sources with empirically supported dose ranges for common supplements—magnesium, zinc, and multivitamins—appreciated!

[theologic]

This really is a good use for Perplexity. I suggest a prompt along the lines of "what is the pubmed indications for what somebody should take for omega-3 or n3 pufa for X". This way your pull the primary research and you can have a conversation to your needs.

With that written, generally the literature indicates that somewhere around 1-2G daily of EPA/DHA is in the range of what is fringe mainstream. There is a lot of variance around this and a lot of debate. For example, you'll get a debate about the ability of the body to convert 22 EPA into 24 DHA, so some will push DHA as the preferred source for the body.

[adrian_b]

The range of 1 to 2 g daily of DHA+EPA has been suggested based on the daily consumption of 2 g or more that is typical for populations like the Japanese, who include a great proportion of marine food in their diet and who appear to derive health benefits from this.

I agree that for now there is no better evidence about which is the optimal daily intake.

Quantities about 10 times less than this might be sufficient to avoid any obvious signs of nutritional deficiency, but are unlikely to be optimal.

The capacity of converting ALA from vegetable oil into DHA and EPA may vary a lot between humans and it is typically lower in males than in females and also lower in older people than in young people.

The less risky choice is to ensure that you eat enough DHA+EPA. Perhaps one does not need 1 to 2 g of DHA+EPA daily, but eating it is unlikely to be harmful, while not eating it carries definite risks.

[theologic]

If you lean at all toward evolutionary biology, You tend to pay attention to the idea that earlier man had a diet which had a much higher ratio of Omega 3 to Omega 6.

I would add that vegetable oils probably are not the ideal solution just beyond the idea that you need to extend the carbon chain up to something that can be used for your body in some type of pharmacological type role. The modern western diet has a ratio of somewhere around 15 to 20 to one in terms of Omega 6 to Omega 3. Virtually every vegetable oil will continue to drive that ratio toward a imbalance toward Omega 6.

[FollowingTheDao]

It is true that early man specifically during the Ice Age, had a much higher omega-3 diet. But many of you are not genetically ice age people. I know I am because of my haplotype, which is K1.

Most European Caucasians would probably do better on a high omega-3 short chain poly unsaturated fatty acid diet. Like the omega-3’s from flaxseed. The change from gather cultures to farming culture changed the way we processed polyunsaturated fatty acids.

[adrian_b]

Flax was included in the first set of domesticated plants, together with the cereals barley, emmer wheat and einkorn wheat, and together with a few legumes, including lentils and peas.

This set of domesticated plants does not appear random, because any more restricted set would have made impossible the substitution of the animal food used previously with plant seeds.

The seeds of cereals and of legumes together could provide an acceptable protein source, while the flax seeds could add the alpha-linolenic acid, which can be transformed by humans, with modest efficiency, into the needed DHA and EPA.

We know that the first generations of people who had become dependent of agriculture had serious health problems in comparison with their ancestors, which have become less severe after many generations, presumably after they have learned to better balance their diet and when those who have survived might have been better adapted to eating such food.

Nevertheless, regardless where you are located you do not know the properties of your genes, unless you do some very expensive study, by using various diets and monitoring how they influence the content in your blood of various substances, e.g. of DHA and EPA when eating various sources of omega-3 fatty acids, of vegetable or of animal origin.

In the absence of such a study, the safer hypothesis is that you belong to the people who are not efficient at the elongation of ALA into DHA and EPA, so it is safer to eat food with enough DHA and EPA, instead of eating food with ALA, like flax seeds or oil, and hoping that you belong to the people for whom this is good enough.

This is similar for a few other conditionally-essential nutrients, which can be produced by humans, but in most cases only in too small quantities compared to necessities, so it is safer to ensure that they are present in food, e.g. vitamin K2, choline, taurine, creatine.

[Moto7451]

There’s a study that 3g is needed to move triglycerides and HDL in a good direction. I did that under a doctor’s direction and it worked as intended. Didn’t do anything for my cholesterol otherwise which is one of the confounders in some of the studies. Sometimes people get better LDL, sometimes not. vLDL improved markedly but maybe I was just taking better care of my diet between tests.

I don’t mind taking them so I kept the Omega 3s and started taking others for my LDL issues.

[FollowingTheDao]

I take fish oil and eat seafood for this exact reason. I probably get 4 to 5 g of omega-3 a day at least. And that really moved all my lipids in a positive direction.

[iamben]

Without hijacking the thread, may I ask what you took for better LDL? Always interested in heart health! Thanks!

[Moto7451]

Diet and exercise is the first thing. In my specific case saturated fats and sugars increase my LDL. I take fiber pills (pulls out cholesterol containing compounds used in digestion), “Red Yeast Rice” which is the yeast that makes statins - I’m taking it as a low dose statin -, Bergamot extract which interferes with cholesterol production, and Plant Sterols which block dietary cholesterol absorption.

Six months will show if it’s working. If not I’ll go on a full dose of a statin.

[j45]

This is a great reminder, thanks.

Omega use and consumption in general can be one thing, and in many cases need higher consumption or timing, relative to the health condition or goal you need to support.

[j45]

Ask Claude Opus to search, verify, source and then quote back passages and provide a link back the information for the supplement and any particular health needs and start reading.

Keep modifying the prompt until you don't need to review it as much, but still review it. I have a pretty long one like this now and it almost doesn't seem real. Still double check what it returns. It's easy enough to take the retrieved studies to your doc for verification too .

For example, if targeting the brain, levels can be much higher.

Magnesium Threonate crosses the blood brain barrier, which is great, leaving Magnesium Biglycinate for the rest of the body.

[maxboettinger]

Would you mind sharing your prompt?

[FollowingTheDao]

I believe you. People really don’t understand how important omega-3 is for the transport and metabolism of neurotransmitters.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16963244/

[trehalose]

How long was your bullet chess elo stable at 850 (and how often were you playing) before this experiment began? I'm asking because the act of playing constitutes practice, which could itself cause a rise in your elo. Bit of a confounding factor there, potentially.

[Qem]

> but you need to buy a fancy brand to avoid rancid oil or heavy metal contamination both of which ~null out the benefits

I didn't know about the rancidity problem, thank you. Knew about the contamination issue. To avoid it, I tried to source oil derived from sources lower in the food chain, either vegan algae oil, or krill oil. But krill oil is super expensive, when compared to fish oil, with lower levels of EPA/DHA per capsule. The problem with algae oil it's that those I've found contain only DHA. Not sure about the relative importance between EPA/DHA, although.

[adrian_b]

The so-called "algae" are not algae.

"Algae oil" is a marketing term that has been chosen for sounding better, especially to vegans, than "Schizochytrium oil" or "oil from stramenopiles".

Schizochytrium is an organism somewhat similar to a fungus, but which is not a fungus and it is distantly related to brown algae and diatoms (but unlike those, it is not an alga; it never had chloroplasts acquired by symbiosis).

The first cultivated strains of Schizochytrium produced only DHA, but now there are strains that also produce EPA. At least in Europe, you can easily find Schizochytrium oil that contains DHA + EPA in a 2:1 proportion. For most humans, especially for most males, both DHA and EPA are needed, because the capacity of interconversion between them is typically insufficient in comparison with what is needed.

However, even if it has become cheaper in recent years, Schizochytrium oil remains about 3 times more expensive than fish oil, per its fatty acid content. There are also many vendors that try to deceive their customers by selling diluted oil at about the same price as the decent vendors, therefore at a price many times higher per the fatty acid content.

In Europe, in recent years I have preferred Möller's Pure Cod Liver Oil, which is quite tasty, either alone or added to food. Using bottled oil is much better than using capsules. Besides being cheaper and not ingesting garbage capsules, tasting the oil makes certain that it neither is rancid nor has any suspect content. This is also true for Schizochytrium oil. Many decades ago, cod liver oil had a reputation of something that children were forced to eat, despite its bad taste. This is completely untrue nowadays, when the oil is made either immediately after catching or from fish that have been frozen immediately after catching, so the oil has not degraded and it retains a pleasant taste.

If Schizochytrium oil will become cheaper, i.e. with a price not more than double in comparison with pure cod liver oil, then I will switch to it, removing from my diet the only ingredient that is obtained by killing animals.

[j45]

Reviews help move towards rancidity or away from it.

Some DHA/EPA is better than no DHA/EPA.

It's also worth seeing what people mix it with to help with the taste.

Since Omega-3 goes down well with fat and better absorbed and bioavailable, there's some options there potentially.

[rainworld]

Revealed: many common omega-3 fish oil supplements are ‘rancid’

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jan/17/revealed...

[j45]

Kirkland Omega 3’s seem to be decent, hope they are.

[reducesuffering]

They are pitifully low in EPA/DHA per $

[theologic]

I highly recommend them as they test well for freshness, but if you aim to get around 2G of EPA/DHA, you'll need 8 capsules. To your point that's a lot of capsules if you don't like swallowing pills. Compare with prescription below:

Kirkland Signature Fish Oil provides 151.8 mg EPA and 119.1 mg DHA per tablet, totaling 270.9 mg EPA+DHA (Softgel).

Prescription Lovaza (Rx)* provides 465 mg EPA and 375 mg DHA per tablet, totaling 840 mg EPA+DHA (Softgel (Rx)).

Prescription Vascepa (Rx)* provides 960 mg EPA and <40 mg DHA per tablet, totaling ~960 mg EPA+DHA (Softgel (Rx)).

[j45]

Thanks so much. Reducing the average 1600 decisions a day we apparently make is helpful.

It can be a lot of pills time wise as well.

[j45]

Agreed, it’s why I’m taking multiples.

Open to other omega 3’s if there’s any recommendations.

[theologic]

Because of the issues with rancidity, I strongly prefer Costco because they churn through the stuff like there is no tomorrow. Their supply chains seem to be pretty straightforward from OEM to internal warehouse to to clearance. Just make sure to keep it refrigerated and move it from shelf to a cool place in a timely fashion period.

[j45]

That's a useful consideration, thanks.

I think I recall hearing something like that but promptly forgot when I realized I had to eat them by the handful per day.

Still appreciative that something like this can be relatively accessed anywhere in a pinch or starting out.

[rpozarickij]

I used to take Nordic Naturals EPA Xtra for a long time in the past and when taking them I'd sometimes have days when my thinking was unusually fluid and clear, something I have never experienced while taking my current brand of Omega 3 (the European Moller's Omega 3 Extra). (There could definitely be other reasons too besides Omega 3 intake.)

The Sports Research Triple Strength capsules just like the Nordical Naturals have much more EPA than DHA (but the ratio is different), so I might give these a try too.

Another piece of personal anecdata related to Omega 3, is that I recently started taking most of it with dinner, and my sleep subjectively feels slightly better than when I used to take them earlier in the day.

[JumpCrisscross]

> I play chess a bit like sushi ginger for the mind - purge working memory with a short intense task to context switch

I use it as a stupidity meter. If I play a series of bad bullet games, I’m more cautious about my decision making that day.

[bobbylarrybobby]

You can also get Omega-3 from algae oil (which is where fish get it) to alleviate concerns about heavy metal content. Algae may have heavy metals but should have less than any fish. I know nothing about this particular product, but they came up when I searched for it: https://www.norsan-omega.com/algae-oil/

[partiallypro]

I do the same thing, except I subscribe to Thorne. I haven't noticed an uptick in perceived brain capacity, etc, but I can tell that my skin and hair are healthier. I started taking it because my cholesterol was all over the place and I desperately want to avoid taking a statin later in life. I'll be retesting that early next year. I've also started eating smoked salmon and canned sardines.

[FollowingTheDao]

I’d really be interested in hearing what your heritage is, specifically on your mother side. If you read my other post, you’ll understand why I’m curious.

[partiallypro]

English/Scots-Irish/German

[j45]

Appreciate the anecdata. There could have been a bit of a deficiency compared to baseline.

I have heard of that brand too - quality matters.

Omega 3 containing sufficient DHA is studied to reduce inflammation in the brain as well has help with other cognitive processes.

Another one I had read is the insulin spike after a meal can be lowered significantly by having one omega-3 with each meal.

I’ll try to circle back with a few of the studies.

[da02]

Your life sounds amazing. What other discoveries have you found? Do you publish anywhere online? (social media, Youtube, etc.)

[storus]

Omega-3 together with vitamin B2 repolarizes microglia from pro-inflammatory state to healing state, so no wonder your brain got a boost. Now, how can I tell if Omega-3 capsules are rancid?

[adrian_b]

If you buy bottled oil instead of capsules, you can feel its taste, so you can sense whether it is rancid or it has any other suspect taste.

Good omega-3 oil has a pleasant taste, there is really no need to eat capsules made from chemically-modified cellulose or who knows what other material that is not suitable as food.

The omega-3 oil can be mixed with whatever oil you add to your food, e.g. to a salad.

[storus]

Yeah, I mean if I open a capsule, I can tell. But without opening it, is there any way to tell it's rancid?

[adrian_b]

Like I have said, you can buy omega-3 oil as liquid in bottles, even if it may be harder to find than in capsules (but with online shopping it is very easy to find many kinds of such oil).

The pure oil is cheaper and you can feel its taste without having to break capsules. Moreover you do not have to ingest capsules made of dubious substances, besides the desired oil.

Once opened (but preferably also before) such an oil bottle should be kept in a refrigerator.

Some bottled oil includes flavors, e.g. lemon, which mask its natural taste. Unflavored omega 3 oil is preferable.

[storus]

I had a look but all of the oil bottles I could find in my area were flavored with tart/sour taste to mask rancidity, so no thanks.

[sunnybeetroot]

I had the same problem, if you do find one please share

[smilliken]

The best way is to open a capsule for each batch you receive to test it by taste, then store in the fridge.

[motoboi]

Does normal (not rancid) omega-3 oil smells like fish? Or is that an indicator of rancid?

[mettamage]

Playing chess as a baseline thing to know how your cognitive processing is seems like a good idea.

[64718283661]

Eat sardines. Good protein, high omega 3, high in other vitamins too.

[Finnucane]

Or just eat foods that have it.

[adrian_b]

That would be a great solution, except that such foods are usually much more expensive than an equivalent amount of omega-3 oil.

Moreover, due to the great human stupidity of dumping everything where "it becomes the problem of others", now it has become the problem of everybody that what were previously among the healthiest foods, i.e. most food items of marine origin, nowadays carry significant health risks, due to possible mercury content.

[Finnucane]

But they do have the advantage of being, you know, food, and not just a bottle of oil. And you can't live on a bottle of oil. You'll still need to buy the food.

[adrian_b]

Yes, but where I live, in the middle of a continent, not on some sea coast, I can buy food that contains all nutrients, except omega-3 fatty acids, for a price at least 10 to 20 times less than if I would buy food of marine origin.

Adding to that food 10 milliliter of cod liver oil per day, which provides 2 grams of DHA+EPA, requires only the equivalent of 40 US cents per day.

With most capsules, one would need 5 or more capsules for this amount of oil, which would increase the price a lot. To create the sensation of a higher content of DHA+EPA, on many capsule boxes the quantity that is written is for a pair of capsules, not for one capsule. Therefore I consider capsules as more like a scam for increasing oil price than as a useful method of delivery, which is why I have stopped using them many years ago.

Looking right now on Amazon.com, it seems that the US prices for omega-3 oils are significantly higher than in Europe, at least double, the cheapest being labeled as dog food.

I wonder whether there is any difference in quality between those labeled as dog food and those labeled as human food, e.g. if the "dog food" oils are also tested for contaminants. Otherwise, the "dog food" oils seemed not only cheaper, but also better, being pure and unflavored, while the "human food" oils suggested by Amazon were either flavored or in capsules. Here in Europe, I see such pure oils advertised for children and pregnant women, instead of as dog food.

[Finnucane]

Omega-3 fatty acids are found in a wide variety of food. Having some is good. Do you need as much as the supplement merchants want you to believe you need? Probably not.

[bongodongobob]

Eh, I could see it. When I look at my rating graph it's really easy to correlate with life events. Bad stuff at work, rating drops. Went on vacation, goes way up etc. Just being in a bad mood will fuck up my game, so I def think it's very possible it did affect your game that much. Not to mention that that level of chess is very volatile. A 2200 player would definitely not see the same effects.