fish oil?

[ivana]

Hi everyone,
I was searching the web, wanting to buy for my mother Omega 3, and ran across omega 3 fish oil. Now, I know that Omega 3 is fatty acid, but is it the same as fish oil or it is something else, and what is the difference?
May be silly question, but I want to clear this out.

ivana

[Troy McClure]

Natural oils contain many different constituent oils. So for example coconut oil contains caprylic acid, caproic acid, lauric acid etc. Think of these as being the chemical names of the "ingredients" of coconut oil.

In the same way "Omega 3" (which is the chemical name for a very good type of oil) is one of the "ingredients" of fish oil (and also flax oil).

Now your body has a requirement of Omega 3's - in the same way it has a requirement of vitamins. This is why these 2 fatty acids (Omega 3 and Omega 6) are called "essential". So to get your daily dose of Omega 3, you need to eat either flax oil or fish oil.

The reason why we don't supplement with Omega 6 (so much) is because we get an abundance of this in the modern diet, but we get very little Omega 3's naturally.

Hope that makes sense.

[ivana]

Ok, that's cleared a lot of questions that I had. Thanks Troy for a quick response.

ivana