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The Benefits Of Fish Oil & Why You Need Omega-3 | Nutritionist Explains | Myprotein
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Feb 12, 2025
Expert nutritionist explains the benefits of fish oil and the importance of getting enough omega-3 and omega-6 in your diet. What’s all the fuss about fish oil? Want to know more about essential fatty acids, why you need them, and what they do? You’ll be relieved to know that everyone’s favourite nutrition researcher, Richie Kirwan, is back with all the answers. Get to grips with the science behind omega fatty acids, where to source them, how much you need, and so much more — all without having to trawl through any of the research yourself. Spoiler alert: there are plenty of ways for you to get the good stuff without having to eat a load of mackerel *sigh of relief* *** Chapters: 00:00 – Intro 00:25 – What makes fish oil special? 03:29 – Why take fish oil supplements? 04:12 – What are the health benefits? 05:26 – Effects on maintaining muscle 06:32 – Recommended dosage *** *********************************
View Video Transcript
0:00
today we're going to talk all about what
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i consider to be one of the most
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interesting nutrients essential fatty
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acids and specifically
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fish oils more importantly i'll tell you
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what they actually do in your body and
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then you can decide
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whether they're a worthwhile investment
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as always i want to point out that i'm
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not recommending any particular fish oil
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supplements what i am going to do is
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talk about how fish oils work
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and what to look out for in a good
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supplement let's get started firstly
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what makes fish oil so special well
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let's get back to basics and talk about
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fats fats are macronutrients that are
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made up of
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three fatty acids combined with a
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molecule of glycerol the fatty acids can
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be divided into three main categories
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based on the types of bonds they have
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saturated fat which can be found in
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foods like butter meat coconut oil
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is made up of fatty acids that have no
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double
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bonds this is why they're called
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saturated because they're saturated or
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full of carbon atoms because of this
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saturated fatty acids are straight and
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can pack together
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nice and tightly this is why saturated
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fats are often solid
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at room temperature unsaturated fatty
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acids have at least one
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double bond and this bond causes the
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fatty acid chain to have a slight
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bend or kink in the middle which means
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mostly unsaturated fats
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don't pack together as tightly and are
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liquid at room temperature
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if there is only one double bond it's
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called a mono unsaturated fatty acid
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and a really good example is oleic acid
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in olive oil if it has more than one
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double bond it's called a
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polyunsaturated fatty acid and that has
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even more kinks in the chain
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to make things a little more complex we
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can further classify polyunsaturated
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fatty acids by
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where the first double bond appears in
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the chain if the first double bond
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appears at the sixth carbon atom from
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the end of the chain it's called an
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omega-6
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fatty acid they're commonly found in
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plant fats such as sunflower oil
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rapeseed oil and other vegetable oils as
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well as in most seeds
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on the other hand if the first double
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bond occurs at the third carbon atom
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from the end it's called an omega-3
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fatty acid
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so there is a genuine reason that those
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terms exist now you know something
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completely useless for day-to-day
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conversation omega-3 fatty acids are
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found in flax seeds
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chia seeds walnuts and oily fish but
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they're not all the same
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you see animals aren't able to make some
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unsaturated fatty acids which means we
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need to get them
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from our diet and that's why we have the
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term essential
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fatty acid there are two essential fatty
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acids linoleic acid the omega-6
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essential fatty acid
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and alpha-linolenic acid ala which is
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the omega-3
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essential fatty acid but wait there's
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more ala needs to be converted
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to a more active form of the body so it
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needs to be made longer and to be more
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unsaturated these are called
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long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids
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and yes i know
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it is an incredibly catchy name one of
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the longer fatty acids produced is
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called
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acosa pentanoic acid which thankfully we
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can just call epa epa
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then also gets converted to
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docosahexaenoic acid
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or dha it's epa and dha that seem to
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have
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some very significant health benefits
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and where do you get that from
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here's a hint the answer is in the title
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of this video that's right
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oily fish is a great source of epa
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and dha i said oily fish specifically
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because
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white fish like cod is so low on fat
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that it can't be considered a source of
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omega-3 by oily fish i mean things like
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salmon trout sardines tuna are the best
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of them all
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mackerel which is 3.2 grams of omega-3
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per 100 grams here's another interesting
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fact while fish farming gets a lot of
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hate
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farm salmon actually has more omega-3
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than wild salmon because of the
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consistent
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feed that it receives that is already
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high in omega-3s the big problem with
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this is that you'd have to eat
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fish and there are a lot of people that
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simply don't like it
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i don't know about you but there is no
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way that i'm going to try and get all of
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my omega-3
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from mackerel it is quite possibly the
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fishiest of fish that's
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where fish oil supplements come in you
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could instead get the epa and dha you
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need from
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1 to 3 grams a day of fish oil a maximum
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of 27 calories and if you're a
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vegetarian or vegan
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fear not you can also get epa and dha
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from algal oil
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supplements in fact the reason oily fish
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is so high in epa and dha
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is because algae is the base of the
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ocean food chain
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and these fatty acids build up in the
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flesh
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of fish so that was a little more than
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the basics but think of all
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the great dinner conversations you can
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now have omega-3s play a huge role in a
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lot of our body's processes from
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immunity and inflammation
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to brain development and heart health
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they are called essential fatty acids
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for a reason we need them to live and to
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be healthy
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and here's a very very brief overview of
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some of the health effects of epa
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and dha firstly dha is essential for
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proper brain development
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and function even from before we're even
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born
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population studies that look at what
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people eat regularly have shown that
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people with diets higher in dha
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have a lower risk of declining brain
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function as they age
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however that doesn't prove anything
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about supplements for that we need to
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look at
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intervention studies these are
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experiments where we give
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a specific group of people a specific
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supplement in order to see if it has a
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specific
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effect interestingly one intervention
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study found that high doses of dha
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specifically
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around 2 grams per day reduced the brain
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shrinkage seen in older people with mild
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cognitive decline
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there's even some evidence to suggest
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that fish oil supplements in general
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might be able to help improve memory
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function in older people too however
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none of this research is definitive so
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we need a lot more evidence before we
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can say
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fish oil supplements have a definitive
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effect on brain health another benefit
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of epa and dha
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is looking after our muscle as we get
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older my specific area of research is
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sarcopenia which is basically
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the loss of muscle as we age fish oil is
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one of the supplements that shows
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a lot of promise for helping older
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people to maintain muscle size and
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strength for example
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one intervention study in a group of 60
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to 85 year olds found that a little over
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three grams a day of combined epa and
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dha helped to increase
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the muscle size grip strength and one
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rep
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max strength for a number of exercises
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including leg press and chest press so
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it might just be able to help your
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granny stage act
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one of the most well-known effects of
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fish oil is on triglycerides
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when you get a blood lipid panel at the
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doctors triglycerides are one of the
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main blood lipids tested
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along with total and hdl cholesterol
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excessively high triglycerides can lead
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to a greater risk of heart disease
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luckily triglycerides are
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very responsive to lifestyle changes so
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maintaining a healthy body weight
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exercising and following a healthy diet
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can help reduce triglycerides eating
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fish is also known to help reduce
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triglycerides
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and if you don't want to eat fish
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supplements like fish oil or algal oil
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might be the next best thing when
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looking for a good fish oil supplement
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read the label and check how much epa
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and dha you get
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per capsule because this varies a lot
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between supplements a good dose to aim
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for is 1 000 to 2000 milligrams of
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combined
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epa and dha per day depending on the
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brand you get
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that could be a lot of capsules so bear
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that in mind so what do you think did
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that clear everything up for you about
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fish oils
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as always if you have any questions let
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me know in the comments below and
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remember to like and subscribe to the my
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protein youtube channel
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for more great evidence-based nutrition
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