Walking down supermarket aisles, you may have noticed lately that numerous new products are proudly and prominently boasting "contains omega-3s" on the label.

How true is this claim? Does it hold real health benefits? After all, omega-3 fatty acids from fish oil have been conclusively shown to reduce cardiovascular "events" like heart attack and death from heart attack. The 11,000-participant GISSI-Prevenzione Trial, for instance, demonstrated 28% reduction in heart attack and 45% reduction in death from heart attack by taking fish oil capsules. In our program for heart disease reversal, omega-3 fatty acids from fish oil are a crucial and necessary ingredient. We use fish oil to reduce triglycerides (and VLDL), raise HDL, and accelerate clearance of dietary by-products in the blood after meals, all powerful effects.

Of course, it's hard to gauge benefits like reduced heart attack risk on your own. But effects like reduction of triglycerides and other patterns can be readily observed by you and your doctor. Thus, you can know-for a fact-whether omega-3s are doing their job or not. A triglyceride level of 250 mg/dl, for example, will usually drop by over 100 mg/dl by taking 1800 mg per day of EPA and DHA. (Most standard fish oil capsules contain 300 mg of EPA and DHA per capsule; six capsules provide 1800 mg.) Linolenic acid has no effect on triglycerides.

One confusing issue that trips up many people is that some commercial products contain alpha-linolenic acid, officially designated an omega-3 fatty acid. However, only a tiny amount of linolenic acid is converted to the biologically active omega-3s, EPA and DHA.

Let's take a look at Natural Ovens' Brainy Bagel, for example (so named because of some preliminary evidence that the omega-3, DHA, might favorably impact Alzheimer's dementia). The label (not shown) states that it contains "620 omega-3," referring to the 620 mg of linolenic acid from flaxseed, in each bagel. There is no EPA or DHA added.

What does this mean? If you take fish oil for reduction of heart attack risk and reduction of triglycerides, can you reduce fish oil dose if you eat a Natural Ovens' Brainy Bagel every day?

No, you cannot. Despite the linolenic acid, because it lacks EPA or DHA, this product has no effect on reduction of triglycerides or any of the other effects we associate with EPA and DHA forms of omega-3 fatty acids.

I find the claim of contains "omega-3" confusing and potentially misleading, since people will often interpret such a claim to mean that it contains 620 of EPA and DHA, similar to two capsules of standard fish oil (1000 mg capsules). I find this especially troublesome when people stop or reduce their fish oil, since they've been misled into thinking that products contain active omega-3 fatty acids that yield all the benefits of the "real stuff." (Linolenic acid may possess benefits separate and distinct from the DHA and EPA; a topic for another post.)