Does algae oil contain Omega 3s?
Posted by kathryn in A Balanced Diet and Q & A Thursday
Jocelyn from She Spills the Beans asked me ages ago about algae oil:
I wondered what algae oil was extracted from (algea, obviously, but there must be a more complete answer than that). Might an algae-containing product be a good addition to my diet? Where do the seaweeds rate on omega-3s?
What algae is the oil extracted from?
There are a number of algaes that are cultivated for oil extraction. They’re mostly micro-algae, which are tiny, single-cell species.
Algae oil is used commercially and industrially – as well as in food. It can be used as a biodiesel, in dyes and made into plastic.
For nutritionals, the two main species used are: spirulina and chlorella.
What about the Omega 3s?
Algaes do contain Omega 3 essential fatty acids. Spirulina has 8 percent fat in total. About 10 percent of this is Omega 3. There are several different types of Omega 3s. Algae oil contains a variety of these, including GLA, ALA, EPA and DHA.
While other vegetarian foods do contain Omega 3s, it’s the ALA version which is more prevalent. However, most of the studies into the benefit of Omega 3s use fish – which are high in EPA and DHA.
So algae oil is interesting as a supplement, because it contains these EPA and DHAs. These are believed to be the most useful to our bodies.
You can get this by taking spirulina or chlorella supplements. or using algae oil.
What about seaweed?
Seaweed does contain Omega 3s, including DHA and EPA. However, none of them are quite as rich sources as spirulina. You need to eat quite a lot of seaweed to get adequate Omega 3 – more than you would in a normal diet.
More information
- I’ve written about green foods before: should you be using green food supplements
- Vegetarian sources of Omega 3s
What is Q & A Thursday?
This post is part of Q & A Thursday – a fortnightly burst of blogging, where you get to dictate the subject matter. Q & A Thursday is all about simple, practical answers to food and diet dilemmas sent in by readers.
If you have a question you’d like answered, leave a comment below or send me an email. For more information you can take a look at the Q & A Thursday archives.
08 November, 2007
Comments
Thanks so much, Kathryn. I’m glad to know there’s a panoply of Omega-3s in algae. I tried a spirulina supplement many years ago and I think I remember that it didn’t agree with me, but I don’t remember what else might have been in it. Sounds like it’s time for me to do some new reading and research on what products there are to choose from.
And I’m happy to say that I’m doing quite a bit better just in the last few days, too! Thanks for asking. I even cooked a nice dinner last night – pink beans with tomatoes, onion and cilantro, some delicious butternut squash with roasted red pepper and lime juice, plus some store-bought sprouted corn tortillas. The weather’s turning cool here and it’s so nice to enjoy fall and winter veg again.
Your dinner sounds wonderful Jocelyn and I’m really pleased to hear you’re picking up.
You can get supplements which are 100% spirulina, and you should be able to get organic ones as well. You certainly can here in Australia and I know there are commercial producers in the US – so I’m assuming it’s the same there.
Beaut blog, Kathryn. You mentioned vegetarian fish sauce, which got me quite excited since fish sauce is in everything and makes my life difficult. I’ve looked at couple of stores with no luck. Where do you get your vegetarian fish sauce from in Sydney, and what is the brandname?
Well, it’s not as if the ALA in flax, walnuts, etc. is entirely useless! It has actually been studied quite a lot, with healthful results. ALA converts to DHA and EPA in the body, at different rates depending on which food you eat it with and other variables. Flax has been used as a health supplement for animals and humans for centuries. As long as you’re eating fresh ALA-containing plant foods, you’ll find you get plenty of omega-3.
This is good news for me, since I don’t like the taste of seaweed!
Kathy, flax, walnuts, etc have many fine, fine nutritional benefits. They do contain the ALA Omega 3s and these can be converted to DHA and EPA. However, at the moment it’s unclear how effective this conversion is – it’s likely that not all the ALA is converted. Plus there seems to be a proportion of the community who do not make the enzyme, necessary for this conversion.
Much of what we know about the health benefits of Omega 3s, comes from studies into fish consumption. It is uncertain if high ALA diets confer the same benefits. At the very least someone would have to eat a lot of ALA, to make up for the inefficient conversion.
Well, from what I’ve read, it’s not uncertain at all. Try Fats That Kill, Fats That Heal by Udo Erasmus. It’s got a lot of good info in it.
Harry, I get my vegetarian fish sauce from Campsie. It’s a Vietnamese product and the brand name is Nuoc Mam Chay. But I’ve seen vegie fish sauce in a number of Asian grocers. It’s usually hidden in amongst all the real fish sauce!
Kathy, I read Fats that Heal years ago, when I was studying. It’s a great book and I learnt a lot about the structure of fats and how they work. Despite what Erasmus says, the benefits of ALAs are still uncertain. I’m not saying the don’t have significant health benefits – it’s just that we’re not sure what those benefits are at the moment. We can’t extrapolate the health information garnered from consumption into fish research and apply that directly to plant sources of ALAs.
I’ve listed some references below giving an outline of the current debate:
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