Vitality News Health Articles

This article is about a food from the oceans that humans and animals have been consuming for over 200 years. Fortunately for us all, it’s now available as a daily nutritional supplement that’s more powerful than fish oil and every other essential fatty acid for an amazing range of health conditions.

No matter what your concern, or your gender, or when you were born, there’s one thing your body truly has to have: essential fatty acids (EFAs). That’s why they’re called “essential.” See, unlike many nutrients, essential fatty acids can’t be manufactured by the human body. So you must get them from your diet and/or from nutritional supplements.

Essential fatty acids are mostly omega-3 and -6 EFAs that exist mostly in the oils of plants, fish, and tiny shrimp-like cold water crustaceans called krill. Here you’ll learn about EFAs and why you should consider krill oil over fish oil as your most beneficial source of essential fatty acids.

The 3 types of omega-3 fatty acids are ALA (alphalinolenic acid), EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid).

Omega-3 works with omega-6 EFAs for your health. But you have to eat them in the correct balance. An inappropriate balance of these two types of EFAs may lead to disease, but the right ratio can support good health.

The explanation is that omega-3 reduces inflammation, while omega-6 fatty acids increase it. Many researchers believe that too much omega-6 in the typical American diet is a big factor in the growing number of inflammatory disorders. Too much inflammation leads to pain and many diseases.

Certainly, knowing what you should eat every day so you can achieve the right amounts and balance of omega-3 and omega-6 isn’t easy. But nutritional supplements to the rescue because you can see what’s in ‘em on the label.

So now you’re probably asking, which source of EFAs should I choose for nutritional supplementation? Plant oil, fish oil or krill oil? Plant oil is beyond the scope of this article so we’ll proceed with comparisons of the marine sources.

You’ll be happy to know that krill oil is coming on like gangbusters in essential fatty acid and antioxidant supplements for waging a very effective war against inflammatory and other diseases.

What makes krill oil better than fish oil? Krill oil is easiest to absorb and has the most potent antioxidant power.

Here’s why krill oil is much more bioavailable than fish oil. The krill’s EFAs are bound with phospholipids instead of the triglycerides of fish oil. It so happens that the fats in the cells of the human body are also in the form of phospholipids. Phospholipids are the building blocks of cell membranes and they protect your cells from free radical damage.

The teamup between phospholipids and omega-3 fatty acids in krill oil makes it possible for antioxidants to successfully penetrate your cells. And that’s huge.

At the beginning of this article we listed 12 health concerns in addition to just plain staying healthy. Every one of them, and more we haven’t mentioned, can most likely be helped by taking krill oil supplements every day.

Of course, be sure not to use any marine form of EFAs if you have seafood allergies; and ask your medical professional about any interactions with medicines, particularly blood thinners.

Victoria Doval is freelance writer specializing in topics relating to health maintenance through natural and whole food dietary supplementation. She contributes to various health industry websites including Krill Supreme Neptune Krill Oil and recommends pure krill oil as a supplement with many times more antioxidant value than fish oil.

- Victoria Doval