I agree that the methodology of this study is suspicious.
I tend to be skeptical of supplements in general. Humans evolved to eat foods in their natural context--fish oil in fish, phytochemicals in plants in the natural concentrations and mixes in which they occur. When you isolate and refine individual components of a food, you risk overdosing on one component of the food. You also often miss out on positive interactions--one ingredient may enhance the absorption of nutrients, or may block adverse effects of an excessive dose of some other chemical. Refining foods and processing them to concentrate certain ingredients both minimizes these positive interactions and increases the risk of something harmful happening.
I wouldn't give up on fish; just eat whole fish. But I would agree that, even without this study, fish oil pills, like most pills, in my opinion, are best avoided.
Comment Reply
I agree that the methodology of this study is suspicious.
I tend to be skeptical of supplements in general. Humans evolved to eat foods in their natural context--fish oil in fish, phytochemicals in plants in the natural concentrations and mixes in which they occur. When you isolate and refine individual components of a food, you risk overdosing on one component of the food. You also often miss out on positive interactions--one ingredient may enhance the absorption of nutrients, or may block adverse effects of an excessive dose of some other chemical. Refining foods and processing them to concentrate certain ingredients both minimizes these positive interactions and increases the risk of something harmful happening.
I wouldn't give up on fish; just eat whole fish. But I would agree that, even without this study, fish oil pills, like most pills, in my opinion, are best avoided.
March 9, 2011 - 1:33pmThis Comment
Reply