A few years ago, I went to Australia to study with my classmates. It was midsummer. It is the sky that is blue and the sea is wide. In order to avoid being beaten by relatives and friends, on the last day before returning home, I ran into the street like a lost dog and took out a few hundred-dollar bills that I saved from eating instant noodles with my old dopted mother every day to squander.
Fortunately, foreign profiteers have long been accustomed to this scene and have taken out items that Chinese tourists must buy with understanding. Therefore, I reluctantly sent out my only savings, carrying two boxes of milk powder, several bottles of sheep oil and several large cans of deep sea fish oil, and traveled home across mountains and rivers.
After returning home, the milk powder was plundered by the mothers with their babies, and sheep oil was conveniently attached as cosmetics.
But here comes the question, I’m going to send out the fish oil, Only to find that the elders to send each wry smile. It turns out that in recent years, Everyone stopped eating platinum and gold partners, and this thing arose at the time. Everyone had several large cans in their homes that had not been unpacked. Not to mention it was extremely painful to eat: it was just dull and tasteless, and the large pieces were easy to choke. However, for the sake of their three high bodies, they had to endure it, which was really painful.
After all, fish oil is a health product that has been selling well for many years. Global sales broke the US $1 billion mark early on, and the name of “liquid gold” that has been rotted away has been successfully installed on the head of deep sea fish oil (according to incomplete statistics, this name has successively appeared on oil, grape seed oil, rose essential oil, wine, aged Maotai, rose oil and Blue Mountain coffee).
Then, the question arises: Is deep sea fish oil really as magical as liquid gold?
All kinds of crazy propaganda come on our faces. Reducing blood lipid is a small meaning, protecting eyesight and improving brain power are normal, frenzied, but also anti-cancer, weight loss, anti-aging, analgesic, anti-inflammatory and three highs. It is quite a grain of fish oil every day to strengthen a nation.
A brief look at the introduction shows that the main ingredient is N-3 unsaturated fatty acid (also called-3), including EPA and DHA. Of course, I know that most people, like me, have begun to have a strong impulse to close the page when they see this thick textbook remark.
Therefore, let’s make a long story short. The previous EPA can mainly regulate blood lipid and increase the proportion of [good cholesterol].
DHA, on the other hand, mainly acts on the brain. For example, all kinds of so-called milk powder advertisements added DHA in Rotten Street are used to promote the development of brain and vision. Considering that those who eat deep sea fish oil are all middle-aged and elderly people, the requirements for growth and development are really not high, so its greatest significance lies in the possibility of some preventive effects on senile dementia.
Incidentally, this does not necessarily mean that children are suitable for eating fish oil. Due to the risk of mercury poisoning in fish oil and the relatively low DHA content, it is now more recommended for pregnant women and children to take DHA from algae. Of course, it is better to take DHA directly from food.
At the same time, it must also be noted that not 100% of fish oil is composed of the above two substances. During the production process, a large amount of DHA and EPA will be lost due to various process losses. In health care products, the effective EPA and DHA content is only about 30%, not to mention fake products.
Generally speaking, the largest and most studied role of fish oil lies in cardiovascular diseases.
At first, scientists did discover the powerful role of N-3 in cardiovascular function. In the 1990s, Several studies have been published in medical heavyweight magazines such as the Lancet. It is also publicized that Eskimos rely on eating deep sea fish. Only then can the incidence of cardiovascular diseases be reduced. It was also from then on that fish oil became popular. Major health care products enterprises began to work overtime and produce full power. In some countries, doctors even directly prescribed fish oil to patients for auxiliary treatment.
However, with the passage of time, more and more researchers have questioned this. Judging from their research conclusions, fish oil is not as omnipotent as imagined in many cases.
In 2005, another top medical journal < > fired the first shot. Researchers conducted a grouping test on 200 patients implanted with cardiac pacemakers and found that eating fish oil did not reduce the probability of various cardiovascular symptoms.
Of course, it is unreasonable to say that fish oil is useless. Because according to the research results, fish oil will increase the risk of arrhythmia in such patients.
As the saying goes, one stone stirred up a thousand waves. In the following years, scientists from all over the world kept fighting for the effect of fish oil. Today you said it was effective, tomorrow I will take the data to draw my face, and the day after tomorrow he will kick the museum with the research conclusion… It can be said that it was very lively.
However, on the whole, articles that still think fish oil has little effect account for the majority.
In 2012, the New England Journal of Medicine, the best journal in the medical field, published a study that fish oil did not prevent cardiovascular symptoms in diabetics.
Not long ago, the top journal in cardiovascular field < > published research results again. Taking fish oil cannot reduce the risk of atrial fibrillation recurrence in patients with arrhythmia.
At present, although the opposition has the upper hand, we really cannot draw a definite conclusion on the effects of fish oil and heart disease.
But what is certain is that fish oil is definitely not as powerful and effective as most slogans say.
Finally, although saliva is flying and bricks are everywhere on the issue of fish oil, one thing has been unanimously agreed by almost all experts:
Instead of spending money on fish oil, it is better to save money and buy more fish to eat.