Greetings, it's Eric Bakker, the naturopath. Thanks for coming back.
We're still talking about Omega 3. Let's talk about the top 10 foods in no particular order.
This is my list of what I would call the top 10. Okay, so the first one doesn't have
to be the best, nor the last. But all of these are great sources of Omega 3.
So Omega 3 is an essential fatty acid. We call essential fatty acids, or EFA. So you need to
take these into your diet on a very regular basis. They help to supply enormous benefits
for your body. People who are missing out on Omega 3 often consume too much Omega 6, which
can have an inflammatory effect. Like, a not so good effect as the Omega 3 would have on the body.
And unfortunately, a lot of the Omega 6 is being consumed today with processed foods and seed oils.
And there's snack bars, and there's all sorts of ways that this crappy oil is coming into our diet,
and has been increasing so in the last 30, 40, 50 years. It's just been going up and up. But so has
heart disease, so has cancer, and many diseases attributed to the more inflammatory Omega 6.
So, you need balance levels, really, of Omega, which we'll talk about in a subsequent video. But
these are the sources, I think, are the best for Omega 3. And obviously,
food is the best source of Omega 3. Many people today eat foods like I do, high in Omega 3, but
also wish to supplement their diet with additional Omega 3 to confer even more benefits to the body.
So, oily fish, number one, of course, goes without saying. Mackerel, salmon, herring, tuna,
sardines, anchovies. These foods in particular, the oily fishes. Now, I love herring. I love
sardines and herring and anchovies, and I eat those every day. I have one nice sort of piece
of herring that's pickled. Very fatty, very oily, which I enjoy. And then, often anchovies will
come into the diet. Small amounts here or there with mediterranean style cooking, which I enjoy.
Sardines also get eaten regularly. So, these foods are very high, not just in Omega 3,
but also they're packed with minerals like calcium and boron and manganese and selenium.
You're going to get vitamin E in there. You're going to get many benefits from eating these
foods on a regular basis. A very clever thing to do is to eat oily fish on a regular basis. If you
can't really like oil fish, then just try wide fish filets. You'll still have some Omega there,
and you can also get canned sardines, for example, which will be packed in different types of oils.
I like it packed in spring water, for example. I find that quite
enjoyable. But yeah, so oily fish, number one. Walnuts, surprising amount of Omega in walnuts.
One of the very few nuts that are very high in minerals, but also in Omega 3.
They confer particular benefits for the brain, the fats in walnuts. And if you look back in
antiquity, many people believe that they're one of the best things to eat for the brain.
Because if you open up a walnut, it looks like the brain, doesn't it? It's interesting.
When you open a walnut, that little piece in between, that little sort of membrane
in many countries, particular in Switzerland and Germany, in bygone days, people would make
a tea out of that membrane, and stating it was specifically good for brain function. Empirical
observation over many years. So, try and eat some walnuts every day. And you need them brown with
the skins on. You don't want the ones that are blanched. They're all stripped of all the skin.
There's a lot of the benefits of nuts just under that skin, all right? So, walnuts are fantastic.
We put them in pesto, for example. Mix them with basil and pine nuts and olive oil,
and blend all that up and make a nice pesto out of it. Number two is walnuts.
Number three, we got seaweeds. So, we've also got vegetarian, vegan sauces here for people.
Fish get their Omega 3 primarily from eating seaweed. That's one of the number one sources.
So, small fish eat the seaweed, bigger fish eat the smaller fish. Yet bigger fish eat that, and
eventually, it goes up the chain. And of course, the largest oil fishes that consume a lot of
EPA and DHA through their chain, their food chain. So, we're talking sea algae. We're talking all
sorts of seaweeds. Nori, Kombu, Hijiki, there's all sorts of seaweeds you can get. So, this is a
great addition, again, to your diet. Particularly if you're a vegan and you want to get Omega 3,
the seaweeds and the algae sources. Chlorella, spirulina, also contain Omega 3.
Fourth one, I've got hemp seeds. Various seeds, chia seeds, flax seeds, and hemp seeds. These
are very good sources of alpha linoleic acid. So, ALA, DHA, and EPA are the three fatty acids
primarily that make up Omega 3. So, flax seed is a good source of alpha linoleic acid, which
in the body can convert to other types of fatty acids. So, the ground flax seed we'll talk about
later is fantastic. So, the seeds, and you can get hemp seed oil as well, which contains Omega.
The fifth one is shellfish, would you believe it? Oysters, one of the very few foods that actually
contain all three types of Omega in them. The alpha linoleic acid, the docosahexaenoic acid,
and the eicosapentaenoic acid, EPA. ALA, DHA, EPA. So oysters contain all, plus lots of zinc
in oysters, too. These are fantastic food to eat if you get good source of oysters.
Scallops also, very, very healthy food to eat. Excellent, they contain iodine,
they contain selenium. They contain hard to get minerals. So, if you've got access
to fresh shellfish like this from a quality source, you've got a superb food on your hands.
Number six, grass fed beef, all right? So, the animals are going to get the Omega from the grass,
basically. In New Zealand, everything's grass fed, basically. I don't really think we have
any grain fed here. But when I was in the states, man, that grain fed beef you guys got over there,
it's not really good. It's just not really good at all to eat.
So the level of Omega 3 in a grain-raised cow is about a fifth of that in a grass-raised
animal. So if you want to get really good butter, really good cheese, really good meat,
very high quality in a grass fed. So, that's where the benefits come from.
Venison, or deer, deer meat. I don't know if you can get that in the states. I'm
pretty sure you can get it in Europe. A very high quality protein to eat,
because deer, of course, are nibblers. They will not necessarily eat from the ground.
They'll pick off shrubs, trees, branches. They'll eat insects. They'll eat any
kind ... They even eat birds. They eat all sorts of different animals, deer have known to eat.
So you're going to get, again, a quality meat here when you eat venison. And it's one of the
very few wild meats I know that's very high in Omega 3. So, that's a good source. And probably,
you'll find buffalo or other animals like that, or elk or yak, whatever else you guys
have got out there, other animals. They've probably also got good sources of Omega 3 if
they're animals living in the wild, because they tend to eat better food than what we give them.
Number seven, eggs. Eggs are also a source of Omega 3. But you can get eggs now where
the chickens are being fed flax seed, for example, chia seed, different types of seeds. So of course,
as the animals eat them, they're going to produce eggs high in Omega 3. So that's another good
source of Omega 3 if you're not a vegan and you don't want to eat any oily fish or stuff, look for
eggs where the chickens have been fed flax seed, linseed, flax seed, and chia seed, and hemp seed.
And of course, eggs, incredible protein. One of the best foods you can eat, I believe, are eggs.
Part of the mevy diet, meat, eggs, vegetables, and yogurt is eggs. Most patients that I've had over
the clinic in years, when I finally get people to eat eggs regularly, they tell me how much
better they feel after they've consumed the meal containing some eggs. They're a superior protein.
So, we've got number eight, we've got soy which has been trashed and maligned so bad.
I've just read some interesting blogs, some sites I looked at about soy. And the debate's
all over the place. But there's no doubt, if we're talking non-genetically modified soy,
soy that hasn't been sprayed with glyphosate like so many crops are today, they've become
glyphosate resistant. So when you're eating their food, you're getting all these chemicals in it.
So, I'm talking non-genetically modified, organically grown soy that's been processed
properly and fermented properly. You're not going to have any problems with that.
But if you really want to get yourself sick, then the GM soy is certainly a way to go. So, tofu
and you've got nano, you've got different types of Japanese kind of foods you can eat
there that are high in Omega 3. But tofu, the soybeans certainly has got an element
of Omega 3 in it. So that's worth thinking about. I still think it's a high quality protein.
And also while we're on the subject, of course, cheeses. You know, tofu, cheese, it's not exactly
the same. But remember, we spoke about the dairy, about the cows. So if you've got a good quality
grass fed cow, producing a high quality cheese, you're going to get Omega 3 in that, as well.
Number nine, of course, flax seed. Flax seed's a classic for a lot of vegetarian vegan people who
want some level of Omega 3 in their body, they can have flaxseed oil. You can get beautiful flaxseed
oil. It's very nice in a salad dressing mixed up with some lemon juice or some balsamic vinegar.
It's quite tasty. A bit of pepper and salt and garlic in with that, it's a very good oil to have.
And you can also get walnut oil, which I've got a bottle of downstairs. It's really nice on salad.
Keep it in the refrigerator, those oils. It's interesting that the best oils to eat are actually
from fruits, and not from seeds. If you look at coconut, which is a fruit,
if we have a look at ... Sorry, that's a nut. If we look at what do you call, not coconut.
We're talking about olives. Olives are, for example, from fruits. And this particular oil,
if we look at the seed oil debate, versus the fruit oil debate, there's certainly a
lot of leaning towards the fruit oils. And I've always preferred coconut. I've always preferred
olive oil. I've always preferred butter, those kind of fats and oils in the diet are good.
So, I'll leave that up to you to decide, but oils and fats, you want to have in your diet.
But I still think the coconut, olive oil, and butter are probably among the three best.
Navy beans, number 10. And red lentils. So, you can get, I think,
red kidney beans and navy beans, pinto beans, and various lentils also contain
not only high levels of protein, but high levels of Omega 3. And when I say high levels,
not of course, exceptionally high like fish. But if you're going to eat red lentils two
or three times a week and enjoy them like I do, you're going to get Omega 3 in your body.
So, that gives you an idea on the sort of 10 types of omega containing food which I would put a lot
of weight in. I think these are about the best foods when it comes to it. But obviously, the
best source of fish oil is going to be fish, isn't it, Omega 3? So, if you're going to eat mackerel,
tuna, trout, sardines, anchovies, those sorts of foods, you're going to get Omega 3 in your body.
That's all I wanted to say. Thanks for tuning in.