Dietry recomendations to eat fish twice a week

thanks, that's what i needed to know.. eye problems?! never would have suspected linseeds to do that.. my eyesight has diminished significantly in the past couple of years, i'm not sure why tho, it could also be that i strain them too much.. maybe if i go to my local health store and tell them i mainly eat a vegan diet they'll know what supplements to give me..

Small amounts of plant based OMEGA 3 is fine, however having large amounts (more then 3 grams) of OMEGA 3 short chain enriched foods has had links to eye problems, such as in flax-seed OMEGA 3 oils. The supplements your after are OMEGA 3 DHA/EPA and I've only seen vegan ones online i.e. http://www.greenedgeonline.com.au/acatalog/Essential_Fatty_Acids.html or http://www.uproar.org.au/uproar-shop/.

OMEGA 3 DHA is the main one needed since high concentrates of DHA can easily be converted into enough EPA but ALA can only produce small amounts of DHA and tiny amounts of EPA as shown in the study I linked in my previous post.

One thing I'll just quickly point out is that conversion from ALA (short chain omega 3) to EPA and DHA (long-chain omega 3) is a competetive process with omega 6 conversions (http://www.fasebj.org/content/6/8/2530.full.pdf). That isn't a problem if your ratios of omega-3 to omega-6 are good (I don't actually know what is 'good' from memory, and my nutritional neuroscience lecture notes with that specific are buried in boxes atm). However, due to high omega 6 in many foods now (e.g. enriched omega-6 everythings, like margarine and so forth) that balance tends not to be good in even a very good  modern diet.
This is consistent with all the previous material talking about how poor the body is at converting short-chain to long-chain omega 3. Basically, supplementation is still wise.

I did see one article of dissent, claiming that humans are 'good enough' at converting ALA to DHA/EPA, but it didn't actually measure blood levels of DHA/EPA. Mind you, what the measured was valuable, but frankly doesn't compete with the more consistent findings of longer-term studies that exist.

Super-short version: you can hate supplements, but hate them while you swallow them.

On the topic of Omega 3 supplements, does anyone know of a multi (Vegan) that has Omega 3 in it?
I'm currently taking Swiss Student Focus  but it doesn't  have Omega 3 in it and I'd rather be able to just take one tablet instead of messing around with two.
If it isn't possible to get a multivitamin including Omega 3, is it okay to take two different vitamins/supplements?
I've heard that the mixture of different things could stuff up your system but I'm not sure if that's true.
While it may be difficult, is it possible to get the right amount og Omega 3 without supplements? I'm doing some research on it now and I've found a bunch of foods (Vegan) that contain Omega 3. Is there a recommended intake of Omega 3 (like how there's the recommended intake of protein,etc)?

Sorry for all the questions by the way  

Opti3: http://www.opti3omega.com/
vPure (not presently available; apparently being reformulated): http://www.v-pure.com/

I *expect* that two separate supplements should be fine. There has historically been some talk about how bad it is to eat starch and protein at the same time, and so forth, but I haven't looked for any empirical research to test that.
In reality, we eat combinations of things all the time: for example, see Tofu at http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/legumes-and-legume-products/4393/2 (it is a bit complex to understand, but the point is it contains fat, protein and some carbohydrate, folate, calcium, iron, etc etc.)

There isn't a 'recommended daily allowance' or 'recommended daily intake' for omega-3 fatty acids (although I'm not sure why). Adequate Intake quantities of *long chain* omega-3 fatty acids for non-pregnant adults are 160mg/day for men, and 90mg/day for men (NHMRC: http://www.nhmrc.gov.au/publications/synopses/n35syn.htm).
It has been argued (by a trade organisation, who represents the vitamin manufacture industry mind you) that these are probably insufficient. Oddly enough, I tend to agree with them: I believe most research looking at health benefits has used higher long-chain omega-3 intakes than that.

The short version is that *maybe* if you moderated your omega-6 intake (which in even a quite good western diet, tends to be very over-represented), since the conversion from short-chain omega 3 (from seeds, etc) to long-chain omega 3 (usually coming from fish) competes between omega-6 and omega-3. That is, if you have too much omega-6 compared to omega-3 (short chains, that is) then you'll suppress your body's ability to convert short-chain omega-3 to long-chain omega-3.
As a vegan, based on my reading I suggest that it is probably unrealistic to try to get sufficient omega-3 long-chain fatty acids (in your blood; i.e. including what your body converts to long-chain) without supplementation. You can give it a shot, but you'll probably need to closely monitor your omega-6 intake, and the only way to be sure will be to get blood tests to check your omega-3 long-chain fatty acid relevant levels.

That's certainly not something you need to apologise for (at least, certainly not to me). I may not be veg*n, I'd much rather those others who are be healthy rather than unhealthy. Unfortunately I get the impression there are a lot of half-truths around when it comes to veg*n nutritional requirements, and frankly that could be quite dangerous (e.g. insufficient omega-3 long-chain for children during development when the brain is taking it up in largest quantities, etc).

@Mean people wear fur, in Australia i know of two online stores that sell the longer chain vegan tablets - http://www.greenedgeonline.com.au/acatalog/Essential_Fatty_Acids.html or http://www.uproar.org.au/uproar-shop/. The Opti3 seems the better choice since they have been able to extract not only DHA but EPA from algae (check the greenedgeonline link).

I just bought the Opti3 Complete Omega 3 (100% natural Omega-3 EPA and DHA) from http://www.greenedgeonline.com.au/acatalog/Essential_Fatty_Acids.html
specifically for the DHA- this site isn't that expensive compared to others I have seen.
If you think your sea vegetable consumption is on the low side, perhaps you want to look into it too.

these days you can get anything from anything.....the world is learning to provide for varied diets.

i'm not going to worry about it. im not going to hurt animals for my own benefit . thats like species-ism or whatever.

im no more valuable than the fishes

Sea vegetables aren't fish I was referring to seaweed.
You can get DHA from eating seaweed (that's where fish get it from) but I don't really eat seaweed so I thought I'd take the lazy/convenient route.

Unless you weren't even referring to my post, and just the topic of this thread...in which case- I agree

sorry Aimee no i wasnt reffering to anyone in particulari hadnt read every post...
tbh i kind of got confused with all these omega hpa epa acid blah ... and something about chain something :/ sfjhdgfjg argh..... whats going on lol!


i prob havent had enough omega 3

i know theres some sort of omega 3 in my cereal ... but thats about it . i like seaweed. - so if i eat it i get a better omega 3 ??/