A Pescetarian Lifestyle Is Healthier Than A Vegetarian Lifestyle
Written April 29th, 2007 by Michael Byrd in Food
First of all, I’m not picking on vegetarians. That’s definitely not my intention. If you’re a vegetarian, you’re healthy and it’s working for you then by all means continue living that way.
But, if you’re one of those vegetarians (and I talk to them all the time) that has high cholesterol, arthritis or depression, then you’ll need to pay attention to what I’m going to tell you.
Being a vegetarian or a vegan is a viable nutritional option, but you’d better be prepared to manage every detail of what you eat if you want to get the nutrition your body needs. PB&J on white bread is not going to give you what you need and health will suffer.
When you cut out meat altogether, you need a very keen understanding of protein and how to get not only get the quantity you need but also the quality you need. That’s not a simple task if you’re eating strictly vegetarian. It’s possible to do, I give you that, but there is at least one thing that’s completely missing from a strict vegetarian diet that can lead to several health problems in the future.
What I’m talking about are omega 3 fatty acids and more specifically the longer chained omega 3 fatty acids found only in oily fish.
A vegetarian that also eats fish is called a “pescetarian.” The term pescetarian may be new to you but it’s used to describe a non-vegan just like “lacto” describes dairy eating vegetarians, “ovo” describes egg-eating vegetarians and “pollo” describes chicken eating vegetarians. I suppose there are even lactoovopollopescetarians too.
Anyway, many vegetarians rely on flaxseed oil for their omega 3 needs and even though flaxseed oil is an omega 3 oil, it’s not complete - it only contains ALA - and actually lacks the other seven family members.
Companies who sell flaxseed oil will tell you that ALA is an essential fatty acid that may convert to the other omega 3s. This is true, but studies show that your body can’t convert enough ALA to keep up with the demand for omega 3s like EPA and DHA. What your body needs and wants are “pre-formed” omega 3s and you won’t get this from flaxseed oil alone.
This is why I recommend to vegetarians that come to me with high cholesterol, arthritis and depression to eat more fish. They need to become a pescetarian.
The omega 3 oils in fish provide all the healthy benefits associated with omega 3 fatty acids without a lengthy conversion process and it’s the only way they can get what their body really needs to lower cholesterol, prevent inflammation and elevate their moods.
And finally, on a side note, I personally know a lot of vegetarians who justify taking fish oil capsules over eating more fish. It’s a great alternative as long as they take a safe, balanced and complete omega 3 fish oil product and take it regularly.
April 30th, 2007 at 9:22 am
Hello Folks! I don’t agree with Michael Byrd’s advice here. He owns a fish oil company and because of that is partial to fish oil at the expense of flax oil, which happens to be my favorite form of Omega-3. Oh, and contrary to Mr. Byrd’s advice, a sufficent amount of ALA does convert to EPA and DHA. Remember, Mother Nature knows how convert and how much to convert.
April 30th, 2007 at 9:26 am
If you choose to eat a pescetarian diet. That is great but, one think to consider is choosing fish that do not have loads of mercury in them and also be mindful of only eating fish that are not being over fished.
Samantha Rufle
Feature Writer for Nutrition
Suite 101
http://nutrition.suite101.com/
http://getgreenthings.blogspot.com/
April 30th, 2007 at 8:06 pm
Hey Jamie, you’re welcome not to agree with me, but you’re going to have to take your argument about the conversion of ALA to EPA and DHA up with the Flax Council of Canada. Here’s a quote from their website “Clearly, ALA conversion is more complex than was originally thought.”
If you have some peer reviewed research that can back up your claim “a sufficent amount of ALA does convert to EPA and DHA”, I’d love to see it since it contradicts what I’ve been reading in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
For example, here’s a study published in the AJCN. A group of people were given 15,000 mg of flaxseed oil (ALA) daily. At the end of 12 weeks none of the participants experienced an increase of EPA and DHA within their blood plasma or the red blood cells. (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 77: 226-233 - 2003)
Here’s another one. Dr. Artemis Simopoulos of the Center for Genetics, Nutrition and Health says, “Among the fatty acids, it is the omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) which possess the most potent immunomodulatory activities, and among the omega-3 PUFA, those from fish…are more biologically potent than alpha-linolenic acid (ALA).” This was published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition (Vol. 21, No. 6, 495-505)
There are more, but I don’t see the need to list them all.
So if flax is your preferred source of omega 3, then by all means continue taking it. But studies are now showing that your body cannot convert enough ALA to EPA and DHA to make any difference in your health.
According to the British Journal of Nutrition, “Conversion of ALA to EPA in humans reportedly ranges from a low of 0.2% to a high of 8%.” . Burdge GC, et al. Br J Nutr. 2002;88:355-363
Given all that information, I’ll stick to fish oil for my own omega 3 needs.
Oh and by the way, I don’t own a fish oil company. I do, however, have a preferred brand of fish oil that I recommend to my clients.
April 30th, 2007 at 8:08 pm
Samantha, I agree on avoiding fish that are high in mercury. The worst offenders are Shark, Swordfish, King Mackerel and Tilefish.
May 2nd, 2007 at 12:11 pm
Hi—Micheal:
Which fish oil capsules do you (if any) recommend for those who do not want to consume fish to get their omega 3 fatty acid nutrients? BTW: insightful piece.
May 3rd, 2007 at 10:12 pm
Hi Missy,
The fish oil I use and recommend can be found here: Omega 3. Glad you enjoyed the article.