Linseed and Other Vegetarian Sources of Omega 3 can Contribute to Saving Our Oceans’ Wildlife

I get a frequent electronic newsletter from someone called Dr Mercola who is selling all manner of supplements. For quite a while now he has been trying to sell me “revolutionary new krill oil”, the most recent advert is Krill Oil for Women, (http://products.mercola.com/Krill-oil-epo-for-women/) which as it also contains evening primrose oil is advertised by a big yellow flower with not a shrimp in sight or even a dead whale…It has spurred me into writing this.

 

First a little background on industrial harvesting of marine life. Over many decades small, boring fish called sand eels have been harvested as a feed for animals. Primarily it was a cheap source of protein to go into our food chain to enable us to eat more chicken, more eggs, more milk, yoghurt and cheese,  bigger steaks more often and more cheaply. The consequence of this has been the almost total elimination of sand eels in many areas around our(UK) coast. The problem is that for many of species of sea birds the humble sand eel was a staple food especially when rearing their young. Now those sea birds, including the delightful puffin, can’t find enough food and, year after year, their chicks starve. Whole populations fail to raise young and in recent years many sea bird populations have crashed to seriously low levels with extinction on their horizon.

 

Scientists frequently point out that wholesale pillage of another species staple food can result in their decline and even extinction   A lesson that should be easy to learn…

 

If we go back to our own diet…our Western diet, now, bares no resemblance to that of our parents and grandparents – or for that matter the diet we evolved to eat – as we eat relatively little by way of vegetables but huge amounts of meat, yoghurt, milk, cheese, all more often and in larger quantities than ever before. Add to that an exponential increase in the dietary component, omega-6, which is found in every nut and seed we eat and in large amounts in vegetable oils such as maize, sunflower, groundnut, rapeseed, grapeseed, (which are almost unavoidable in the foods we but) and the animals we eat being fed with a similar omega-6-rich diet instead of natural omega-3-rich grazing. The ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 should be 1:3 approximately; commonly in the West it is now 1:10 or even 1:40.

 

This change in diet is has resulted in the modern health problems of the West; increasing levels of cardiovascular disease, obesity, depression, diabetes, arthritis, eczema, asthma and ADHD. So now people in the West are wanting to reverse their health problems by supplementing with omega-3 to bring about a healthier ratio of omega-3 : omega-6. ALA, vegetable sourced omega-3, works very well for most people even though the extremely high levels of fats in our diets means we don’t metabolise it as fast as EPA and DHA (the omega-3 in fish) especially in the early stages of use. Demand for omega-3 supplements is growing and a cheap and  easy source is krill.

 

Krill is a hugely abundant shrimp-like creature. It is the staple of some of the largest inhabitants of the oceans such as baleen whales, rays and some sea bird but its greatest importance is its role close to the bottom of the food chain between plants, plankton and the small fishes with mouths large enough to eat them, which are in turn the food of the larger fish and other sea creatures including dolphins and penguins.

 

We don’t need krill but the creatures of the oceans do.  It may be abundant now but if we continue to take krill we will see the sand eel story repeated with many of our favourite marine creatures the victims. By hoovering up the whales’ natural food we will be starving them to death which is every bit as bad as whaling. Let’s do all we can to stop this immoral harvest. The harvesting of krill and other small fish from should bottom of the food chain must be banned.

 

. The easiest alternative is to be less greedy and to eat less omega-6 to start with! This means more vegetables; a larger proportion of vegetable protein: only meat fed a naturally balanced diet and far less of it; less fried and oily foods: and if we still need omega-3 it can come from sustainable vegetable sources such as linseed (flax) and chia (Salvia hispanica) or even grown microbiologically..  This is a more sustainable approach to food, it  will help preserve the oceans and it assists the third world, etc., etc.

 

As a producer of linseed for omega-3 I could be accused of not being disinterested. However I am first and foremost a passionate environmentalist; I am horrified to think that human greed for burgers and fries could wipe out many species from our oceans – as well as human populations dependant on local fishing.   

 

Clare Skelton     clare@flaxfarm.co.uk