So, I take an omega-3 supplement every day, because it's supposed to be good for RA. I find it helps a little with the stiffness in my joints so I keep it up. At first I tried fish oil pills. They are huge, smelly, and make you burp up the taste of rancid fish ALL DAY LONG. It also did some other really disgusting things that I can't mention in mixed company. I switched to flax seed oil pills almost immediately. They are huge, too, but there isn't any lingering nastiness.
Well, the problem is that I keep hearing that flax seed oil isn't a terribly great source of omega-3 because it's harder for your body to process/access it. A friend (you know the kind, the kind that wants to talk your ear off about the latest diet/exercise routine/supplement) has been trying to convince me to try krill oil, instead, and she brought me a bottle to try out a few weeks ago.
From the get-go there were pros and cons. The pros: one tiny little pill per day. No fishy burps. The cons: smells like satan, basically. If satan smelled like rotting fish, anyway. RIDICULOUSLY expensive. Like $36 per tiny bottle expensive. Comes in a bottle covered in snake-oil advertising.
Do I think it's doing me any good? Mmm... maybe. Maybe not. When the effects are subtle enough it is awfully hard to tell. I'll kill the bottle and switch back to flax seed for a while and see if I can feel any difference. I have major environmental concerns about krill oil, probably even more than I do about fish oil. That alone is enough to make me think seriously about how willing I would be to take them long-term.
Okay, but here is the funny part. The friend who gave me these things has a long-haired cat. She punctures the pills and gives a little to her cat every day and it greases the proverbial wheels enough that they live mostly hairball-free. And of course the cat just laps it up because it's sooooooo tasty and stinky and fishy and all the things cats love, right? So tonight I cut open a pill and offered it to my cats. One of them (the one who ISN'T picky) sniffed it and then walked away. The other cat sniffed it with interest, gave it a tiny lick... and then spent the next five minutes doing the bleh-bleh-gross-yucky-get-it-out-of-my-mouth-patooie thing.
Yeah. That worked well.
My doctor also recommended adding Omega-3 to my diet, but made it very clear that the only proven way to get it in a form your body will absorb is to actually eat fish that's high in Omega-3. Fortunately I like fish and love sushi. My only problem is that I can't get my health plan to pay for sushi as a medication.
ReplyDeleteHee! I am also a fish fan, particularly salmon. If only it came in more than two varieties (you know, the "farm raised and loaded with dye and mercury" variety and the "wild caught and stupidly expensive" variety)...
DeleteSardines are also high in omega-3s. I eat them with mustard. They're not the best, but sometimes I crave them. I also get an omega-3 supplement from the in-house brand of my local natural foods store, which is a blend of oils from small fish. I've never noticed fish burps with that. And if you want the wild salmon, Costco used to sell 3-lb. bags of frozen wild salmon fillets for $25, which isn't bad.
DeleteStop stealing whale food, is what I yell at my Husband when he consider's krill oil pills.
ReplyDeleteExactly! They like to tell you about how pure and clean the krill is because they only fish for it in the antarctic... but that is because it is ILLEGAL everywhere else on the planet!
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