Does one pop a fish oil while chowing down a bag of fries or a burger thinking its making the fries ok? I know people who will eat a giant chili dog and who take fish oil thinking its going to protect them. Or does one pop a fish oil while eating an avocado over fresh crab in salad greens with olive oil and lemon juice dressing? Then add in – does this person exercise, are they happy individuals?

And actually, I don’t need a study. I can see it in daily life. I eat a very strict grain free, high fat (coconut, olive oil, nuts, avocado and butter) and low sugar diet and hang around with some people who eat as I do for the most part but also have many friends, family and acquaintances who follow a typical american diet (burgers, fries, chicken fingers, lots of breads and grains and sugars and processed foods) and it becomes very clear which is better for the human body. The grain-processed food group are always struggling with weight, fatigue, bloating, indigestion, etc. Look at someone who is eating at IHop, McDonanlds and watches too much TV….you dont need a study to figure out their state of health. My favorite…people will tease me about my diet, the ones who are overweight, taking lipitor and feel terrible much of time.

DHA alone is not the the answer to all that ails us. It is part of the picture. Calcium is an integral part of our bones yet calcium alone does not do the job. DHA is an integral part of our eyes and brain cells and DHA alone doesn’t do the job.

Nutrition is a science and a supplement does not substitute for diet or lifestyle. A supplement, is, in fact, a supplement.

As the journalist rightly states above, research clearly documents the benefit of consuming omega-3 over the lifespan.

The harm of this recent reporting is the impact it has on the public. When taken out of context – as much of the reporting on this has been – it does damage. Timing is important with nutrition, and if developing infants don’t get DHA when they need it, we all pay the price.

On the cholesterol comment – it is important in brain health, and we need to eat some. What we eat does not directly influence brain levels, and let’s be thankful for that. We don’t want our brain cholesterol levels to be dependent on what we’ve eaten last week. The type of fat we eat is likely more important than the amount of fat we eat.

It’s possibly it’s not the fish, just the healthy oil, that has a beneficial effect. A better study would be to give people fish oil, vegetable oil, butter and no oil supplements and see what the effects are. Of course, no one would want to do that because butter is still seen as an awful, bad thing in our culture that would harm our kids.

And you have to control for the other foods they eat, right? Just because they’re taking fish oil supplements doesn’t mean they’re not vacuuming up twinkies (or whatever) like a Dyson the rest of the time.

I’d like to point out that the brain is mostly cholesterol. Eating foods with cholesterol doesn’t increase levels of serum cholesterol in our blood, our body just makes less natural cholesterol when we eat some. When we eat fats (at least a couple types), our levels of serum cholesterol go up. Not sure how that may all relate to brain improvement, but if the brain is mostly cholesterol, having an adequate supply must be important.