People need to be educated on the importance of omega-3, a congress is told
A 2 day omega–3 summit in Bruges, Belgium has led to the conclusion that the omega-3 industry must devote more resources to lobbying and educating government, health care professionals and the general public to help plug a ‘policy gap’ that is contributing to a growing epidemic of cognitive disorders such as Depression, Schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s.
Dr Jack Winkler, from the Nutrition Policy Unit, noted in his presentation that the long-chain omega-3 message remained, “criminally under the radar” among global policy makers.
He echoed the views of Professor Michael Crawford, veteran omega-3 researcher who predicted 30 years ago that humanity was in danger of becoming, “a race of morons” if long-chain DHA and EPA omega-3 dietary intakes were not increased. He said that the industry and consumers may have to look beyond traditional methods and that under threat fisheries meant that options such as genetically modified plants and fish had to be considered.
“The fact is most policy makers think fish is about protein. The understanding of the man on the street and even those who work in research institutes is extraordinarily low. That can be a criticism of the omega-3 industry. We haven’t lobbied hard enough in the corridors of power so that is what we will be doing more of.”
Despite the fact that cognitive disorders now have a higher public health cost than heart problems in the UK, the congress heard that the ignorance surrounding fatty acids amongst health policy officials and the medical profession remains high.
Dr Alex Richardson, a senior research fellow at Oxford University and founder of UK charity, Food and Behaviour Research, warned that confusion over varying omega-3 forms was contributing to the problem. She referred to the EU wide recommended daily intakes that did not discriminate between the long and short chain fatty acids.
One of the main reasons The Global Organization for EPA and DHA omega-3s (GOED) was established in 2007 was to clarify the differences in the way different fatty acids function in the body.
