Do You Have Children? Omega 3 Fats Should Be A Big Part Of Their Diet.
For some time science has understood the health benefits of omega 3 essential fatty acids, and this now extends to our children. Omega 3 fats should be an essential part of the diet of any child right from conception.
You find Omega 3 essential fatty acids in fish oil. Kids are just like adults. They have a minimum requirement for levels of omega 3 in their diet to ensure adequate development and health. The importance of omega 3 in children has now been underscored by the release of a study from the University of Wollongong’s School Of Health Sciences in Australia. In this study it was found that Australian children were hugely deficient in omega 3. Children in the US will be no different.
In fact the study found that on average the intake of omega 3 fats in 3-year-olds was just 47 milligrams which the professor describes as “desperately low”.
There are 2 very important essential fatty acids found in fish oil called DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) and EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid). These are the fatty acids known as Omega 3. Kids in the US and Australia have way too little of these essential fats in their diet. This inadequate intake of omega 3 in children has health implications for the healthy development of our kids.
A child’s requirement for omega 3 fats starts right at conception. The study noted that brain development was extremely fast during the 3rd trimester of pregnancy and that for adequate brain development an adequate level of DHA was essential. And it also noted that the first 2 years of infancy was equally important for brain development and placed an equal demand on DHA levels.
Children cannot make their own decisions to supplement their diet with omega 3. Children have these decisions made by parents and parents need to understand that as well as increasing their own levels of intake of omega 3 essential fats the health of their children also depends on adequate levels of Omega3 fats right from conception.
It’s not just brain development that is affected by a child’s intake of Omega 3. Kids have a whole range of health and development issues which can benefit from an increased intake of fish oil. Inadequate levels of essential fatty acids can put them at a higher risk of asthma, poorer visual development, slower brain development, lower IQ as established on IQ tests, an increased incidence of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and others.
Clearly there are important children’s health issues at stake here. It is simple to increase the intake of omega 3 in children’s diets. Of course it is always possible to increase their intake of fish however fish is very expensive, is generally contaminated with mercury and is not well liked by children.
I supplement the diet of my own children with omega 3 fish oil capsules. When they were too young to take capsules it was a simple matter to cut the top off the capsules and pour that fish oil on their breakfast. They don’t even know fish oil is there.
The decisions that parents make about the diet of their children affects the healthy development of their children. Omega 3 supplementation is simple, cost-effective and should be started by the mother from the beginning of pregnancy. Omega 3 supplementation in the mother even increases the levels of DHA in her breastmilk which in turn increases the level of Omega3 in infants who are breastfeeding.
But not all Omega 3 capsules are high quality and there are important issues to understand about the freshness of the fish oil used, the amount of DHA present in the supplements and the effectiveness of the essential fats found in the capsules.
On my website I seek to educate my readers about how to compare the different fish oil supplements available and to tell them which omega 3 supplements I have chosen for myself and my children.
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Tags: children, children fish oil, children omega 3, fish oil, fish oil kids, kids fish oil, kids omega 3, omega 3, omega 3 kids