Designer Food Worth the Extra Cost?
Jumping off grocery store shelves are foods laced with specialty food supplements.? Are these “foods” worth the extra cost? Can they really improve your health or are these products just another way to allure us to buy something that is “good? for us?”
- Omega3-laced eggs and milk?
- Calcium supplemented chocolate chews and orange juice?
- Vitamin C supplemented
- Energy drinks
Just how practical are these foods to our needs?
A typical omega-3 supplemented egg provides about 200 mg. of omega 3 fatty acids – sounds good so far. However, if you break it down a typical omega 3 gel supplement has 1000 mg. of total omega-3 fatty acids per capsule. Therefore, you are only getting about a fifth of a capsule in an egg.
In addition, the most important thing to know about omega 3’s in HOW much DHA and EPA you are receiving in your supplement . A 1000 mg. capsule of Carlson Super Omega 3 Fish Oil Capsules has 200 mg of DHA and 300 mg. of EPA. The outside of the bottle says 1000 mg. of omega 3?s but that is TOTAL marine fats.
Therefore, your omega 3 eggs costing you about 60-80 percent more than regular eggs are not worth the extra cost. The wiser investment is to take the supplement and consume regular eggs. The same is true for most all of these “foods.” Manufacturers are just using buzzwords to entice us to buy their products to improve our health and well-being.
So take home messages?
- Eating clean food with no food label or less than 5 ingredients is the start
- Consuming a balance of protein, low fat dairy, fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, good fats from omega-3 rich foods (fish and ground flax seed), and monounsaturated sources (avocados, olive oil) is the next step.
- Take supplements for your individual needs – an important supplement for most is Vitamin D
