While it is important to avoid consuming too much fat, it is important to remember that healthy fat is a critical component of a healthful diet. While it is true that most people consume far too much fat on a daily basis, there are two fats that are essential in the diet for sound health and are referred to as essential fatty acids (EFA's). These 2 EFAs are alpha linolenic acid (ALA), an omega-3 fat, and linoleic acid, an omega-6 fat. Fats from both the omega-3 and omega-6 groups are critical to good health, but they must be kept in balance.¹

Today there is a problem maintaining this balance. As stated in Fantastic Voyage, Chapter 6 "Fat and Protein": Two families of unsaturated fats--the omega-6 fats, found mainly in plant-based oils, and the omega-3 fats, found in fish, walnuts, and flaxseeds--were in relative balance a century ago. The modern diet now emphasizes omega-6 fats by as much as 25 to 1.

Supportive but not conclusive research shows that consumption of EPA and DHA omega-3 fatty acids may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. One softgel of Mega EPA/DHA provides 700 mg of combined EPA/DHA omega-3 fatty acids.^2,3,4

Coming Back to Balance

The easiest way to bring the omega-3: omega-6 ratio into balance is to decrease consumption of omega-6 vegetable oils like corn and safflower oil and eat more omega-3 rich fish and fish oil.

The dry weight of your brain is 60% fat. The type of fat you incorporate into your brain reflects the type of fat you put into your mouth. The omega-3 fatty acids, EPA and DHA are the preferred brain fats. Essentially the only place you can obtain these fatty acids is by eating fish and other seafood. The old wives' tale "Fish is brain food" is correct. If you don't eat fish and consume other less desirable fats such as the trans-fats found in margarine or heated rancid fats such as are typically found when food is deep fried, your brain incorporates these fatty acids into its infrastructure. The brain does not operate nearly as well on these less desirable fats.^5,6

Omega-3 fatty acids are found in phytoplankton, a marine plant, which is eaten by fatty fish such as salmon, mackerel, albacore tuna, halibut, and sardines. The importance of omega-3 fats was first recognized from research on the Eskimos. Although the traditional Eskimo diet is extraordinarily high in fat, the rate of heart disease and cancer found among Eskimos is low. The primary fat in the Eskimo diet is omega-3.

Our fish oil is in strict compliance with California Proposition 65 and we have on hand a Certificate of Analysis for our EPA / DHA product. The guidelines set in the proposition are at <3ppm for the heavy metals and our formula comes in at <1ppm.

Sardines are a preferable source for this formula. Because they are small fish, they contain less mercury contamination than larger fish. Because they are cold deep water fish, they grow more fat cells and yield higher concentrations of EPA/DHA.

Dosage: The current RDA for omega-3 fats is 1100 mg for women and 1600 mg for men. Each capsule of Ray & Terry's Mega EPA/DHA Formula contains 420 mg of EPA and 280 mg is DHA (total of 700 mg EPA/DHA per capsule).

We recommend 1 - 2 capsules twice a day for a total of 1400 - 2800 mg of EPA/DHA.

Ray & Terry's Mega EPA/DHA contains 120 softgels per bottle.

Ray & Terry's Mega EPA/DHA is equally effective when taken with or without food. However, if your digestive system is sensitive, you may want to take your supplements with meals.

This product has been tested for PCBs and is well within the limits of California Proposition 65. Our material contains less than 10% of the level allowed by this regulation.