Some people find it hard to believe that the only foods with DHA are seafood and fish.  How can something that is supposed to be so important to human Health be available in such limited quantities?

When we think of other essential nutrients, things like vitamin C and calcium, we know that they are found abundantly throughout nature in meats, dairy products, fruits and vegetables.  Vegans will argue that it is possible to live a relatively long and healthy life without consuming fish.  So, how could it be considered an essential food?

The real answer to these questions and others like them is this.  Scientists don’t know.  They have theories about the role that seafood played in evolution.  They have reason to believe that the nutrient would have been present in the food chain, in things other than fish and seafood, before modern farming and feeding practices began.

In order to feed the population explosion, it became necessary to mass produce food.  Shortly after the world wars and the Great Depression, it became obvious that food shortage was a problem and would become an even bigger problem in the future.

In order to feed nations of hungry people, we gave up most of the non-fish foods with DHA, without any body realizing it.  At that time, starvation and outright nutritional deficiency diseases were big problems, everywhere.  Not just in underdeveloped nations.  Before scientists could begin thinking about the “ideal” human diet, they had to be able to figure out how to feed the baby boomers and the rest of the planet.

Mass production made it possible to produce grains, fruits and vegetables more cheaply, while making cattle and poultry fatter, so that they would feed more people.  As time went by, food producers learned that it was safer to raise chickens indoors, away from viruses and other sources of infection.

They fed grain to all of the farm animals, rather than grass, because the animals became fatter and brought higher Equallogic Prices at market.  That is really what reduced the number of foods with DHA and probably led to what we refer to as modern-day Health problems; increased incidences of heart disease, type II diabetes, depression, Alzheimer’s and various kinds of cancer.

As the mainstream medical community and food manufacturers have finally accepted that DHA itself is essential and cannot be replaced by even high intakes of ALA, the omega-3 found in vegetable oils, we have begun to see a few fortified foods with DHA.  In addition to infant formulas and baby food, there are a few dairy products and other items that have been fortified with the nutrient.

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