

wise
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Since I do not eat fish for ethical reasons, my intake of n3s for the latest 40 years has been restricted exclusively to the vegetable kingdom, and only since joining this forum I made a conscious effort to increase my ALAs consumption by flaxseed and walnuts. Before, I didn't even know the food content of omega 3s.
I'm pretty sure that for the latest 40 years there have been relatively long periods when I did not consume walnuts nor other sources, so my anedoctal, n=1 experience shows that not everyone needs with regularity the n3s amounts today taken as reference. I may also be a good ALA → EPA converter, since I never took ALAs nor EPA-DHA supplements. My hunch is that people without negative genetic polymorphism do not need many n3s, or that there is some unknown food source or some unknown so far metabolic mechanism producing n3s out of other lipids or molecules.
There is good evidence that as a vegan, after prolonged periods of time when you don't consume DHA/EPA, your body becomes more adept at converting ALA to DHA/EPA. There's a study here: http://dx.doi.org/10.3945/ajcn.2010.29457showing that vegans and vegetarians have similar blood levels of DHA/EPA despite not eating fish as omnivores do. Also, there's evidence that our fat can store DHA/EPA and release it over time so you may have stored those fatty acids in times when you ate walnuts and flaxseeds to accommodate times when you didn't. Very interesting data point though. I supplement but am considering stopping and switching to solely flax and walnuts. Also, what really matters, is brain levels, and we can't measure that for obvious reasons. Serum levels are just a proxy.
Vegetarian CA Adventists had average lifespans of 87 (men) and 90 (women).. That is far better than the traditional Okinawans (77.6 for men and 86.0 for women). More info in this thread.
Interesting study there on EPA/DHA supplements vs. Salmon. I wish they would repeat the study using vegan DHA (algae based) which some believe to be superior to fish oil caps (in fact I don't even think fish oil caps are recommended by most experts anymore, there are many noted problems with quality and perishability). I get all my EPA from plant foods so I'm not concerned about that, but not completely sure I'm getting enough DHA. Bernando LaPallo (supposedly lived 114 years) was a "vegan + salmon" guy, in the California Adventists, WOMEN who were (vegan + fish) lived the longest, but in MEN the vegans lived longest (however vegan + fish was not far behind). It is notable how much eating fish seemed to help women though.
See:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4191896/table/T4/
As long as you're getting enough ALA to create sufficient levels of DHA or EPA, your body can convert between the two. If you supplement, you only need to worry about the total between the two, not individual amounts.
Edited for duplicate content
It ain’t easy eating greens: Evidence of bias toward vegetarians and vegans from both source and target
in Chitchat
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Really great discussion. I'm curious, how much fat are you all eating daily? (Both % and total would be helpful I guess.) I struggle with deciding how much fat to put in my diet. Currently at about 22-25%, 65-70g daily. I eat a tablespoon of flax daily and walnuts a few times a week. The rest comes from tofu and peanut butter usually. I haven't really thought too much about my LA intake. I decided on taking a vegan DHA supplement.