yea for omega 3s!

When I went to the optometrist to get my contacts, she did some tests on my tear glands. Then she asked me, "Do you take Fish oil supplements?" I replied, Yep. She said, "I knew it!" She said my tear glands were very healthy and she noticed that whenever people took fish oil supplements (or flaxseed oil) or ate salmon twice a week they had really healthy tear ducts but when she would notice they would not tear up well or the glands produced a milky or cloudy substance (ewwww) then she'd ask and inevitably they would say no, they didn't take the supplements! So of course then she'd recommend them.

After writing a recent article on the Gulf of Mexico "Dead Zone" I became aware that menhaden is the fish that is captured for the fish oil supplement capsules. And they are in the midst of a huge possible crash, at least off the eastern U.S. In the book The Most Important Fish in the Sea: Menhaden and America H. Bruce Franklin highlights the imminent crash, and how it could cause all kinds of marine ecosystem repercussions. Menhaden are small and ultra-abundant, but everything in the ocean feeds ON them. Even Texas Parks & Wildlife is discussing this month whether to set caps on the menhaden harvest in the Gulf of Mexico. There's so much more to this story, and it's a fascinating one. I want to try to delve more into it, maybe write a story on it. But as soon as my fish oil bottle is gone, I'm switching to flaxseed oil which provides the same Omega-3 fatty acids, but from a plant. Next thing you know, they'll be telling me there's a problem with them too....

But anyway it was kinda cool to see a direct result from taking a particular supplement in terms of my health!