Q: Dr. Sears:
I've read many times from the Eades and I believe in the original Zone book that fish oil is ostensibly 10 times as powerful as flax oil, due to a host of factors. I recently read on Udo Erasmus' site that you believe approx 18 percent of flax oil can be converted into EPA/DHA. Does this mean we now believe fish oil is only approximately five times as potent?
A: The data remains the same. Only about 5-10 percent of alpha linolenic acid in flaxseed can be converted to EPA and less than 1 percent of alpha linolenic acid can be converted to DHA. Stick with highly purified fish oil.