Three months ago, I took Seven Seas up on their offer to take one of their Maximum Strength Cod Liver Oil tablets every day for 12 weeks to see whether it would improve my Omega 3 Index. Excitingly, the results are in! Was there an improvement? Or is it a load of old codswallop?*
Looking after myself with some creative mindfulness and supplements which actually work.
If you head back to my original post about the Omega 3 Challenge, I explain my doubts about supplements, questioning their efficacy, but Seven Seas were so confident in their product, they were happy to test my Omega 3 levels before and after taking the supplements. So I duly stabbed myself in the finger (for a second time) and squeezed out a precious drop of blood to send off to Stirling University for analysis (blood-taking, especially when you’re taking from your own body yourself, requires an element of melodrama).
As before, Professor Calder, a Professor of Nutritional Immunology at The University of Southampton and an omega-3 fatty-acid specialist, reviewed the results.
It turns out the Seven Seas Maximum Strength tablets DO make a difference! My Omega 3 index (a scale developed by Professor Bill Lands and which can also be related to to the Omega Index developed by Harris and von Schacky) went up from 4.8 (anything below 4 is a cause for concern) to 6.2. The ideal is anything above 8 so I still had some way to go but this demonstrated a marked improvement. A score above 8 reveals a diet rich in EPA and DHA, the omega-3 fatty acids which indicate better health, especially heart health. Since I’d been taking the supplement every day Professor Calder suggested I increase my intake of EPA and DHA rich foods, such as salmon, mackerel, herrings, sardines, anchovies, chia seeds, flaxseeds and walnuts, to try and increase my score. The test checks for EPA and DHA by analysing the omega-3 fatty acid content of red blood cells which mirrors the amount in tissues like the heart.
I’m impressed that Seven Seas were bold enough in their claim to be willing to prove their claims with the test. There are so many supplements out there that it can hard to know exactly which to take, after all you can’t take everything, but I’m definitely going to be keeping up with the Seven Seas supplements AND increasing my intake of EPA and DHA through diet. As a mum to a fourteen month old who loves to party all night, I currently need all the help I can get with my health so taking these gave me the peace of mind that even though this was only a small step to maintaining good health, it was money well spent. Knowing that cardiovascular disease is one of the UK’s biggest killers, and that lifestyle and diet can contribute to reducing this risk, Seven Seas have helped me take responsibility in doing what I can to stay healthy for myself and my family.
For this campaign I took one Seven Seas Cod Liver Oil Maximum Strength Capsules every day for 3 months.
*A phrase which hasn’t got anything to do with cod. Or fish. It is in fact, to do with soft drinks.
This is a sponsored post produced for Seven Seas. For more information visit Seven Seas on Twitter and Facebook
Leave a Reply