I travel quite a bit for work. Protein and carb don’t cause me any problems because I can always take my protein powder, shaker, and fruits. However, I’m having the hardest time w/ EFA intake. I try to eat salmon for dinner, but I know I should get more flax somewhere. How do you guys deal w/ this? Any suggestions/tips will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
DPSnutrition has “Health from the Sun” flax caps for something like $5.95 for 200 caps. Probably the easiest way to do it on the road without having to carry actual oil and make a mess in your bag/suitcase.
IClight
Nuts are a great source of protein on the road. I eat lots of walnuts, pistachios, cashews, almonds and other nuts. They are easy to store and loaded with healthy fats. You could aslo pack some fish oil caps with you to make sure you get lots of EPA and DHA.
Capsules are the way to go for convenience when you’re on the road, but remember that you typically will have to take a LOT more than one to get the desired amounts into your system. For example, Barlean’s flax comes in both bottles and caps. To get two tablespoons of the stuff in capsule form, you need to take something like TWELVE caps throughout the day. This method also turns out to be quite a bit more expensive, but I just buy both kinds and use the caps when the bottle is impractical.
You can get Salmon oil caps as well.
Typically, theres 14 grams in a tablespoon so if taking the typical 1 gram capsule, you would need in the neighborhood of 14 capsules per Tablespoon. This is why caps are so expensive and unrealistic for any real EFA consumption except of course fish oil. I definately agree with Jason N about nuts. Just make sure the nuts you buy are either raw or dry roasted, not the typical deep fat fried, oil roasted nuts in a can which have large amounts of added bad fats. Walnuts have the highest amount of good omega 3 EFA next to flax seeds. Almonds are also a good choice. There is also high amounts of magnesium (think ZMA) and potassium along with other essential minerals in nuts. I like to mix the walnuts and almonds and buy them raw in either the bulk foods or baking section of store but Sam’s Club is the cheapest - huge bags cheap. Nuts are a real health food for EFA’s and minerals as long as eaten raw and in moderation. Good choice to add to protein shake or protein source such as lean turkey slices for P+F snack.
You get 14 servings from an 8.39 bottle of 200 caps of flax oil and 16 servings from a 5.99 bottle of oil. So it’s about 59 cents/serving vs 37 cents/serving of caps vs oil. Really not that expensive for the convenience of using it on the road.
IClight
Are the serving sizes in your example contain the same amount of oil? 200 1gram caps divided by 14 grams per Tablespoon would equal 14.3 Tablespoons in the jar of caps. If this is the case, thats not bad as long as one remembers to take about 14 caps for each TBS they want to consume.
Heb,
Off the label in front of me (I have both oil and caps).
2 caps 1 oz
Alpha-Linolenic (Omega-3) 1.1g 7.7g
Linoleic (Omega-6) 280 mg 2.1g
Oleic (Omega-9) 290 2.6g
Actually after I do the math 14 caps will give you the same Omega-3 as 1 oz. But it will take 15 caps to get the same Omega-6 and 18 caps to get the same Omega-9. In my first post I simply used the Omega-3 numbers. As Omega-3 is probably the most important for us to supplement, it is still a pretty good deal for most of us that need a more convenient travel supp. Certainly given what many of us spend on supplements, it’s not bad at all.
IClight
Thanks for the info IClight. 14 caps of flax for 59 cents definately would be the way to go for the traveler. I still also believe in the health value of supplementing good fats with a handful of raw nuts occasionally too.
Eat fat chicks!
Heb,
I’m an idiot! I’m sitting there last night putting flax in my shake and realize that 16 oz of flax oil IS NOT 16 servings! A tbsp is a serving. Therefore there are 31 servings in a bottle, not 16. So in actuality the price for the caps is the same per serving, but the price difference in the two is much greater. Caps are still relatively cheap for on the road use but the oil is still the best bang for the buck.
IClight