Getting your dose of Omega-3 : Eggs, fish or supplements

Are eggs enriched with omega-3 fatty acids worth the price? Most omega-3 eggs on the market won't provide the same heart protection you get from eating fish.

For people who can't bring themselves to eat seafood twice a week, as most health guidelines recommend, eggs and other foods enriched with omega-3 fatty acids — which protect the heart and have other important health benefits — seem like a gift from the grocery gods.

However, there are less expensive ways to get the benefits of fish oil, and these "designer" eggs may promise more health benefits than they deliver.

If you do prefer eggs, rest assured; Harvard researchers failed to find any connection between eggs and heart disease.

You'll pay about two cents per standard capsule, which usually contains 300 milligrams of the omega-3 fatty acids docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA). That's up to 20 times more of these valuable fatty acids than you get from an omega-3 egg, says University of South Dakota nutritionist William S. Harris, PhD, an authority on omega-3 fatty acids.

• First, fish-oil capsules are much cheaper alternatives to the pricey eggs.
• Second, most omega-3 eggs do not contain DHA or EPA, the omega-3's in fish, but rather ALA, which comes from flax and other plant foods fed to hens.
• Some research suggests that ALA has health benefits, too, though they are less understood.
• Your body converts α-linolenic acid (ALA) to DHA and EPA, but very inefficiently, so eggs from flax-fed chickens won't give you anywhere near the same benefit as eating fish.
• If you can find eggs that contain DHA and EPA, your budget can handle the expense and you don't want to eat fish or take fish-oil capsules, "it's probably worth paying a premium for these products," says Dr. Harris. Otherwise, it's hard to rationalize shelling out extra cash for omega-3 eggs.

Before buying eggs enriched with omega-3 fatty acids, find out what the hens that laid them were fed. Only chickens that eat some form of fish oil will produce eggs that contain DHA and EPA, the omega-3s linked to the most health benefits. Unfortunately, carton labels usually don't include this information, so you may need to contact the farm. If the label says the chickens received a vegetarian diet, their feed probably contained flax, not fish oil.

While the choices can seem overwhelming, at least now you can make an informed decision. Happy shopping.