Zoë chats with Guy Ben Zvi about Omega-3s and fish oils

BIO
Guy Ben Zvi was born and raised in Israel. After high school, he joined the Israel Air Force Flight Academy where he was a combat helicopter pilot and flight instructor for 6 years. In 1987, Guy switched careers and became the Director of R&D and Technology at Palram Plastics, a large chemicals and polymer company, a position he held for over 12 years. Not long after receiving his Executive MBA from the top-ranked Kellogg Northwestern in 2002, Guy started the very successful laser company Pixer Technology where he worked until retiring in 2013. But retirement did not stop the hi-tech entrepreneur, in 2013 he started Omega 3 Galil.
Links to find out more:
- Omega Galilee http://www.omega3galil.com/
- The online shop if anyone wants to purchase products https://newshop.omega3galil.com/
- To connect with Guy, his LinkedIn address is https://www.linkedin.com/in/guybenzvi/
Show notes
I really enjoyed this interview. I learned lots and I found Guy’s answers to what seemed like basic questions very interesting. In an hour we covered:
- Why Guy became interested in omega-3 in the first place? For him and his family.
- The three top dietary factors that he thinks are part of chronic disease.
- The forms in which omega-3 comes and what the balance should be.
- Where omega-6 comes in as the other essentially fatty acid. What’s the difference between plant and animal sources of omega-6? (We cover this for omega-3 also).
- Professor Michael Crawford’s work and that of Weston Price.
- What happens when the processed food industry tries to supplement foods with omega-3?
- How much do we need to eat to get omega-3 from food? Why farmed fish doesn’t work.
- The studies that were done on omega-3 and children’s brains/school performance and what was done wrong.
- Can we have too much omega-3? How can we test our levels?
- What makes a good supplement? What are the three criteria to avoid oxidisation?
- How do you know when a supplement has oxidised? Is it harmful or just not effective?
- Is there enough fish for all the fish oil demands in the world?
- What happened when Guy worked with vegans on an 80-10-10 (carb-fat-protein proportions) diet they were following?
- Where does pasture fed beef fit in? We get told this is rich in omega-3.
- When the importance of fatty acids (source and ratios) is so clear, why is the government trying to get so much plant omega-6 in people? (We had some fun here with the politics of colonialism).
- We also got on to Ritalin, serotonin, dopamine, and how omega-3 will likely help with symptoms of ADHD while Ritalin will require ever increasing doses to achieve an inferior outcome. - This really was all things omega-3 (and omega-6) with an expert on the topic. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.