Omega-3s and COVID?

The COVID pandemic and the allure of a miracle pill

The omega-3 industry is in a lather. Again. Two years into a global COVID pandemic, a new crop of studies are coming to fruition that posit that omega-3 fatty acids, derived primarily from the “reduction” of small pelagic fish, “could be a potential antimicrobial drug with little potential for drug resistance.” Other hypotheses abound. “Due to its anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory, and other various beneficial properties,” one study suggests, “omega-3 fatty acids could play a role as a healthier choice of supplement during this ongoing pandemic situation.”

Having written an entire book on omega-3 fatty acids and having gone on an all fish diet for a year, I’d like to think there was something in all of this. I continue to regard omega-3s with curiosity, knowing full well that these molecules’ compicated pathways in the body often elude our ability to track and trace what nutrients actually do to us on a molecular level.

Omega-3s do something in our bodies — and probably something important. But without the larger context of the marine organisms that contain them, omega-3s get lost in the noise of human metabolism and modern marketing.