When I hear a news story touting the benefits of fish oil, I cringe. I spend so much time trying to educate people about the differences among fishes that I can't stomach the mystery meat that is fish oil. Granted, lots of fish oil comes from tiny fish like anchovies and menhaden that we'd like people to eat more of, instead of tunas or sharks. But fish oil is the product of the so-called "reduction fisheries" which account for about 12% of U.S. landings each year. That's over a million pounds of fish straight to the grinder, and I'd still prefer to know the fish on my plate as a fish--no matter how small--than a capsule. 

But this time, NPR's reporters went even further down the food chain to the algae that create the polyunsaturated fatty acids that are in demand for their health benefits. And to my surprise, they went to Martek, an algae research company and the site of my first job after I graduated from high school. Let’s just say that was long enough ago that none of the folks listed on the leadership page overlapped with me.

In the human body, polyunsaturated fatty acids, or PUFAs, do a lot of things. In algae PUFAs store energy and keep cell walls flexible. Life in the sea requires you to be tough, surviving currents and temperature changes and the constant osmotic pressure from the saltwater. PUFAs keep tiny algal cells from freezing to death, and part of my job back then was finding the biggest producers. You'd grow out a culture of algae in cool water, raise it on a special diet of nutrients, and then dry it out and run it though the gas chromatograph to test for percentages of DHA, ALA, and other fatty acids. The winners with the best score were grown again, while the losers were retired.

I have no more details about the secrets of PUFA-rich algae, since I dutifully turned in my lab notes at the end of my job, nor did they give away stock options back then. But I am glad to see that the algae have persevered, taking the place of fish oil in foods and supplements. I'm very fond of algae and a little sad to eat them, but for the sake of my heart I guess I can just pretend to be a jinbezame and filter feed.