I started a mostly-vegan diet a couple of years ago, and I'm noticing that minor ligament injuries suddenly began taking a very long time to heal, if they are healing at all. I thought perhaps an omega-3 fatty acid deficiency might be the problem.
I'm trying to balance a proper level of omega-3 fatty acids to help improve healing of my lingering ligament injuries but also want to avoid anti-blood clotting effects that are associated with high omega-3 fatty acid intake. At the risk of stating what is perhaps obvious, I don't want to bleed excessively from an accidental cut.
I also read about ALA to EPA and DHA omega-3 conversion, daily needs of omega-3 fats, and that high omega-6 fatty acid linoleic acid intake can interfere with this conversion. I have a high intake of corn grits and peanut butter (which I have seen listed as high omega-6 foods), and it's going to be a significant adjustment if I need to change that.
Daily needs recommends
1,600 mg / day of ALA
and
There isn’t enough evidence to determine whether vegans should supplement their diets with omega-3s beyond the DRIs. At this time, it’s prudent to take one of these additional steps:
Consume an additional 2,000 mg of ALA per day using the foods in the table above, or Take a supplement of 200-300 mg of DHA per day.Your DHA supplement can contain EPA, but it’s not necessary if you’re meeting the DRI for ALA
The tools I am looking at to improving my healing ability are:
- Increasing ALA intake by eating a lot of chia seeds
- Taking DHA pills that are made from algal oil
- Decreasing omega-6 intake
Background
I'm male, 40 years old, 180 cm tall, 75 kg weight
Questions:
- How much ALA would I need daily in order to offset eating 1/2 cup dry corn grits and 1/2 cup peanut butter per day? Or is that even feasible?
- Is just supplementing with DHA pills sufficient, or do I need to get more ALA also?
- If I need to decrease my omega-6 intake, how much would I need to decrease it?
