Bhaktapur is nearly 1,000 kilometres away from the nearest ocean. Nevertheless, the Nepalese have good levels of marine fatty acids in their blood. The reason for this is a mystery to scientists.

‘Apparently, it is possible to have a satisfactory level of marine fatty acids in your body without eating fish. We don’t quite understand why,’ says Marian Kjellevold, scientist at the National Institute of Nutrition and Seafood Research (NIFES).

A study headed by Norwegian scientists that examined 300 children and breastfeeding women in Bhaktapur in Nepal found good levels of the marine omega-3 fatty acids DHA and EPA in both mothers and children. This finding is very surprising since Bhaktapur is nearly 1,000 kilometres away from the ocean, and since the diet of the women and children studied hardly contains any fish or seafood.

‘It was very surprising. We thought that since the Nepalese do not have fish as a source of omega-3, their levels of the marine fatty acids DHA and EPA would be low. But that was not the case,’ says scientist Sigrun Henjum from Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences (HiOA).

Source: NIFES // Original Article