As I've said for a very long time, rebalancing your intake of omega-3 fats is one of the most important steps you can take to optimize your health to fight cancer and prevent heart disease.

But now food marketers are jumping on the bandwagon, and many processed food products have been "improved" with the addition of fish oil or flax seeds last year.

Animal-based omega-3 fats, such as krill or fish oil, are the single most important food you can use to optimize your health and diet. Interestingly, this is probably the single most important nutritional deficiency for most Americans.

But don't go looking for omega-3 fats of any value in your morning breakfast cereal or any other processed food.

The problem is a matter of balance. Your body was never designed to handle isolated free fatty acids out of balance with the way they are consumed in nature, meaning more DHA and no EPA. Long-term, that's a prescription for disaster.

Without a doubt, the very best source of omega-3s you can consume would be a high-quality fish oil or krill oil.

On Vital Votes, reader Terry from Rothesay in New Brunswick, Canada has observed the phenomenon:

"I saw the strangest thing on the grocery store shelves a few weeks ago: yogurt (from pasteurized milk) with fish oils added, to give it omega-3 fatty acid.

Besides wondering how it must taste, I also must ask, 'If you add something good to something that is unhealthy, isn't that product still unhealthy?' Like adding vitamins and minerals to cereal that is 80% sugar.

Paint stripes on a donkey and call it a zebra, but it's still a donkey."

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