Written by Eliza Freney (The Rugby Dietitian)
In the last blog post we learnt about how East Coast Tuna is a great source of protein and omega-3. As an advanced sports dietitian I’ve seen a lot of fads come and go but omega-3 is not a fad. Let’s unpack what the potential benefits are of this fascinating nutrient.
Omega-3s are essential fats, which means your body can't make them so you need to get them through the food you to. The two types of omega-3 that receive most of the attention related to positive health outcomes are EPA and DHA, the long chain omega-3s found in seafood. There's a third type, ALA, the omega-3 found in plant foods like walnuts, chia and linseed. ALA is useful, but your body converts very little of it into EPA and DHA, so plant sources alone don’t meaningfully influence your omega-3 status.
So what do EPA and DHA do for you?
They sit in your cell membranes
Omega-3s aren't just floating around your bloodstream, they compete for positions in the membrane of every cell in your body. The more omega-3 you have in the membrane of your cells, the more influence they have on how that cell behaves (in a good way). It's also why omega-3 status is something you build over months, it takes time to reach ‘optimum’ levels and doesn’t happen overnight.
They help manage inflammation and recovery
Inflammation isn't the enemy. It’s a process naturally occurring in the body that helps the body adapt or overcome from things like training and injury. But you want that response to be well regulated, and you want it to resolve swiftly. EPA and DHA are directly involved in that process. There is good evidence that a better omega-3 status is associated with lower markers of muscle damage after hard sessions and that higher omega-3 status lowers heart rate REF (Therdyothin et al., 2025).
They're structural to your brain
DHA is a major structural component of brain tissue, and this is where things get really interesting. There's growing interest in whether a better omega-3 status offers the brain some protection against the repeated knocks that come with collision sport. The research is genuinely encouraging, particularly around markers of nerve cell damage, but it is still emerging (Jäger et al., 2025).
What I will say is this. The downside of eating more fish is essentially zero. The potential upside for a brain is significant.
They support your heart, your mood and your sleep
Outside of sport, this is where the evidence is strongest and longest standing. Higher EPA and DHA intake is consistently associated with better cardiovascular health, this is pretty significant given the leading cause of illness and health loss in the world is cardiovascular disease (Djuricic & Calder, 2025).
Where do you find omega-3?
Food first, always. Then we consider supplementation.
The heavy hitters are the oily fish. Salmon, sardines, mackerel and herring will all comfortably clear 1,500mg of EPA and DHA per 100g. If you eat these regularly (2-3 times per week), you're well on the way to good omega-3 levels.
The problem is, a lot of people don’t eat this much oily fish, particularly in the Australian population. Which is where tuna comes in but not just any tuna, there is inter-species variation in the omega-3 levels. Standard tinned ‘light’ tuna, your skipjack and yellowfin, sits around 270mg per 100g. Albacore comes in around 860mg, more than three times as much (USDA, 2019). It's the difference between a tin that's a great source of protein but not doing a lot for your omega-3 levels and a tin that's a genuine contribution to your omega-3 intake as well as a good protein hit.
East Coast Tuna Co's pole caught Australian albacore tuna is shelf-stable, it travels, it doesn't require cooking, and it delivers on both protein and omega-3. For a young athlete living out of a bag, that combination is hard to beat. For the office worker or tradie that has minimal time to prepare lunch or limited facilities, there’s few foods that offer a similar nutritional value whilst requiring so little preparation.
Plant sources, the walnuts and chia and linseed, are worth including but shouldn't be your primary strategy given the poor conversion to EPA and DHA.
And supplements? They have a place, and I use them with clients but they are the secondary source of omega-3 once we have built the foundation with food and fill the gaps with supplements, rather than the other way around.
Next blog, we tackle the elephant in the room. If tuna is so good for us, what about mercury?
References:
Black, K. E., Witard, O. C., Baker, D., Healey, P., Lewis, V., Tavares, F., Christensen, S., Pease, T., & Smith, B. (2018). Adding omega-3 fatty acids to a protein-based supplement during pre-season training results in reduced muscle soreness and the better maintenance of explosive power in professional Rugby Union players. European Journal of Sport Science, 18(10), 1357–1367. https://doi.org/10.1080/17461391.2018.1491626
Djuricic, I., & Calder, P. C. (2025). N-3 fatty acids (EPA and DHA) and cardiovascular health: Updated review of mechanisms and clinical outcomes. Current Atherosclerosis Reports. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41247613/
Jäger, R., Heileson, J. L., Abou Sawan, S., Dickerson, B. L., Leonard, M., Kreider, R. B., Kerksick, C. M., Cornish, S. M., Candow, D. G., Cordingley, D. M., Forbes, S. C., Tinsley, G. M., Bongiovanni, T., Cannataro, R., Campbell, B. I., Arent, S. M., Stout, J. R., Kalman, D. S., & Antonio, J. (2025). International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: Long-chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 22(1), 2441775. https://doi.org/10.1080/15502783.2024.2441775
Peoples, G., Anthony, R., Freney, E., Jaffrey, N., Cronin, S., & Macartney, M. (2025). A cross-sectional assessment of the Omega-3 Index in an Australian cohort of elite rugby football athletes: Opportunities to address nutritional omega-3 intake. The Journal of Sport and Exercise Science, 9, 12–20. https://doi.org/10.36905/jses.2025.01.02
Therdyothin, A., Phiphopthatsanee, N., & Isanejad, M. (2025). The effect of omega-3 on mitigating exercise-induced muscle damage. Cureus.https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40313441/
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. (2019). FoodData Central: Fish, tuna, white, canned in water, drained solids; Fish, tuna, light, canned in water, drained solids. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Written by Eliza Freney (The Rugby Dietitian)
