Tips To Finding The Highest Quality Fish Oil Supplements

September 12, 2009 by Peter Albertonach

It really is time. Time to start taking daily fish oil supplements, the evidence for their health benefits is overwhelming. But how do you decide which are the highest quality fish oil supplements?

Firstly let me say, not all Omega 3 supplements are the same. There is a good reason to find high quality Omega 3 capsules. Here’s what you look for.

1. Cleanliness and purity.

Generally fish is contaminated and the FDA tells us not to eat a lot for that reason. Supplements can be contaminated too and some have in the past been withdrawn. So you need to determine if your fish oil supplements are clean.

Most marine oil is cleansed by a process of molecular distillation. This is effective, but there is one company that considers this insufficient and adds it’s own cleansing process in before molecular distillation, just to make sure. They also control the entire process of extracting the oil from the moment the fish is caught right through to making the capsules. Most companies buy in their oils from a wholesaler.

2. The freshness of the oil.

Fish oil can go off. It oxidizes and goes rancid, and that’s why you get that “fishy” taste, or even fishy burps, from capsules. It’s gone off. Some manufacturers even add nice scents to mask the fishy odor. You must choose high quality fish oil supplements that use only the freshest oils that haven’t gone rancid.

3. How much DHA you’re getting.

The most important Omega 3 fatty acid is DHA. Most Omega 3 capsules contain 18% EPA and 12% DHA, so for a 1000 mg capsule you’re getting 120 mg of DHA. The rest, apart from 180 mg of EPA, isn’t that important.

The highest quality Omega 3 supplements give you 28% DHA, so you’re getting 280 mg per 1000 mg capsule. That’s almost 2 1/2 times more than most.

4. The effectiveness of the Omega 3 fats.

There’s a number of different factors that affect how well the Omega 3 fats work. “Bioavailability” is one. It gets a little complicated and you can find out more on my website, but basically it means how well your body takes up and assimilates the good healthy fats.

Not all fish oil brands work the same, the quality fish oil supplements do work better. The major benefits of Omega 3 fatty acids are their anti inflammatory effects. And one brand of fish oil supplements has been shown to work over twice as well as an anti inflammatory.

And price comes into it when you’re looking to find the highest quality fish oil supplements and it isn’t easy to go a price value comparison.

That’s a very brief explanation of how to find the highest quality fish oil supplements. Remember, fish oil quality DOES matter.

I write much more extensively about this on my website and also do a price/value comparison there as well if you’re interested.

Want to know more about how to Compare Omega 3 Supplements by price? Or about more about finding high Quality Fish Oil supplements? Visit Peter’s Website Healthy Omega 3 Fish Oil.

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