Compare fish oil capsules by price and quality to determine which are the best fish oil supplements

So you’ve read enough and researched enough about the benefits of fish oil and the omega 3 essential fatty acids that are found in it and it’s time to choose some fish oil supplements to buy. But there’s so many omega 3 supplements on the market. How do you choose between them to decide which are the best fish oil supplements?

It’s not an easy question to answer unless you spend quite some time learning about the benefits of fish oil, the different types of essential fatty acids and the way in which omega 3 fats work to benefit your health. And even once you’ve decided which are the best fish oil supplements you need to decide whether they offer good value for money.

You see it’s a little more complex than just adding fish oil to your diet. The actual essential fatty acids which are the important omega 3 fatty acids found in fish oil are DHA (Docosahexaenoic acid) and EPA (Eicosapentaenoic acid). Of these 2 it is now considered that DHA is the most important.

Not all fish oil is DHA or EPA, these are just the important ingredients. In fact you will find that your average fish oil capsule has 18 percent EPA and 12 percent DHA. That means that in a 1000 milligram capsule you are getting 180 milligrams of EPA and 120 milligrams of DHA. You should be able to read these details from the label which should specify the percentages of DHA and EPA in the fish oil capsule together with the weight of each capsule, which is commonly 1000 milligrams.

Some fish oil supplements do not specify the amount of DHA or EPA contain you should avoid these because you have no idea how much of these essential fatty acids that you are buying.

In effect you are just buying the DHA and EPA contained in the capsule. The rest is just filler or carrier. It is the DHA and EPA that is of benefit to your health.

Whilst this 18/12 ratio is very common amongst omega 3 supplements the best fish oil supplements contain way more active ingredients. The very best fish oil supplements contain 280 milligrams of DHA which is roughly 2 1/2 times as much DHA as your average capsules. This means that if you are taking four capsules a day of your average capsules you can take two of the best fish oil capsules and still be getting more DHA than you were before.

The next thing to consider is the cleanliness of the fish oil in the capsules. It is now commonly recognized that fish are contaminated with a range of toxins including mercury, PCBs, pesticides and heavy metals. Although the amounts of these are small the FDA still recommends that we limit our intake of fish due to the presence of these toxins.

If you are to improve your health outcomes with omega-3 supplementation it is important to take your supplements daily. Even at very low levels of contamination taking daily doses of contaminated fish oil can add up over time and be dangerous to your health. You have to be confident that the fish oil capsules that you are taking are entirely free of contamination and safe to take daily.

The first thing to find out about your fish oil capsules is the fish that they are sourced from. There are companies that catch fish and there are companies that make fish oil capsules but the 2 rarely come together. What usually happens is that the fish oil capsule manufacturer buys their fish oil from a fish oil wholesaler and the source of the fish is pretty much unknown. Many of the fish used for fish oil come from the north Atlantic which is one of the most polluted oceans in the world.

The cleanest fish are found in the oceans furthest away from where people live. This is the southern ocean between Australia and New Zealand and Antarctica. Fish caught there have extremely low levels of contamination, and mostly undetectable levels of contamination.

The company that makes the best fish oil supplements sources its fish from this ocean. It contracts individual fishermen to catch fish for them and requires them to put the fish on ice immediately that they are caught. They are brought to shore straight away and processed immediately for their fish oil. This is the single most effective way of ensuring that they have a clean, fresh and uncontaminated supply of fish from which to extract the oil.

The freshness of the fish is very important. Because many companies that manufacture omega 3 supplements buy fish oil from fish wholesalers the oil may be a little too old by the time it reaches them. Like anything else fish oil can go off and does so because of oxidization. Fish oil that has gone off is rancid fish oil. You will know if fish oil is rancid because you’ll often get that fishy burp after taking your supplements. This is an indication that the fish oil in the supplements is rancid.

Some manufacturers use a masking fragrance to overcome the smell of rancid fish oil. As you can see the freshness of the fish used is crucial.

Even though they use the freshest cleanest fish the company that makes the best fish oil supplements still puts their fish oil through a double process of decontamination. In this way they can be absolutely certain that there are no contaminants at all and to confirm this they have every single batch of fish oil used in their supplements tested by 2 independent laboratories and they publish the results of these tests on their website. You can go to their website and view the Certificate Of Analysis produced by the testing laboratory and see the figures for yourself.

See if you can find a copy of a Certificate Of Analysis for your average fish oil capsules.

In our view the fish oil supplements made by Xtend Life are the best fish oil supplements that money can buy. They contain 28 percent DHA, have no contaminants at all and are made from the freshest fish sourced from the southern ocean between Antarctica and New Zealand. You can view their Certificate Of Analysis on their website.

But even though they may be the best fish oil supplements this doesn’t mean they represent the best value. Any comparison of Omega 3 capsules must also make a comparison on price and value and accordingly we publish for you below a table comparing fish oil capsules by price in the best way possible, by comparing the price per gram of DHA. And ultimately that is what you’re buying when you buy fish oil capsules.

You can see that the table compares 11 well-known brands of omega 3 supplements by price on a cost per gram of DHA basis. The capsules produced by Xtend Life are the cheapest doing a direct price comparison. You cannot compare the price of capsules directly because some capsules have less DHA than the best ones.

Here’s the table.

(Please note that the data for the basis of the comparison comes from the respective websites as shown in August 2009.) Read the rest of this entry

Should you eat fish to get your Omega3 fatty acids? Isn’t fish contaminated and dangerous?

Once you find out how important omega 3 fatty acids are to so many areas of your health, the next question you need to answer is how do you get your Omega 3 fats?

We’ve pointed out before that Omega 3 fats are most prevalent in fish, that there are plant sources like flax seeds but they don’t have the optimum types, or amounts, of Omega 3 fats that you need.

However although it sounds good getting your Omega3 fatty acids through eating fish there is a problem. You see most, pretty much all, fish is contaminated with various chemicals that we, human beings, in the main, have put into their ocean.

One of the biggest worries is mercury contamination of fish. According to the EPA there is mercury contamination in all fish.

Now of course mercury isn’t something that you want in your body, and your body doesn’t get rid of it all that easily. It’s a particular problem for children.

However the EPA doesn’t recommend that you eliminate all fish from your diet. Fish is healthy, in small quantities, and if you follow some simple guidelines you should be ok eating it. Just don’t eat too much.

It’s ok to eat around 2 serves of fish a week. However for children or pregnant women there’s some more things to think about, because mercury is more of a risk to children or developing fetuses.

So for pregnant women, or children, you ought to avoid eating shark, swordfish, king mackerel, or tilefish. These are high in mercury. And canned salmon has also carried a warning for pregnant women.

But don’t eliminate all fish from your diet just because you’re worried about mercury. If you like fish you can eat it, sensibly and in relatively small quantities.

But of course if you understand the importance of omega3 fatty acids in your diet you need a regular supply of fish oil. Preferable a daily supply. And there is the rub. You see for most of us ordinary people eating fish regularly is really expensive. Fish is getting more and more expensive all the time, and as it gets scarcer it gets more expensive.

And although the EPA says it’s ok to eat it, if you’re eating fish to get your Omega3 then there is a better way. Of course if you just love fish then go for it.

But there is still mercury in fish, albeit in small amounts, and there is a solution to getting your Omega3 that doesn’t involve eating fish, that is cheaper than buying fish a couple of times a week, and overcomes the problem with mercury contamination.

It’s using Omega3 fatty acid supplements. These contain fish oil, but the very best fish oil supplements source the cleanest fish in the ocean and then put it through an extremely robust molecular distillation process that means that levels of mercury, as well as other common contaminants of fish oil, are undetectable.

But be aware that although many fish oil supplements claim to be contamination free, there are varying standards, none binding, and not all fish oil supplements are truly contamination free.

But the best fish oil supplements are.

So unless you really love fish, if you’re just eating it for the Omega3 fatty acids it contain, you’re better off using the best fish oil supplements on the market. Use them daily to get your good fats. It’s cheaper than eating fish, and you aren’t getting any mercury at all. Read the rest of this entry