Fish Oil And Contamination With PCBs Is Now The Subject Of A Lawsuit.

Chemical contamination is everywhere. Even in our oceans, and the results are that those of us who recognize the health benefits of taking the essential fatty acids found in oil from fish known as DHA (Docosahexaenoic acid) and EPA (Eicosapentaenoic acid) may be getting an unexpected dose of PCBs with our morning Omega3 supplements. There is now an established link between taking capsules of fish oil and contamination with chemicals like PCBs, and more.

A Californian laboratory tested 10 well known brands of what are generally known as quality fish oil supplements, including some big names such as Nature Made odorless fish oil and Twinlab Norwegian cod liver oil, and found levels of PCB contamination at worrying levels.

PCBs are a particularly pernicious chemical banned in the US since 1979. There are hundreds of different variations, most of which are considered to cause cancer.

In California under proposition 65 it is a legal requirement that consumers be warned of any levels of chemical contamination in excess of certain levels. This is a health measure to warn the general community of worrying levels of contamination with various nasty chemicals, including PCBs.

Proposition 65 sets “safe harbor” limits for upper levels of contamination of PCBs, and the levels found in many of the supposedly high quality fish oil supplements exceeded these levels in some cases, and this was not disclosed to consumers of the products.

As a result a lawsuit has now been launched against various manufacturers of fish oil supplements alleging that their “highest quality fish oil” supplements don’t meet the standards required by Proposition 65, and that consumers are not warned of this.

Omega 3 supplements go by a range of descriptions, including “ultra-refined fish oil”, “pharmaceutical-grade fish oil” and more, but none of these is a guarantee of contamination free Omega 3 supplements. None have any legal definition. There is even a set of standards called the International Fish Oil Standards which set maximum levels of chemical contamination, but these are not binding and many people consider the levels for these toxins to be too lax.

Fish oil contamination with PCBs is a serious health concern. There is no doubt now that Omega 3 supplements offer a wide range of recognized health benefits such as a reduction in the risk of heart related health problems such as heart attack and stroke, a reduction in the risks of Alzheimers disease, and much more. But you don’t want to be getting a dose of PCBs with your Omega 3 essential fatty acids, or you may be doing more harm than good.

But don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. Taking ultra high quality Omega 3 supplements may be one of the single best things you can ever do for your health. Just make sure that you choose your essential fatty acids supplements wisely. Fish oil purity counts.

The best Omega 3 supplements don’t contain PCBs, are routinely tested and the results, in the form of a Certificate of Analysis, are always posted on the website for consumers to examine. This is not the case for many other brands.

Fish oil quality, or fish oil purity, is a serious matter. Fish oil and contamination do not go together, and need not go together. There is no need to take a dose of PCBs with your Omega 3 capsules. Read the rest of this entry

Not all fish oil supplements are the same. How do you choose high quality fish oil supplements?

You’ve decided that you need to be taking daily Omega 3 supplements because the evidence for their health benefits is overwhelming. But now you’ve got to find the highest quality fish oil capsules you can.

How do you decide on which capsules are the best high quality fish oil capsules? What factors should you consider?

There’s a number of things that you ought to consider when comparing fish oil supplements. Obviously price is one of them but the price is usually not an indicator of quality. And a high price also does not ensure that you’re getting the best quality.

The best high quality fish oil capsules have a number of factors that take them out of the range of the “average” capsules.

1. The amount of DHA and EPA.

DHA is the major Omega 3 polyunsaturated fatty acid, along with EPA. There’s others, but DHA is the biggie. When you’re buying Omega 3 capsules you’re primarily buying DHA. So the amount of DHA that you get in your capsules is an important factor.

Most Omega 3 supplements are 18/12 supplements. This refers to the ratios of DHA and EPA in the capsules and tells you how much you are getting. If you’re taking a 1000mg 18/12 capsule you’re getting 18% EPA, or 180 mg of EPA, and 12% DHA, or 120 mg of DHA.

One of the most important things to do when looking at comparing Omega 3 fish oil supplements is to see how much of each of these fatty acids, particularly DHA, that  you are getting.

It’s impossible to compare the price of fish oil capsules without knowing this because you can’t compare apples with apples. If you want to find  out more about comparing Omega 3 capsules by price read our article about how to compare fish oil supplements.

The highest ratio of EFAs (essential fatty acids) that we know of in any Omega 3 supplements is 12/28. This means that you get 120 mg of EPA but in particular you get 280 mg of DHA. That’s over double the amount of DHA you find in “regular” supplements. Almost 2 1/2 times as much actually.

But as we said in that article, a price comparison isn’t the main determinant of a high quality Omega 3 supplement. There’s more to it than that.

2. The purity or cleanliness of the fish oil used.

Contamination of fish is a major issue for our diets. Particularly mercury, PCBs and dioxane are found in many fish that we would regularly eat. For this reason the FDA has issued it’s warning about eating too much fish. There have been scares in the past with contaminated fish oil supplements and some have been withdrawn from the market.

It’s essential that you’re getting the cleanest oils, after all you’re taking those capsules for your health so you don’t want to jeopardize your health with toxins.

High quality Omega 3 capsules are clean, and free of toxins. Most companies purify their fish oils using a process called molecular distillation. This is effective.

However the company that makes the highest quality fish oil supplements isn’t satisfied with this and takes it a step further. It adds an intermediate purification step before molecular distillation.

Firstly it sources it’s fish from the Southern Ocean, south of New Zealand, the cleanest ocean in the world. That’s a pretty good start. It contracts with the fisherman that catch the fish and the entire process from catch to capsule is strictly controlled to ensure purity.

(Most manufacturers just buy their fish oil from a wholesaler, who knows where it’s come from).

And before the molecular distillation process is undertaken they add a further purification step to the process. The oil undergoes 2 separate purification processes, including molecular distillation.

On top of this the company sets it’s own standards for contamination, many times lower than the other recognized standards. For example they have their own standard for mercury contamination that is 10 times lower than all the international standards for contamination of fish oils.

That isn’t a problem as their oils have no detectable levels of contamination, so having an acceptable that is 10 times stricter than international standards is still easy to meet.

Finally they have every batch of fish oil tested by 2 separate independent laboratories and publish the certificate they get from the laboratories on their website. You can’t do better than that.

3. The effectiveness of the Omega 3 fats in the supplements.

All Omega 3 supplements are not the same. The reason you want to find high quality fish oil capsules is because the Omega 3 fatty acids found in them will do good things for your body.

Different fish oil capsules can have different levels of effectiveness. Those we consider the best fish oil supplements have been shown to be much more effective. Here’s how.

For Omega 3 fats to work they have to be absorbed into the body. There are different forms of Omega 3 fats and each is absorbed differently. Now it can get quite technical and we may baffle you with science, so suffice to say that not all forms of fish oils found in capsules are as effective as others.

It’s called “bioavailability’ and if  you want to find out more about the chemical reasons then click here.

The result is that studies have shown that the Omega 3 supplements from Xtend Life have up to 2 1/2 times more effectiveness as an anti inflammatory than other “average” Omega 3 supplements. It’s the anti inflammatory effects of fish oil that are the most important reason for all those health benefits.

Summary.

That’s how you find the highest quality fish oil supplements. You look at the fish oil quality, both the levels of contaminants and how much effort the company puts into ensuring it’s supplements are totally clean.

And the fish oil quality includes how effective it is as an anti inflammatory, that being the most important reason for the health giving qualities of Omega 3 fats.

And finally you look at the amount of Omega 3s you get in your supplements. Then you can look at price, and compare the different supplements on both quality and price.

Then you can determine what is the best value in high quality fish oil supplements.

We have no doubt about it. Both on quality and on value the Omega 3 supplements from Xtend Life are streets ahead.

On a price per gram of DHA they work out better value. And on the other determinants of quality they also come out better value. Read the rest of this entry