Choosing The Best Fish Oil Supplements

So you've read enough about the benefits of Omega 3 fatty acids to know you ought to be adding Omega 3 to your diet. But how do you go about choosing the best fish oil supplements?

It's confusing isn't it? There's so many different fish oil capsules on the market. Cheaper ones, more expensive ones. More tablets, less tablets. How do you go about finding the best ones?

Is it just price? Are all fish oil capsules the same, it's just a matter of finding the cheapest ones, or is there more to think about?

No not all capsules are the same, there's way more to think about than just the price of the capsules. Lets have a look at the things you need to consider before you settle on the best fish oil supplements.

It basically boils down to 4 things. The amount of DHA that you get in our capsules, the purity and freshness of the fish oil used, the risk of contamination of the Omega 3 oils and the effectiveness of the supplements.

DHA is, along with EPA, the principal Omega 3 fatty acid that is of benefit to your health. DHA is the big one, and it's the main Omega 3 in your brain. So you want to get capsules that deliver the maximum amount of DHA.

Most capsules are 18/12. That means that from a 1000 mg capsule you get 18% EPA and 12% DHA. That amounts to 180 mg of EPA and 120 mg of DHA. That's most capsules, not all. So if you've found Omega 3 supplements that are half the price of others, but you get half the amount of DHA in them, then you're not getting any better value.

How do you find out how much DHA or EPA are in your supplements? It should be on the label. Some capsules don't say anything about that on the label, avoid them because you don't know how much DHA you are getting, and you have to assume that if it was a lot they'd put it on the label.

The best fish oil supplements though, aren't 18/12. They in fact have over twice the amount of DHA than 18/12 capsules, having 280 mg of DHA.

Fish oil isn't always fresh. It can oxidize, or go rancid. Both the age of the fish used for extracting the oil is important, and their handling. Age doesn't refer to how old the fish is, it means how long it's been out of the water.

Fish that is too old, or has not been refrigerated sufficiently, or has had some other less than optimal handling process applied to it can yield fish oil that is rancid and doesn't smell quite as good as it should.

Some fish oil capsule manufacturers use masking scents in their oils to mask the odor of old oils. Rancid fish oil can cause repeating, or burping, which brings up an unpleasant "fishy" taste.

However that's not the major problem of rancid fish oil. Fish oil that has oxidized has a high level of free radicals, which are bad for your health. So by taking them you may be unknowingly doing damage to your health, rather than doing good.

Sadly the fish in our oceans are contaminated with toxins. It's not the fault of the fish, it's our fault. We have, over the years, released so many toxins into the ocean that the fish take them up into their flesh. When used for oil extraction the contaminants are in the oil, which then goes into the capsules.

Where do the contaminants come from? Runoff from the land from things like mining, farming and a host of other human activities. This gets into the rivers which then go into the sea. And pollution from oil rigs. And more. We're not doing our oceans any favors.

What contaminants? Well it's nasty things like mercury, PCBs and various other nasties. You don't want to be eating them, and for this reason some US government organizations like the FDA recommend limiting the eating of fish, particularly for some people like pregnant women.

There's various international standards for allowable contamination of fish oil capsules. The standards vary in how strict they are, and none are binding on any manufacturer.

Most manufacturers purify their fish oils in some way to remove contaminants, the question is how much are removed. It's hard to say without seeing test results from independent laboratories which test them, and for most you'll find it pretty hard to source independent test results.

And it all depends on which purification process is used. Molecular distillation is the best.

Surely fish oil is fish oil, if it's good for us it's all good for us? No, not necessarily. Tests show different levels of effectiveness, depending on a number of factors.

One of the conditions that Omega 3 fats are particularly effective in combatting is inflammation. Believe it or not inflammation is a major contributor to a range of different health problems, and a very effective way of combating these health problems is to reduce inflammation by taking the best fish oil supplements. Not all work as well at combating inflammation as the best Omega 3 supplements do.

Many people now take aspirin to combat inflammation. The best fish oil supplements are a lot more effective than aspirin.

Finding the best fish oil supplements isn't so easy is it? There's a lot to think about, and price is only one factor in the mix. A cheap fish oil capsule may have a low amount of DHA, may be contaminated with toxins more than you would like, or may have rancid fish oil in it, (masked with a nice smelling additive so you don't notice). And it may not be particularly effective at combating inflammation either.

So which are the best fish oil supplements?

If you find all the above complicated, and are now even more confused about choosing the best Omega 3 capsules, then I'll explain which fish oil supplements I consider to be the best, and why.

The best fish oil supplements, in my view, are the Omega 3 fish oil supplements from Xtend Life, a small company in New Zealand. Here's why.

1. Their fish oil capsules have 280 mg of DHA in them, over twice as much as many, and way more than some. So you don't need to take as many.

2. They source their fish from the Southern Ocean, south of New Zealand, the cleanest of the oceans and the furthest away from our nasty pollution.

3. They have a strict fish handling protocol that is applied by each of the fishing boats that catches their fish, meaning that the fish are on ice immediately they are caught and are processed as soon as they are on shore. They don't use masking scents, have each batch of fish oil independenlty tested before they use it and guarantee the quality of their fish oil. No oxidation.

4. Despite the fact that the fish they use (Hoki) are cleaner to start with they use a process of molecular distillation to purify the oil. The is the most effective purification process known and purifies the oil to the point where contaminants are undetectable. The oil is tested rigorously to standards that the company itself sets that are higher than International standards.

In particular their standard for mercury contamination is 10 TIMES HIGHER.

5. They use a unique blend of Hoki oil and Tuna oil in their Omega3 capsules. This has been shown in tests to be 2 1/2 times more effective at combating inflammation than traditional fish oils.

So if you're confused and just want to buy what I consider to be, by far, the worlds best fish oil supplements, head over to Xtend Life, makers of the best fish oil supplements.

Or by all means do your own comparisons based on the information I've provided for you here.

I haven't included as much detail as I could here about either fish oil freshness or oxidation, because it can all get quite technical, but if you want to read more then Click Right Here.

And I also haven't included all I could about the anti inflammatory properties of Omega 3 fish oils. To find out more about the problems of inflammation from Wikipedia click here, or to find out more about the anti inflammatory properties of fish oils Click Right Here.

And if you're worried about the problem of contamination of fish, and eat a lot of fish, you may be interested to read the information put out by the FDA on eating fish. To do so Click Right Here.