Fish Oil Supplements

So what should you be looking for in fish oil supplements?

Basically, what you need to know is that there are two categories of omega 3 oils - those that are already preformed into long-chain omega 3 fatty acids, like DHA, EPA and DPA, and those that your body has to convert.

The first group come from fish oil from oily fish, like salmon, tuna, sardines and anchovies. These omega 3s are readily available for you body to use and they require no conversion.

The second group is made up of plant based omega 3 sources. These provide ALA only. You find omega 3s in plants and plant oils like flax, flaxseed oil and perilla oil.

This type of omega 3 fatty acid requires the body to go through a complex conversion process in order for the body to be able to use them. And, scientific studies have shown that the body only converts about 0.5% into the more usable omega 3s.

So, as you can see, fish oil supplements are the far superior source of omega 3 fatty acids in a form that your body can use right away.

Many omega 3 fish oil supplements are said to have passed the International Fish Oil Standards. Obviously, this is meant to impress you and convince you that the fish oil in question is a high quality product.

Think again!

Here's the IFOS grading criteria with my comments in the parenthesis.

1 Star for Greater Than 60% Omega-3 Concentration in the product (So if there's only a 61% concentration of omega 3's in the product, it passes. What do you suppose the other 39% is?)

1 Star for Oxidation Level Less Than 75% of CRN Standard (This means the fish oil product can be up to 74% oxidized and still get a star! Do you know what this means? Oxidized oils are rancid (or bad) and definitely not something you want to be putting into your body.)

1 Star for PCB Levels Less Than 50% of CRN Standard
1 Star for Dioxin Levels Less Than 50% of WHO Standard (Since PCBs and Dioxins are both toxic, I thought I'd comment on these together. As I'm sure you can guess by now, any percentage of impurities - whether it's toxins, pesticides or heavy metals - greater than 0% sounds dangerous to me.).

Here's the bottom line. The IFOS is a marketing tool for fish oil manufacturers. They even say so on their website.

Here's a quote from the site: "The [testing] program provides a unique marketing tool for companies to profile omega-3 products to the market place and gain a competitive advantage."

Don't be fooled by this dog and pony show. The IFOS certification on a fish oil product by no means guarantees its safety or effectiveness.

If you want to find out more about fish oil and how to choose the very best supplement, visit my fish oil lens at http://www.squidoo.com/fish_oil/.

Thanks and I'll see you there!