Why Fish Oil Price should not Determine Your Choice
Wednesday, August 26th, 2009
Laurel Cohen asked:
You may disagree, but hear me out. What you must be aware of when you are shopping for an omega-3 supplement is that fish oil price should not be the deciding factor in whether or not you buy a product. Prices can vary wildly when it comes to supplements, and the most expensive brands are not always the ones that are of the highest quality. Of course, you should not base your purchase on how much money you are saving on a product either.
As wildly as these supplements can vary in cost, they can also vary in purity, freshness, and bio-availability. These are the important factors when it comes to buying omega-3 fatty acid products, because those formulas lacking in any of these departments are worse than not taking any supplements at all. That your fish oil exceed industry standards in all three categories should be your focus.
Purity is far more important to you than fish oil price, because the fish from which these oils are extracted tend to accumulate high levels of toxic heavy metals, and chemical contaminants. This is due to the fact that these predatory fish not only collect toxins from the water they live in, but they also store all of the toxins that the prey fish they feed upon have absorbed. The higher up on the food chain a fish is the more toxic it will be.
Fish oil price does not reflect the levels of mercury, arsenic, cadmium, nickel, lead, furans, dioxins, chlordane, or PCBs that may be present, as some of the most expensive omega-3 fatty acid supplements tend to register the highest levels of toxicity. These formulas are allowed on the market, because there is no real regulation when it comes to dietary supplements. Limits are typically put on food containing these oils instead.
There is a group that calls themselves the International Fish Oil Standards, or IFOS. They have set forth a set of standards showing what they believe to be an acceptable level for contamination in an omega-3 fatty acid product, but since they are a private organization and not a regulating body many of the companies regard these standards as merely a suggestion.
Regardless of fish oil price you need to make sure that the formula you are thinking of choosing has been through both a proprietary purification process, and molecular distillation. The combination of these two purification methods will ensure that toxin levels are low enough that they cannot be measured. Then, in order to ensure the bio-availability of the fish oil makes sure that the oil is present in both its natural triglyceride form and in an ethyl ester form for easy and effective absorbability.
In conclusion, in order to verify freshness the measurement of the peroxide value and the anisidine value are as low as possible, because the combinations of these two values give you total oxidation. The lower the number the less chance that your oil will have formed harmful free radicals. When all of the measures of purity, freshness, and bio-availability have been met; then and only then is fish oil price a consideration.
Kitchen Cabinet Organizers
You may disagree, but hear me out. What you must be aware of when you are shopping for an omega-3 supplement is that fish oil price should not be the deciding factor in whether or not you buy a product. Prices can vary wildly when it comes to supplements, and the most expensive brands are not always the ones that are of the highest quality. Of course, you should not base your purchase on how much money you are saving on a product either.
As wildly as these supplements can vary in cost, they can also vary in purity, freshness, and bio-availability. These are the important factors when it comes to buying omega-3 fatty acid products, because those formulas lacking in any of these departments are worse than not taking any supplements at all. That your fish oil exceed industry standards in all three categories should be your focus.
Purity is far more important to you than fish oil price, because the fish from which these oils are extracted tend to accumulate high levels of toxic heavy metals, and chemical contaminants. This is due to the fact that these predatory fish not only collect toxins from the water they live in, but they also store all of the toxins that the prey fish they feed upon have absorbed. The higher up on the food chain a fish is the more toxic it will be.
Fish oil price does not reflect the levels of mercury, arsenic, cadmium, nickel, lead, furans, dioxins, chlordane, or PCBs that may be present, as some of the most expensive omega-3 fatty acid supplements tend to register the highest levels of toxicity. These formulas are allowed on the market, because there is no real regulation when it comes to dietary supplements. Limits are typically put on food containing these oils instead.
There is a group that calls themselves the International Fish Oil Standards, or IFOS. They have set forth a set of standards showing what they believe to be an acceptable level for contamination in an omega-3 fatty acid product, but since they are a private organization and not a regulating body many of the companies regard these standards as merely a suggestion.
Regardless of fish oil price you need to make sure that the formula you are thinking of choosing has been through both a proprietary purification process, and molecular distillation. The combination of these two purification methods will ensure that toxin levels are low enough that they cannot be measured. Then, in order to ensure the bio-availability of the fish oil makes sure that the oil is present in both its natural triglyceride form and in an ethyl ester form for easy and effective absorbability.
In conclusion, in order to verify freshness the measurement of the peroxide value and the anisidine value are as low as possible, because the combinations of these two values give you total oxidation. The lower the number the less chance that your oil will have formed harmful free radicals. When all of the measures of purity, freshness, and bio-availability have been met; then and only then is fish oil price a consideration.
Kitchen Cabinet Organizers
