If you read Ten Years Thinner, you know about the importance of supplementing with long chain omega-3 essential fatty acids (EFAs) for stable homeostasis, optimal health, and accelerated fat loss. You know that you will need to consume a combined total of at least 2500 milligrams of omega-3 EFAs (EPA+DHA) every day in order to defeat inflammation, combat aging, and achieve a lean, toned, flab-free physique for life. You also know that the conversion of the omega-3 EFAs found in flax and other plant sources is far too inefficient to provide adequate EPA+DHA, and that the only way to ensure you are fulfilling your body’s requirements is to supplement with marine sources of long chain omega-3 EFAs.
Armed with this knowledge, you march confidently into the health food store to make your first purchase. The manager directs you to the appropriate aisle. To your dismay, you soon discover that the fish oil section fills all five shelves and overflows into the next aisle. Before your wondering eyes lies a suffocating plethora of brands-- each claiming to be the best, and many with price tags that, ounce for ounce, rival Chanel.
So, how do you know which one to pick?
Rule number one: beware of slick advertising. Although I support the notion that you should buy the best quality fish oil that your budget allows, this does not necessarily mean that you should buy the most expensive brand you can find. The more advertising flimflam and *bling* that go into packaging and selling a product, the more the price of that product reflects the costs of advertising flimflam and packaging *bling*.
And speaking of flimflam, beware of “pharmaceutical grade” fish oil.
Pharmaceutical grade has become sort of a catch phrase in the supplement industry. It conjures images of nerdy, bespectacled white coats scurrying around a sterile lab squirting solutions into petri dishes and scribbling important data onto clipboards. It screams of high tech inscrutability and invites one to marvel at the biochemical complexities that would elevate a product to such coveted echelons of excellence.
There is no such thing as pharmaceutical grade fish oil.
Every fish oil brand making this claim invented criteria so that only their fish oil would comply with their particular “pharmaceutical grade” standards. Now this doesn’t mean that a product claiming to be pharmaceutical grade is necessarily a bad product; it just doesn’t mean that the product is necessarily any good either.
In the largely unregulated realm of supplementation, the only way to know for sure whether or not a product lives up to its label claims is to check with an independent testing organization. I know of two places to look: Nutrasource Diagnostics (http://www.nutrasource.ca) and ConsumerLab.com (http://www.consumerlab.com). Both companies provide independent test results to evaluate various health, wellness, and nutrition products. In addition, the International Fish Oil Standards (http://www.ifosprogram.com) program lists batches of fish oil from companies that have voluntarily undergone independent assessment and the ratings their products received.
Rule number two: don’t buy cod liver oil.
Cod liver oil is yesterday’s news. In order to obtain the minimum recommended amounts of EPA+DHA, you would have to choke down about two tablespoons of this vile substance every day. Cod liver oil tastes putrid because it is loaded with toxic contaminants and rancid fat, elements that counteract the anti-inflammatory benefits of taking fish oil in the first place. Plus, if you were to actually take two tablespoonfuls of cod liver oil on a daily basis, you would eventually begin to suffer from hypervitaminosis A (a fancy way of saying vitamin A overdose). Too much vitamin A places you at risk for liver damage, neurological decline, and decreased bone mineral density.
Rule number three: Toxins are bad; refining is good.
Unlike most other foods, when it comes to fish oil, refining is a good thing. Through a process known as molecular distillation, raw fish oil can be selectively concentrated to increase EPA and DHA levels while removing toxic impurities. A double distillation eliminates more than 99% of heavy metals, pesticides, and PCBs. But ultra-refining is a very costly process. If you can’t afford an ultra-refined product, avoid anything that lists tuna, marlin, or shark, and by all means, steer clear of “marine lipids.” (What the hell are marine lipids anyway-- incidental casualties of Japanese tuna nets? The discarded portion of a white fur coat? Blubber?)
Even if eating Willy or Flipper or a fuzzy seal pup doesn’t churn your stomach, think of it this way: Whales, dolphins, seals, tuna, and sharks are at the top of the aquatic food chain-- this means they are older, larger, and their flesh is far more likely to be harboring an accumulation of PCBs, pesticides, and heavy metals-- the unavoidable consequences of dining and dwelling within a cesspool of ocean pollution for years or decades. If ultra-refined brands exceed your price range, choose a fish oil product that draws on the bottom of the food chain: sardines, herring, mackerel, anchovies, and wild salmon are the purest (least contaminated) sources of non-refined fish oil.
Rule number four: triglycerides (TG) are better than ethyl esters (EE).
Although this is an area of ongoing debate, when choosing a fish oil, I strongly recommend natural triglycerides (TG) over chemically altered ethyl esters (EE). Most companies in the United States market the EE version of fish oil because the esterification process can be used as a very cost-effective substitute for the ultra-refining techniques (described above) to increase the concentration of EPA and DHA. Unfortunately, the esterification process also fundamentally alters the chemical structure of the fish oil, making it more difficult for your body to absorb and assimilate the EPA and DHA. Although EE fish oils may contain EPA and DHA in concentrations which approximate those found in ultra-refined TG fish oils, studies indicate that only about one-third as much of the EPA and DHA actually winds up getting used by your cells. Furthermore, animal studies suggest that the long term consumption of ethyl esters may contribute to organ damage. (In Canada, where American big business lobbyists wield less power and food regulations are stricter, esters are not permitted in fish oil supplements.)
THE LEAN ESSENTIALS:
List of fish oil from best to worst
Highly Recommended:
1. ultra-refined TG fish oil with EPA:DHA in a 2:1 ratio (THE GOLD STANDARD)
2. ultra-refined TG fish oil with EPA:DHA in a 3:2 ratio Recommended:
3. TG fish oil from pure sources (sardines, herring, mackerel, anchovies, and wild salmon) in a 2:1 ratio
4. TG fish oil from pure sources (sardines, herring, mackerel, anchovies, and wild salmon) in a 3:2 ratio
Better than Nothing:
5. ultra-refined EE with EPA:DHA in a 2:1 ratio
6. ultra-refined EE with EPA:DHA in a 3:2 ratio
NOT RECOMMENDED:
• cod liver oil
• unrefined EE • unrefined TG that contains tuna, shark, or marlin
• fish oil listing “marine lipids” as an ingredient
Chris Lydon MD, author of Ten years Thinner
