Fish oil brands

Yes, when they’ve written EPA/DHA grams per 100 g, I’ve added them together. Only Eskimo3 note that they have Omega3 that isn’t EPA or DHA. I don’t know which fatty acids that would be, but I could look it up at Livsmedelsverket.se, they have an excellent breakdown tool - enter gram of foodstuff, choose what type of info you want and out comes a long list of all kinds of info. It’s in Swedish, though.

Alpha-linolenic acid, perhaps.

Cardinova claim that Eskimo3 is made from Sardines caught off South America in the Antarctic waters. I looked up sardines at Livsmedelsverket; sardines in oil contain (per 100 g) 0.9 g linolenic acid (18:3, n-3), 1,4 g EPA, 0.16 DPA and 1.48 g DPA. For sardines in tomato, the content per 100 g is 0.22 g linolenic acid, 1.24 g EPA, 0.11 g DPA and 1.77 g DHA. I guess the remaining ~6% that they talk of is DPA and some linolenic acid, then.

Since sardines in oil normally is put in vegetable oil, it is a fair guess that it is rapeseed oil they put it in. That could explain why there is more linolenic acid in the sardines in oil compared to those in tomato.

On another note, according to Livsmedelsverket, there was research in Finland where they exchanged the majority of food fat to rapeseed based fat (for cooking, on sandwiches etc). The amount of fat was ~50 g/day, and this equated blood levels of EPA of a weekly consumption of 50-100 grams fatty fish. Seems the transformation of linolenic acid > EPA / DHA is rather ineffective, as has been stated earlier in this thread.

Is emulsified cod liver oil worth a toss? It’s pretty cheap, and has EPA/DHA.

Check out posts #281 and #283. Due to cod being high up in the food chain, they accumulate more crap in their systems. I’d skip it, at least if you are taking any kinds of amounts. But that’s just me. As for EPA / DHA etc it is probably as good as anything else. But there may be a problem with rancidity - cod isn’t fished in equal amounts year round (as far as I know) so I imagine you have a certain shelf time between catching seasons. Vitamin E is often added to fish oil to keep it stable, I’d go for an oil that has E added, regardless of type.

Just bought some Sam’s Club Fish Oil pills (240mg EPA, 200mg DHA). I’m gonna try 3 doses a day for a while (720 mg EPA, 600mg DHA). Works out to be about $6 per month. Anyone have any input on how soon I should notice something? Should I increase the dosage? I’m doing it for the general health benefits and stronger erections.

Just my opinion, but I’d stay away from the store brand fish oils. Carlsons is tested for contaminants. Carlsons is the best. It’s not cheap, but neither is your body.

Kevin

Are those enteric coated? If so, I buy a similar product at Costco: http://www.cost co.com/Browse/P … ProdID=11071265

The logo on the side says the fish oil is from here: http://www.ocea n-nutrition.com … sp?cmPageID=188

This link off of that site looks helpful for propaganda about benefits: http://www.meg-3.com/

Check the first post in this thread (and several following). Lots of ordinary fish oil brands have been rigorously and independently tested in recent years, and all of those tested (barring cod-liver oil) have been fine in terms of contaminant levels. The only brand that has produced any evidence beyond marketing hype that their fish oil contains less contaminants than other oils do is the one Mgus discusses above. Even then, the tests cited (Irish government investigation) indicated that all the normal fish oils were safe.

Thanks Para. I’d read your posts before buying. Is the 720 mg EPA, 600mg DHA a good start?

Ike: They are enteric coated, and they are the more expensive of the two pills that Sam’s carries. The ingredients say "marine lipids" which basically means "sea fats" (lol, real helpful), while the cheaper variety says "fish oils" then lists several species including cod. Sam’s also carries a liquid product for coronary health that has EPA and DHP. Maybe I’ll finish this supply then upgrade at least to one that indicates its source.

Not sure if it’s my imagination, but I seemed harder last night. Also, since my laser eye surgery a couple years ago, my eyes have felt sort of dry. Now they don’t feel dry, which improves my vision slightly. Hmmm… the eye doc did say try flaxseed oil for that. Interesting.

Some interesting stuff here (towards the bottom): http://www.vaug hns-1-pagers.co … oil-summary.htm

My vote goes to country life’s omega mood. 6 everyday. It has like 2 times the EPA than DHA. My eyes, heart and mind thank me.

I bought the same a few weeks ago. They are only slightly more expensive per gram of EPA/DHA than the cheapest pills. I’m hoping 3 caps per day instead of 6 will cut down on fish burps (haven’t tried them yet).

Looks like the Meg-3 brand will be in many different “brands.” Somewhere on the ocean-nutrition site they mentioned there are only 5 suppliers capable of producing fish oil in large quantities, which supports my suspicion that the differences between cheap fish oil and expensive are often only the labels and price tags.

Yes, they cut way down on the fish burps. I find it hard to really get a tasty one unless I go for one of the really deep, loud, duodenum-wrenching releases that make my wife yell, “it’s okay to stop that now” from upstairs.

NPR did a good story on fish oil this morning. Despite the "does not help prevent cancer" in the title, the piece only spends a short time discussing that aspect: http://www.npr. org/templates/s … storyId=5172732

Yep, the Cochrane institute read lots of reports front-to-back and reverse, and statistically could not see that it affected cancer prevention in a postive way. But not negatively either. Para-Goomba has a better understading of statistics (and better explanations) but personally I’m a bit sceptical to the possibility to glean a bigger trend from lots of small investigations, since they all differ in so many respects, methods, goals etc.