Choosing Omega 3 Capsules? Confused?
With all the talk of EPA and DHA and ALA, how do you choose your Omega 3 capsules?
And it gets worse when you start reading all about converting ALA to DHA, then about long chain and short chain fats and so on.
For example a reader recently asked me about how to choose his omega 3 fish oil capsules. He was confused about the difference between long chain and short chain Omega 3 fats, and confused about which were the best Omega 3 supplements.
It’s understandable how he got confused and so I’ll talk a little about it and then tell you how to go about choosing your Omega 3 fish oil supplements.
There’s the 3 main Omega 3 fats, DHA, EPA and ALA. They are all good for you but the most important by far is DHA.
You find ALA in plant foods like flax seeds but you find DHA and EPA in sources like fish. ALA is the least important and whilst ALA is a short chain fatty acid DHA is a long chain fatty acid. It gets complicated here, so I’ll stop with the chemistry.
The most important Omega 3 fat that you need is DHA and that comes from fish oil capsules, along with EPA. No need for flax seed capsules.
All fish oil supplements have DHA.
So are all fish oil supplements the same? How do you choose between them?
Theres 2 things you need to look for to find the best rated Omega 3 fish oil capsules. You need to look for the quantity of DHA in the capsules, and the purity of the oil.
You look for the quantity as all fish oil capsules have DHA, but in different amounts. Thus you cannot just look for the cheapest fish oil capsules without knowing how much DHA is in them.
So if you look at supplements that are half the price of some others they may seem good value, but if you get a third of the DHA they aren’t.
And thats not all, you need to consider the purity of the oils too, because, sad to say, many of our fish are contaminated with toxins. You wouldnt want to take Omega 3 capsules with traces of mercury and PCBs would you?
That’s all you need to consider when choosing Omega3 supplements.
But actually doing that comparison isn’t as easy as you’d think and you may struggle. I have run the sums and one brand comes up as the best fish oil supplement on both DHA quantity and also on oil purity.
I tell you which brand on my website.