How to find the best fish oil capsules so that you’ll enjoy all the diverse benefits of this powerful health supplement, without any of the side effects or risks?
The quest isn’t difficult – but it also isn’t easy or effortless, simply because of the vast range of manufacturers, brands and formulations available in the market.
- Should you get fish oil capsules – or liquid fish oil?
- Is natural fish oil better – or is fish oil concentrate?
- Will taking a supplement be more beneficial – or should you just eat a diet rich in fish?
Hopefully you’ll find answers to these questions (and more) in this article, as well as our fish oil buyer’s guide here: click
What’s in The ‘Best’ Fish Oil Capsule?
Three grams a day of fish oil provides one gram of DHA and EPA, both of them long-chain omega 3 fatty acids essential to your health. They offer you multiple health benefits like reversing heart disease, boosting immune function, fighting degenerative disease, increasing fertility, improving mental health and promoting healthy skin.
But with so many competing brands out there, how to choose the best fish oil capsules for yourself? Here are a few guidelines you can follow.
Molecular distillation:
This is a process that removes any mercury or other heavy metals, dioxins, PCBs and other contaminants, to make fresh fish oil capsules which are pure and harmless. Most pharmaceutical grade fish oil capsules use this process.
Highest DHA and EPA content:
DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) and EPA (eicosapentaneoic acid) are both necessary for healthy functioning and development.
No plant source provides significant amounts of these long-chain fatty acids. Only some fish like salmon, mackerel and trout contain enough of it. A little known fish from New Zealand – the Hoki fish – is naturally rich in DHA fats.
Freshest fish:
With careless handling, even a good catch of fish can lose all its benefits from omega 3 fatty acids because of quick oxidation. Check to make sure if the fish oil capsules you buy are from a manufacturer who uses fresh fish and handles them right.
Good ethical standards of company:
The health supplement industry is largely self-regulated, so picking a company with high ethical standards is important when it comes to selecting the best fish oil capsules. Don’t blindly believe all that’s on the label – sometimes, it is misleading, even false!
Other factors:
Small fish oil capsule size, fewer side effects, good preservation without rancidity setting in and competitive prices are other features to look for in your choice of the best fish oil capsules.
There are many benefits to getting an adequate daily supply of omega 3 fatty acids. Meeting your daily requirements of omega 3 is indeed crucial to optimum physical and mental health.
Take care to make a good choice and enjoy all the rich benefits of omega 3 fatty acids. Once you find the best fish oil capsules, you’ll transform your health and fitness remarkably.
If you’re keen to learn more about the best fish oil capsules, here’s the brand I personally take daily – click here to learn more.
Why Good Fish Oil Is A Great Health Choice
There isn’t much disagreement over good fish oil being a smart health choice. But that doesn’t mean the process of selecting the right kind of fish oil is easy or straightforward.
Unfortunately, while natural fish oil is a good source of omega 3 fatty acids, it also increasingly contains pollutants and heavy metals like mercury. This makes pharmaceutical sources the smart choice – so called ‘good fish oil‘ – as these sources are purified and most contaminants are filtered out effectively.
Good fish oil is a better source of long chain omega 3 fatty acids like DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) and EPA (eicosapentaneoic acid), both of which are necessary for healthy functioning and development.
DHA is important for heart health and specifically essentially in brain development of fetuses and newborn babies, making up 30% of the brain’s cortex and 15-20% of the eye’s retina. Omega 3 fatty acids in good fish oil also help to prevent prostate cancer, a benefit not available from plant sources.
An option that allows you to enjoy the benefits of liquid fish oil, without the risks, is to take fish oil capsules. The practice of molecular distillation removes any mercury or other heavy metals, dioxins, PCBs and other contaminants, making good fish oil safe for even children and pregnant women.
If you’d like to learn more about the good fish oil supplements I personally take daily, please drop by this website today.
What Is Purified Fish Oil?
Finding brands that manufacture purified fish oil is not as simple or intuitive as it might sound. With so many different players in the market, it is a confusing and cluttered place where competing claims are strident and bold, making it hard to see beyond the fluff and bluster.
But it is vitally important to know what goes into the manufacture of liquid fish oil supplements or the health-inducing tablets you intend to take for health reasons.
That’s why you should spend some time understanding the purification process.
Purified fish oil is one of the most important nutrients for a healthy diet. Containing eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), omega-3 fatty acids and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), fish oil has several health benefits to offer.
Fish obtain omega-3 fatty acids from specific algae and other fish. However, these fish may also contain certain toxins like mercury and dioxin from the water. Since fish oil supplements have become increasingly popular with people who want to take in enough of omega-3 fatty acids in their diet, they need to be purified to ensure none of the toxic elements enter the human body.
Earlier certain brands of fish oil were criticized for having high levels of dioxin and mercury contamination. That is when International Fish Oil Standards were set up to look into the process by which oil is stripped from fish.
Only after that did purified fish oil and liquid fish oil become more popular as it ensured that all toxic elements were removed from formulations before being sold in the market. Recent studies have shown that its preferable to consume fish oil, either in its capsule form or as a soft-gel supplement because its benefits are countless.
The fatty acids found in purified fish oil help to improve brain function and consequently treat depression. Also it has been seen that those suffering from depression have low levels of EPA which can be supplemented by fish oil capsules.
Even pregnant mothers are known to benefit from these supplements as their children display improved hand-eye coordination much sooner than those mothers who do not consume fish oil during pregnancy. However, it is very important that a pregnant woman ensures that she is consuming purified fish oil only as any harmful toxins can prove to be fatal to the unborn child.
Purified fish oil as liquid fish oil is also recommended to those who have high levels of cholesterol, blood pressure and risk of developing blood clots. Patients who have suffered heart attacks are prescribed fish oil supplements as it reduces the chances of future strokes by a significant margin and also prevents such unforeseen disasters from taking place.
Of course fish itself has several advantages when eaten during meals but some people may not be able to digest high fat fish like salmon, sardine, tuna, lake trout, herring and mackerel. For them, fish oil supplements are ideal alternatives. However liquid fish oil also has some noticeable side effects so if the supplement leads to any allergic reaction, it is recommended that the intake of fish oil be stopped immediately.
For more about the factors that help you determine which brand of fish oil is right for you, be sure to study this special report that outlines all the different things to consider before picking a specific brand or type. Click here to read it now.
Magical Benefits of Ultra Refined Fish Oil
Ultra refined fish oil is one of the best forms of this powerful health supplement, for a variety of reasons. There are many kinds of fish oil available in the market. Liquid fish oil supplements are graded on the basis of production and ingredients. There are primarily three kinds of fish oils available today and they vary in quality.
Cod Liver Oil
Even though cod liver oil has several nutritional advantages, it is not considered to be as good as ultra refined fish oil. For most people who take these supplements, cod liver oil is recommended only when ingested in small amounts.
It contains high levels of vitamin A and the fish processed for cod liver oil may not always be free of all contaminants. If consumed in large doses, it can prove to be hazardous to human health.
One teaspoon of cod liver oil has 500mg of omega-3 fatty acids but it is also known to have the maximum amount of contaminants as compared to other kinds of fish oils. Contaminants include PCB, DDT and organic mercury.
Health Food Fish Oil
The quality of health food fish oil is a lot closer to that of ultra refined fish oil as it is extracted from only specific kinds of fish – namely salmon. They are mostly available in softgel capsules and do not taste very nice.
This type of fish oil is also available in a cholesterol free version. Health food fish oils undergo a purification process that is slightly more stringent than those undergone by cod liver oils. The process known as limited molecular distillation ensures that enough cholesterol is removed from the final product so that it can carry the cholesterol free label.
Fish oil concentrate is also a kind of health food liquid fish oil and it is purified even more. It contains ethyl esters of fish oil with even lesser contaminants. With a high concentration of omega-3 fatty acids, a one gram softgel capsule of health food fish oil has 300mg of omega-3 and one capsule of fish oil concentrate has 500mg of omega-3.
Pharmaceutical Grade Fish Oil
This is also known as ultra refined fish oil and provides people with the best quality of omega-3. After undergoing specialized processes, the final product is the most refined version of fish oil that can be produced.
Special equipment detect the slightest presence of contaminants and thus pharmaceutical grade fish oil is known to be thousand times purer than health food fish oils. Ultra refined fish oil contains the maximum amount of omega-3 fatty acids with one gram comprising of 600 mg of omega-3.
More information about choosing the best fish oil is available in a special free report that you can read here – click.