Best Fish Oil Supplement - Finding Your Most Suitable

Which is the best fish oil supplement in the market? Which are the best fish capsules, fish oil pills or fish oil tablets around? Who sells the purest fish oil?

In this article, we do not attempt to directly answer these questions. There are hundreds of different fish oil products on the market, and almost everyone claims they are the best, with a list of supporting reasons.

What we will do here is to discuss some important aspects of choosing a good fish oil supplement, and you could use these pointers to carry out your own fish oil comparison, and perhaps arrive at your own assessment of the best fish oil supplement for you.

For better clarity, the points are arranged into sub-sections. A couple of the points may be repeated across different sub-sections.

Contaminants and Toxins

Due to environmental pollution, much fish today is contaminated with toxins like mercury, PCBs, pesticides and dioxins. Good fish oil capsules must be certified free of such harmful substances. This is a very important point, as the last thing you want to do while trying to boost your health by taking supplements, is to end up harming it instead.

A fish oil supplement usually needs to be pharmaceutical grade fish oil to be able to offer you the best chance of a pure and toxin-free product. Those which are not of pharmaceutical grade have a higher likelihood of being contaminated with chemicals, originating from the fish used to make the product. A typical refinement process which is used to purify fish oil products is molecular distillation.

If you are able to find out where the fish used to make a particular fish oil supplement is harvested, that would be best. Ideally, the fish should be gotten from clean and pristine ocean waters, far away from possible sources of pollution such as industries.

The type of fish used also helps to determine the potential levels of contamination. Certain fish, for example the hoki, are likely to be less contaminated by toxins.

Some questions you may want to ask include:

• Where is the fish used to make the product sourced from?
  
  
• Is each batch of fish oil tested for contaminants like mercury, PCBs and dioxins? Independent testing would be ideal.
  
  
• After the fish oil supplement is produced, is it further tested and certified to be free from contaminants?

Remember - the best fish oil supplements must fulfill the requirement of purity.

Quality of Ingredients

The best fish oil supplement must be made using the best ingredients. After all, a product is only as good as the materials used to produce it. Here are some pointers to look out for:

• It would be good if the fish oil supplement label states what type of fish is used. Otherwise, you could be taking poor quality fish, fish not usually eaten by humans, or even useless fillers.
  
  
• The fish oil capsules must be made from a pure fish source which is actually rich in omega 3 fatty acids, and not some poor quality fish.
  
  
• Ensure that the fish oil supplement you are using does not contain cheap fillers, such as cheap plant oils.
  
  
• Some people suggest that a fish oil supplement should be made from only one type of fish, as supposed to many types of fish; this is apparently to prevent omega 3 consistency from being affected
  
  
• Look out for significant proportions of DHA and EPA. Typically, fish oil supplements contain 18% EPA and 12% DHA
  
  
• A good fish oil supplement should ideally contain antioxidant nutrients; this not only protects you from free radicals, but also helps to protect the fish oil from oxidative damage, which it tends to be prone to.
  
  
• Is the company selective in its sourcing of raw ingredients? Or do they compromise quality to reduce costs? Beware of overly cheap products. The best fish oil supplement can only be made using the best raw materials, and good quality ingredients are usually not cheap to find.

Manufacturing Process

The best fish oil supplements are not just determined by the raw ingredients used to make them, but also by their manufacturing processes. Here are some pointers regarding this area:

• The manufacturing process of good fish oil supplements must not destroy the important nutrients. Some companies, for example, use cheap processes involving excessive heat, which could alter the physical state of the fish oil.
  
  
• Are cold pressing and molecular distillation processes used in the production process of the fish oil supplement?
  
  
• The purification process must be high-tech and able to not only detect, but also filter out toxins commonly found in fish today.
  
  
• Is the processing handled quickly and carefully enough to prevent the fish oil going rancid? Fish oil tends to go bad quite easily, and the best fish oil supplements must of course not contain rancid fish oil.

Company

Another very important aspect in trying to find the best fish oil supplement or the purest fish oil is the background of the companies which produce it. In whatever niche, the companies which are most dedicated to quality and consumer interests will make the best products, while companies which are simply in it for a quick buck will compromise on quality and even safety. The best fish oil capsules are usually made by the best companies.

Some questions to ask in trying to find the best fish oil supplement include:

• Is the company established in the business? Does it have a good reputation?
  
  
• Is the company selective in its choosing of raw ingredients? Or do they compromise quality to reduce costs?
  
  
• Is the company committed to producing quality products which enhance human health? If not, it could just be lying about its ingredients and manufacturing processes.
  
  
• Does the company have a mark to reveal their adherence to high manufacturing standards? e.g. good manufacturing practices.
  
  
• Are there many positive responses and testimonials from customers? This relates to both the integrity of the company, as well as the quality of their products.

Conclusion

We hope that these pointers will help you as you compare fish oil products in a bid to find the best fish oil supplement for yourself.

In carrying out a fish oil comparison, do note that not every supplement or product works in the same way for everyone. Thus, as long as you have established certain basic parameters (e.g. free from toxins, good manufacturing processes, etc), the only way to find out if a supplement really works for you is to try it out for yourself.

All the best!