But…are there any problems with TG fish oil?

Let’s look at some facts:

1. True TG fish oil is low in Omega-3, usually 20-30% Omega-3 or less.
2. At that concentration, you’ll have to take almost a dozen pills a day to get enough Omega-3 for reducing your blood triglycerides.
3. Concentrated TG fish oil (also called rTG) supplements are not exactly natural and are very expensive.
4. Almost all the scientific research to date (more than 18,000 scientific papers) has been performed using EE form of fish oil and NOT the TG form.
5. Prescription Omega-3 like Lovaza, Omacor, AMR-101 and Epadel are all EE forms.

Besides the increased cost and large number of pills required, there are no valid reasons to avoid TG fish oil. If you’re on a tight budget and need 4,000 mg of Omega-3 per day, rTG fish oil may cause some financial difficulty.

OmegaVia uses EE form of fish oil.

Internet and Emails as a Scare Tactic!

A lot of internet marketing and advertising chatter will have you believe that EE fish oil is pure poison! One drop and you’ll fall flat on your back. Time to meet your maker!

Not so fast, Skippy!

Moderation and common sense does not get much attention these days.

There are a lot of people (and brands) on the internet spreading fear about EE fish oil. I think this is predatory and self-serving.

SCARE TACTIC #1: Your kids will get intoxicated!

One of the points used to stir up fake-fear is alcohol.

When a molecule of EE fish oil is metabolized by your body, a molecule of alcohol is released. A teeny, tiny bit.

A daily dose of EE fish oil has about as much alcohol as a glass of orange juice. Yes, all fruits and juices have a tiny bit of alcohol in it. Nothing to worry about – your body is built for and perfectly capable of handling fruits as well as EE fish oil.

But if you believed everything you read, you’d think that little children all over the country are passing out drunk from taking a little EE fish oil!

SCARE TACTIC #2: Styrofoam Cup Parlor Trick

This is my favorite!

There is a YouTube video of someone putting ethyl ester oil in a styrofoam cup. The oil, naturally, melts through the cup. The demonstrator looks up at the camera is mock shock!

It makes for great entertainment, but the only thing it proves is what they taught me in Chemistry 101, that compounds with similar polarity attract and often dissolve each other. Unless your digestive system is composed of polystyrene, there is absolutely nothing to fear! Until then, the styrofoam cup video is a great parlor trick.

Ironically, in Asia, where they sell mostly low-potency oils, they use reverse-styrofoam-melting-trick…in other words, their advertisers are telling people that good and strong fish oils SHOULD dissolve styrofoam cups and one SHOULD ONLY BUY oils that do so.

I got this email from a customer in Malaysia, just 2 days ago:

“We see lots of demonstrations using polystyrene food box. One will cut the fish oil capsule into half letting the oil drip onto the box. Oil that ‘burns’ a hole through the box is claimed to be of the highest purity. What do you make of such claim? Is there any scientific truth there?”

These demonstrators do not understand chemistry and are hoping you’ve forgotten it since high school. If I were really cynical, I’d say they know their chemistry, but are sure you don’t!

SCARE TACTIC #3: Yikes! EE fish oil is banned in some countries!

Easy there, Skippy! Not so fast!

Japan and some EU countries distinguish over-the-counter supplements and pharma drugs. Supplements are TG fish oils. And pharmaceutical drugs are EE fish oils.

Simple rule. Keeps the kids from fighting.

Japan has had a high-EPA prescription fish oil drug in EE form for two decades. It’s sold as Epadel.

US regulations allow for EE fish oil to be sold as BOTH prescription Lovaza and OTC supplements.

Why all the scare tactics?

Profit.

And the competition is stiff.

Using fear as a selling tool is an age-old trick. Politicians do it every day! Need I say more?

Why do we use EE fish oil?

Simple. It allows for ultra-concentration of Omega-3.

TG fish oils contain 20-30% Omega-3 and cannot be concentrated.

If you want pharmaceutical grade or prescription strength fish oil, you need to concentrate the oil to 80 or 90% Omega-3. EE fish oil can be concentrated to pharmaceutical strength. TG fish oil cannot.

This concentration allows you to take fewer pills and yet get all the desired benefits of fish oil.

After all, what’s the point in taking fish oil if there isn’t enough Omega-3 in it?

Omega-3 delivered to your body in either form, EE or TG, eventually ends up in your cell membranes, where they go about doing the wonderful things they do.

EE still does the job – pancreatic lipase hydrolyses EE to a slightly less degree than TG. And at a slightly slower rate. You won’t feel the difference.

What’s rTG Fish Oil? Even more science!

Some companies now go a step further…

They start with 30% Omega-3 TG fish oil. Then convert it to 60 or 70% Omega-3 as EE fish oil. Remember, you can only concentrate fish oil in the EE form.

And then, enzymes are used to re-esterify the Omega-3 fatty acids back into the TG form. This process is called enzymatic glycerolysis. These oils are called rTG in the fish oil industry.

It’s a fancy way of getting high concentration, yet be able to say that the oil is in its ‘natural triglyceride’ form.

Is rTG Fish Oil Really ‘Natural’?

rTG is super-natural. Or nature-identical. But not natural. rTG is like those audio speakers people put in their back yards that look like rocks. Skippy tells me they are rocks.

Enzymatic glycerolysis does not produce a pure triglyceride (three glycerol molecules) product. It’s often half triglycerides and the rest of the oil is a mix of mono and di-glycerides. It’s a super-natural mix unlike what’s found in fish. Dyerberg et al. suggest this may be why it is slightly better absorbed.

Nordic Naturals uses a clever way of increasing the triglyceride content to 93%. It’s a great laboratory achievement by a pioneering company and it deserves attention and respect. But don’t confuse that with 93% Omega-3! 93% triglycerides does NOT mean it is 93% Omega-3!

Whatever the glyceride combination, rTG is perfectly fine to take and it’s very well absorbed.

This additional enzymatic step is expensive, but is it worth it?

Personally, I think it is fascinating chemistry. But it’s a lot of chemical intervention and cost for a minor benefit.

Is rTG better than TG?

Yes. A little.

A recent 2-week study by Dyerberg et al., did something, ummm…interesting, in my opinion – they indexed the results. Instead of comparing all fish oil results to placebo, they compared EE and rTG to regular fish oil. While this might seem harmless on the surface, it exaggerates the facts. It makes the difference between TG and EE APPEAR bigger.

Some call it funny math.

I’m not the only one who found this a little odd…

“How they reported the results was instead of comparing the results to placebo, they took the position of comparing the other forms to regular fish oil and cod liver oil, “as if” regular fish oil and cod liver oil were “the standard” by which to compare the others. With this approach, the re-esterified TG concentrate form improved blood levels better than regular fish oil and cod liver oil, and the result of consuming the EE concentrate on blood levels was less than regular fish oil and cod liver oil.”

- Gretchen Vannice, MS, RD – Omega-3 Dietitian in Comments on recent studies comparing TG and EE forms of fish oil

Like I said, funny math. Using this funny math, rTG is 70% better than EE. I’ve seen websites that claim 120-something percent better. Skippy strikes again!

The Neubronner study was longer, more robust and much more conclusive in comparing the Omega-3 Index (see Part 1) of TG vs EE.

At the end of their study, they got the participant’s Omega-3 Index up from 7 to 12.2 for the EE group and 13.2 for the TG group. That about 15% difference. Let’s be generous and say 20%. Super generous = 25%. That’s still far from the 70% that marketers of TG oils like to claim.

Regardless, if you can get your Omega-3 Index above 12, you should be jumping up and down! And EE fish oil clearly did so in this very well designed study. Nuff said.

Cost difference between EE and TG (or rTG)?

A big cost difference.

Concentrated TG oils (rTG) are very expensive.

If you buy fish oil by the truckload, like we do, there is roughly 40% premium for TG oils. That usually translates to twice the cost for you, the consumer.

There are very few well-known TG fish oil brands. Nordic Naturals Ultimate Omega and Minami Nutrition MorO-3 come to mind. Both are excellent products. I recommend them without hesitation.

They are both rTG products, which are usually about 60% Omega-3 potency. The following is a comparison of these two products with a couple of other mid-grade fish oils.

As a comparison, OmegaVia costs about as much as the GNC Triple Strength Fish Oil.

The bottom-line remains…

Are you willing to pay almost twice as much for far less than twice as much absorption?

Once you dispense with the shady marketing, you are left with two slightly different products that give you the same health benefits. Generally speaking, the strongest EE oils contain 20 to 30% more Omega-3 than the strongest TG oils. This makes the absorption claims somewhat of a wash.

Unless major new clinical evidence changes the scientific landscape, it’s a no-brainer to me.

I’m sticking with EE fish oil.

And I eat salmon frequently and avoid Omega-6-rich vegetable seed oils.

About the Author: Vin Kutty is OmegaVia’s Scientific Advisor and Chief Blogger. He is a nutritionist, author, and Omega-3 expert with over 20 years of experience. Email him.

Is one better than the other? Or is it just nerdy hair-splitting?

I’ve had a few questions in my inbox about the difference between different types of fish oils.

No, I don’t mean Cod liver oil vs Salmon oil.

We’re talking molecular structure of the Omega-3 fatty acids.

We’ve talked quite a bit about the Phospholipid (PL) form of Omega-3 found in krill oil.

Ethyl Ester (EE) form and Triglcyeride (TG) form are the most common types of fish oils.

The TG form is naturally found in fish. But it can’t be concentrated. To produce a concentrated pharmaceutical grade fish oil, it is necessary to convert the TG form into EE.

Almost all the pharmaceutical grade oils and prescription Lovaza are in the EE form.

The science suggests that the PL form is likely the best absorbed of the bunch.

PL Omega-3 found in krill makes a lot of sense theoretically because that’s how Omega-3 is stored in our body. But krill oil is a very weak source of Omega-3. And it cannot be concentrated without destroying the PL-Omega-3 bond. If you heat krill oil, you destroy most of what’s good about it.

That’s why krill oil is concentrated (somewhat) using solvents like hexane or alcohol.

Still, there are slight differences in absorption between EE and TG forms of fish oil. Don’t think of this as two losers fighting for second place.

So…between TG and EE, which is better?

TG is a little better, in my opinion. But not much.

Scientific opinions vary.

See table below:

The Science Behind EE vs TG Absorption

There’s one common element in all the studies where the researchers found no clear difference between EE and TG: study participants took the pills with their meals.

Specifically, the fish oil pills were taken in the presence of some dietary fat.

So if you take EE fish oil with your meals, you will dramatically increase its absorption, to the point that there is virtually no difference between the two forms.

This study showed that eating fish was the best way to get Omega-3 but there was a 3-fold increase in absorption of Omega-3 if fish oil pills were taken along with food.

OmegaVia uses EE fish oil.

This is why our dosage directions clearly say: BEST IF CONSUMED WITH A MEAL.

If taken on an empty stomach, TG is slightly better absorbed.
If taken with a full meal, TG and EE forms are almost equally well absorbed and the above advantage virtually vanishes.

Also, there are no reliable studies where EE dramatically outperformed TG.

Other than that, the differences are minor:

• TG tastes better than EE, if you want to drink liquid fish oil by the spoonful.
• TG is the natural form Omega-3, as it is found in fish.
• TG is slightly more resistant to rancidity.

These are clear benefits if you take liquid fish oil.

The Omega-3 Index

Of the list of studies in the table above, the best designed and most recent is the one by Neubronner et al.

Unlike the other studies, these scientists decided to measure the Omega-3 Index.

I’ll write more about Omega-3 Index at a later date, but in a nutshell, it measures the actual percent of Omega-3 that becomes a part of your red blood cell membranes.

An Omega-3 Index of 8 and above is considered low risk for disease. 4 to 8 is intermediate risk. Below 4 is high risk.

• Japanese are almost at 9. Not bad!
• Germans are at 6. So-so.
• Americans are, ahem, at 4.

In the study, BOTH EE and TG forms of fish oil were well absorbed and BOTH increased Omega-3 Index quickly and significantly after taking about 1,700 mg of Omega-3 per day.

The TG form did a slightly better job than EE form. See below.

Adapted from Neubronner et al. Enhanced increase of omega-3 index in response to long-term n-3 fatty acid supplementation from triacylglycerides versus ethyl esters Eur J Clin Nutr 65 (2010) 247-254.

Both TG and EE forms of fish oil quickly got the participants from below an index of 8 to well above it. And it looks like it took less than 3 months to do so.

There was a 15% difference in Omega-3 index between TG and EE fish oils at the end of 6 months.

This tells me that the ‘biological outcome’ (translated to English, that means ‘the benefits to your health’) is virtually the same.

In the authors words, the EE fish oil ‘highly exceeded’ the goal of getting the participants above an Omega-3 index of 8. They reached a very healthy index of 12.2.

Next…

• Is that 15% worth the extra cost of TG fish oil?
• Is all this just nerds splitting hairs?
• Is there any truth behind the internet fear-mongering?

Find out in Part 2.

About the Author: Vin Kutty is OmegaVia’s Scientific Advisor and Chief Blogger. He is a nutritionist, author, and Omega-3 expert with over 20 years of experience. Email him.

In Part 2, we talked about the likelihood of your Omega-3 supplement being made in China or containing Chinese fish oil.

So what if it really was made in China?

What’s the problem with ‘Made in China’?

Well, the problem is that there is no permanent transparency in China.

Some Chinese plants are open to audits. And many US auditors visit these companies regularly.

But there are no true and lasting controls.

Some Chinese manufacturers produce excellent products. And some don’t. It’s the latter that worry me.

Most North American and European fish oil refiners belong to GOED, the Global Organization for EPA and DHA Omega 3, a non-profit trade group.

• GOED membership requires some transparency and quality compliance.
• GOED members must commit to following a code of ethics and business practices.
• Most importantly, GOED’s monograph serves as an unofficial quality guideline for the fish oil industry.

Until very recently, GOED had no Chinese members.

You only need to look at the drug recalls during the last 5 years to get an idea of what scares me.

The 2007 Melamine pet food scare followed by the 2008 Heparin disaster that killed 149 people, were on newspaper front pages. When the FDA inspected the offending plants, they found several serious issues.

More recently, counterfeit Viagra that had drywall ingredients mixed in. (No jokes, please!)

And that’s just for pharmaceutical drugs that legally require more monitoring that a dietary supplement like fish oil.

Only 12% of Chinese plants inspected by 2010

The FDA says that it does not have the funds nor bear the responsibility to inspect on a regular basis, overseas manufacturers of active pharmaceutical ingredients. A GAO report released in October 2010 states that the FDA had inspected only 12% of hundreds of Chinese pharmaceutical plants that produce ingredients for the US market.

That’s just for pharmaceutical drugs, not dietary supplement manufacturers.

Monitoring all foreign fish oil manufacturing is unreasonable and simply can’t be a high priority for the FDA.

The Beauty of Cheap

As Americans, we expect a Chinese screwdriver or pen to be cheap.

We expect it to break.

We toss it and buy a new one.

That’s the beauty of cheap.

A leaky pen or broken screwdriver never hurts your health.

The point of all this is to demand transparency! If you choose to buy a discount fish oil for any reason, that’s fine. But you deserve the right to know what you’re getting for your money.

If you can’t get transparency from the Chinese, well, fine. You should expect demand it from your American supplier!

• When it comes to something you ingest, something you put in your body to improve your health, don’t you want better control over it?
• Don’t you want to know where it’s from and what’s in it?
• When you ask questions, don’t you want real answers?

It’s OK to expect all of that!

Enter Branded Fish Oils!

Manufacturers of high quality fish oils like Ocean Nutrition, EPAX, Organic Technologies and Croda have begun branding their oils.

Think ‘Intel Inside.’

Ocean Nutrition’s oil is called MEG-3.
Croda’s oil is called PureMax.
Organic Tech’s is called AlaskOmega.
EPAX’s oil is called, well, EPAX.

You may not know these names or their brands. Yet. But these brands are made proudly in places like Norway, Canada or…Ohio. Yes, Ohio!

They have their own logos.

Some fish oil products have started putting these fishy logos on their products. Look for it. At least it tells you that the oils were made to exacting and third-party validated standards.

Think Dell computer with that tiny Intel logo. Same thing.

If there’s no fancy logo…

…call the company that makes your fish oil pills and just ask.

Some will tell you the straight up truth. They may even show you proof of where it’s made.

Others may give you a coined answer like “Our product is sourced from various locations and it passes all mandated quality specifications.” That’s when you hang up the phone and keep looking for a better fish oil supplement.

About the Author: Vin Kutty is OmegaVia’s Scientific Advisor and Chief Blogger. He is a nutritionist, author, and Omega-3 expert with over 20 years of experience. Email him.

See Part 1 here.

So what’s in your fish oil?

Is it made with Chinese fish oil?

And why does the bottle not say ‘Made in China’ if the fish oil pills were made in China?

It’s easy for supplement companies to find loopholes in labeling rules. And most do. In all my years in the dietary supplement industry, I have never heard of any supplement company getting in trouble for country-of-origin issues.

80 year old regulations

The laws governing country-of-origin declaration is 80 years old. It was put in place when Herbert Hoover was in the White House and when China was a poor farming society.

Things have changed.

Regardless, the law says where ever the products underwent ‘substantial transformation’ is the country of origin.

That’s a loophole big enough to drive a Hummer through.

Theoretically, if the pills inside the bottle cost $2, and the packaging costs $3, then wherever the bottle was packaged is where there was a ‘substantial transformation’ in value.

Chinese-made pills that are bottled and sniffed for quality in America = MADE IN AMERICA.

Interestingly, US Customs and Border Protection, not the FDA, is responsible for country-of-origin oversight. (Note to Feds: please don’t come a knockin’ – my cleaning lady is a US Citizen, I swear!)

A LOT of the fish oil pills sold in American drug stores, grocery stores and department stores are Chinese.

It’s very hard to say exactly what percent of the American fish oil supply is Chinese, but my guess is about a quarter to a third.

Kansas City Star Report

In a brilliant piece by Kansas City Star news paper (November 7, 2010. Industry groups consider pushing for country-of-origin labels on fish oil bottles, where I’m quoted), investigative reporter Steve Everly dug up all import records of fish oil capsules and found that about 20% of American fish oil products came from China.

And none of it was labeled as being from China.

At a recent industry trade show, a Chinese fish oil vendor tried to convince me to convert OmegaVia to their oil. Shockingly, he volunteered that two pharmaceutical grade fish oil brands that I’ve frequently recommended to customers use their oil! Say it aint so!

What about mixing-n-matching?

There is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING stopping a manufacturer from blending high-quality Canadian or Norwegian oil with barely-passing Chinese oil to ‘bump up the specs’ of the finished product.

It happens every day.

And it works like a charm.

Mix a few drums of expensive Norwegian oil with a lot of Chinese stuff…and you still get to market the product as ‘Made with Norwegian Fish Oil.’

Chinese oils could be 30% cheaper.

Fish Oil and Big-box Retailers

There are products sold at big retailers that could have Canadian oil in one lot and Chinese oil in another. As long as the ‘label claims’ (amount of EPA and DHA) and contaminant levels pass, everything is approved and shipped out.

In this case, it is not done to improve profits – when a retailer sells 10 million fish oil capsules every week, the manufacturer that supplies the retailer cannot be picky about where the oil comes from. It is a logistical nightmare to keep a large retailer stocked and supplied with such large volumes of fish oil, so some manufacturers buy oil or finished pills from anywhere they can.

If you buy a brand of fish oil at a very large retailer and decide to call the customer service number to figure out the country of origin of the oil, you will likely waste your time. It is unlikely that the customer service rep will know this information or be able to retrieve it easily.

Chinese ingredients are cheap. Sometimes they are of very high quality and other times, well, you’ve heard about the recalls.

Using Chinese oil reduces cost. And increases profit.

That’s irresistible to any corporation that has shareholders to please.

So far, there’s been little or no harm done.

No major fish oil recalls.
No mercury poisoning.
No complaints of oxidized oil.

In Part 3, we will review what industry groups are doing to bring clarity to fish oil labels and some other tricks to figure out where your fish oil is from.

About the Author: Vin Kutty is OmegaVia’s Scientific Advisor and Chief Blogger. He is a nutritionist, author, and Omega-3 expert with over 20 years of experience. Email him.

Disclaimer: Our Legal Department asked me to leave out names of all people and corporations.
(That should tell you something!)

Regular readers know that I’ve been working with fish oil for over two decades.

Before OmegaVia, I worked for a few large corporations that marketed fish oil. And this is a chapter from those years.

The Meeting That Started It All

During a work meeting, a senior executive came up with an idea for a new product: 100% American, MADE IN USA Fish Oil.

At first, the room was quiet. After all, no one wants to be the first to disagree with the boss. Or laugh at his idea.

MADE IN AMERICA!

Someone in the room finally said, “What do you mean, ‘Made in America?’”

“I mean, create a fish oil product that is 100% made in America! You know, because a lot of fish oil pills are made in China or have Chinese ingredients. Instead of the Chinese crap that most retailers sell, let’s make and sell high quality American fish oil,” explained the boss man.

He continued, “Sure, it’ll be more expensive, but it’s better quality. So people will pay more for quality. People get a better product and we make more money! It’s a win-win!”

It was hard to disagree.

Better quality is good. More money is good. Agreeing with your boss is certainly good.

So, as the guy in charge of developing new products, it was my job to come up with the product. It was my job to find out where to buy good quality American fish oil, to find American bottles and American caps.

A little history for perspective:

About 15 years ago, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce urged (read subsidized) Chinese Vitamin C makers to drastically drop their prices from $20/Kilo to about $5/kilo. American Vitamin C makers could not compete at $5 per kilo. They all went belly up. One by one. I remember being forced to buy Chinese Vitamin C. They had the market cornered. After that, the Chinese jacked up prices to near-original levels. There is a big lawsuit afoot and the Chinese have admitted to this charming practice.

So making an All-American product is not as easy as it sounds. Fortunately, the Chinese don’t have a monopoly on fish oil.

I worked with graphic artists to come up with a label design that had a lot of red, white and blue. Lots of flags and bald eagles.

The finished product looked like a presidential election headquarters in a bottle!

And yes, as we’d guessed, it was more expensive than similar Chinese-made fish oil products on store shelves.

The Pitch

A month or so later, a half dozen of us got on a plane and flew to meet with the vitamin buyer at a large retailer. It’s the process – salesmen go the retailer’s headquarters and pitch the buyer on their new product.

This was going to be a store brand ‘private label’ product. We were going to make this product and sell it under the retailer’s store brand.

We were excited because we thought we were clever.

Great idea. Great product. It’s 100% Made in USA. We were proud and patriotic.

We predicted the buyer would want 500,000 bottles a year and that meant several millions of dollars of revenue. Wow!

We’d all get big bonuses! The boss man that came up with the idea could easily buy a Mercedes with his bonus. He could barely contain himself.

But we were wrong.

Very wrong.

Nobody expected what came next.

Sitting across the table from us was the buyer. A pleasant, jovial guy. The kinda fella you’d want to invite over for barbeque.

“I really, really like this MADE IN AMERICA Fish Oil product idea,” he said after we explained the concept to him.

And then he paused.

“But I can’t do it. I won’t. It’s too risky,” he continued.

“What do you mean, ‘too risky’?, asked my boss.

“Right now, we sell billions of fish oils pills every year. And my customers come in to my stores and buy it thinking they are buying American product.”

‘They think they’re buying American product’

“But if we introduce your ‘MADE IN AMERICA Fish Oil,’ you’ll scare my existing customers. You’ll put doubt in their minds about where their fish oil really comes from. They think they’re buying American product. Right or wrong, they’re buying. Customers may stop buying if they think they were getting Chinese fish oil,” the buyer explained.

Hmmm. We hadn’t thought of it that way.

“I can’t have that kind of fear and doubt. It’ll hurt my existing Omega-3 business and I can’t afford to rock the boat,” he said.

The buyer would not change his mind.

Not even a little bit.

There was not much else to say.

With that, the meeting was over.

And we all flew home quietly.

That product idea was put on the shelf. And never pitched to any other retailers.

About the Author: Vin Kutty is OmegaVia’s Scientific Advisor and Chief Blogger. He is a nutritionist, author, and Omega-3 expert with over 20 years of experience. Email him.

Guest blog by: Kathy Mankofsky, RD, LD.

I was out at Walgreens when my husband called to say he heard that krill oil is so much better than fish oil.

He said that I should buy krill oil instead of fish oil. I told him that I would check it out.

Just when I was looking at the the krill oil bottle, my cell phone rang and I got distracted by the call.

I glanced at the bottle and I saw what I thought was 900 mg of Omega-3.

Since I thought krill oil was sooo good, I must have imagined an extra zero on the end of the Omega-3 on the label.

I thought that I saw 900 mg of Omega-3 on the krill oil label. So I bought it and took it home.

When I got home, I looked at the label more carefully. I saw that I had misread it.

That bottle didn’t have 900 mg of Omega 3 per pill. It had only 90 mg Omega-3 per pill.

Big difference!

So if I wanted to get the 900 mg that I thought I was getting, I’d have to take 10 of the krill oil pills.

That’s nuts! I can’t take that many pills!

What’s The Big Deal About Krill Oil?

One study showed that people who took krill oil had 1.5 times more Omega 3 in their cell membranes than those who took fish oil. Source: Is Krill Oil 48 X Better Than Fish Oil?

According to that study, 90 mg Omega-3 in krill oil compares to 135 mg of Omega-3 in fish oil. (90 mg per krill oil pill x 1.5 = 135 mg Omega-3.)

Now, using this conversion formula, we can compare apples to apples.

The fish oil that I was taking at that time had 720 mg of Omega-3 per pill.

Did I want to switch from 720 mg Omega-3 down to 135 mg Omega-3 per pill?

Absolutely Not!

The krill oil would have to be 8 x more absorbed to have the same amount of Omega-3 as the fish oil I was taking (90 mg x 8 =720 mg Omega-3).

Granted krill oil has some antioxidants in it, I’m mostly interested in the benefits of Omega-3.

Let’s Compare Krill Oil To The Lowest Strength Fish Oil

Even the cheapest (lowest strength) fish oil has twice as much Omega-3 as krill oil! (Cheap fish oil=300 mg Omega-3 per pill vs 135 mg Omega-3 per pill in common brands of krill oil)

Krill Oil is Dramatically More Expensive Than Fish Oil

I knew it was more expensive, so I should get more for my money.

So I assumed that krill oil would be more concentrated in Omega-3.

Actually, I got less, way less, for more money.

You have to pay between 7 and 11 times more for the same amount of Omega-3 from krill oil.

What To Look For When Buying An Omega-3 Product

You want to look at the 3 most important things:

1. How much Omega-3 are you getting per pill?
2. What is it going to cost you? (Cost per 1000 mg Omega-3)
3. Is it independently certified for quality?

After comparing the the first two points above in krill oil vs fish oil, I went right back to the store and exchanged it for my regular fish oil!

About the Author: Kathy Mankofsky RD, LD is a registered and licensed dietitian. She has studied Omega-3s extensively. She lives in St. Louis, Missouri.

Very little of it is unbiased.

Omega-3s are not simple. It’s complicated stuff.

And there is so much to know! Who has time for that?!

We live in a soundbite world where bits of knowledge need to fit on a bumper sticker. Anything more complicated is just ignored.

So where can you get unbiased information about Omega-3?

Gretchen Vannice MS, RD has written a book just for you. She is an author, speaker and researcher, specializing in Omega-3. She’s worked with several universities, corporations and health care providers.

Clearly, this work feels like the result of a few dozen questions that she must hear over and over.

Unbiased Information About Omega-3

I ran into Gretchen a couple of weeks ago at a trade show and I noticed that she was holding a book about Omega-3. So I pounced and asked her about the book.

“Oh yeah, it’s my new book. It just got published,” she said.

I’ve known Gretchen (right) for a while and visit her Omega-3 blog regularly.

“But I didn’t know you were working on a book,” I replied.

“I wrote the book secretly because I wanted it to be completely unbiased. I didn’t want to endorse any brands or have manufacturers ask me to mention their fish oil product.”

How ’bout that?

I made an immediate mental note to get a copy of the book and blog about it here.

When I first read the title ‘Omega-3 Handbook. A Ready Reference Guide for Health Professionals,’ my first reaction was that the book might be too technical for regular folks.

It isn’t.

Useful Information in Simple Language

The book is written in simple, clean language with lots of Q&A sections.

The author answers several of your most common questions:

• How much Omega-3 you really need?
• What should you look for in an Omega-3 supplement?
• Amount of Omega-3 found in commonly consumed fish.
• Omega-3 recommendations for kids and pregnant women.
• Can you get too much fish oil?
• The difference between plant and marine Omega-3.

And when the answer is ‘we don’t know,’ she says so. How refreshing!

To Krill or Not to Krill?

Based on the sheer numbers of emails I get about krill oil, public interest (infatuation?) in krill has not peaked. The book briefly (albeit fairly) discusses krill oil, but krill worshippers are going to be left a little thirsty at the end of this book.

It’s possible that the space dedicated to krill oil reflects the amount of science available on the subject. Even though most of the science on krill is positive, from a scientific discovery perspective, there’s a lot less to say about it than regular fish oil. This may be part of that unbiased approach that Gretchen was going for.

Teaching you how to Fish

Please don’t let the words ‘Guide for Health Professionals‘ hold you back from buying this book. You will easily understand and appreciate the contents of this book even if you are not a health professional.

If you were looking for an expert to hold your hand and tell you which fish oil brand to buy and how many pills to take, well, look elsewhere.

This book prefers to teach you how to fish instead.

A noble achievement.

You can buy a copy for $18 at Omega-3handbook.com

About the Author: Vin Kutty is OmegaVia’s Scientific Advisor and Chief Blogger. He is a nutritionist, author, and Omega-3 expert with over 20 years of experience. Email him.

Recently, the Dr. Oz Show featured a segment on fish oil.

In the segment, Dr. Oz and his guest, Dr. Tod Cooperman of ConsumerLab.com, discussed various dietary supplements.

In this bit, Dr. Cooperman mentioned that ‘Pharmaceutical Grade Fish Oil‘ was a marketing gimmick and that such a thing does not exist.

Is there any truth to this?

Dr. Cooperman is half right.

He’s right that there is no formal FDA definition of ‘Pharmaceutical grade fish oil,’ and that it is a term coined by fish oil manufacturers.

But a gimmick, it’s not!

As Paul Harvey used to say, here’s the rest of the story:

Back in the dark ages of the fish oil supplementation, say early 1990s, we had cod liver oils and one kind of fish oil.

The fish oil was Anchovy oil with about 20 to 25% Omega-3. At the time, this was amazing progress.

25% Omega-3? Wow! Fantastic!

With those pills, a 1000 mg fish oil pill would give you about 250 mg of Omega-3.

I recall when a scientist friend of mine sat me down and said, ‘You realize that you have to take almost a dozen of those to get any benefit, right?’

I was stunned for a moment.

And then I realized that she was right. So I increased my dosage from one pill per day to 4 or 5. There’s no way I was going to take a dozen a day! I’d go broke! And smell like a fisherman!

So till about the turn of the century, 25% Omega-3 was about all we had.

We didn’t know any better.

Enter Super Omega!

This was a newer, more potent oil with as much as 50% Omega-3.

50% Omega-3? Wow! Fantastic!

Now I only had to take 6 honking pills a day to reduce my triglycerides.

All was well. We didn’t know any better.

Then came 60% Omega-3. Whoa! Let’s not get crazy there, fella!

By this time, health food stores were selling a ton of these new oils. But nobody knew what to call them. Certainly these new oils were much better than the old ones.

It was not your father’s Oldsmobile.

Then, the famous Dr. Barry Sears coined the term ‘Pharmaceutical grade fish oil‘ to help distinguish this new double-strength fish oil from the lowly 25% stuff.

He was fully justified. After all, the same pill had twice the Omega-3 goodies.

Pharmaceutical grade. It had a nice ring to it. So it stuck.

So is calling it ‘pharmaceutical grade’ a gimmick?

Absolutely not!

Here’s what Pharmaceutical Grade means:

• It means fewer pills.
• It means twice or three times the amount of Omega-3.
• It means less of the other stuff that’s not Omega-3.
• It means feeling the benefits you’re supposed to.
• It means more effective.

Lovaza: the first prescription fish oil

Fast forward a few more years. Out comes Lovaza with 85% Omega-3. But you had to go to your doctor to get a prescription first. And if your insurance is anything like mine, it also costs $160 per month.

Around 2008, a few supplements with 85 to 90% Omega-3 were launched. OmegaVia is one of them.

You didn’t need a prescription. And it didn’t cost $160 every month.

Today, you can buy supplements that are as pure or purer than prescription fish oil.

These prescription strength fish oils need to be distinguished from the 25% Omega-3 oils at the corner drug store that sell for $3.99 a bottle.

So we call it pharmaceutical grade.

Or Clinical Strength.

Or Prescription Strength.

People who read and understand the supplement facts on a fish oil label ‘get it’.

Call it a marketing gimmick if it makes you happy.

And that’s just fine by me.

COUNTER POINT: A gimmick in plain sight?

Here’s an example of a label I saw at Albertsons this afternoon: It says PHARMACEUTICAL GRADE in red, all-cap letters. Here’s the front of the label.

And here is the back of the label.

This 1200 mg pill has 360 mg of Omega-3. So this fish oil contains only 30% Omega-3. It’s not 50%, 60%, let alone 85%. In this case, Dr. Tod Cooperman is right. This one looks like a gimmick.

About the Author: Vin Kutty is OmegaVia’s Scientific Advisor and Chief Blogger. He is a nutritionist, author, and Omega-3 expert with over 20 years of experience. Email him.

“Read the label,” you say, “how hard can that be?”

Well actually, it can be very confusing.

EVERYONE gets mixed up between the amount of FISH OIL and the amount of OMEGA-3 listed on the label.

You might think you are taking 1000 mg of Omega-3 (which is a fairly effective dose) because the front of most bottles say 1000 mg FISH OIL.

To find the amount of Omega-3 you need to read the BACK of the label.

However, if you read the back of the label, you will find that the same bottle says ’300 mg Omega-3.’

According to the FDA, this is not deceptive. So, it is a very common practice in the fish oil business. It may not be deceptive, but it sure is confusing!

The Omega-3 listed on the back are often divided into:

• EPA Omega-3
• DHA Omega-3
• Other Omega-3

Adding up all those individually will give you the total Omega-3.

Proper Dosage

It is important to take 2000 mg of total Omega-3 to achieve noticeable anti-inflammatory, mood, & other health benefits.

Note: make sure you are getting 1000-1400 mg of EPA. It is the EPA in fish oil that has been shown in studies to be the crucial component. It is also important to get some DHA, but not as much DHA is needed.

In the label shown above it doesn’t specify how much EPA is in the fish oil. You need to buy a brand that tells you how much EPA you are getting.

Optimal Dose

Using the label above as an example, you would have to take about 7 pills to get the 2,000 mg Omega-3 that is recommended for noticeable health benefits.

And how many of you are taking 7 pills? NONE, I BET!

So, no wonder you are not getting the health benefits of Omega-3!

Which Fish Oil Pill Has More Omega 3?

Product 1 : 1000 mg Omega-3
(serving size=2 pills)

OR

Product 2 : 500 mg Omega-3
(Serving size= 1 pill)

Answer: They both have the same amount of Omega-3. Each has 500 mg of Omega-3 per pill.

Don’t be fooled! You have to look at the serving size. If the serving size is 2 pills, you have to divide the amount in half.

SERVING SIZE MATTERS!

The More Concentrated, the Fewer Pills

Look around & see what’s within your budget that would give you 2000 mg of Omega-3. Make sure that it is an amount of pills that you are willing to take.

Since fish oil pills are usually big, I’m willing to take no more than 2 pills per day. If you find an Omega-3 product that is more concentrated (sometimes called Pharmaceutical grade fish oil), you will be able to take fewer pills.

When you are buying fish oil, remember that it is the Omega-3 content you are looking for & it is found on the back of the label.

References

1. Tribole, Evelyn. The Ultimate Omega-3 Diet, New York,McGraw Hill, 2007 .
2. “Treating Depression With Omega-3 :Encouraging Results from Largest Clinical Study” ScienceDaily, June 30, 2010. Original study was from : Lesperance, Francois et all,“The efficacy of Omega-3 supplementation for Major Depression: A Randomized Controlled Trial. J Clin Psychiatry 2011; 72(8)1054-1062,

About the Author: Kathy Mankofsky RD, LD is a registered and licensed dietitian. She has studied Omega-3s extensively. She lives in St. Louis, Missouri.

Short answer: absolutely not.

See why below.

[Pricing data accessed: September 25th, 2011. Krill oil used for comparison at Walmart and Walgreens was MegaRed brand krill oil, the #1 selling krill oil in the US.]

Omega-3 from Krill is Better Absorbed

In the last blog, we looked at krill oil absorption.

Yes, it is better than fish oil. About 1.6X better. Not the outrageous ’48X better’ that some products and marketers claim.

What’s an acceptable premium for 1.6X better absorption?

For a product that is 1.6 times better, what is a fair premium? In other words, how much more money will you part with for krill oil being 1.6X better than fish oil?

1. Will you pay just 1.6X more?
2. Are you willing to pay twice as much for krill oil?
3. Or will you pay ten times as much?

Before you decide, let’s be clear on one fact: you’re taking fish oil and krill oil for its Omega-3.

Sure, krill oil has Omega-3 plus some astaxanthin and phospholipids. If krill oil had no Omega-3, you would not buy it. (You’d buy an inexpensive Astaxanthin supplement instead. Pick up a bottle of 60 for $9 here.)

So it’s all about the health benefits of Omega-3.

How to Measure Omega-3 Value? Cost of 1,000 mg Omega-3.

There is a value-calculator when comparing Omega-3 products. It calculates a metric, a number that can be used to measure value.

It’s ‘Cost of 1000 mg Omega-3.’

This measurement strips away all the tricks and pricing gimmicks. It tells you what it costs to take 1000 mg of Omega-3. It lays bare the true cost of getting an effective dosage of Omega-3 into your body.

Lower doses are ineffective. Some health conditions like high-triglycerides require higher (3,000 mg per day) doses.

But 1000 mg is where you begin to see benefits, so it’s convenient and that’s what we’ll compare.

For this exercise, I looked at prices for the popular online krill oil supplement from mercola.com and the top-selling krill oil supplement from MegaRed at both Walmart and Walgreens. There are other places that sell krill, but these prices cover the range. Prices were checked online and at physical stores during September 2011.

Krill Oil Cost Comparison

Disclaimer: Delivery cost and/or tax not included. Cost may vary after publication due to promotions or market forces.

At first glance, the krill oil prices ranged from $22 to $35.

This is roughly what most high quality pharmaceutical grade fish oil sell for. So are you getting about the same amount of Omega-3 with krill oil pills?

Not even close!

You have to pay between 7 and 11 times more for the same amount of Omega-3 from krill oil.

If krill oil is only 1.6X better than fish oil, it seems odd that you should pay about 10X more for that benefit.

But it has Astaxanthin, you say. Fine, then get a bottle of Astaxanthin pills for $9 and with the money saved, buy a really high potency fish oil instead!

And it has phospholipids, you say. So does an egg.

Pharmaceutical grade fish oils are expensive compared to regular fish oil. No doubt. Sometimes 10-times more expensive when you compare cost of 1000 mg Omega-3. It takes a lot of molecular distillation to concentrate the Omega-3. Studies show that triglyceride reduction using fish oil is only possible if the Omega-3 content is very high (at or above 85% Omega-3) so there is a distinct advantage to using Lovaza or pharmaceutical grade fish oil. Krill oil, even with its low Omega-3 content, appears to lower triglyceride without additional concentration. Something to keep in mind.

Watch out for fake krill oils!

To be fair, MegaRed is made with Aker krill oil. Aker and NKO are trusted, reliable makers of bulk krill oil, from whom many manufacturers buy their oil. There is a price tag attached to quality. (Not sure where Mercola gets their oil – their website does not say.)

But be warned: there are krill oil knock-offs out there (usually from China) that contain no krill oil whatsoever. These fake krill oils are mostly low-potency fish oil with a little astaxanthin and soy phospholipid mixed in. It’s virtually worthless and can be purchased at a discount to real krill oil. You thought you got a great deal – you may have just been taken.

If your krill oil price seems too good to be true, it’s probably fish oil with some astaxanthin added for red color.

This is what happens when people pay 10-times more for similar products. It’s irrational. This is a market imbalance caused by marketing hype. Whenever you see product adulteration, like fake krill oil from China, you should know that something is off-kilter.

As long as people keep buying krill oil at these prices, threat of adulteration will remain. For what it’s worth, no one’s heard of adulterated fish oil.

Are krill oil marketers ripping you off?

Absolutely not! Krill are found near the south pole, in the Antarctic. It is extremely expensive for ships to go there and harvest krill. And krill oil being very heat-sensitive, requires a different form of purification than fish oil. This adds more cost.

Yes, there is plenty of profit to be had in selling krill oil, but it is also a very expensive raw material for manufacturers to buy.

It’s just expensive stuff, any way you slice it.

About the Author: Vin Kutty is OmegaVia’s Scientific Advisor and Chief Blogger. He is a nutritionist, author, and Omega-3 expert with over 20 years of experience. Email him.