Fish Oil - 3 Easy Ways To Avoid Buying Low-Quality Products

Nowadays, few people question the usefulness of fish oil supplements and their associated benefits for our health. The problem is that there are so many supplements on the market today that it can become confusing when it comes to deciding what to buy. Here are three key distinctions you have to make before choosing a supplement.

1. Packaging. Make sure the supplement you buy is in capsule form, and that it is inside an opaque container. Fish oil and its beneficial ingredients, DHA and EPA, are very sensitive to light and heat, and can easily become oxidized if not handled properly. Oxidized omega-3's can actually do more harm than good. Proper packaging guarantees the freshness of the product. Personally, I would never give my family members a fish oil if I wasn't 100% convinced of its freshness. It's just common sense.

2. Vitamin E. Make sure you look at the ingredients list. Good fish oils include one or more forms of natural vitami
E, otherwise known as tocopherols, to act as a preservative for the sensitive EPA and DHA in the capsules. If a supplement does not contain natural tocopherols, don't buy it, it's that simple.

3. Avoid cod liver oil. This type of oil is completely different from a proper EPA/DHA oil. Cod liver oil is made, as the name suggests, from the liver of cod. It is high in vitamins A and D, but not high in DHA and EPA, which is what most people are looking for an omega 3 supplement. Proper omega-3 fatty acid supplements are made by squeezing the whole fish, and not just the liver, giving you the whole gamut of polyunsaturated fats from the fish. In addition, cod liver oil can give you too much vitami
A, which is definitely not healthy. Vitamin A, being fat-soluble, is actually stored by the body and it's possible to get too much of it.

I've been purchasing supplements for myself and my family for many years now. I've tried many omega 3 supplements and many brands of vitamins, herbs and other supplements. Some oils are rancid, and you can tell they've gone rancid because they're practically impossible to digest. A top-quality, molecularly distilled fish oil, should not have an excessively fishy smell and you should not have to burp it up for hours after taking it.

Keep these three things in mind and you will not go off-course in your decisions, both for yourself and for your family.