Fish oil
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Bill Glasheen
- Posts: 17299
- Joined: Thu Mar 11, 1999 6:01 am
- Location: Richmond, VA --- Louisville, KY
Justin
I recommend fish oil products that have been molecularly distilled so as to remove heavy metals (mostly mercury) and highly carcinogenic organics (mostly PCBs) without destroying the nutriceutical benefit of the omega-3 fatty acids.
If you can get a doctor's prescription, you can have him write one for Lovaza. That would be easy to do if you've already had a heart attack or stroke.
When it comes to a nutritional substance like fish oil where the risk of impurities is high and the chance of destroying its therapeutic value great, I go for "name brand" products. My favorite is Twinlab.
This is what I take.
This is what I give my sons.
Any product that's been independently tested and found to be low in heavy metals and PCBs should be good enough.
It's worth mentioning that - in spite of positive independent reviews of the above-mentioned product, there is still controversy over impurities. Just this past March, California filed a lawsuit against 8 companies making fish oil products, claiming the PCB levels were too high in their own tests. The companies are: CVS Pharmacy Inc., General Nutrition Corp. (GNC), Now Health Group Inc., Omega Protein Inc., Pharmavite LLC, Rite Aid Corp., Solgar Inc., and TwinLab Corp. And that's almost everyone who sells the stuff.
My thoughts on that? The jury's still out (almost literally) on it. I'm taking a wait and see attitude on this. But I'm fairly certain that the testing is difficult to do. So either the government screwed up their tests, or the defendents will be able to show significant variability between the testing labs, or maybe a bit of both.
- Bill
I recommend fish oil products that have been molecularly distilled so as to remove heavy metals (mostly mercury) and highly carcinogenic organics (mostly PCBs) without destroying the nutriceutical benefit of the omega-3 fatty acids.
If you can get a doctor's prescription, you can have him write one for Lovaza. That would be easy to do if you've already had a heart attack or stroke.
When it comes to a nutritional substance like fish oil where the risk of impurities is high and the chance of destroying its therapeutic value great, I go for "name brand" products. My favorite is Twinlab.
This is what I take.
This is what I give my sons.
Any product that's been independently tested and found to be low in heavy metals and PCBs should be good enough.
It's worth mentioning that - in spite of positive independent reviews of the above-mentioned product, there is still controversy over impurities. Just this past March, California filed a lawsuit against 8 companies making fish oil products, claiming the PCB levels were too high in their own tests. The companies are: CVS Pharmacy Inc., General Nutrition Corp. (GNC), Now Health Group Inc., Omega Protein Inc., Pharmavite LLC, Rite Aid Corp., Solgar Inc., and TwinLab Corp. And that's almost everyone who sells the stuff.
My thoughts on that? The jury's still out (almost literally) on it. I'm taking a wait and see attitude on this. But I'm fairly certain that the testing is difficult to do. So either the government screwed up their tests, or the defendents will be able to show significant variability between the testing labs, or maybe a bit of both.
- Bill
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Bill Glasheen
- Posts: 17299
- Joined: Thu Mar 11, 1999 6:01 am
- Location: Richmond, VA --- Louisville, KY
I believe know what you are thinking... 
There's a principle called biomagnification whereby toxic substances such as DDT get concetrated more and more at each level of the food chain. This is a reason not to eat top-of-the-chain carnivores such as shark.
This is also a reason to at least entertain plant sources of nutrients - to the degree that the nutrient is available in high enough concentration and there isn't a preponderance of level-specific toxins such as insecticides (e.g. acetylcholine esterase inhibitors) and herbicides (e.g. toxic estrogen analogues).
I've never considered algae for DHA since I get it in my fish oil. But on first blush, it sounds like a good idea. Algae also is rich in carotinoids.
Some people take flax seed oil to get a precursor of omega-3 fatty acids. But that isn't without its own set of issues.
The biggest argument I've heard against using algae as a source of EPA and DHA is because algae produces a broad spectrum of fats, and fish are very good at concentrating the EPA and DHA. So if you have DHA derived from algae, well great. But if you have a concentration of the fats in algae with a measured amount of DHA, well... you're also getting all these other fats. If you need them, well fine. If you're trying to be lean and mean, well...
- Bill
There's a principle called biomagnification whereby toxic substances such as DDT get concetrated more and more at each level of the food chain. This is a reason not to eat top-of-the-chain carnivores such as shark.
This is also a reason to at least entertain plant sources of nutrients - to the degree that the nutrient is available in high enough concentration and there isn't a preponderance of level-specific toxins such as insecticides (e.g. acetylcholine esterase inhibitors) and herbicides (e.g. toxic estrogen analogues).
I've never considered algae for DHA since I get it in my fish oil. But on first blush, it sounds like a good idea. Algae also is rich in carotinoids.
Some people take flax seed oil to get a precursor of omega-3 fatty acids. But that isn't without its own set of issues.
The biggest argument I've heard against using algae as a source of EPA and DHA is because algae produces a broad spectrum of fats, and fish are very good at concentrating the EPA and DHA. So if you have DHA derived from algae, well great. But if you have a concentration of the fats in algae with a measured amount of DHA, well... you're also getting all these other fats. If you need them, well fine. If you're trying to be lean and mean, well...
- Bill
Having just started to seriously look into this, I don't know what's available. However, if the agae-based oil were filtered to favor dha and epa that might provide the same nutrient balance as the fish with fewer contaminants, though probably higher cost. Now I don't know if that kind of filtering is even possible to do in commercial volume, but it seems like a possibility.Bill Glasheen wrote: The biggest argument I've heard against using algae as a source of EPA and DHA is because algae produces a broad spectrum of fats, and fish are very good at concentrating the EPA and DHA. So if you have DHA derived from algae, well great. But if you have a concentration of the fats in algae with a measured amount of DHA, well... you're also getting all these other fats. If you need them, well fine. If you're trying to be lean and mean, well...
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Bill Glasheen
- Posts: 17299
- Joined: Thu Mar 11, 1999 6:01 am
- Location: Richmond, VA --- Louisville, KY
I hear you.
From my readings, this is all work in progress. Meanwhile, fish farming is the easiest way to do what you're talking about. Feed the salmon algae, and...
Another VERY interesting line of research with algae is using the oil for biofuel. Right now the whole ethanol in gasoline thing (E15, E85) is a sham in this country. It takes about as much energy in Middle Eastern oil to produce ethanol from corn as you get out of it on the back end. That's a big government boondoggle favoring some agricultural constituency. (Brazil makes it work with sugar cane, but sugar cane has lots of... sugar which you need to make the alcohol.)
Maybe when they can develop a process to turn cellulose into sugar, then it might be viable.
Algae on the other hand makes oil, and oil is energy dense. You could run a Jetta TDI (or equivalent) on it. FWIW, the very first diesel engine prototype ran on peanut oil.
- Bill
From my readings, this is all work in progress. Meanwhile, fish farming is the easiest way to do what you're talking about. Feed the salmon algae, and...
Another VERY interesting line of research with algae is using the oil for biofuel. Right now the whole ethanol in gasoline thing (E15, E85) is a sham in this country. It takes about as much energy in Middle Eastern oil to produce ethanol from corn as you get out of it on the back end. That's a big government boondoggle favoring some agricultural constituency. (Brazil makes it work with sugar cane, but sugar cane has lots of... sugar which you need to make the alcohol.)
Maybe when they can develop a process to turn cellulose into sugar, then it might be viable.
Algae on the other hand makes oil, and oil is energy dense. You could run a Jetta TDI (or equivalent) on it. FWIW, the very first diesel engine prototype ran on peanut oil.
- Bill
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Bill Glasheen
- Posts: 17299
- Joined: Thu Mar 11, 1999 6:01 am
- Location: Richmond, VA --- Louisville, KY
I was wondering where you were. Long time no see!
You won't die soon, my friend. However... Buyer beware on OTC "health food" products. Unless they say they do something AND it's independently tested and verified, then there's probably about a 50 percent chance that you aren't getting what you think you are getting. Independent tests have shown this time and time and time again.
Look for a product that says the following:
As for CVS brand, well... I just don't know. So if I don't know, then I'm not going to put my health at risk.
CVS knock-offs of drugs that are synthesized and purified is another story altogether. That falls under the jurisdiction of the FDA, and so oversight is there. Ibuprofen, aceteminophen, etc. are all good.
- Bill
You won't die soon, my friend. However... Buyer beware on OTC "health food" products. Unless they say they do something AND it's independently tested and verified, then there's probably about a 50 percent chance that you aren't getting what you think you are getting. Independent tests have shown this time and time and time again.
Look for a product that says the following:
- Molecularly distilled
- Free of heavy metals and PCBs
- Independently tested. (Check out the tests if you can.)
As for CVS brand, well... I just don't know. So if I don't know, then I'm not going to put my health at risk.
CVS knock-offs of drugs that are synthesized and purified is another story altogether. That falls under the jurisdiction of the FDA, and so oversight is there. Ibuprofen, aceteminophen, etc. are all good.
- Bill
"Yeah, I loathe the corn industry in this country. From the Monsanto antics to the absurd subsidies that pollute our food supply with HFCS and other garbage, it's a mess that I refuse to support when I go shopping."
That's tough. It's like trying to buy American at Walmart. Corn makes its way into many products--maltodextrin, corn starch, high fructose corn syrup, animal feed (eggs, milk, meats). This is what happens when there is a river of stupidly subsidized, underpriced corn coming off the cornfields--they get used all over.
As for dying of mercury poisoning, I wouldn't lose sleep. I'm not saying don't follow Bill's advice--do, by all means--but other factors in your diet and activity and other habits will have a much greater impact on your risk of death. Or illness.
That's tough. It's like trying to buy American at Walmart. Corn makes its way into many products--maltodextrin, corn starch, high fructose corn syrup, animal feed (eggs, milk, meats). This is what happens when there is a river of stupidly subsidized, underpriced corn coming off the cornfields--they get used all over.
As for dying of mercury poisoning, I wouldn't lose sleep. I'm not saying don't follow Bill's advice--do, by all means--but other factors in your diet and activity and other habits will have a much greater impact on your risk of death. Or illness.
--Ian
Yup, absolutely true. I'm not a purist, I eat at friends houses and out occasionally, but my eating habits don't lend themselves to the corn additives (I plain don't like sweet drinks, and I almost never eat any prepared foods). Probably some of the (semi) local, free-range, organic chicken I eat is fed organic corn, but I'm not willing to go vegetarian at this point just to avoid corn-fed meat.IJ wrote: That's tough. It's like trying to buy American at Walmart. Corn makes its way into many products--maltodextrin, corn starch, high fructose corn syrup, animal feed (eggs, milk, meats). This is what happens when there is a river of stupidly subsidized, underpriced corn coming off the cornfields--they get used all over.
I'm actually planning to start raise chickens (and rabbits) for meat, and I may or may not avoid the corn.
