Do you know what to check to see if its quality or just filled with fillers?
Written by Jay Kali
Everywhere you look there are new supplements and new products telling you the latest and greatest about how their product solves your issues. Even though there are some great supplements out there we also have to be mindful of who is actually selling these products. There is something very common in the supplement industry that very few of us are even aware of.
You see, even a supplement that has been proven numerous times to create huge benefits in our bodies and our lives we forget one crucial point. “Does the product I’m taking actually hit at least the minimum level of dosing that has proven these results?”
Fish oil it seems to be one of the few supplements that constantly gets recommended but at the same time, no one knows how much we should be taking to get the wonderful results we constantly hear about e. g. Treat anxiety, depression, joints, flexibility, heart conditions, weight loss.
But unless your doctor prescribed it and gave you a minimum dosing. You are probably not hitting the dose you need to solve the issue you are taking it for.
A lot of us are just trying to be proactive and take care of ourselves. So we hear that fish oil is good for us, we rush to the store and buy one of the first packages that read “Omega-3 Fish Oil” on it and just start taking the “recommended dose” on the back.
This is probably the worst thing you can do if you are trying to get benefits from supplements. Bottom line, the industry that makes supplements do not always have your best interest at heart and when it knows that they can “skim a little off the top” and dilute the potency of their product - sadly most do - just to make you have to buy more and they can make more money.
With this comes two problems, either you are taking too little of a dose to be effective or if you know how much to take you will be taking a lot more to hit the minimum effective dose that studies or your doctor recommends.
For example, if you go to a supplement store you will see a variety of different fish oil products, if you shop online you will find even more. So what should you look for when determining the quality of your fish oil?
There are two important “omega fats” you should be interested in and to be on the lookout for on any “fish-oil” supplement. Those 2 fats are called EPA” and “DHA” which stand for eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid respectively.
Once you find these two fats you will need to look at what is the amount per serving size. They should be listed on the “nutritional information” label on the back. Make sure you are looking at per serving and not per 100 grams, there is a difference between the two.
After you find this information you will need to do some math, depending on the quality of supplement you have. When you compare you want to see how many servings you will need to take to hit a MINIMUM of 800mg of EPA and a MINIMUM of 650mg DHA. You may realize that you will need to take 3 or 4 servings each day to hit those numbers or you may realize that just 1 serving will do the trick all depending on the quality you are buying and using.
Be sure you write those numbers down, they will certainly come in handy in the future the next time you decided to purchase a fish oil supplement and once you start hitting the doctor recommended dosing, you will start experiencing the full benefits of Omega-3s you have heard so much about.
Source: http://www.mayoclinic.org/drugs-supplements/omega-3-fatty-acids-fish-oil-alpha-linolenic-acid/dosing/hrb-20059372
