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The Great Omega 3 Lie
Do a search on Amazon for Omega 3 supplements and you’ll see over 5000 results.
Trying to work out which of these products to buy and which are best for you is nigh on impossible.
Other than relying on thereviews and ranking that Amazonsets for a product how would we know if it's any good. We all know how reliable Amazon’s reviews are!
Recently I embarked on the task of finding out which are the best Omega 3 Supplements in the UK. Sounds odd coming from a company that already creates and sells an Omega 3 supplement, but we wanted to know if other brands are doing a better job than us.
I then discovered the big Omega 3 lie, and how most consumers are being mislead about the contents of their Fish Oils supplements.
Sounds overly dramatic, but read on and I’ll explain.
I kinda knew what I was getting into, but I didn’t quite anticipate how bad the lie was.
Quality vs Quantity For Omega 3 Capsules
The first part of the lie, comes from the perception of VALUE when you go to buy a Fish Oil supplement. It’s likely you’ll have seen product titles like this on Amazon:
Omega 3 Fish Oil 1000mg - 365 Softgel Capsules - Up to 12 Month’s Supply - Pure Fish Oil with Balanced EPA & DHA
It’s easy to see how people are drawn to the 12 months supply for under 15 quid sounds like an amazing deal right?
Or how about this one?
Omega 3 Fish Oil 360 Soft Gels - 2000mg per serving | High Levels of EPA & DHA | Premium Easy Swallow Omega3 Fish Oils Gel Capsules
Again 360 capsulessuggesting a year's supply
2000mgper serving - wowmore than 1000mg, more must be better.
All for under a tenner - Amazing I’ll go for that!
These two products are some of the highest rated and ranked products on Amazon, not just for “Omega 3” but for theentire “Health & Beauty” category.
Problem is, it's all lies.
These two products are the lowest quality Omega 3supplements you'll find on Amazon.
To explain why I need to give you some simple insight to what makes a quality Omega 3.
The 50% Rule For Omega 3 Capsules
When someone asks me about a competing product to Good Fats, our Omega 3 supplement, there is one very simple check I make to see it’s quality…
and I want to show you how easy it is for you to check too.
The main components of Omega 3 are:
- eicosapentaenoic acid - EPA
- docosahexaenoic acid - DHA
- alpha-linolenic acid - ALA
It’s OK I can’t pronounce them either, EPA and DHAwill do just fine!
EPA and DHA are the important parts, ALA much less so.
In cheap, low quality Omega 3 supplements, brands skimp on the EPA and DHA, and load it up with ALA.
My absolute baseline for a quality Omega 3 is at least 50% must be made up of EPA and DHA… Any lower and it’s not worth buying.
Why? Because the less EPA/DHA per capsule, the MORE capsules you'll need to get enough good Omega 3s each day. No one wants to be swallowing handfuls of capsules every day.
In order to work this out you need to know how to read the label. Don’t worry I’ll show you how easy it is now.
How To Read The Label On An Omega 3 Supplement
It’s easy to see why folk don’t read labels, especially Omega 3 labels, with words like eicosapentaenoic acid!! However I want to simplify it.
Most (but not all) Omega 3 supplements come as 1000mg capsules. This makes the maths easy, and you can do it in your head.
A 1000mg capsule should contain at least 500mg of EPA/DHA.
Let's look at some examples.
Add the EPA and DHA values - 300mg per 1000mg capsule
So 30%which doesn’t meet our baseline quality we’re looking for.
Problem comes when labels are marked differently, showing a per servingamount rather than a per capsule.
With this example you see a serving of 2000mg (aka 2 x 1000mg capsules), and the combined total of EPA and DHA working out to be 1100mg.
This is better at 55%,so above our 50% baseline.
You’ll see other products where the capsule size is bigger than 1000mgwhich makes the maths more difficult, and you might need to use a calculator to work out the percentages.
Top Omega 3 Supplements on Amazon.co.uk and Their EPA/DHA Percentages
If you’re really bored, work through the top 10 products on Amazonfor the search Omega 3 and work out the percentage of EPA/DHA for each one.
Ok don’t bother I’ve done it already :)
(Data correct as of 21 February 2021)
| Amazon Position | Brand | Percentage of EPA/DHA | Amount of EPA/DHA per capsule | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Incite | 30% | 300mg | |
| 2 | Zipvit | 55% | 550mg | |
| 3 | Nu U | 30% | 300mg | |
| 4 | Nutravita | 55% | 550mg | |
| 5 | SuperSelf | 55% | 550mg | |
| 5 | Omvits | 40% | 400mg | Vegan, just DHA |
| 6 | Igennus | 45% | 300mg | Vegan, just DHA |
| 7 | Solgar | 63% | 882mg | Mixed info about size of capsules? |
| 8 | SimplySupplements | 30% | 300mg | |
| 9 | PlusVive | 30% | 300mg | |
| 10 | Zipvit | 30% | 300mg | |
| Lean Greens | 75% | 750mg |
3 Rules For Choosing A Quality Omega 3 Supplement
Each capsule must contain at least 50% EPA/DHA
Avoid the 12 months supply tubs, often showing as 365 capsules or bulk buys.
The fish oilwill likely degrade and go off within 6 months of breaking the seal on the tub.
Don’t get suckered in by high review counts on Amazon listings.
So how does Good Fats - Omega 3 supplement stack up?
When we created Good Fats we had one very simple requirement… The quality of the fish oil had to be greater than 70% EPA/DHA
Here’s our label:
As you can see we use 1000mg capsules, and our suggested serving is 3 capsules per day. If you already eat lots of fish products like salmon and tuna, you can get away with just a single capsule per day.
In each 1000mg capsule we have
- 500mg - eicosapentaenoic acid - EPA
- 250mg - docosahexaenoic acid - DHA
So 75% of every Good Fats capsule is EPA/DHA, making us one of the highest quality Omega 3 supplements in the UK. (we did find one with 77% EPA/DHA but not available to buy currently)
I hope this helps you make a more informed decision when it comes to buying your Omega 3 Fish Oil supplements in the future.
We had one simple goal when creating Good Fats from Lean Greens. The highest quality Omega 3 with maximum efficacy.
A Good Fatscapsule contains 750mg of EPA/DHA in a 1000mg capsule. Much higher than our baseline 50% requirement, and over twice as much as the top sellers on Amazon!
This means you can get a healthy dose from 3 capsules, getting close to matching the omega 3s you might be missing out from in your diet.
Personally because of my love of fish I take just 1 capsule a day, meaning a £24.95 tub will last 90 days.
For more information on the benefits of Omega 3 head to our extensive blog post here 👇🏻
Want to try our Good Fats Omega 3 Premium Fish Oil Capsules?
Click the button below to buy directly from our store or here to buy from Amazon