You can find a lot of people talking about pharmaceutical grade fish oil and how it is superior in quality to other types of fish based oil found on the market today. If you are one of those people, I have something very important to tell you. So, please make sure you read this entire article.
Read the next few words very carefully - there is no such thing called pharmaceutical fish oil. It is nothing but a figment of imagination of fish based oil manufacturers around the world. If you find it hard to believe, allow me to present the facts.
The U.S. Pharmacopeia does not have any specifications to assess the quality and purity of fish based oil. Therefore, reputable fish based oil supplement manufacturers usually try to meet the standards set by the US Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN), the International Fish Oil Standards (IFOS), and the European Pharmacopeia. Now, you might want to ask an important question - If this is the case, why do a lot of companies claim that their products contain 'pharmaceutical grade fish oil'? Let me tell you why.
They call it so because they want to sell their product desperately. You see, most companies, whether they admit it or not, make low quality fish oil based products. They catch fish from the most polluted regions in the world, do not purify them properly, and extract low quality fish based oil which is neither effective nor pure. To sell such a product, you need to come up with an attractive gimmick, right? This is why they call their product pharmaceutical grade, A-grade, B-grade, and so on.
Reputable companies get their basics right. They catch fish from certain regions which are not polluted, extract high quality fish based oil, purify it properly, add essential additives which make it even more effective, and market it honestly. How can you find such a product? Let me tell you.
Look out for three important things in a fish based oil supplement.
1. It should contain at least 500 mg of omega 3 fatty acids. It is even better if it has a DHA - EPA ratio of 2:1.
2. It should have been purified properly. Never settle for any product that has not been molecularly distilled. Molecular distillation is one of the few processes which can get rid of all the contaminants and heavy metal toxins present in fish based oil.
3. It should meet the standards set by the European Pharmacopeia, the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN), International Fish Oil Standards (IFOS), and the Norwegian Medicinal Standard.
The bottom line is simple - stop looking for pharmaceutical fish oil. It does not exist. Instead, look for high quality fish oil based supplements which are both pure and effective.
