One of the cheapest, high quality, high EPA fish oil!
- No burp - High EPA concentration means few rather hard to digest fish oil pills - High quality (molecularly distilled is a process that leaves the "gunk" behind found in fish oil) - Strong rating on labdoor - By far one of the cheapest options My go-to fish oil For me, EPA way more so than DHA is the difference between waking up with painful joints after a hard workout the day before, or no hangover after a couple drinks too many the night before. It's well studied in terms of its anti-inflammatory properties. Good for your brain too (I do care but that's not what I'm taking it for). Krill oil doesn't cut it, unfortunately (Krill are lower than fishes on the food chain and accumulate less heavy metals) *FISH OIL MINI-REVIEW - COST & QUALITY* As far as cost, I did the calculation for fish oil supplements: - Microingredients $0.1 per grams of EPA - not rated on labdoor - NOW brand (all pills) $0.2 per grams of EPA - 73 quality rating on labdoor - Viva brand (all pills) $0.3 per grams of EPA - 81 quality rating on labdoor - Life extension $0.3 per grams of EPA - 64 quality rating on labdoor - Dr. Tobias $0.4 per grams of EPA - 72 quality rating on labdoor - Solgar $0.8 per grams of EPA - 63 quality rating on labdoor - Nordic high EPA or regular pills $1.1 per grams of EPA - 63 quality rating on labdoor *SHORT OF IT: YOU CLEARLY DON'T GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR! GO WITH NOW OR VIVA* It's a difference of over 5x of EPA cost between the more expensive and the NOW brand. So you'd pay the price for a whole work week worth of EPA in a day with the more expensive one... And the quality is not even there! I tried Nordic before and them to be no better if not at times causing burping. Also surprised to see the lower labdoor ratings for premium brands such as Solgar and Nordic. For 5x the price, it feels more like a scam than a proper quality premium. Note that microingredients is the only brand cheaper on a $ per EPA g basis, but people report burping which indicates that the quality may be lower. I have suspicions they may be cutting a few corners... And I take this to be healthy, not be hurt. But don't let my review stop you from trying them and feel free to comment if you have and know something! I also tested Viva before - it's the other brand I would recommend. They achieved one of the top quality scores on labdoor as well. Ever so slightly more expensive than NOW. I believe NOW gives me no burp and I remember slight rare occasions of burping with Viva. Might be the way the pills are coated. Viva also has the most concentrated pills at 700g EPA/pill vs. 500g/pill for NOW, which is excellent. I figured I wanted to take 500g / serving this time to total 1 to 1.5/day. I might switch back to Viva - feel free to leave comments if you tried Viva and NOW and have a preference and can explain why. If you know of other brands worth considering let me know and I'll add them to this mini-review. *OTHER CONSIDERATIONS (YOU CAN SKIP THAT PART :)* The other factor important to note is the concentration. You do not want to consume 10 pills of low EPA content. I was reading this comment from someone who had a "keriorrhea" (I had to look it up... nasty orange-colored bathroom events where you pass the oil through... I'm not going to say more) due to their 10 pills a day habit.... No thanks. High EPA it is for me. Also well worth noting, since these pills are typically for daily consumption, high concentration means less oil and less heavy compounds, and in particular less heavy metals which tend to accumulate in the "gunk" that gets filtered away - a key benefit of the molecular distillation process. Final note, while the high EPA pills are more expensive on a per pill basis, it turns out that for a given brand, they are generally priced exactly the same as the other pills on a dollar spent per EPA content. It just has less oil content and more EPA concentration - exactly what I want. It was a bit of a surprise for me at first, but it sorta makes sense: it probably takes as much oil to be processed for the high EPA as the low EPA and oil/fish is likely the bulk of the price (the distillation process is not the costly part / has a negligible cost) Bottom line: With a very sensitive stomach, I can take these on an empty stomach, even right before bed and not suffer any problems. NOW is generally a solid supplement brand with quality products. They deliver once again, in the very specialized fish oil supplement market. Read more
