I have been investigating how to cut my costs for fish oil. I found a
very inexpensive little natural food store (seems like a contradiction
in terms; let's say, "a cheaper, or the cheapest in town, natural food
store"😉. But even so, I am spending about $1.60 per day on fish oil.
I have been using Carlsons; they seem to specialize in fish oils.
They seem like a very good brand.
Anyway, I discovered this site:
http://www.coromega.com/01What/f_bioavailability/f_body.html
It shows that emulsified fish oil is more than twice as bioavailable,
probably, than non-emulsified, regular fish oil. I say probably
because it is probable that people's bodies 'learn' to assimilate fish
oil better over time, and if these subjects in this test were
completely new to fish oils, then the non-emulsified subjects might
catch up with the emulsified subjects. With some people, there may be
a small amount of diarrha (sp?) the first couple of days, so this is
why I say that it is probable that there is a learning process going
on where the body gets better at assimilating fish oil. I believe
that the body starts putting out more of a certain enzyme when one
first starts taking it.
On the other hand, it was a crossover study, so perhaps not. Also,
the assimilation for both groups was less than 50%, so if the
non-emulsified group can get better over time, so can the emulsified
group. In any case, the improvement in assimilation is almost three
times as much in some cases, so I am willing to go out on a limb and
say that emulsified fish oil is most likely a better deal than
straight fish oil. TwinLab's "SuperMax EPA", an emulsified fish oil,
actually costs less per ounce than Carlson's. This is very
impressive. Even if people's bodies learn over time to assimilate
fish oil's better, you still couldn't lose.
Among the many ways, large and small, that fish oil has improved my
life is in my being less cranky and irritable. My wife spilled an
entire cup of smoothie on a blanket last night while we were watching
television; as I sped to grab the blanket and clean up the mess, I
watched in amazement and gratitude as I did not get upset, angry, or
even the slightest bit irritable about it. That was so cool. It
seems like such a little thing. But it is many little things that
make life worthwhile.