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:
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.