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Fish Oil in Troubled Waters

Major fish oil manufacturers and drug stores are being sued for failing to disclose the PCB pollutants in fish oil supplements.

October 5, 2011 |
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Supplementary Info

Fish Oil in Troubled Waters, 5.0 out of 5 based on 4 ratings

Sources Cited

Hoh E, Lehotay SJ, Pangallo KC, Mastovska K, Ngo HL, Reddy CM, Vetter W. Simultaneous quantitation of multiple classes of organohalogen compounds in fish oils with direct sample introduction comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography and time-of-flight mass spectrometry. J Agric Food Chem. 2009 Apr 8;57(7):2653-60.

Arterburn LM, Oken HA, Bailey Hall E, Hamersley J, Kuratko CN, Hoffman. Algal-oil capsules and cooked salmon: nutritionally equivalent sources of docosahexaenoic acid. J Am Diet Assoc. 2008 Jul;108(7):1204-9.

Acknowledgements

Image thanks to Peter Stoyko.

Transcript

. In one of my videos last year I noted that the fish oil distillation process was found ineffective at removing all the industrial contaminants from fish oil, so even  quote unquote PCB-free distilled fish oil supplements are anything but.

 Isn’t there a law in California, though, that makes it illegal to sell toxic substances that cause cancer or birth defects without at least a warning label? I’ve never seen such a label on fish oil and neither did the Environmental Justice Foundation, and so they sued CVS, GNC, Rite-Aid, along with the major fish oil manufacturers.

To do so, of course, they had to prove the fish oil you find in stores actually contains PCBs, so they went out and  grabbed ten and tested them. Some had  70 times the PBCS of others and  240 times the toxicity. You can check out the results at fishoilsafety.com, or, even better get your long chain omega 3s  without any risk of toxins by choosing microalgae or yeast-based EPA/DHA supplements,  nutritionally equivalent, a  safe and convenient source, without the toxic waste.

To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by Dianne Moore.

To help out on the site please email volunteer@nutritionfacts.org

Dr. Michael Greger

Doctor's Note

Please feel free to post any ask-the-doctor type questions here in the comments section and I’d be happy to try to answer them. Be sure to check out the other videos on fish oil. Also, there are 1,449 subjects covered in my other videos–please feel free to explore them!

For some context, please check out my associated blog post: Soymilk: shake it up!

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/mgreger/ Michael Greger M.D.

    Please feel free to post any ask-the-doctor type questions here in the comments section and I’d be happy to try to answer them. Be sure to check out the other videos on fish oil. Also, there are 1,449 subjects covered in my other videos–please feel free to explore them!

    • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/bpcveg/ BPC

      Regarding algae oil supplements, I am concerned about rancidification and/or impurities.

      For example, I bought an algae-oil supplement (specifically Ascenta NeutraVege) that states directly on the bottle:

      “Store away from direct heat and light. After opening, refrigerate and consume within 100 days. Product may change appearance when refrigerated.”

      It would be nice to have an evaluation of the risks of these algae-products, preferably from an impartial academic source.

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/EricNeeds/ Eric Needs

    I work at Gnc And I am technically required to sell fish oil. This worries me as I constantly sell whey protein and fish oil for the sake of keeping my job while I’m vegan. Irony? Evil?

    • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/editor-d/ editor d

      Eric, That’s a common evil a lot of us deal with so you’re not alone. I’m a video editor for a national ad agency so I see a lot of stuff that makes me angry. Especially when it’s fast food tv commercials I’m working on. My girlfriend works for a large pharma corp in clinical trials. Her and I are both Vegan and hate to take even an aspirin much less any other major drug. But at least everything we put in our mouths is a vote for the right stuff. That’s a small something to feel good about. Jobs and careers are very hard to come by these days, so switching to something ethical is especially difficult right now.

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/DavidSchmidt/ David Schmidt

    So is Flax oil the way to go?

    • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/mgreger/ Michael Greger M.D.

      I’d suggest the algae-based long-chain omega 3′s: http://nutritionfacts.org/videos/algae-based-dha-vs-flax-2/

      • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/DavidSchmidt/ David Schmidt

        I read somewhere that V-Pure is one of the best. Would you agree Doctor?

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/paul3917/ paul3917

    Hi Eric, sorry to hear that this distresses you. It would for me also if I were in your position. Perhaps you can suggest to your customers vegan alternates and you can show them this site or the literature, including the dangers involved. Of course, they have freedom of choice but you never know. You may have planted a seed in their minds that may eventually lead them to veganism.

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/bpcveg/ BPC

    Are there any purely academic articles supporting the use of algae oil supplements?

    It seems to me that most articles on algae oil discussed have financial conflicts of interest.

    NOTE: The study reported in this video by Arteburn et al states explicitly that:

    “This study was funded by Martek Biosciences Corporation.”

    To wit: Martek Biosciences Corporation are manufacturers of vegetarian algae oil supplements!!

    • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/BenjaminStone/ Benjamin Stone

      Excellent point, I would like to see neutral reviews as well. Still not convinced algae is bioequivalent given it has no EPA.

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/SaraMagar/ Sara Magar

    What is your opinion of omega 3 from clary sage seeds marketted by Marvalous Israel? Also, is flax seeds and flax oil safe? what about Chia?

  • Mack

    I recently watched a video where a doctor objected to vegan diets, saying that when we take omega-3 supplements, we need EPA to DHA in a ratio of 3 to two. This isn’t possible if we use algae oil, which is mostly DHA and we can’t convert DHA to EPA so he said that there’s a hole in the vegan diet. Is this ratio correct? He also scoffed at the idea that we can convert enough ALA from plant foods to the long-chained omega-3s, especially if we eat foods containing omega-6 fatty acids (grains, most seeds and nuts along with most cooking oils which I’m sure few of the regular viewers here use). So, what should we do in this regard?

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