Fish Oil Confusion...

Howdy! I have a question that I'm seriously confused on pertaining to fish oil quantity. Which numbers(amounts) on a bottle are what you use to guage how many per day to take. Here's my example:

Let's say I want 25 grams per day...

My bottle states:
Fish Oil 2400 mg per serving (serving is 2 pills)

it also says: 1200 mg of Omega 3

it also says: 720 mg of EPA and 280 mg of DHA

The 2400 number would mean I need 21 pills to get my 25 grams
The 1200 Omega number would be roughly 41 pills
EPA/DHA numbers would mean I would need 50 or so pills

Before you tell me it's easier to get the high quantities in liquid form, I completely understand that. I simply want to know which numbers are being used for the suggested high daily dosages.

Thanks-

It should be the 41 pills. I only take 1 pill a day personally.

I'm not sure where you are getting the 25 grams per day fish oil. The research I have done indicates a healthy person needs about 1000mg combined EPA/DHA per day which would equal two of your pills. Those with heart and cholesterol issues should get between 2000 to 3000 mg per day which would equal four or six of your pills.

Additionally you want to be taking a pharmaceutical grade fish oil high in EPA/DHA numbers which yours is a bit low per capsule (One of your capsules contains 360EPA and 140DHA). Grocery store bought fish oil tends to have around 300mg (EPA/DHA) per pill meaning all the rest of the oil contained in the capsule is bad fat fish oil which you do not need or want. I take two, 1000mg capsules per day. 2-6 of your capsules daily will suffice, but I would look into a better grade fish oil.

The 2400mg is [B]two[/B] pills (two servings), so works out the same as the 1200mg. EPA & DHA are just two of the omega 3 oils present - there must be 200mg of other, probably vegetable sourced, omega 3. If it is vegetable sourced, then the body needs to convert it to use it, and we aren't very good at that.

25g of omega 3 per day is ridiculously large. It may well be inflammatory as you will have loads of easily oxidised lipids in your body. Oxidised lipids are inflammatory. Why are you considering so much?

Personally, I prefer to eat more seafood than to supplement fish oil. I get the goodness of the omega 3 in safe, natural packaging plus selenium, iodine, ...

[url=http://www.jackkruse.com/is-fish-oil-good-or-bad/]Initial thoughts from Ancestral Health Symposium at UCLA | Living an Optimized Life[/url]

Let me clarify myself some. By how I understood the question as you asked it, my answer was 41. I added the comment about how I only take 1, because I don't believe anyone should take 41 pills of anything. I don't believe it would be healthy for you. Eat more fish and grassfed meats, and only use fish pills if those aren't available. Heck I don't even take the fish pills regularly. Its easy to overdo it with pills.

I have a follow up question. I too have heard you want 1000mg of epa/dha. Wtf does that mean? can you have 9999mg of epa and 1mg of dha?

The folks over at Whole9 broke this all down pretty well - [url=http://whole9life.com/fish-oil-faq/]Whole9's Official Fish Oil (Omega-3) FAQ | Whole9 | Let us change your life.[/url]. You want to measure your intake by combined EPA/DHA, not total "fish oil" consumption. They say in that link that the ideal ratio is 1:1 and that ideal daily intake is 2-4 grams of combined EPA/DHA. This target range can vary based on your diet, exercise level, etc.

I think it's easier to hit goal intake using liquid fish oil over capsules, but that's a personal preference.

I take 0 fish oil a day. I threw all mine in the trash about a year ago.

[url=http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/fishoil.shtml]The Great Fish Oil Experiment[/url]

A little story on fish oil: EPA and DHA are the two least stable fats in nature. Soybean oil, by comparison, is far more stable. When you take fish oil, you are taking the least stable fat in nature that was chemically isolated from farmed fish in a laboratory somewhere, shipped across the country in the back of a hot tractor trailer, then sat in the stockroom or shelves under hot, fluorescent lights for weeks or months. There is NO WAY I'm putting that into my body. Even if by some miracle you are not ingesting an at least partially oxidized oil, it will oxidize as soon as it reaches the heat of your body.

If you want the benefits of fish, eat fish. I'd rather have zero fish intake than take fish oil. But that's my opinion and personal perspective.

In a recent interview P Jaminet made that same point. There is little guarantee of freshness and the oils degrade (oxidize) quickly.
His recommendation is the same as R Peat: don't take any.