Q: Is it really safe to eat fish oil supplements made from small fish?
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A: You won’t often catch me chowing down on a whole fish fillet, but I do try to remember to pop my high-end fish oils.
Conscious eaters know that our fish are swimming in a sea of industrial chemicals and heavy metals and that those fish kindly return those pollutants to their makers (yes, us) whenever they enter our bellies via a fork or chopsticks.
We also know fish oils have been shown to nourish our hearts/minds/eyes/moods/skin/joints. So to reduce internal conflict, we buy supplements that claim to filter out contaminants and source them from smaller fish.
But the sea never stays still for long, does it? Two months ago, the people behind FishOilSafety.com released third-party lab tests of 10 major fish oils and found that all of them contained some level of PCBs, the carcinogen and reproductive toxicant banned in 1977.
And, yes, even those claiming to be screened of impurities using state-of-the-art distillers, even those coming from deep Nordic waters and from small sardine fish contained traces of the compound at levels above California’s toxin regs.
So while companies might very well be filtering for PCBs, mercury and dioxins, no one’s telling customers how many impurities are left when they’re done. Some capsules were 70 times more contaminated than others.
Only one of the tested companies so far, Nordic, has agreed to be more transparent with customers about lingering enviro contaminants.
Hence, the Mateel Environmental Justice Foundation and two enviros behind FishOilSafety.com are now suing the eight companies named in the study under California’s kick-ass Proposition 65, which says companies must warn shoppers if a product contains chems known by the state to cause cancer or birth defects – like PCBs.
The plaintiffs are hoping the industry will forge tough new fish oil standards. (Industry-based guidelines now call for testing for only a piddly seven of 209 types of PCBs.)
Still, some have called the suit misleading. Tod Cooperman of supplement watchdog consumerlab.org says the testing focused mainly on larger fish and fish liver, while most oils are made of smaller, less contaminated species. He adds that if California’s Prop 65 were followed in this case, “any presence of PCB regardless of how minuscule would necessitate a label, while you’re getting much higher levels from the fish you eat.”
Julie Greenley, a natural health consultant at the Big Carrot, adds that it’s impossible to find even water or organic food that doesn’t contain trace pollutants. Both Greenley and Cooperman worry that the suit will drive consumers away from fish oils, whose health benefits, many health outcome studies show, outweigh the risks.
Still, David Roe, FishOilSafety’s attorney, warns that Canada’s standards are “very forgiving.” Health Canada’s new limits for the intake of PCBs in fish oil for, say, a 58-kilo woman, are 65 times higher than the California standard. And following Cali’s tougher standards in Canada wouldn’t push all oils off the table, says Tim Fitzgerald of the U.S. Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), which has its own fish oil guide (edf.org).
But beyond our own navel-gazing, how is the health of small fisheries? Most of the fish used for fish oil supplements are of the smaller sort: sardines, mackerel, anchovies and menhaden. When the EDF surveyed fish supplements a few years ago, it noted that while small fish reproduce quickly, making them resilient to fishing pressures, all fisheries don’t necessarily get the ecological green light.
European anchovies, for instance, have been critically overfished, but Peruvian anchovies have made a comeback, and that country is seeking certification by the Marine Stewardship Council. Be sure to press your fish oil company of choice for details on its sourcing. Enviros agree some of the worst eco offenders are supplements made from U.S.-harvested menhaden, like OmegaPure.
You can, of course, get omega-3 from flax and hemp, but it won’t contain the same beneficial EPA and DHA. That’s why innovators are now tapping into marine algae, the very DHA-omega-rich substance that gives fish their high omega content. Too bad algae lacks the brain-boosting EPA omegas of fish oil. You just can’t win ’em all.
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