See Your Favorites
Go to Cart
0
Account Sign In/Register

Blog / / In Defense of Omega-3 Supplements (with Respect to the Utne Reader)
test-In Defense of Omega-3 Supplements (with Respect to the Utne Reader)
In Defense of Omega-3 Supplements (with Respect to the Utne Reader)
Kurt C. • October 15, 2010
I recently became reacquainted with an old friend, the Utne Reader. For over 20 years this magazine, which bills itself as “the best of the alternative press,” has been publishing forward-thinking original articles and reprinting the best under-the-radar journalism from small magazines and newspapers throughout the country. In my college years and early wide-eyed professional days I read it religiously. Then I grew up, got cynical, and lost touch with that “We can change the world!” enthusiasm.

Luckily, Utne didn’t, and when a colleague handed me the latest copy last week I found that they’re still out there trying to make a difference with a magazine that’s even better than I remembered. And this time, virtually the entire issue was directly relevant to our work here at Swanson as a natural health company providing natural health options. The cover headline: Food Fight: Kitchen Politics, Backyard Gardens and the New American Diet.

I quickly zeroed in on an article about mood disorders and omega-3 fatty acids excerpted from the Colorado Springs Independent. It features Capt. Joseph Hibbeln, M.D., a NIH researcher who basically believes that the rising rates of mental illness could be due to a lack of Omega-3 essential fatty acids benefits. It’s a great article; I encourage you to read it. But what I really want to address is this: a box on the page calls out “WEB EXLUSIVE: Want to read more about omega-3s, including which supplements are best? Visit unte.com/FishOil.”

Following the advice took me to this blog post, which basically says that you better watch out and that most qualifying statements used by manufacturers are “marketing hyperbole.” That may be true in many cases, but not when it comes to Swanson EFAs with ecOmega™ fish oil.

The blog post contends that “the industry . . .has not agreed on definitions of purity or quality” when in fact there are many controls on production, and since 2006 the Council for Responsible Nutrition has maintained a voluntary Omega-3 Monograph that establishes minimum standards. Not only do our Omega3 supplements comply with this monograph, they exceed the purity standard by a minimum of 75 percent.

Our ecOmega fish oils are produced by Marine Nutraceutical Corporation in a pharmaceutical-drug licensed facility according to pharmaceutical protocols with full traceability, pharmaceutical quality assurance and quality control. The oil is triple distilled and every batch is tested by independent labs to ensure that it is free of over 250 environmental contaminants, including six heavy metals, seven marker PCBs and 220 pesticides. No other producer in the world maintains such rigorous standards.

So if you’re looking for a quality Omega-3 supplement (and if Dr. Hibbeln is right, you should be) you’ll find none better than Swanson EFAs. They don’t just meet the existing standards; they set the standards by which all fish oils should be measured.

If you want to learn more about Omega-3 and fish oil nutrition without having to read a 500-word essay (my editor says I’m long winded), jump on over to iHealthTube.com for some conversations with “the father of Omega-3 fish oils” Dr. Jorn Dyerberg. He’s an advisor to Marine Nutraceutical Corp and the foremost authority on the subject.

If you want to check out more from the Utne Reader, start with this excellent article, In Praise of Fast Food, which explores the role of industrialized food in our society and examines how today’s “slow food” activists look at our culinary history through rose-colored glasses and long for a sunlit past that never truly existed.
Recommended Articles
What should you be reading next?