Dr. Rhonda Patrick

So there's three fatty acids.

There's ALA, EPA, and DHA.

If you get a high quality one, it's in a triglyceride form.

So you've got like a glycerol backbone with three fatty acids and that's attached.

And those are either DHA or the EPA.

Or if you have a lower quality fish oil supplement, then you have what's called ethyl ester form.

And it's not that ethyl ester is bad.

It just means take it with food.

I think two grams is a good threshold.

Now, the International Fish Oil Standards, IFSO, they have a website where they do third-party testing of –

a ton of different fish oil supplements from around the world.

And they measure the concentration of the omega-3 fatty acids in the actual supplement because nothing is ever what it says on the bottle.

And then they also measure contaminants, so mercury, PCBs, dioxins, things that you'd find potentially in fish that are harmful to humans.

And they also measure mercury and then oxidized fatty acids.

So these omega-3 fatty acids are polyunsaturated fatty acids.

which are extremely prone to oxidation.

So please keep your fish oil in the refrigerator.

They give you a total oxidation number.

It's called TOTOX, T-O-T-O-X, TOTOX is what we call it for short.

And I like it to be at the least under 10, ideally under six.