Part II: What does quality really mean anymore?
In Part I of this post I asked the question, “What does quality really mean anymore?” We then learnt that quality has two meanings—specifically, it can refer to both the essential nature of something (characteristic) or a value judgment (good or bad). Since we’re going to be talking about omega-3 fish oil, we’ll use the value judgment definition of quality when we use the word quality.
We left off by saying that the answer to the question “what does a quality omega-3 fish oil really mean?” will come from answering three questions:
1. How well is it made?
2. Why is it made this way?
3. How well does it work?
Let’s start to answer each question in turn and clarify for you the true definition of a quality omega-3 fish oil.
How Well Is it Made?
The answer to the question tells you about the manufacturing quality of an omega-3 fish oil.
From cars to fish oils, how well your product is made does make a difference. For the car, well–it’s obvious why (after all, how many of us would be thrilled with the wheels falling off our vehicle while motoring down the freeway?). Similarly, a well-made fish oil is just as important because it also makes a big impact on your–to enhance your health (high quality) or to harm your health (low quality). Specifically, a well-made fish oil means a pure and safe fish oil having four characteristics:
1.Manufactured without heating the oil to frying temperature (since heating fish oil damages the extremely delicate active ingredients eicosapentanoic acid, or EPA, and docosahexaenoic acid, or DHA). Interestingly, ALMOST ALL current fish oil products available online or off-the-shelf in stores heat their oil to frying temperature, a process called molecular distillation.
2.Manufactured using a gentle, low process using carbon dioxide to pull out the active components of fish oil–primarily EPA and DHA.
3.Manufactured, analyzed and verified to be free of harmful environmental contaminants such as heavy metals (mercury, lead, cadmium) and chemicals (PCB’s, dioxins, furans)
In our next installment, we’ll answer “Why is it made this way” and continue on our path of unraveling the mystery of what a quality really means in the omega-3 fish oil product world.
Epic Nutrients