I will now explain the difference between fish oil or krill oil due to the reason that many people seem to be confused since they are both sources of Omega 3 fatty acid awesomeness.
But, they do differ in several crucial ways that I will explain here.
When it comes to price, fish oil is cheaper of these two. But, krill is more potent, gram for gram, so that should even out the price a little.
But if you really can’t afford krill oil, you may choose fish oil or foods which are rich with Omega 3 fatty acids (fish, pastured eggs, and so forth.).
The main difference between the two is how the Omega-3 fatty acids are bound to the molecules of the oil. In fish oil, they are available in the form of triglycerides (fat), but in krill oil they’re bound to phospholipids (mostly phosphatidylcholine).
Phospholipids form the “lipid bilayer” which the cell membranes in the body are made of. If you don’t understand what it means, then you need to watch this video demonstration as it is quite fundamental and very enlightening also.
This may be the reason the Omega-3s in Krill oil are far better absorbed/more potent than those in fish oil.
At present, there are only a few tests involving the comparison of krill oil against fish oil, but here are some tests that I found.
In one test, it shows that krill oil is much more beneficial for ladies with premenstrual syndrome and women who’re presently struggling with dysmenorrheal.
In another, krill oil had a much bigger effect on hyperlipidemia than fish oil, that’s reduced total and Ldl cholesterol, triglycerides and raised HDL far more.
With these 2 tests, it seems that krill oil is a much better source of Omega 3s. Continue reading to find out more about the benefits of krill oil.
Krill oil has an antioxidant known as Astaxanthin, which is an excellent source of health nutrients. This Astaxanthin anti-oxidant will be discussed on a different post later.
Fish oil, in contrast, contains higher amounts of Vitamin D and A. This might be significant for those who get little of these vitamins from food (or little D from the sun).
Plenty of people complain about nasty after taste and “fishy burps” after taking fish oil. This is less commonly observed with krill oil.
I often swallow a tablespoon of cod liver oil every day (caps are for wussies, I said) but now that I switched to krill oil capsules I don’t think I will be returning to that. It tastes bad, in fact.
Krill oil is less likely to go rancid due to the high antioxidant content. Compared to fish oil, it has forty-eight times the number of anti-oxidants, as measured by the ORAC value.
But, if you desire to ensure that if your krill / fish oil has gone rancid, you may take a bite at one of the gel caps. If they taste slightly unpleasant, that’s usual (what did you expect? – it is fish oil FFS). Or else, if they taste bad, then it has become rancid and you should throw them away immediately.
Unfortunately, the ocean is polluted in a lot of areas, and unsurprisingly the contamination may make its way into the animals of the ocean, like the fish.
The animals that are high in the food chain eat the animals that are below them in the food chain, which way the harmful toxins accumulate in the bigger fish.
Krill is far below on the ocean’s food chain, even below fish; this means that it contains less contaminants in comparison with fish.
The amount of contaminants in fish oil will vary significantly between brands, thus please do not freak out after reading this. While they may have much more contaminants when compared with krill oil, its (fish oil) health advantages still outweighs the negative effects.
