Krill Oil - Is it a Better Source of Omega 3 Than Fish Oil, Or Just Marketing Hype?

Krill Oil

By : Marshall Sontaq



Recently, there has been a great deal of speculation that krill oil is a better source of Omega 3 than fish oil. Supporters of this claim say that this is due to three additional benefits from krill oil that you cannot get from fish oil. But do these claims live up to the hype? Or is it pure marketing?

Krill oil is an omega 3 supplement that has been extracted from krill. Krill are small crustaceans, very shrimp-like in nature, present in most oceans around the world. They form an important part of the food chain, as they feed on zooplankton and other small organisms, and in turn are consumed by larger organisms. They are mostly consumed by seals, penguins and whales who take them in by the thousands. Also, krill is consumed by the Japanese and Russians as part of their diet.

The first claimed benefit of krill oil over fish oil is the fact that the omega 3 fatty acids are attached to phospholipids. The main benefit that phospholipids bring to the table is enhanced mental function. Having enough phospholipids lining your brain cells helps them communicate with each other better, leading to better memory and learning. However, there is not any scientific evidence available to show that having your omega 3s attached to phospholipids will be more beneficial to your health. Furthermore, you can get plenty of phospholipids in your diet by eating egg yolk, soybeans, grains, wheat germ, legumes, fish, yeast-containing products and peanuts, to name a few sources. Furthermore, you could always just take a separate supplement for your phospholipids needs.

Another reason the supporters of krill oil give to its superiority is a supposedly-powerful antioxidant found in krill called astaxanthin. No one is going to argue that antioxidants aren't good for health, but astaxanthin has not been proven to be any better than the other antioxidants out there. You can't say that krill oil is better than fish oil simply because of the presence of astaxanthin when the antioxidants we consume for a variety of other sources are just as potent or moreso. It seems like this is a very contrived marketing ploy; just because a product has something extra, does not mean it is any better.

The third claim is that krill are free from contamination. This is a very serious claim, because fish contamination is a very dangerous thing, and has been rampant due to all the pollution happening all over the planet. However, studies have proven that krill are just as likely to be contaminated as fish. Research has shown that Antarctic krill are commonly contaminated by organochlorine pesticides which are absorbed by the krill and passed on into the food chain. However, since the producers of krill oil do not believe this (or do not care), they avoid the added cost of checking their products for contaminants, making it an extremely risky choice for omega-3 supplementation. This claim is not only wrong, it is actually extremely irresponsible, as it puts people at a high risk to consume toxic pollutants.

After extensive researching, I was not able to find any concrete proof to support these three supposed "benefits" that krill oil has over fish oil. Furthermore, it's worth mentioning that while thousands of clinical research studies have been conducted on fish oil, only a small handful have been done with krill oil.

A search for "krill oil" in Google yields many results that smell an awful lot like false advertising by unscrupulous internet marketing pros who are making a ton of money on the stuff. I guess krill oil has become the new snake oil!

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