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Dear HGJ,
What are the differences between vitamin D3 and fish oil?
Ah, the tricky world of supplementation - should we take them? How much? Which manufacturer makes the best ones?
You’ll probably get as many answers (and opinions) regarding this issue as there are supplements on the shelves. As an avid cook and a firm supporter of the Hippocratic statement “Let food be thy medicine,” I tend to think that your best option is to skip the supplement aisle and eat a wide variety of nutrient-dense foods (i.e., whole, unprocessed foods that really are foods rather than a concoction of chemicals, additives, and everything else unpronounceable). With its natural balance of fiber, protein, vitamins, minerals, enzymes – the list could go on and on - good-quality food is going to give you a more complete nutrient package than you could ever get from a fabricated pill. And if you shop local, you’ll have a much better idea of where those nutrients are coming from than if you rely on a long chain of overseas chemical companies, vitamin makers, lab technicians, food scientists, etc. (As Steve Ettlinger points out in his book Twinkie, Deconstructed, most vitamins are made in China.)
That said, though, sometimes you may need an extra boost in your diet. The reason fish oil - and before that, cod liver oil - is a popular supplement is because it contains high levels of vitamin A and D, plus goodly amounts of anti-inflammatory omega-3 fatty acids. (Cod liver oil contains much higher amounts of A and D than fish oil does because nutrients are concentrated in the liver.) One of the biggest differences between vitamin D3 and fish oil, then, is simply the fact that fish oil contains vitamin D plus much more. That means which one you choose will primarily depend upon what you want - only vitamin D, or also A and omega-3s and a host of other nutrients? And of course some manufacturers use synthetic forms of vitamins (more reliable batch-to-batch consistency and cheaper to produce) while some manufacturers use natural ones (some consumers would rather pay more for a more unprocessed product).
Getting beyond the basics - do I want vitamin D or vitamin D + A + omega-3s? - requires a lot of research on the behalf of the consumer. If you know of a well-stocked supplements/vitamin store with a very knowledgeable staff, you could ask where the individual supplements are made and of what and how they compare to others. You could also take a look at which brands certain organizations recommend. (The Weston A. Price Foundation, an organization that focuses on traditional, whole foods, recommends Nordic Naturals Vitamin D Cod Liver Oil and Carlson’s Cod Liver Oil.) Doing a keyword search on a specific brand and seeing what a broad variety of people/institutions have to say about that manufacturer is always a good idea. Fish oil can be especially tricky because some fish flesh - fish oil is made from fish tissues,
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not the liver - contains very high levels of PCBs, mercury, and other pollutants. (The higher up on the food chain a fish eats, the more contaminants its flesh usually contains, which is why you don’t want to eat predators like shark, swordfish, and tuna every day.)
Another thing to bear in mind when it comes to supplements is that it’s a lot easier to overdose on them than it is to overdose on the individual nutrients in food (assuming you eat a wide variety of things). That’s because supplements are going to be a very potent, unadulterated form of whatever nutrient you’re seeking, whereas an apple (or steak from a grass-fed steer, or a slice of hearty, 100% whole-grain bread) is going to offer you a mélange of nutrients. Too much of a particular nutrient can be just as bad as not enough of it.
Natural sources of vitamin D include: sunshine, eggs, fatty fish (herring, salmon, mackerel, tuna, catfish, sardines), raw milk products, pasteurized milk products that have been fortified with vitamin D (heat destroys vitamins), and fish liver oil.
Lisa Howard is a food and health writer based in Berkley, Michigan. She hosts www.theculturedcook.com, a culinary blog and marketplace dedicated to making all of us more knowledgeable nibblers. Stop by her e-kitchen for a byte or two! |
