Consumer’s Guide to Nature Made Fish Oil

What is Nature Made Fish Oil and is it a good fish oil supplement?

 This supplement is made by Pharmavite, a nutritional supplement company based in Northridge, California.

The company produces a wide range of nutritional supplements, including herbal supplements, vitamins and minerals.

Here you’ll find a review of Nature Made fish oil products, how they’re made, actual ingredients and average cost.

What Type of Fish are Used to make Nature Made Fish Oils?

Nature Made claims to use only oils made smaller fish, such as anchovies and sardines.

Food scientests claim that it’s better to use smaller-sized fish to make fish oils because they contain lower amounts of contaminants, compared to larger-sized fish.

In fact, an FDA report on Mercury Levels in Commercial Fish shows that anchovies and sardines contained lower levels of mercury and contaminants, compared to larger-sized mackerel and tuna.

How are Nature Made Fish Oil Made?

The Nature Made website states their products are purified using molecular-distillation, or by a another method called absorbent technology.

Molecular-distillation is a popular method for making pharmaceutical-grade fish oils, which are highly-purified products. However, I’m not very familiar with the term ‘absorbent technology’; it seems like a fairly broad term and internet searches failed to show any specific information on this method of purification.

I contacted Nature Made for more information on this particular type of purification method and will post their response once I receive it.

At this point, I think their term “absorbent technology” is more of a marketing term until I hear otherwise from Nature Made.

Nature Made also claims that all their products are guaranteed to pass standards set forth by the CRN (Council for Responsible Nutrition) Omega-3 Monograph, as well as purity standards set by the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) and the FDA’s GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices) for dietary supplements. All of these agencies are highly-regarded as setting excellent standards for these types of products.

A Closer Look at Nature Made Fish Oil’s Ingredients

It’s important to check the actual amount of omega 3 fatty acids, EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), you get in any product.

When we took a closer look at the product information on the Nature Made website, we found they only listed the EPA and DHA for certain products, such as their Ultra Omega-3 fish oils.

The following is an ingredient label from their Nature Made 1000 mg Fish Oil Soft Gel:

Nature Made Ingredient Label for 1000 mg Soft Gel

As you can see, the ingredients listed if for 2 soft gels at 2000 mg total.

These products don’t contain any colors, artificial flavors, preservatives, and free of yeast, starches and glutens. The soft gel encapsulation appears to be made of glycerin, gelatin, water and tocopherols.

Here’s size comparison of their 1000 mg soft gel:

Size of Nature Made 1000 mg. Fish Oil Soft Gel to USA Penny

If you have trouble swallowing larger-sized soft gels, they have a smaller Nature Made Full Strength Fish Oil Mini Soft gels, which is about 1/2 the size of the 1000 mg product.

For the 1000 mg size, the total Omega-3 Fatty Acid is 600 mg with EPA and DHA at 500 mg total for every 2 soft gels.

Nature Made states that they’ll specify the total amount of EPA and DHA, but will no longer specify the actual individual amounts of EPA and DHA in all of their products.

The company website states that the reason they no longer provide this information is they claim:

“….the fatty acid makeup of the world’s fish supply has become less constant due to where the fish are caught, fluctuations in water temperature and weather”.

They also claim most manufacturers have removed the omega 3 fatty acid breakdown from their labels for these same reasons.

I don’t agree with this statement at all….I’ve found the majority of fish oil manufacturers still list the actual omega 3 content on their ingredient labels and I believe most health-conscious consumers demand this type of information when purchasing any natural health supplement.

Review of 5 Nature Made Fish Oil Products:

Nature Made produces a number of fish oil products and they come in a wide range of quantities.

During our review, we found most of the bottle labels listed ingredient amounts for 2 soft gels.

Here’s a more detailed breakdown of the different Nature Made Fish Oil products:

1.Nature Made (One a Day) Fish Oil:

• This is Nature Made’s entry level fish oil product. It provides a low concentration of omega 3 fatty acids at an affordable price.
• Each 1200 mg. soft gel contains Fish Oil Concentrate (anchovy, sardine), Glycerin, Water, Tocopherol and Soy.
• Comes in a variety of quantities as well as bonus counts; 60, 100, 120, 180 and 300 softgels.
• Each 1200 mg. soft gel provides 360 mg. of EPA and DHA combined.
• Suggested List Price $11.99 U.S. for a 100 count bottle of 1200 mg. soft gels.

2. Nature Made Burp-Less Fish Oil:

• This product is available with an enteric-coating soft gel which may help improve absorption, reduce fish burps and aftertaste for people sensitive to non-enteric-coated soft gels.
• Enteric-coatings can be made from shellacs, waxes, cellulose and acrylics. The company website doesn’t specifically list the ingredients of their enteric-coatings.
• It provides the same amount of EPA and DHA as the regular Nature Made fish oil (360 mg. EPA & DHA combined).
• Suggested List Price $11.29 for a 60 count bottle of 1200 mg. soft gels.

3.Nature Made Double Strength Fish Oil:

• This is a more concentrated formula that provides 672 mg. of EPA and 552 mg. of DHA per serving of two soft gels. This works out to about 336 mg. of EPA and 276 mg. of DHA per soft gel.
• Suggest List price $17.47 U.S. for a 90 count bottle of 1200 mg. soft gels.

4. Nature Made Heart and Stress Defense Fish Oil

• Provides a higher dose of EPA for individuals looking for a high dose EPA fish oil soft gel.
• Each serving of two (2) soft gels provides 1000 mg. EPA and 200 mg. DHA or 500 mg. EPA and 100 mg. DHA per soft gel.
• Suggested List price $13.69 U.S. for a 60 count bottle.

5.Nature Made Triple Omega:

• Contains a blend of Fish Oil Concentrate, Flaxseed Oil, Safflower Oil, Gelatin, Glycerin, Olive Oil, Water, d-Alpha Tocopherol, Soybean Oil.
• Provides a total of 880 mg. of omega 3, 6 and 9 fatty acids in quantities of Omega 3 (434 mg), Omega 6 (276 mg) and Omega 9 (170 mg) per soft gel.
• The company claims this may be suitable for people seeking a fatty acid supplement with a broader coverage of different healthy fats.
• Flaxseed oil and fish oil are both sources of omega 3 fatty acids. The ingredient label doesn’t indicate how much of each oil comprises the total omega 3 dosage per soft gel.
• Suggested List Price $29.98 U.S. for a 60 count bottle.

If you’re looking for a general supplement, Nature Made fish oil may meet you needs.

Their entry level Nature Made Fish Oil 1000 mg provides 300 mg. of EPA and DHA which is a 30% concentration. This is a fairly standard dosage for most basic fish oil supplements.

The online reviews for Nature Made Omega-3 Fish Oils at the largest online retailer reveals that most customers were fairly satisfied with this product.

Unfortunately, as we noted above, the company doesn’t tell you the actual amount of EPA and DHA you get certain products; they only list the overall total amount of EPA and DHA combines..

If you need to know the omega 3 dosages from your fish oils, there are other alternatives such as Costco’s Kirkland Fish Oil and Walmart’s private label brand, Spring Valley Fish Oil.

Both of these brands list the actual omega 3 levels, and both products use high-quality fish sources with excellent purity levels and are affordably priced.

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