Ahead of World Heart Day on 29 September, Dietitian Kate Save (pictured) is urging the supplement sector to look past the milligrams of oil printed on the front of the pack and to scrutinise what an omega-3 ingredient actually delivers.
Save, founder and CEO of Be Fit Food, says the conversation needs to move beyond simply taking an omega-3 supplement to understanding the type, its delivery form and how effectively the body can use it.
She is partnering with Aker BioMarine on an educational omega-3 campaign.
Why does omega-3 form matter?
Krill oil and conventional fish oil both provide the long-chain omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA. The difference, Save says, is the molecular form in which they are carried.
Much of the EPA and DHA in krill oil is naturally bound to phospholipids, the structural components of cell membranes.
Fish oils typically deliver omega-3s predominantly as triglycerides or ethyl esters.
Unlike conventional fish oil, krill oil delivers omega-3s in phospholipid form, the same building blocks found in the body's own cells.
Save added that this may make them easier to absorb and use.
What does the evidence say about absorption?
Save points to a 2024 network meta-analysis of 26 studies comparing omega-3 bioavailability from fish oil and krill oil.
It found superior absorption from krill oil at doses under 2000mg, with the highest area-under-the-curve values seen in a krill oil phospholipid/free-fatty-acid formulation.
A smaller 2015 human crossover study in healthy adults, at roughly equivalent EPA and DHA doses, found significantly greater 72-hour incorporation into plasma phospholipids after krill oil than after fish oil.
Save cautioned that bioavailability is also shaped by formulation, dose and how the omega-3 is consumed.
Whole foods, she stressed, remain the foundation: oily fish such as salmon, sardines, mackerel and trout provide EPA and DHA alongside protein, vitamin D, vitamin B12, iodine and selenium.
Plant sources such as chia, flaxseed and walnuts supply ALA, but conversion to EPA and particularly DHA is limited.
What does the triglyceride research show?
EPA and DHA are well established for lowering triglycerides and are involved in pathways that regulate inflammation.
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