Andrew Huberman· PhD
So one of the major differences is that fish oil supplements, if you get a high quality one, it's in a triglyceride form. So you've got a glycerol backbone with three fatty acids that's attached, and those are either DHA or the EPA. Or, if you have a lower quality fish oil supplement, then you have what's called ethyl ester form. And, typically, the reason for that, when fish oil is purified, it's run through this column with alcohol or something. They cleave it off, the glycerol backbone, and then it's just kind of easier to leave it like that than re-esterifying it, which costs more money. So you can get it in ethyl ester form, which isn't as bioavailable. And, in fact, if you don't take it with food, you're going to be in trouble. You're not going to absorb much of it at all.