Garden of Life Prenatal DHA Omega 3 Fish Oil - Minami Natural Prenatal, 60 Softgels

Unknown PCB and Mercury levels

Moms and moms to be everywhere: I know you're eager to give baby the best nutrients possible. But when it comes down to it, go with a different product. Invest in a safe and trusted brand. Garden of life preaches about its rigorous testing and purification, but the one thing that caught my attention is that you cannot look up your batch (of which you've purchased) to check for heavy metal and PCB levels. Nordic naturals allows you to do this and view the results of your batch after purchase but before consuming. Also, garden of life uses mackerel as one of the fish in their ingredients, a common fish known for high mercury levels. Their responses/description of their product are personally not reassuring whatsoever: “Remarkably low levels of oxidation” and “Undetectable levels of PCB's and heavy metals”. Not sure about you but I would like to have a lot more information than that other than “undetestable”. I'm a penny pincher and garden of life definitely caught my attention by their concentrated omega 3 levels and prices, but I refuse to consume this product in doing more research. By no means am I a medical professional or a pharmaceutical critic, but this product has lost my trust before even gaining it

118 persons found it helpful

MorDHA is not fish oil

I am shocked that this product is being marketed towards pregnant women as "ESSENTIAL PRENATAL SUPPORT FORMULA." My bottle Lot 196701 Exp 06/14 says "Supercritical Omega-3 Fish Oil" but the product is not fish oil i.e. the liquid in the softgel is not from fish. Instead, this is a synthetic compound that is similar to marine biodiesel made from fish oil and ethanol. This product has the same active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) DHA-ethyl ester as the prescription drug Lovaza/Omacor. In fact, this product has more DHA (465 mg) than the prescription drug Lovaza (375 mg DHA ethyl ester = 345 mg DHA). As a result, when this pro-drug is metabolized, one of the metabolites is ethanol. Although the amount of ethanol produced is small, I would not take a chance of exposing my unborn fetus to alcohol because of the possibility of the well-known birth defect of fetal alcohol syndrome. In the UK, generic Lovaza i.e. omega-3 ethyl esters, the warning label states: "You should not take this medicine if you are pregnant or breast-feeding, unless your doctor decides it is absolutely necessary." For Lovaza in US warning label reads: "Use during pregnancy only if the potential benefit justifies the potential risk to the fetus." There are other prenatal DHA supplements on the market that are natural TAG form and not ethyl esters. For example, products such as Nordic Naturals Daily Prenatal DHA, Bluebonnet Early Promise Prenatal Gentle DHA, CVS DHA Prenatal Supplement, Spectrum Prenatal DHA, and Expecta Lipil DHA Supplement for Pregnant and Nursing Moms are all triacyl-sn-glycerol (TAG) based that is natural fat. Do your homework before your baby arrives to be sure that you get the correct information on these dietary supplements that are mislabeled. See fishoildetective.com for more information on fish oil dietary supplements that are mislabeled. PIX

21 persons found it helpful

Good DHA product …

My wife and I've used this DHA for the full term of her pregnancy and we recently decided to purchase it online from Amazon (seemed cheaper than the local organic grocery store). Long story short, we get the packages from the merchant and the packaging just seemed a little different. So I pull out the old box of DHA that we bought from our grocer (local, chain organic store) and the packaging was just a little off. The font seemed a little more blurry, the colors were slightly off. I then open the new package for DHA and sure enough, the pills looks different. The pills that we bought from the grocery store are a slightly smaller, cloudy yellow pill. The pill we ordered from this merchant looked like the golden, see through fish oil pills that you'd buy at a Safeway or Walmart. At that point we didn't want to take any chances and issued a return to Amazon (which they gladly accepted) and informed them of the product differences. Anyway, buyer beware of the merchant. BTW, the seller was Mesa Deal Merchants aka Central Park Sellers. They get great reviews but the different pills was me skeptical & cautious. As far as the pills, we like them and continue to use them but we'll just be more careful on where we purchase items we consume. I'd give the product review 5 stars but wanted to buyers to be informed of the product differences (potential fakes). I've listed photos in the review for review. Also, I have a phone call out to the manufacturer to get their take on the situation. More to come I'm sure. *** UPDATE 03/29/2012 *** I was able to finally get a hold of this product manufacturer and it looks like they did indeed make some changes to their boxes, and pills. Turns out the US company, garden of life, is just a wholesale distributor and the pills are made in belgium. I update my review from 2 to 5 and the seller seems legitimate

18 persons found it helpful

Not as pictured

I purchased these based on the supplement facts. Two days after I received them, I realized the epa and dha amounts are not even close to what is pictured. I do not know where they got the picture from but it is false advertising. I will be contacting Amazon

13 persons found it helpful

Good Product!

I don't have much to compare this too because I've never taken this supplement prior to purchasing this product, but it was the best DHA/EPA supplement I could find on the market: high levels of DHA, EPA was a plus, rigorous quality testing, and sustainable. Plus I only have to take one pill. I wouldn't say that this product has no fish aftertaste, because it does. It also has a fish smell. But it's the taste and smell is not too bad considering this is fish oil! I have only gotten the fishy burp taste a couple of times and it's not bad like some non-prenatal Omega 3s on the market. If you're expecting zero fish taste/burps from a fish oil, then you probably need to reconsider fish oil altogether and look into buying Flaxseed oil. This Minami version of Garden of Life has a lemon flavor to it, which I think makes the fact that they smell like fish better b/c the two pair well. Garden of Life also makes a strawberry flavored DHA. I haven't tried it, but I can't stomach the idea of fish and strawberry together. Thanks, but no thanks. I'm sticking to this product

8 persons found it helpful

Wrong nutritional label pictured

I specifically ordered these for the EPA and DHA mg that were in the supplement facts image for this product. I was very upset to see that it was not the correct image. This is not ok! If I hadn't opened them they would be going back

6 persons found it helpful

Minami packs in so much MOR!

I love this company and product. Before I was pregnant, I loved taking MorEPA. Now that I'm pregnant, I switched to MorDHA based on suggestions for nutrients for mom and baby. I love it! Such clean ingredients and a clean taste. No issues with burping or bad flavor/aftertaste. This company really knows how to pack a ton of nutrition into one pill. I did a bit of research and chose this brand because of how much omegas were provided in just one capsule. Most other omega pills have you take 2-3 to get the same dosage. Thanks Minami Nutrition

5 persons found it helpful

No Fishy Flavor or Burps!

This is a great supplement if you are looking for a Prenatal Omega-3 that doesn't give you any fishy burps after taking it! I'm really not a fan of fish in general, so I'm sensitive to those smells/tastes, but these don't bother me one bit. It also has a higher dose of DHA and EPA than the Oceans Mom Prenatal DHA which I was using before this. This hasn't upset my stomach at all and I feel like my baby is getting some extra nutrients! I will definitely be purchasing these again, I love all the supplements I've taken from Garden of Life, they have a great Organic Prenatal Multi-Vitamin as well that I take daily along with these Omega-3's

4 persons found it helpful

Pregnant? Definitely buy!

Took these during my pregnancy. Didn't make me nauseous, got a little bit of fish burps but I like them so that was irrelevant to me lol. My daughter is the smartest kid alive so they must have done something! She knows her alphabet and numbers and colors and shapes and she's 19 months old

4 persons found it helpful

My skin didn't like these at all.

This probably isn't so much about the product as it is about my overly sensitive system. After a week or so of taking these, I noticed 'bumps' all over my cheeks and forehead. Almost acne-like. I stopped taking these and the issue cleared up. To be fair, a lot of supplements make me break out, either like this or in an angry red rash all over my chest and neck. So again, I don't think it's so much the supplements as it is me. These may work well for other people, but if you're someone who has reactions like mine to supplements, I just wanted to give a heads up

4 persons found it helpful