(Photo: Healthline.com)

By Markham Heid for Prevention.com

Your daily omega-3 supplement may be swimming with more than just fish oil. A new report from ConsumerLab.com, an independent tester of health and nutritional products, finds many omega-3 capsules don’t include all the nutrients they claim to, are loaded with extra fat, and are even contaminated with levels of carcinogens that exceed EPA standards.

“Our analysis found problems with roughly 31% of omega-3 supplements,” says Tod Cooperman, MD, president of ConsumerLab.com. Among the 35 products tested, four contained 20 to 30% less omega-3 than the label indicated, and one included spoiled fish oil. Another product that claimed just 1 milligram of fat actually contained 1,000 milligrams.

And it gets worse. “For the first time, we also found omega-3 products contaminated with PCBs,” says Dr. Cooperman. PCBs are man-made, carcinogenic compounds that are found in almost all fish products, and although every supplement tested contained some PCBs, two contained levels deemed unsafe by the Environmental Protection Agency.

But don’t toss your supplements out to sea just yet, says Dr. Cooperman.

Keep reading to find out why…

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