Truth in advertising

Quote of the morning was waiting for me in my inbox today - it's always nice to start your work week with a giggle at some unlooked-for honesty from a manufacturer.

NutraIngredients, a daily newletter for the complementary medicines industry, has a quote from Dr Miquel Mir, product applications manager for Croda Health Care, who are launching a new fish oil supplement. This supplement contains measured levels of the normal EPA and DHA, as you'd expect, but it also touts the benefits of the intermediary omega-3 fatty acid DPA (docosopentanoeic acid, for the curious).

Dr Mir leads off the article talking about his shiny new product. His take on it?

DPA has been "wholly overrated".

I'm finding it refreshing to see such honesty in a product manufacturer. It's very nice when they're willing to state up front that an ingredient is unlikely to live up to the (usually excessive) hype. Of course, there'll probably be a correction in tomorrow's email, but until then, I'm somewhat sardonically basking in the heady glow of realistic claims.

For the curious, or the disbelieving, you can read the article here. And in case anyone is suddenly convinced about the benefits of DPA, it does actually look quite interesting. Bear in mind that it's going to be in just about every fish oil supplement you can buy (in Australia, anyway - America is a little different in that they can sell the isolated EPA and DHA on their own); these guys are just the first to bother talking about it.