6 favorite sea-derived supplements

Many nutritional ingredients come from the bounty of the waters. Aquaceuticals, a category of supplements, contain ingredients such as algae, fish oil or even jellyfish to help boost the body’s nutrients.

You’ll find many sea-derived ingredients in the supplement section at your local natural products retailer. Here are six of our new favorites:

Schiff MegaRed This is the brand that launched a thousand ships gone fishing for krill. What made it a sensation (besides the bodacious TV advertisement campaign) is smaller capsules than those fish horse pills, with no fishy odor or flavor, and with Dr. Oz–minted astaxanthin and phospholipids that help the medicine go down.
Nordic Naturals Omega-3 Phospholipids A leader in omega-3s, Nordic Naturals adds absorption-boosting phospholipids to fish oil to imitate krill, but then one-ups krill with a high concentration of EPA and DHA.
LifeExtension CinSulin with InSea2 and Crominex 3+ Three solid ingredients power this supplement’s ability to modulate blood sugar levels: 1) InSea2 works before meals; 2) cinnamon has been shown to lower both blood sugar levels and HbA1c levels (a measure of glucose in the blood); and 3) chromium helps the body process sugar.
Klamath Blue Green Algae Superfood Algae is nature’s miraculous aquatic, unicellular chemical factory. There’s a cult following around this product that separates it from other algae sources. The pristine Upper Klamath Lake in southern Oregon is rich in volcanic soil and other minerals. Also unlike most other algae: It comes from a natural lake, rather than being grown in manufactured pools.
Spirulina pacifica Grown on the Big Island of Hawaii on open ponds, this is the brand that sets the standard for clean, high-potency nutrition. Spirulina is a rich source of protein, carotenoids, B vitamins and amino acids. This is the original green food. Kale’s got nothing on spirulina!
Carlson Olive Your Heart Here’s a tasty innovation: A high concentrate of the omega-3s EPA (360 mg) and DHA (900 mg) blended in an olive oil base. We love that you can get that incredible dose from a single tablespoon of the oil, but you can also drizzle some over salads, use it to dip bread or stir it into a pasta dish to up your omega-3 intake in a delicious way.