That's what I thought about taking cod liver oil when I was a kid, but recently my mother-in-law mentioned that when she took cod liver oil during the winter as a child she was never sick. No one knew why it worked. And no one said, "I'm going to wait around 50 years for scientific studies to prove to me this works." It worked, so they took it.
Now cod liver oil is enjoying legitimacy, partly because it has omega-3 fatty acids but also because scientists discovered it can "switch off" the enzymes that start inflammation of joints and cartilage and the degradation of collagen in the first place. (Collagen? Think about those ramifications for skin!)
This was great news for arthritis sufferers but auto-immune disease sufferers should have a look, as well. In fact, I'd try throwing some cod liver oil down for anything that bothers you due to chronic inflammation of a joint or a muscle, because it's just a nutritionally power-packed food all-around.
Cod liver oil has natural animal-source Vitamin A which is more easily absorbed than vegetable sources. It's called Retinol, which you've probably heard is great for preventing aging of skin - and cod liver oil does make a wonderful skin oil. But Vitamin A, Retinol, also keeps eye linings and mucous membranes healthy and those are designed to form a barrier to bacteria and viruses to protect our body parts from infections.
Cod liver oil is also a source of Vitamin D, a vitamin which we usually count on the sun to give us - and which, of course, we would be missing in the winter. Since food sources of Vitamin D are so hard to come by, if you do take cod liver oil in the winter it may be your only source of Vitamin D. Research is now showing that Vitamin D plays a role in keeping the immune system healthy and I strongly suspect in the future we will find more immune-system enhancing properties in cod liver oil, as well.
It is also full of omega-3 fatty acids, and, moreover, it has the usable kind of omega-3 fatty acids - DHA and EPA - which flax oil does not have, contrary to popular belief. Flax and other vegetable oils contain a form of omega 3 fatty acids that is not as usable by the body, except under the most ideal of circumstances and even then only a small amount is converted.
While in the old days a tablespoon was often taken, most suppliers now only suggest a teaspoon. I can handle a teaspoon, I thought.
So I bought some and it doesn't taste nearly as bad as I remember it. I think the key is keeping it refrigerated because it tastes fishier and fishier as time goes on.
I tracked down this excellent American productthat is distributed by people who are as phobic as I am about toxins, fish mercury and quality. And quality is especially important in the case of cod liver oil. Here's why.
The government has certain requirements to maintain quality in food products but in the case of cod liver oil they aren't very high. To call your fish oil "cod liver oil", the oil must be from fish but any oily fish, be at or above certain vitamin A and vitamin E levels but it can be added and synthetic, and contain certain minimum levels of DHA and EPA. This means you may not be getting oil from a cod's liver at all and the vitamins it contains may be synthetic and not from a fish source at all. The studies that have shown such wonderful things about cod liver oil were done with real cod liver oil, and this product is from the livers of only codfish near Norway and is independently tested to ensure the absence of detectable levels of mercury and other heavy metals, PAH’s, PCB’s and dioxins.
From Westin Price: "While some forms of synthetic vitamin A found in supplements can be toxic at only moderately high doses, fat-soluble vitamin A naturally found in foods like cod liver oil, liver, and butterfat is safe at up to ten times the doses of water-soluble, solidified, and emulsified vitamin A found in some supplements that produce toxicity.(1) Additionally, the vitamin D found in cod liver oil and butterfat from pasture-raised animals protects against vitamin A toxicity, and allows one to consume a much higher amount of vitamin A before it becomes toxic.(1-3) Liver from land mammals is high in vitamin A but low in vitamin D, and should therefore be consumed with other vitamin D-rich foods such as lard or bacon from pasture-raised pigs, egg yolks, and oily fish, or during months in which UV-B light is sufficient to provide one with adequate vitamin D."
Cod liver oil is one of those old-fashioned health foods that we should probably get back to taking at certain times of year to enjoy the kind of robust health that fights off illness while we play and not worry about it.
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie
diet.
** Daily Values not established
P.S. One teaspoon of codliver oil is 40 calories and it's all fat, folks! Yet it takes a good tablespoon of this cod liver oil to get 5000 IU of Vitamin A.
More on the Arthritis Study...
