“That’s disgusting!” is the response that Bill, age 52, an account executive, replied to me when I recommended cod liver oil for his skin condition. With that I immediately left my consulting room to get a sample for him to try. I do this several times per day in my continual effort to educate people that the “yucky” tasting cod liver oil is a thing of the past. With new technology, cod liver oil is fresh tasting and flavoured with lemon if desired or the plain flavour is also available. “You are right, that isn’t so bad after all!” is the second comment I get once I get the cod liver oil onto the pallet of the complainant! Of course it does have an oily texture which upsets about 10-20% of my clients which we can usually mask with the addition of Verry Berry (the topic of another article to come) or when thrown into a “Greens First Smoothie”. Poor quality fish oil supplements will have a fishy taste because the oil is rancid and they will also have levels of mercury, PCB’s and dioxins that will surely out weigh the advantages of taking it!

So now that I have Bill over the taste, and taking cod liver, I explain to him the benefits, which can go on and on. First of all “essential fatty acid” supplements are one of the few supplements that you might find your MD also prescribing! The research is overwhelming, on many accounts, for the following:

Lowers LDL(bad cholesterol)
Raises HDL (good cholesterol)
Acts as a general body anti-inflammatory against cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s Disease and arthritis and prevents diabetes

Well that about sums up the most important health conditions that are the biggest causes of death in North America. If only it could be put into the water supply along with selenium and B complex then we would all be living much healthier until that MACK truck runs us over.

Bill then asked me “my wife takes hemp oil, what is the difference?” Hemp oil and hemp hearts are a very good source of essential fats that are in similar ratio to those found in flaxoil containing alpha linolenic and alpha linoleic omega 3 essential fats. The big difference is that these omega 3 fats DO NOT convert into the EPA or the DHA which have the stronger research attached to them for the above health benefits. So go ahead and take hemp or flaxoil BUT take cod liver oil too! The other big difference is that these oils DO NOT contain vitamin D, which is also a big contributor to the above health effects. In fact other fish oils on the market such as Herring Oil also do not contain vitamin D. To save having to take yet another supplement I recommend cod liver oil, which also contains a little vitamin A to top it off.

If Bill and I have not yet convinced you please take the cod liver oil taste test challenge. Come on up to my new office in the Chateau building and ask for a free taste and prove me wrong!  Bring your kids too! “Success by Six” is all about feeding the starving brains of children with EPA and DHA and the cheapest easiest way is with Carlson’s purified cod liver oil.