Green Pastures Cod Liver Oil--Fermented Cod Liver Oil at its Finest
I believe that Green Pastures cod liver oil is the best fermented cod liver oil available online today. There is a lot of information available on cod liver oil and health benefits, but also quite a bit of concern about Vitamin A, Vitamin D, and mercury content. When you compare fish oil and cod liver oil, at a high level, the difference is that fish oil comes from the body of the fish, whereas cod liver oil comes from the liver, and the liver contains higher levels of Vitamin A, Vitamin D, and toxins.
Before directly addressing the claim, we need to look at how cod liver oil is made today. Generally, cod liver oil is produced in a modern, industrial manner. That includes alkalization, bleaching, de-oderization, and so on. Vitamins are actually removed during this process, and then depending on the manufacturer, either synthetic vitamins of A and D are added back in ratio (again depending on the manufacturer), or the natural vitamins that were removed during the process are added back.
Mr. David Wetzel, owner of Green Pastures Cod Liver Oil, knew that based on typical practices, manufacturers would generally move to cheaper practices at the expense of natural, unprocessed cod liver oil. He writes, “With only one factory still engaging in the relatively expensive process of adding natural vitamins back into processed cod liver oil, it was easy to see the handwriting on the wall. The odds that this factory would soon fall in with the others and start adding synthetic vitamins instead of natural ones were great.”
The question became, can we have an unprocessed form of cod liver oil, with natural vitamins, in their natural forms and ratios? Thus began a move back to traditional manufacturing methods for cod liver oil, which involves storing the cod livers in barrels, and is detailed in the book “Cod liver oil and Chemistry” (available on Google books).
The result is an oil which is unprocessed, and contains natural vitamins in natural ratios. The heavy metal levels are “not detectable” and the PCBs meet WHO .090 ppm standards, the limit to which these compounds can be measured.
Now let’s move to the vitamin issue…what about eating Vitamin A and Vitamin D in such “large quantities”? At this point in the article, we are going to move into a science debate, which I am not qualified to lead. My understanding is that you need Vitamin D and Vitamin A in the appropriate ratio. I believe that is a generally agreeable statement. I also prefer whole food supplements. I would rather get my vitamins from vegetables, fruits, eggs, etc… in a natural form rather than manufactured in a lab. I also respect tradition. I believe tradition is sometimes wrongly ignored, or put down. Yes, our forefathers did not have access to modern laboratories, but they have hundreds of years of empirical evidence. I believe “old is gold.” :)
Now going back to the key point: as long as you take a natural ratio of the vitamins, I believe you are fine. Where can you get a natural ratio? Yes, from unprocessed fermented cod liver oil.
I believe that Green Pastures cod liver oil is the best fermented cod liver oil available online today. There is a lot of information available on cod liver oil and health benefits, but also quite a bit of concern about Vitamin A, Vitamin D, and mercury content. When you compare fish oil and cod liver oil, at a high level, the difference is that fish oil comes from the body of the fish, whereas cod liver oil comes from the liver, and the liver contains higher levels of Vitamin A, Vitamin D, and toxins.
Before directly addressing the claim, we need to look at how cod liver oil is made today. Generally, cod liver oil is produced in a modern, industrial manner. That includes alkalization, bleaching, de-oderization, and so on. Vitamins are actually removed during this process, and then depending on the manufacturer, either synthetic vitamins of A and D are added back in ratio (again depending on the manufacturer), or the natural vitamins that were removed during the process are added back.
Mr. David Wetzel, owner of Green Pastures Cod Liver Oil, knew that based on typical practices, manufacturers would generally move to cheaper practices at the expense of natural, unprocessed cod liver oil. He writes, “With only one factory still engaging in the relatively expensive process of adding natural vitamins back into processed cod liver oil, it was easy to see the handwriting on the wall. The odds that this factory would soon fall in with the others and start adding synthetic vitamins instead of natural ones were great.”
The question became, can we have an unprocessed form of cod liver oil, with natural vitamins, in their natural forms and ratios? Thus began a move back to traditional manufacturing methods for cod liver oil, which involves storing the cod livers in barrels, and is detailed in the book “Cod liver oil and Chemistry” (available on Google books).
The result is an oil which is unprocessed, and contains natural vitamins in natural ratios. The heavy metal levels are “not detectable” and the PCBs meet WHO .090 ppm standards, the limit to which these compounds can be measured.
Now let’s move to the vitamin issue…what about eating Vitamin A and Vitamin D in such “large quantities”? At this point in the article, we are going to move into a science debate, which I am not qualified to lead. My understanding is that you need Vitamin D and Vitamin A in the appropriate ratio. I believe that is a generally agreeable statement. I also prefer whole food supplements. I would rather get my vitamins from vegetables, fruits, eggs, etc… in a natural form rather than manufactured in a lab. I also respect tradition. I believe tradition is sometimes wrongly ignored, or put down. Yes, our forefathers did not have access to modern laboratories, but they have hundreds of years of empirical evidence. I believe “old is gold.” :)
Now going back to the key point: as long as you take a natural ratio of the vitamins, I believe you are fine. Where can you get a natural ratio? Yes, from unprocessed fermented cod liver oil.
