Cod Liver Oil Information, Huh?

by samuel
(thermopolis wy)

There is a small amount of vitamin A in cod liver oil and a significant amount of vitamin d.

What is this nonsense about destroyed livers from cod liver oil? It doesn't even mention cod liver oil in that link, it mentions vitamin A and lots of it more, than you can get from a bit of cod liver oil!

huh?

ANSWER:

You are RIGHT, the study that mentions destroyed livers doesn't MENTION cod liver oil information. The study mentions Vitamin A in the form of PRE FORMED RETINOLS of which the Vitamin A in cod liver oil is made of!

So, by extension, we can extrapolate that the preformed retinols in a Vitamin A Supplement are the same as the pre formed retinols in Cod Liver Oil. That is why the study by Dr. John Cannell uses the data from that study for his study of cod liver oil.

You said that cod liver oil has a TINY amount of Vitamin A and a SIGNIFICANT amount of Vitamin D! That's where the huh? should come in.

If you look at my rebuttal to a previous post called Faulty Interpretation of Cod Liver Oil Information, you'll see that the cod liver oils that I listed all contain from 1750 to 3000 IU's of vitamin A per TEASPOON. That is 5250 IU's to 9000 IU's of Vitamin A per TABLESPOON.

That's only 3 TABLESPOONS daily in order to overdose on Vitamin A if taken over long periods of time.

And in the same 3 tablespoons, you are only getting from 180 to 1500 IU's of Vitamin D. If you look at the Vitamin D Requirements page, that is WAY too low by far and certainly not a Significant amount of Vitamin D by any means.

So, the point of my dislike of Cod Liver Oil is as a Vitamin D supplement. In order to get an adequate amount of Vitamin D from Cod Liver Oil on a daily basis, one would DEFINITELY overdose on Vitamin A!!

So, what is the purpose of taking cod liver oil?


Most people use it for its Omega 3 fatty acid content and its Vitamin D content. If you are taking it for its Vitamin A content, then GREAT, then you are probably getting exactly what you want.


But if you are taking it for it's Omega 3 and Vitamin D content, there are better sources that are far safer to get the amounts needed for those 2 vital substances.

Therefore, I am continuing to recommend to my readers to NOT take cod liver oil and instead take:

Vitamin D3 Supplements and

Omega 3 Fatty Acid Supplements


to meet those needs. There is no reason to get Potentially harmful preformed retinols in order to get Omega 3 fatty acids and Vitamin D.




Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune Health Queen
Functional Medicine Practitioner
Easy Immune Health.com