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5 FISH OIL SAGA
The FISH OIL SAGA
Over the decades, those interested in healthy living knew the benefit of eating fish and especially the concentrated extract found in in fish oil. But why the fuss, mainly in America, about fish oil in capsules? Why not just eat the fish? Simple answer: Because the oceans and lakes have become polluted.
No one listened to Rachel Carson when she highlighted this in her 1962 book “Silent Spring” which focused, among other places, on the American Great Lakes. She showed that the little fish eat the algae, and they in turn get eaten by the bigger fish and so on up the food chain. But the frightening thing is that if there are insecticides and other heavy metal pollutants in the water, the heavy metals are not lost on the way and they are concentrated more and more in each new step of the chain. We don’t think that Dear Rachel would have imagined that the Great World Oceans would also, one day, be producing “poisonous” fish.
The proliferation of aquaculture (fish farming) both in fenced sea resorts and inland dams has not helped at all because the fish so produced may look like the real thing but are nevertheless deficient in the very fatty acids that we seek.
What happened to Cod Liver Oil?
Some of us older ones can remember being forced to take a spoonful of really terrible tasting cod liver oil. Having a spoon of Chamberlain’s Cough mixture afterwards did no help much either. In America this was more prevalent than here and when technology made possible the reduction of the terrible taste and put the oil in capsule form it still did not help.
Dr Sears, in his book Omega Rx Zone (HarperCollins, 2002), says : “But that [encapsulation] posed another problem. To get the same amount of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids provided by 1 tablespoon of cod liver oil, you needed to consume eight 1- gram capsules of fish body oil per day. To get the amount of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids used in the Harvard Medical School study to treat bipolar depression, you would have to take more than thirty 1-gram capsules per day. None of us wants to spend the day popping capsules, but the one or two capsules a day that most of us are willing to take were essentially like a placebo, since the amount of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids found in that dose is extremely small. And even that small amount of health-food-grade fish oil can cause significant gastric problems.”
The USA Fish Oil Mania.
Dr Sears continues: “Now you can understand why the fish oil mania that swept our nation in the mid-1980s burned out so quickly. People were not seeing any perceptible health benefits, because the amounts were too low to have any positive effect. Furthermore, any small benefits that might have occurred would have been cancelled out by our changing dietary habits. Remember, we were in the midst of a passionate love affair with carbohydrates in that decade (fat-free cookies, anyone?), and this would have caused a surge in our insulin levels, which in turn would lead to an increase in arachidonic acid formation. This was exactly the opposite of what the fish oil was expected to do. Adding insult to injury, after the capsule dissolved in the stomach, many people were bothered by a fishy taste on their breath for hours. If that wasn't enough, other contaminants (usually weird fatty acids made by algae) present in the fish oil would usually cause bloating and diarrhoea.
Further Distillation.
“Although the vitamin A was removed from the fish body oil capsules, there was still the lingering problem of PCBs. To deal with this problem, some manufacturers applied a technology called molecular distillation, which removed some (but not all) of the PCBs. Since molecular distillation also removed cholesterol, it was possible to market these fish oil products as cholesterol-free. (Actually they weren't, but the amount of cholesterol dropped below a certain limit required by the government to make that statement.) Although molecular distilled fish oils are better than less refined health-food-grade fish oils, I'm still not a great fan of them, because they do have enough contaminants to cause problems when taken in high doses.
“The next innovation in fish oil was the removal of some of the saturated fats by distillation. These "fractionated" fish oils contained slightly increased levels of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids. However, their purity was still not up to what I define as pharmaceutical standards. Furthermore, the cost of producing these newer fish oils was simply too high for the health food industry. No consumer was willing to pay considerably more for a product that provided only a minimal improvement in health benefits. Thus, this slightly improved version of fish oil didn't go anywhere in the marketplace.”
Pharmaceutical Grade Fish Oil.
Dr Sears concludes: “The final breakthrough in fish oils was the development of what I consider a pharmaceutical-grade product. This requires advanced chemical engineering that begins with the removal of most of the saturated fat by fractional distillation and the removal of virtually all the PCBs {measured in parts per billion) by more sophisticated molecular distillation. With these innovations, a new type of fish oil was created, one that could deliver a concentrated amount of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids without unwanted by-products like chemical contaminants or harmful fatty acids. Pharmaceutical-grade quality required that more than 99 % of the health-food-grade starting material be discarded (actually, it was just resold as health-food-grade fish oil) .Only with the use of pharmaceutical grade fish oil can you deliver high enough levels of long-chain omega-3 fats to your brain and body. Once you do, remarkable things begin to happen within thirty days, if not sooner.
“It was this type of pharmaceutical-grade fish oil that I started using in my studies on patients with Alzheimer's disease and other neurological conditions. In chapter 10, I describe the almost miraculous effects that high-dose pharmaceutical-grade fish oils had on these patients. With the pharmaceutical-grade oils - unlike typical health-food-grade oils, even those that had been molecularly distilled - have not seen any reported side effects. No one complains about gastrointestinal problems like bloating or diarrhea or has any problems with a bad taste in the mouth, even after taking the liquid fish oil using a tablespoon.
“Pharmaceutical-grade fish oil is really high-tech cod liver oil - producing results without the contaminants, taste, or gastric side effects. Equally important, you'll experience the benefits of taking pharmaceutical-grade fish oils within thirty days. (This is important; since that is the maximum time most of us will give to notice a difference.) If your grandmother had only had access to pharmaceutical-grade fish oil instead of the old elixir, cod liver oil, the health care crisis we are currently facing might never have occurred in the first place. Now a mere teaspoon of pharmaceutical-grade fish oil packs a larger punch - Omega-3 fatty acids - than a tablespoon of cod liver oil, without the harmful contaminants and troublesome side effects. [End of Dr Sears quote.]
This is, indeed, a story of incredible industrial chemistry, but I am inclined to think that we are now using technology to “make” EPA and DHA. However, I think you will agree that at this stage of our development, do we have any option? Nevertheless, this high-tech processing is very expensive to set up and the manufacturers are going to be sure to recoup their investment from you and me in due course. But the products cannot be too expensive or we will not buy them at all.
Current Supply of Fish Oil.
Having now realized that we are dependent on supplies of fish oil, where do we get it? From our perspective all the supplies of marine oils in SA have been produced by processing plants overseas. We do not know the names of these plants so we have to take the word of the local supplier that they are legitimate plants and that they have in place the distilling facilities to filter out the heavy metals and PCBs. At this stage we have to trust them. But as we delve more into the topic more information will emerge. In any event we are all absorbing far too many heavy metals from car fumes, industrial pollution and maybe our cooking pots so that a small amount of pollutants from the marine oils ought not to be too critical.
Suppliers of Fish Oil
Those who know of our products and information for the ADHD family will know that we have advised one-and-all to start taking some form of Omega-3 nutrient. We do this because we know how important it is, not only for ADHDers but for everyone. We have also avoided recommending one brand of capsule over another until we were led to David and The Real Thin Brand. They import the ultra-refined oil and package it here. This means there is quality control and a reasonable price.
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