For the past 3 (now going on 4) winters, I've been dosing our family with cod liver oil. I first started using it to heal some cavities in the kids' teeth, but then the more I read about it, realized it is great for vision and also for immunity. The results from this one addition to our days has been very noticeable. I don't want to knock on wood, as we'll probably get sick as soon as I post this (which is why I've hesitated thus far in writing a blog about it), but we've been so much healthier since we started it. Sometimes the kids will be getting a cold, and then the cold disappears within a few hours. That has never happened before we started the oils. It just makes their mucus membranes stronger so they can fight the germs so much faster. (2 kids also don't need glasses anymore as well)
I've tried several brands over the years, but the brand I've stuck with the past 4 is Green Pastures. It has not only cod liver oil in it, but butter oil also, which is the combination you want to heal cavities. If you read Dr. Weston Price's book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, he explains why these work together so good for dental health. (summary here) It's a beast of a book, for sure!
So what makes cod liver oil so good for you? It's the good oils (EPA and DHA) along with vitamins A & D that are the gems. Dr. Price found that all the cultures he visited had around 10X more of those than our modern diets have. Modern as in the 1920s and 30s, and we are at much worse levels now.
I started buying Green Pastures Complete Oil Blend, which contains the fermented cod liver oil and butter oil, as well as flavoring and coconut oil for taste. Their oil tastes awful, I won't deny, and to get kids to take it, it needs to be palatable. This blend is quite good, but they were out of stock of it for a while, so I decided to blend up my own. Here's my "recipe":
Blended Cod Liver Oil Blend
1 c. Barleans fish oil (whatever flavor you like)
2 c. virgin coconut oil
other good cold pressed oils like flax, avocado, evening primrose, etc.
Blend them all up in the blender, and add more sweetener (xylitol or stevia) if needed. Can also leave out the fish oil and just do more coconut oil (you want 4 c. total oil). We've needed more fish oils these days for gut healing (and the Barlean's oils taste wonderful), so the flavor added makes it all taste yummier. We've also added just a few drops of peppermint extract to the plain chocolate and it tastes good too. Store in fridge, and give everyone 1 t. -1 T. each day.
This is a Newfoundland folk song written around the 1930s/40s that we learned to sing in elementary school. If you want to get "stout and strong", then give it a listen.
Lyrics:
I'm a young married man and I'm tired of life
Ten years I've been wed to a pale sickly wife,
She's nothing to do only sit there and cry Praying and praying to God she would die.
He afterwards told me that she would get strong
If I get a bottle from dear Dr John.
A friend of my own came to see me one day He told me my wife she was pining away Oh doctor, oh doctor, oh dear Dr John
Your cod liver oil is so pure and so strong
I bought her a bottle, well just for to try
And the way that she drank it you'd think she might die
I'm afraid of my life, I'll go down in the soil If me wife don't stop drinking your cod liver oil. I bought her another, it vanished the same
And then she got cod liver oil on the brain.
I'm afraid of my life, I'll go down in the soil
If me wife don't stop drinking your cod liver oil.
I bought her another, she drank it no doubt, And then she began to get terrible stout, And when she got stout well of course she got strong
And I became jealous of dear Dr John. Oh doctor, oh doctor, oh dear Dr John
Your cod liver oil is so pure and so strong
I'm afraid of my life, I'll go down in the soil
If me wife don't stop drinking
Me house it resembles a great doctor's shop Its covered in bottles from bottom to top Well early the morning the kettle does boil
You would swear it was singing of cod liver oil. Oh doctor, oh doctor, oh dear Dr John
Your cod liver oil is so pure and so strong Oh doctor, oh doctor, oh dear Dr John
Your cod liver oil is so pure and so strong
I'm afraid of my life, I'll go down in the soil
If me wife don't stop drinking your cod liver oil.
