Posted by Larry Hoover on August 14, 2004, at 11:58:01
In reply to Re: Fish Oil, posted by MB1 on August 9, 2004, at 18:40:45
> > > Thanx for the explanation. I still don't know whether to buy the cheap stuff or the expensive stuff...cheap or expensive, cheap or expensive???
> >
> > I use cheap fish oil, but I have a Scots heritage.
> >
> > Lar
>
> Udo Erasmus claims that the fishy smell is due to rancidity and claims (as I recall) to avoid all fish oils for this reason.It is due to rancidity, but high quality fish oil products are not at all fishy. I don't have a problem with Walmart fish oil.
Avoiding fish oils because they are perishable is really the wrong way to look at the situation. Your body requires the reactivity of the polyunsaturated fatty acids in order to properly regulate a variety of systems. There is no biochemical substitute for that reactivity, but that same reactivity does make the oils perishable.
> Among other things (again, as I recall) he states that due to the extreme sensitivity of these oils to light, heat, O2 that only "specially" processed oils (like his) should be used for supplementation. Comments? Thanks.
>Well, Erasmus just happens to market a competitive product, doesn't he? I hardly think that makes him an unbiased commentator.
If you buy fish oil with natural antioxidants added (e.g. vitamin E, or tocopherol), and keep it in a cool environment, out of direct light, then you will protect it from rancidity. The gelcaps not only make the oil easy to take, but they also protect against atmospheric oxygen.
Once upon a time, I looked at the proportions of the fatty acids in Udo's oil, and I concluded that it was nothing more than a blend of three vegetable oils, one of them being flax oil, another being olive oil, and I can't clearly recall the third. In any case, I could exactly match his claimed proportions of polyunsaturates.
Erasmus claims that his oil is superior because it includes omega-9 and omega-6 fatty acids. In fact, that makes his oil inferior, as most people already get far too much of these two classes of fatty acids already.
Lar
poster:Larry Hoover
thread:356500
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20040718/msgs/377560.html