The importance of taking cod liver oil for your best health cannot be underestimated. In Dr. Weston A. Price’s book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, a study of school girls in New Zealand found a daily supplement of high vitamin cod liver oil each day reduced cavities by nearly 42%.
In the following video, I will show you the best brand on the market today for cod liver oil as well as how much to take based on the research of Dr. Weston A. Price and the Weston A. Price Foundation.
The proper dosage of cod liver oil is 1 tsp (5 ml) per day and depending on the size of the spoons in your kitchen, you may or may not be taking the right dose.
The size of spoons varies quite a bit around the world, so be sure to measure the spoon you are using to take your cod liver oil as sometimes what people think is a full teaspoon is actually only a half!
Remember to always take your cod liver oil with high vitamin butter oil. If this supplement is not available where you live, you may substitute (homemade) grassfed ghee instead. For those with dairy allergies, use emu oil.
Another dairy-free option is a natural K2 supplement derived from natto.
Taking these healthy fats together synergistically boosts the absorption of nutrients as noted in the detailed research of Dr. Weston Price.
Cod Liver Oil Basics
The video below shows you the basics of taking cod liver oil. If you are interested in cod liver oil for babies, the linked article provides more information.
If gagging is an issue with strong tasting foods like cod liver oil, this article plus video on how to stop the gag reflex for about 20-30 seconds with a simple acupressure technique may prove helpful.
Wondering what brands are best? I personally take this brand of virgin cod liver oil, which is sourced from some of the cleanest waters on earth. Note that my currently preferred brand differs from the recommendation in the video, which was filmed some years ago. The suggested manner of taking it and the reasons why remain the same, however.
Note that cod liver oil is a better choice than both krill oil and plain fish oil. This is because CLO contains natural fat-soluble vitamins as well as important omega-3 fatty acids.
Thank you so much, Sarah, for helping me find the info I needed. I feel much better after having read that rebuttal. Thank goodness all of us who are so new to this have you to help us along the way.
You are so right, Emily. Looking an ancient dietary practices is best – DEAD people don’t lie do they?? Ha, ha. Taking 3000-4000 IU if vitamin D per day in the form of FCLO is hardly megadosing. It is typical of the intake of traditional peoples who got over 10 times the vitamin D of modern folks living back in the 1930’s!! The vitamin D levels the medical community is recognizing are very deficient as well. 20 ng/ml as a “good” level? Are they kidding? Even 40 ng/ml is deficient. The only way to get enough vitamin D is to get sun and eat vitamin D rich foods on a daily basis such as healthy traditional peoples practiced.
Hi Sarah,
I just got my GP FCLO/BO in the mail today and took my first dose, and it was not bad at all, but I also have been trying to figure out the amounts, and I thought I had it all figured out and took the amount I calculated only to read this article from Mercola:
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/03/16/warning-new-proof-confirms-if-you-take-this-supplement-vitamin-d-will-not-work-as-well.aspx
It says that vitamin A in cod liver oil negates the effects of vitamin D and that they no longer recommend CLO. I am so frustrated, it seems like every time I think I know what I’m supposed to be doing to help my family, I read something that totally contradicts what I have learned. So what are your thoughts about this?? Your whole post is about Vit D, but Mercola says that the Vit A in CLO negates the Vit D, I would hate to be spending all this money on FCLO if it is not doing what we need it to do. I want to follow WAPF principles, but this seems to be evidence to the contrary. Is there more information that I am missing? Please Help!!
There is an article on the WAPF website that rebutts this very clearly if you go and do a search there: westonaprice.org
The fermented CLO/BO from Green Pastures is completely different that the stuff Mercola is talking about anyway. It is in a class by itself. I have a friend who recently went to dinner with him and she said that he even admitted at this dinner party that he was wrong about FCLO.
Wow it would be nice if Dr. Mercola updated his readers on this information when he knows he is wrong! I have also read the articles negating the effects of Vit D by Vit A. There was also an article in the paper the other day stating how most of the American public is actually not deficient in Vit D at all and recommends that people stop megadosing with Vit D. They also stated that Vit D was not even helpful in preventing disease. Clearly the medical community can’t make up their mind! Which is why I’m more comfortable following proven ancient dietary practices.
Have you tried Grass Fed High Vitamin Butter Oil?
Did you get the arctic mint gel? 1 tsp (5ml) of the liquid is approximately 3000 IU of vitamin D. The gel has considerably less product per serving due to the thickness of it.
Hi Sarah~
me again 🙂
1st – Congratulations on your award at the 2010 WAPF Conference!!
2nd – I'm going back over FCLO doses, etc. and looking at the bottle of Artic Mint that I just received. It shows that 2ml (just under 1/2tsp) has 855 IU of Vit. D. According to what you were saying in your video – we need 4000 IU (daily) to have the proper amount and you had calculated that to be ~1-1/3 tsp. What GP product are you taking that has that many IU's? I'm also concerned about too much Vit. A if I keep increasing the dosage to get Vit. D … is there a ratio to work with??
Thanks so much for all of your hard work!
Paula – we just got our first bottle of Artic Mint and it has changed our lives. We had tried the "regular" and "Mediterranean" – both were nasty. The Artic Mint doesn't even smell fishy and all my kids now take it without complaint! Now I've just got to get dosages worked out. Hope that helps 🙂
I would love for my kids to take fermented cod liver oil, but I just don't know how to convince them. Any tips, anyone? My 6-year-old daughter runs away from the kitchen just to see me taking the stuff. She can't stand the smell of it from 10 feet away! I used to give her the Carlson brand and she loved it, but the WAPF doesn't recommend it anymore because of the wrong vitamin D/vitamin A ratio.
I take 10K IU's/ day. (I'm a fair-skinned Norwegian, living in the Pacific Northwest). I had my levels checked, after taking 10K IU's/ day for 4 months and I was STILL a bit below the adequate level!!!! Check out this symposium that people need to read and pass along: https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0By25e9NqbJMwMGE2OWI4MWYtMzcwNS00MTVhLWE4NzYtYWJmOGRmNzQzZTI3&sort=name&layout=list&num=50
To quote the summary: "Intake of 4,000 IU per day would raise serum 25(OH)D by an average of about 100 nmol/L(40 ng/mL). Even prolonged physiologic-replacement intake of 10,000 IU per day of vitamin D3 would pose no known risk of adverse effects in virtually all adults"
Our old and super wise naturopath suggested taking Cod Liver Oil with Rice Bran Oil for the best balance/ assimilation. I don't remember why. I think I'll do some research on it.
Ahhhh … wow, the spoons !!! That is great to know ! .. Yep, I've been doing it wrong 🙂
thank you and looking forward to hearing you speak in November!
Hi Anonymous, just take the dosage on the bottle if that's all you can do for now as that is the bare minimum but won't give you the most benefit. The maintenance dose to keep vitamin D levels where they currently are without dropping is 1 tsp for children, 1.5 tsp for adults.