ou know if we talk about something more than once it must be pretty important. We’ll never talk about a topic just to get you to spend money on something you don’t really need. Trust us, we’re not playing that game. We firmly believe that a diet filled with healthy whole foods should far outweigh taking daily supplements.
Although we also agree that supplements have their place when trying to restore true health. But they’re supposed be just that…supplements, or an addition to your diet to help correct a deficiency…for a time, not forever. Ya’ll, true health doesn’t comes in a pill, and you can’t fool your body into thinking it’s healthy by taking supplements while continuing with an unhealthy diet. There’s no miracle shake that will overcome sugar-laden, hydrogenated oil-filled, “food-like” snacks. #rantover
It’s imperative one works to correct the deficiency by adapting a healthy, anti-inflammatory diet. Supplements are usually sub-par to whole foods for obtaining adequate nutrition, not to mention they’re also quite pricey (if they’re not, you may want to look into their quality). A well balanced diet is truly the key to health, but temporary supplementation can help speed up recovery from years of an unhealthy diet, stress and chemical exposure. In continuing on our journey through our 52 Healthy Changes, we’re still focusing on fighting inflammation by temporarily supplementing with fish oil (cod-liver oil or krill oil).
Fish Oil
That’s right, I’m talking about fish oil again so you’d better believe it’s important! If you struggle with chronic inflammation, you’ll be happy to know that fish oil has been tested and shows positive results in the reduction of inflammation.
Not sure if you’re one of the millions of Americans suffering from inflammation? Check out this post for a list of symptoms. If you think inflammation might be an issue, and you’re not taking cod liver oil or krill oil as a daily supplement to help regulate your system (along with adapting to a healthy, anti-inflammatory diet), then you may want to consider starting.
We discussed the many health benefits of cod liver oil in this post, but for a quick recap, let’s look at what studies are showing CLO can help with:
- lowering high cholesterol and high triglycerides
- preventing and treating diabetes
- lowering high blood pressure
- preventing heart disease
- reducing risk for osteoarthritis
- treating depression
- lowering risk for autoimmune diseases
- fighting eye disorders like glaucoma and protecting eye sight
- treating ear infections, allergies and asthma
- preventing and treating kidney disease
- helping to heal skin wounds
- maintaining bone health and preventing fractures or osteoporosis
- (Source)
Fish oils have naturally occurring anti-inflammatory properties. These properties are so healing and supportive, that when paired with a healthy diet, they can help reverse many of the symptoms and diseases caused by inflammation.
Krill Oil
A little newer to the playing field is krill oil. Studies are beginning to show that the benefits of krill oil are equal, if not superior, to cod liver oil (CLO). Like cod liver oil, krill oil is very high in omega-3 fatty acids, something most of us are deficient in. Not only are we deficient in omega-3’s, but our levels of omega-6’s are far too high due to foods being cooked in unhealthy cooking oils. The average American consumes too many processed foods, including fast or fried foods that contain refined vegetable oils (such as soybean oil, canola oil, cottonseed oil and corn oil) which are filled with high ratios of omega-6 fatty acids.
Though omega-6’s aren’t necessarily bad for you, if you consume too many omega-6’s without a healthy balance of omega-3’s, they’re known to cause inflammation. And inflammation is proving to be at the root of most diseases. A healthy ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids is about 2:1, but many of us have about five to ten times more omega-6’s than this. (Source)
Rheumatoid Arthritis
If you’re among the 350 million people worldwide that have arthritis (nearly 40 million in the US alone, 2.1 million being rheumatoid arthritis [RA]), you may want to consider alternative methods to coping with the symptoms associated with this disease. Many people diagnosed with RA are left to take medicine (oftentimes Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs called NSAIDS) to help cope with the daily pain their RA causes them. But rarely is a healing approach taken through diet and lifestyle, rather RA patients are left merely “coping” as symptoms flare. (Source)
In this study, CLO (specifically those containing n-3 fatty acids) was used to help patients with Rhumetoid Arthritis reduce their NSAIDS. The study showed those using CLO had a 29% greater chance of lowering their need for NSAIDS after just 36 weeks. Sounds pretty great to me!
This article shows that the use of cod liver oil decreased patients morning stiffness, swollen joints and pain intensity. (Adv Ther. 2002 Mar-Apr;19(2):101-7).
Recommended Brands of CLO and Krill Oil
When looking for quality cod liver oil or krill oil, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and even confused by the sheer volume of options available. Bottom line, not all supplements are created equal. Many oils are processed with high heat which damages the healthy oils (making them more harmful than helpful). You want to look for an oil that’s cold-pressed and minimally processed. There shouldn’t be any additional ingredients (unless you’re taking it in pill form, then a vegetable capsule should be the only additional ingredient). Although it may not be listed on the packaging, it’s also ideal to know where the cod or krill were harvested. Find out if they were farm-raised or wild-caught. A call to the manufacturer may be necessary to obtain this information.
If you don’t want to spend your time doing hours of research, we’ve done our own and have listed the brands we feel confident in taking (and giving to our kiddos):
- NutraPro Virgin Cod Liver Oil – (The peppermint/lemon has an easy to swallow flavor without a fishy aftertaste.)
- Green Pastures Fermented Cod Liver Oil – Though there’s been some debate over the quality of fermented cod liver oil, our family has taken it for years and had very favorable results. However, the strong fishy taste (and even stronger aftertaste) is what made us make the switch to NutraPro, as it was a daily struggle to take it. And let’s face it, if it’s gross and hard to swallow, I’m way less likely to stick with it, no matter how healthy it is!
- High Vitamin Butter Oil – Although this post is geared toward the anti-inflammatory properties of fish oils, it’s important to realize the vitamin A and D content in these supplements. Vitamins A and D are best absorbed and utilized by our body when paired with vitamin K, therefore we take our fish oil alongside high vitamin butter oil, or a meal prepared with plenty of Kerrygold Butter (or other pastured butter).
- Krill Oil – Due to the growing concerns over the contamination of wild-caught fish, krill oil is rising in its popularity. Because krill are at the bottom of the food chain, they are virtually free from pollution. Because krill carries it’s EPA and DHA in the form of phospholipids, it makes them more bio-available for our cells absorption. Dr. Mercola’s krill oil is also harvested live, and encapsulated with a patented Licapse capsule, preventing oxidation of the oils.
Obtaining Adequate Omega-3’s Through Diet
As mentioned at the beginning of this post, ideally we’d get enough healthy, anti-inflammatory omega-3’s through whole foods. To do this we need to be sure our food is of the highest quality. This means grass-fed and grass-finished beef, pasture raised chickens and pigs that were allowed to forage for their food and supplemented with a healthy, non-GMO diet. Wild-caught fatty fish eaten 2-3 times per week. Now, if you’re like me, this kind of diet isn’t always possible. Grocery budgets don’t always allow for salmon (for a family of 6) three times a week. If we haven’t harvested wild game through hunting, we need to source out quality grass-fed/finished beef, and this isn’t always possible on a budget.
If there was one supplement I wouldn’t bat an eyelash at taking for the rest of my life, it would be cod-liver or krill oil. And though we don’t take it daily, we do supplement with it on days our fatty acid intake is lacking.