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A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to have a friend direct me to the saucy scandal surrounding Green Pasture’s fermented cod liver oil. Curious to see how a bottle of liquid fish organs could set the internet awash in a frothy chatter, I anxiously read through Kaayla Daniels’ report called “Hook, Line, and Stinker: The Truth About Fermented Cod Liver Oil.”
It was like warm pop-tarts on a frigid January snow-day.
I work in the natural products industry and spend a lot of my time helping companies sort out their supply chain issues, so the chance to breakdown NMR graphs and cross-reference PV values is like waving a bacon-crusted pork chop in front of a pit bull with the munchies. An afternoon well spent.
However, when I was finished my feelings were bifurcated: I loved the dense lab reports, but I felt like I was reading something birthed into existence by the invisible hand of Mike Adams.
No doubt the report contained a lot of truth, but I couldn’t shake my tingling spider-sense that there was a bit of truth-i-ness layered in for dramatic effect.
When it comes to their ability to be manipulated by the media, lab reports and scientific studies sleep in the same bed as valuable sources of raw data that can easily be pornographied to overrepresent the validity of subtle truths.
As advocates of a high-fat diet, I’m sure you can all shake your fists at the head-slapping moments of frustration you’ve had explaining to your vegetarian friends that animal products are not the sole cause of heart disease, the obesity epidemic, type II diabetes, the rising divorce rate, Brian Adams, holes in the ozone layer, Tommy Wiseau’s cinematic tastes, or the John Stewart Show finally going off the air.
The outcomes have causal density, making it difficult to decipher what causes what.
So with that said, it might behoove us to take a closer look at the report to determine where it’s valuable, where it’s ambiguous, and where it might lead us down false trails.
A Word To The Wise
This article is not meant to be a defense or prosecution of any of the parties involved.
Up until I read the report I had little familiarity with the products, people or companies mentioned in the report (with the exception of the labs). I wouldn’t recognize David Wetzel if he walked up to me and picked my nose.
It’s also not meant to be the “definitive-guide-to-every-single-little-thing-in-Kaayla-Daniels-report” because that’s beyond my paygrade. I know just enough about fermentation to be dangerous, and I’d need a 24 Hour Energy to educate myself on the un-abbreviated history of Weston Price’s opinion on butter.
‘Activator X’ sounds to me like it ought to be a brand of cologne, not a pseudonym for vitamin K. So sections VI and VII are getting skipped as well.
Rather, what I want to do is highlight the important points brought up in the document and provide additional context to allow you to make your own decisions about what they may or may not mean.
So with that said, what are the relevant details we ought to file in the back of our heads while perusing this explosive document?
WELL LET’S FIND OUT!
Rancidity
Based on the information contained within Ms. Daniels report can we safely conclude the oil was rancid?
Let’s begin with the fact that rancidity is a term that has a colloquial definition (something that smells icky and initiates a gag reflex) distinctly separate from its scientific one (oxidation) and using the presence of one to infer the existence of the other is a non-sequitur.
Let’s continue with an acknowledgment that the data from the report on the oil’s rancidity is a mixed bag.
Here’s the abbreviated version of what the test results found:
PV: Peroxide value, very low.
AV: Anisidine value, very low.
TBA: Thiobarbituric acid test, very low.
TBARS: A more involved version of the TBA test, came back very high at 23.6.
Fatty Acid Value: The amount of free fatty acids in the mixture. These came back very high, between 14% and 40%.
There was also a TOTOX and Acid Value, but these figures are derived from the tests above, so it suits us to disregard these. (Ie, if the PV and AV value are low then the TOTOX value has to be low as well, giving us no reason to analyze it).
Two Stages
Fatty acid oxidation happens in two stages, primary and secondary. Primary oxidation happens when the double bonds in the fatty acids are oxidized into hydroperoxides. Secondary oxidation occurs when the hydroperoxides from primary oxidation are oxidized into various ketone bodies, epoxides and other metabolites of the primary phase..
Because the stages of oxidation happen at different times it’s possible you can have measures for one look fine and still have rancidity because the other phase of oxidation has taken its place.
PV and to a lesser extent fatty acid value are measures of primary oxidation. AV, TBA, and TBARS are measures of secondary oxidation.
The curious issue is how you should interpret the body of evidence given that some of the values in each category were high while others were very low.
TBARS
TBARS stands for the Thiobarbituric Acid Reactive Species test. When thiobarbituric acid reacts with something it turns pink and when the test is finished you measure how much UV absorption occurs within 532-535 nm1, which ought to measure the amount of TBA reactants in the mixture.
The test isn’t very accurate because TBA reacts with a lot more than just byproducts of secondary oxidation and tends to produce false positives. With standard fish oils, it has a standard deviation of about 15%2, and with a complex mixture, you’d expect this number to be higher.
All by itself, TBARS is not considered a good way to judge rancidity or much of anything else due to its inaccuracy, even though it does provide some useful information.
Ideally, you’d want to diminish the error in a TBARS test by running the sample through a procedure called HPLC, which is a process that’s useful for separating molecules in a complex mixture. The separation allows you to tell the difference between products of the reaction that truly represent oxidation and those that are just oily-based flotsam & jetsam.
And even then…….the test still runs amok. The use of the two methods together has been explored and even with the addition of HPLC it isn’t possible to completely eliminate the possibility of unwanted TBA reactants.3
Ms. Daniels herself alludes to the unreliability of the TBARS test on page 22 of her report:
“Given that FCLO naturally contains some protein residue from “fermenting” livers, TBA would appear to be an unreliable way to test FCLO for rancidity.”
And she’s basically right. TBARS just jumps all over the place, even when you try and take measures to calm it down.
Free Fatty Acids
This leaves the issue of free fatty acid values, which are unarguably high. The figure indicates what percentage of the fatty acids have been hydrolyzed from the triacylglycerol backbone, with the logic being that a free fatty acid is blazin’ down the rancidity superhighway on its way to Beelzebub’s in the seventh circle of fatty acid hell.
However, if we’re careful, we’ll see there’s an important assumption being made by stating rancidity and the presence of free fatty acids are doppelgangers of one another: a fatty acid is hydrolyzed en route to being oxidized, therefore the presence of free fatty acid is proof of oxidation.
If we harken back to our university philosophy courses we should recall this is an example of the Roostery Syndrome: assuming the coincidence of two events implies one caused the other.
The question then, is how do we interpret an oversized risk indicator of oxidation when the other evidence does not paint a daunting picture that it took place?
One interpretation, the one taken by Ms. Daniels, is the scorched-earth scenario where the byproducts of primary and secondary oxidation have withered away to nothing, leaving only a cesspool of free fatty acids in their place.
On page 23 of her report she explains her interpretation of the Green Pastures Acid Value as thus:
“these Acid Value numbers are extremely high. So high that they blow any claims that FCLO is a non-rancid oil right out of the water.”
That’s one opinion you can take, and it’s not illegitimate.
However, there are additional points we want to consider before we decide to use the rest of our fermented cod liver oil as anti-freeze in our car engines:
● EPA/DHA Value. The EPA and DHA content in the oil were appropriate, and it’s unlikely that you’d have highly oxidized free fatty acids and high levels of EPA/DHA at the same time, which are themselves extremely sensitive to oxidation.
● The PV was fine. Twice. The hydrolysis of free fatty acids from the glycerol backbone usually coincides with primary oxidation, and the extremely low PV values create the possibility that the FFA value is a red herring. This point is strengthened by the fact that the NMR data on lab report #5 (pg. 91-92) returned oxidation values that were low to the point of being undetectable. This is a useful observation because an NMR test is non-invasive and wouldn’t have the same errors that a traditional PV test would have, which measures the amount of material that reacts with potassium iodide. (This point about the NMR data was also not brought up anywhere in Ms. Daniels’ report).
● Acids….run amok! The method used to determine the free fatty acid value is an acid-base titration4, and the presence of acidic substances besides fatty acids would cause the numbers on the test to err on the high side. I have no idea how Green Pasture ferments their livers, but the majority of fermented products use some sort of starter material to initiate the process that contains acidic material. That and acidic byproducts released during the fermentation process would cause the FFA value to falsely skip up a percentage or four.
Of course without knowing exactly how Green Pasture ferments their products it’s impossible to say how much or how little the last point distorts the free fatty acid value. But taken together these observations ought to at least introduce the possibility that a high fatty acid value doesn’t indicate much more than the complexity of the process used to create the oil.
Vitamin Content
I wish I possessed a pistol-whippin’, whizz-bang insight that’d totally reverse the low vitamin content reported in lab reports 1, 2, 4, 6 and 8.
Sadly, I cannot. At least nothing that wasn’t brought up in the excellent articles by Sally Fallon and Chris Masterjohn. So to avoid being redundant I’ll recommend you read them if you want to know their opinion on the issue. (I’ll forgive you for clicking on the linky, so long as you promise to come right back).
However, there’s an under-discussed point about the fragilities of the tests used to measure their concentration, which I’ll bring to your attention here.
Vitamin A
On page 36 of her report, Ms. Daniels states:
“If the method is UV detection, it is very easy to be fooled.”
She was using this as an indictment of Green Pasture’s testing methods, but as a rhetorical point, it’s ironic because UV detection was the method used to determine the vitamin A content in lab reports 2 and 8.
The method can be found used was a variant of UV-Vis spectroscopy called colorimetry, which uses a colorimeter to measure the concentration of a solution by its absorption of a range of light. 5
In general UV detection is best used for analyzing raw materials. When you’re dealing with finished substances, particularly a complex one, it’s very easy for the presence of other compounds to throw off the amount of light absorbed and create inaccurate results.
To be fair, it tends to skew results high and not low so it’s possible the vitamin A content is actually lower than what’s stated, but the method has a high level of variance overall and isn’t well suited to final product testing.
Vitamin D
To detect the levels of vitamin D used in the mixture used in lab report #1 the method employed was LC/MS, which is a combination of HPLC (high-pressure liquid chromatography) and Mass Spectrometry.
LC/MS is to analytical chemistry what Snapchat is to social media: the hip new toy that all the fanboys flock to, even when you’re pretty sure Facebook works just fine.
HPLC is the method most commonly used to detect final product concentrations and it’s usually accurate unless sample sizes are very small. (For example, HPLC can usually detect vitamin D down to about 0.5 IU/g, and below that, you’d need to use LC/MS).
The appeal of LC/MS is that by combining the two methods it helps erase the faults created by either one on their own. Mass spectrometry can’t separate stereoisomers (compounds that have the same molecular weight but different geometries) and HPLC doesn’t always provide useful information about what a chemical actually is after it’s been separated.
So by separating chemicals through HPLC and then passing them through a mass spectrometer you get the best of both worlds: highly sensitive separation and useful data about its molecular weight.
Gee whiz!
And to be honest…….yes, it’s cool.
However, LC/MS has a tendency to undershoot concentrations due to problems with the handoff from the column to the mass detector.
Mass detectors can only detect molecules that are electrically charged (ie, ions) and they have to pass through the detector in a complete vacuum, so all the solvent from HPLC needs to be removed and the mixture needs to be entirely ionized to ensure clean results.
If this isn’t handled properly the results will produce false negatives: an absence of a substance that’s actually there.
Of course, these complications will skew results by an order of approximation, not an order of magnitude. There’s a small chance you could apply an equally legitimate test of concentration and come up with something radically different unless the lab techs doing the mass spec had performed radical IQ-lowering practices beforehand………like sitting through a 24-hour marathon of The Room.
I think if there is significantly more vitamin D activity than what’s being reported it’s due to the presence of various vitamin D metabolites that are not showing up in tests for cholecalciferol, not an inaccurate measure of cholecalciferol or ergocalciferol itself.
Variation: It’s Natural
To be honest I have little familiarity with the marketing claims made by Green Pasture on their website or in their literature about their vitamin content. When I go there to look at their product labels I don’t see any mention of vitamin content so I’m not sure what caused the impression the vitamin levels would be higher than they were.
However, now’s a good time to point out an inconvenient truth about putting unprocessed products into a bottle, storing them in warehouses for months at a time and then shipping them across the country: mother nature doesn’t like to be standardized.
If you’re hell-bent on getting a consistent nutrient content from a truly natural product with 99.84738495847% accuracy you need to waive a big “Goodbye!” to green pastures and waive a big “Hello!” to white lab coats.
Lickity-split vitamin levels are only possible if they’re assembled into something synthetically. Ocean waters and grasslands will never do the trick.
I work a lot with botanicals, and the pharmacologically active plants will often have their concentration of active compounds vary throughout the day depending on the weather.
A good example would be St. John’s Wort. Its active ingredients are hyperforin and hypericin and both are very photosensitive. (This might be one reason it increases photosensitivity among people who take it). Hyperforin is oxidized by light and will easily be destroyed if exposed to too much UV radiation. Hypericin is activated by light and its biological activity depends on a double proton-transfer that takes place after UV exposure to be physiologically useful.
If you want to optimize your crop for hypericin you need to harvest it during the afternoon. If you want to optimize for hyperforin you ought to do it early morning or early evening. And if you’re not careful with the plant immediately after it’s taken out of the ground you might as well have grown it on Mars because it’ll be degraded beyond recognition.
This dynamic isn’t unique to St. John’s Wort either. Ashwagandha, Shilajit, Gingko Biloba, Rhodiola, and most other biologically active herbs have active compounds that don’t take well to the vagaries of Mother Nature.
Granted, I know less about fish than I do herbs, but assuming fat-soluble vitamins are stored and utilized at different rates according to diet, season and environmental conditions I see no reason you wouldn’t have large swings in vitamin content from batch-to-batch.
Identity
The identity of the fish species used in the oil was called into doubt for the following reasons:
● A DNA test identified it as Alaskan pollock.
● The oil had a high amount of EPA relative to DHA, which is unusual for Cod.
● The oil had a high amount of trans fatty acids, also unusual for Cod.
Most people probably think of the DNA test as the most damning, but I consider it the piece of evidence most easily thrown away.
The amount of DNA needed to get a reliable signal is below the amount typically found in oils,6 rendering the test moot.
It’s known colloquially as ‘DNA barcoding’ and it involves comparing DNA sequences for a particular gene with a database of known variations for different species. It’s done with mitochondrial DNA because it has a higher turnover rate than nuclear DNA, allowing for more differentiation among species. The most popular gene to study is the one that codes for the protein cytochrome oxidase 1, and this is what was sequenced in lab report #3.
Ms. Daniels herself acknowledges the unsuitability of DNA tests for the product in question on page 48 of her report (emphasis added by me):
“DNA technology can now accurately distinguish all common fish and seafood as well as most exotic species. Additionally, it can identify species of fresh, canned and frozen fish in readymade products so long as they are present at levels greater than ten percent. Unfortunately, DNA procedures do not work well with oils.”
So instead, according to her report, she used remnants from the cattle lick product sold by Green Pasture to get the test done.
It’s up to you how much relevance you want to place on a DNA test that used a sample that wasn’t from the product being questioned. Not from a different batch mind you, but from something that’s categorically different and not branded as cod liver oil.
I don’t have David Wetzel’s number on speed dial so I can’t speak to the relationship between the livers in his cattle lick product and the oil in his FCLO, but nonetheless I think this registers as a pretty big caveat about how we ought to interpret the permanence of the results in lab test #3. The test wasn’t done on the oil!
NMR
In the absence of a good DNA sample, NMR is the best way to test for species identification. The procedure measures how different molecules in a nucleus jump around in response to electromagnetic radiation which provides useful information about a compound’s purity and structure.
In particular, you can measure the specificity of various fatty acids at the sn-2 location of the triacylglycerol molecule, which is a reliable species indicator since it can’t be gamed and is distinct from fish to fish.
The results from lab report #5 found the DHA specificity to be 82% and 44% for EPA, which corresponds to what you’d expect to find.
The only abnormality in the result was an unusually large amount of free fatty acids, which shouldn’t be a surprise given the other lab reports.
The results of the test were summed up like this:
“These values of sn-2 position specificity are similar to previous analyzed cod liver oil samples…….the overall 13C NMR carbonyl profile is similar to cod liver oil, although the levels of monounsaturated fatty acids in sn-2 position seems to be a bit higher than previously analyzed cod liver oils……..The sample is more similar to cod liver oil of wild origin than e.g. previous analyzed salmon oil or anchovy oil“
I.e., with the exception of a higher than normal FFA content, the results were basically fine. Or at least, not enough to assume fraud.
Fatty Acid Ratios
The hardest result to explain away is the EPA: DHA ratio found in the fish and its high trans fat %.
It was about 2:1, which is very unusual. It’s also difficult to interpret the results since there’s not a lot of codified information about what the values ought to be.
The closest thing there is to a reference on the fatty acid levels in various fish is the book “Long-Chain Omega-3 Specialty Oils”, and with a sticker price of $220, it’s not exactly priced to be a best seller. (And no, I didn’t buy it).
Most of the feedback I got for this section was from a conversation with a QC analyst at GOED, which is a non-profit organization that monitors the fish oil industry. (He preferred to remain anonymous).
After explaining the issue to him this is what he said:
● Anchovies are the only wild fish that regularly has more EPA than DHA
● Tests for fatty acid content usually underestimate DHA content and it’s usually best to have them performed multiple times to get a good reading because they all undershoot.
● Alaskan pollock has an EPA: DHA ratio that’s closer to what was observed in the lab report
● The oil was unlikely to be anchovy oil because it has an EPA ratio that’s closer to 17%-18%, rather than the 13.5% observed in the sample.
● It’s possible the fish were fed anchovies at some point, although this would not coincide with the NMR results which suggested the oil was from wild cod.
● Trans fat percentages can sometimes measure oxidation products more so than trans fats themselves.
When you add all this up, I think you get a picture and that’s capital-A Ambiguous. An unreliable DNA test on a non-product sample, an NMR test which more or less came out fine, and a fatty acid test that contradicts the results of the other two.
In the best-case scenario, the reported DHA levels are artificially low due to testing conditions, which makes everything hunky-dory. It’s possible the oil really is from pollock (which is not an uncommon occurrence), or even weirder……there’s some other hidden variable in the supply chain that hasn’t been uncovered yet.
There’s a side debate about the relevance of something being classified as pollock or cod since they both belong to the same taxonomic family, but that’s a fish to fry for another day (PUN intended).
So…..
Friends, if you’re lucky the joy you got from reading this was at least ⅕ the entertainment value I got from writing it.
You know what they say……..explosive exposés of esoteric health products only come around once……so when your number’s called, ya gotta’ be ready to go.
I am not the Arbiter of Truth here, so please don’t mistake the words or assumptions in this article as rapture.
In fact, I’d hope the takeaway message is that testing is fragile. The method used is only as reliable as the person implementing it, and it’s entirely normal for different labs with different equipment using different methods to come up with very different results even if they’re trying to measure the same thing.
It’s the nature of the beast. And with many of the more exotic methods, you’re charging into territory that has not yet been formalized, making it hard to draw firm conclusions. Of course, that’s what makes it interesting, but I loathe to think that some lab reports on fish oil can provide tinder for our tribalist animal spirits to run rampant.
But of course, on the internet, anything’s possible.
Have a nice day!
SOURCES
1) Kishida, et. al. “Re-evaluation of malondialdehyde and thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances as indexes of autoxidation based on oxygen consumption”.
2) Samb, Norveel Thea. “Analytical Methods for Determination of the Oxidative Status in Oils”.
3) Chirico, et. al. “Lipid peroxidation in hyperlipidaemic patients. A study of plasma using an HPLC-based thiobarbituric acid test.”
4) AOCS Official Method Ca 5a-40
5) AOAC 974.29
6) Martinez, I et. al. “Destructive and non-destructive analytical techniques for authentication and composition analyses of foodstuffs”
More Information
Response to Dr. Daniel’s Report on Fermented Cod Liver Oil
The Truth About Transfats in Cod Liver Oil
Questions and Answers about Fermented Cod Liver Oil
Weighing in on Fermented Cod Liver Oil
Doctor’s Orders: Why Your Family Needs Fermented Cod Liver Oil
Fermented Cod Liver Oil: Myths and Truths of an Ancient Superfood
Fermented Cod Liver Oil 101 (plus Video How-to)
The Best Way to Swallow Cod Liver Oil
About the Author
Jonathan Bechtel is the owner of Health Kismet, a dietary supplement manufacturing and consulting company located in St. Pete Beach, FL. He sources, develops and markets natural products both for himself and others.
Thank you for sharing this Sarah! It answers a lot of questions I had. It will be very interesting to see what the testing of other Cod Livers reveals.
Thanks for posting this informative article, Sarah. See you at Wise Traditions 2015 Friday!
Kim
After all this controversy, all the commentaries and analyses, the thing that gets me is that, as far as I can see, FCLO is maybe just as nutrient dense as regular old CLO and twice as bad tasting and twice as expensive. Why have we been told for so many years by WAP that less of the FCLO than CLO is needed for the same results? I’m using up what I have left in my refrigerator and then moving on to something that gives me more bang for my buck and my family can take without gagging. Nature’s Answer is a well reviewed brand and is literally 1/4 of the price.
My kids much prefer the cinnamon FCLO to the Nature’s Answer, but to each his own. Cod liver oil preference is a very personal thing which is why the WAPF has 4 brands listed under the “Best” category and 5 listed under the “Good” category so people can choose for themselves. http://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/cod-liver-oil-basics-and-recommendations/#brands
I love NRT (nutritional response testing). With it, we can ask our body if a product is beneficial, which is better than just buying on marketing or price-point when you look in the CLO aisle. Both Green Pastures and Nordic Naturals test well for my family. We’ll continue to take them as long as our bodies are asking for it!
Exactly. Thanks for bringing that up! Here’s an article with more info.
https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/kinesiology-muscle-testing-identifies-best-supplements/
I’ll see you there Sarah, and can’t wait!!
Kel
I just want to say that a few years ago I had some female issues so I took 2 tbls of fclo per day. By the third day of taking it, the heavy bleeding I had experienced for a full month finally quit. When it looked like the same thing was happening a couple of months later, I took it again (after a week of heavy bleeding) and had the same results. I know it worked wonders for me.
I did the same exact thing. I had menorrghia so bad I thought I was going to die. Literally die. It did the trick right away and no surgery or D&C needed.
Fermented cod liver oil is a godsend to many perimenopausal women with this problem.
I consider myself a fairly intelligent individual but I found a lot of that information to be confusing, not the writer’s fault of course. I’m not sure what to think but I’ll probably hold off on buying more for the time being. I have much to ponder….
Hi Willow,
I wrote the article…….what questions did you have?
are you still endorsing FCLO despite all the injuries reported?
I still take it myself as does my family if that is what you mean. I’ve read all the claims of injury and find them incredibly non-compelling. It could be anything in the diet or lifestyle of these individuals that could be the cause of these problems. To blame it on FCLO consumption is utterly ridiculous. I mean, FCLO causing cancer? Really? I know many people who have had heart attacks and cancer who had been drinking raw milk for years. Does raw milk cause heart attacks or cancer? Of course not. If someone you knew drinking raw milk had a heart attack, would you freak out and stop drinking raw milk if you knew it to be beneficial and had seen the positive results in your own health? Of course not.
Hi Sarah,
The issue with your argument is that, it could be used (and is used all the time) regarding vaccines, for example. For argument sake, I’m just going to change your words above a bit: Vaccines causing autism? Really? I’ve read all the claims of injury and find them incredibly non-compelling. It could be anything in the diet or lifestyle of these individuals that could be the cause of these problems. To blame it on vaccines is utterly ridiculous.
The issue is, many of us on these blogs, do rely on anecdotal evidence to make some of our decisions about the safety of medications, drugs, supplements, vaccines, etc. We don’t trust those benefiting from the sale of the product. We feel after hearing so many stories from others, that there is just too many anecdotal tales for our comfort. We believe science, lab results, claims by the producers, etc are often misrepresent.
Therefore, it seems a little ridiculous to brush it off when there a large number of claims about FCLO. If it were just 1 person taking FCLO and also had cancer, I would wholeheartedly agree with you. However, a large number is concerning. Folks who noticed drastic improvements after removing the FCLO from their diet is a bit concerning.
FCLO is, afterall, and ingredient recommended by WAPF for baby formula. This is my infant we’re talking about! You don’t believe I should take pause and be concerned about health claims? You don’t think I should be concerned about the severe lack of concern shown by Dave Wetzel?
I don’t see Dave Wetzel as unconcerned at all! Have you signed up for the Green Pasture newsletter? He has been coming out with many articles and testing information which rebuts Dr. Daniel’s sensationalist piece. I understand your concern for your baby, as this is a very sensitive thing to consider for one so young. If it’s any comfort to you, I’ve used the FCLO since it came out in 2007 for my 3 children .. my youngest was a baby at the time. All three are happy and healthy and have been taking it since then. I attribute the FCLO with support of their immune system such that they haven’t required antibiotics ever in their lives (my oldest is 17).
Thanks, Jonathan! I loved reading this. Was an easy read and your style is great. Thought you brought some great points to the discussion.
I want to add a little bit and seek some clarification on a few points:
1) You mention there are two stages of oxidation. From what I have been reading, there are more than two stages. After peroxides are converted to aldehydes (stage 2), they are then converted to carboxylic acids – from which FFAs are made. So, FFAs as a result of a third stage is not unreasonable, although certainly not conclusive evidence of oxidation.
2) I don’t think that the 82% DHA and 44% EPA are what you think they are, or I misunderstood the report or what you wrote. First 82% + 44% is more than 100%. Second, I don’t think those numbers are meant to be a ratio, but instead to be references from a particular part of a lab report than can be compared to other reports. The report specifically says that this is “Sn-2 position specificity” percentage. I don’t know exactly what that means, but it doesn’t seem to be the ratio of DHA:EPA, or a percentage of amount of product of each.
3) “Anchovies are the only wild fish that regularly has more EPA than DHA” Everything that I have found in studying this says something far different. What I have found is that ONLY Atlantic Cod has higher DHA than EPA. All other fishes have higher EPA than DHA. If anchovies are the only wild fish that regularly has more EPA than DHA, then how could the product be Cod or Pollock or anything else except anchovies – unless you’re saying that perhaps they are farmed? That would explain the being fed anchovies comment, I guess.
4) “I have no idea how Green Pasture ferments their livers, but the majority of fermented products use some sort of starter material to initiate the process that contains acidic material. That, and acidic byproducts released during the fermentation process would cause the FFA value to falsely skip up a percentage or four.” GPP says that the acid by products from their product are removed during centrifuging. “Lactic acid is a highly water soluble acid and is extracted from the resulting oil during the pulling and centrifugation of the oil. To be certain of this, Green Pastures has measured the pH of the resulting water layer (brine) at the end of the fermentation process and found it to be between 4.8 and 5.04 (see attached testing from Midwest Laboratories).” http://www.greenpasture.org/fermented-cod-liver-oil-butter-oil-vitamin-d-vitamin-a/scientific-analysis-of-dr-jacob-friest/
5) You mentioned that there wasn’t much evidence pointing to the product being Pollock or as you put it, “at least, not enough to assume fraud.” So, if Pollock WAS used, would it be your opinion then that it was fraud? GPP has admitted to using Pollock. They also said they thought that CLO made with anything from the Gadidae family is CLO in their opinion, although they didn’t specifically state that they have ever used any other fish.
Thanks again for your contribution!
By the way, I hope any of you reading this can find a way to attend the Wise Traditions Conference this weekend. There will be an announcement of some very important test results concerning multiple brands of cod liver oil that should interest you. By the way, the exhibit hall, I’m told, is sold out! It’s going to be a great crowd, so hope you can join us.
Hi Steve,
Thanks for your comments.
To reply:
1). A free fatty acid could technically occur at ANY time during the fatty acid lifecycle, it’s just most likely to occur during the primary phase of oxidation since most FA’s come attached to a glycerol molecule and would become detached when the FA’s begin the oxidation process. so an increase in FFA’s would usually coincide with primary oxidation markers.
2). AFAIK FA oxidation is considered to occur in two phases, not three. However the secondary process is much more heterogeneous since it creates a greater diversity of compounds, so maybe you could classify some of them as markers of tertiary oxidation although I’ve never seen it referred to that way.
3). If the “scorched-earth” interpretation of the FA levels was true I can’t imagine why you’d still have high levels of EPA/DHA intact which are very sensitive to oxidation.
4). The 82% and 44% numbers for EPA and DHA are not meant to be a ratio of one to the other, but the percentage of each that were identified at the SN-2 position in the glycerol backbone. It says nothing about the absolute amounts of either one or the relative amounts of one to the other.
Let me know if I’m not making sense with this.
5). I used the info from that report from a conversation I had with a QC analyst at GOED: http://www.goedomega3.com/, so I’m not sure exactly how to respond. Perhaps he was talking about species of fish that are regularly farmed for their EPA/DHA content moreso than all species of fish in general.
6). That’s a good point and something I hadn’t considered. I wrote the article strictly from Kaayla Daniels’ report and not from GPP’s website material. The test would still have a tendency to be biased upwards but if we were to take the GPP statement at its word then the amount f bias would be ‘not by much’
7). I don’t think the DNA test and NMR report suggest adulteration. To me the closest thing to a smoking gun in the report is the EPA/DHA ratio and presence of trans fat which is very unusual for cod liver oil. It could point to a weakness in testing since DHA levels are usually underrated in FA tests, some level of oxidation, mixed suppliers from different parts of the world, the use of farmed fish (which are more likely to have irregular FA levels), or spiking with different oils.
8). If it was pollock I’m honestly not sure if I’d consider it fraud or not to be honest.
Jonathan, Thanks for your thoughtful replies. Do you have any thoughts on why the FFA levels are elevated? You mentioned that they could be formed any time in the oxidation process, but typically in the first phase. The manufacturer of FCLO has stated that there is an initial spike in PV, like on day 3, up to around 20, with an accompanying rise in AV that they say they don’t understand, but they don’t think it is oxidation.
I’m not sure how useful it is as a comparison chart because there are no conditions listed. I’m assuming that the FCLO line is showing product that is fermenting in sealed vats. I don’t know what the others are showing, since they are not being fermented, or if they are in an anaerobic environment or not.
So my question is first, is it possible that the FFAs are a byproduct of oxidation and we still see plenty of DHA and EPA in the product because the oxidation chain reaction runs out of oxygen around day 3 in the sealed vats and we then see a degradation of the built up peroxides and aldehydes over the next few days? If possible, is it a likely explanation of some of the facts we have that seem incongruous – spike in PV, high FFAs, still adequate levels of EPA/DHA?