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Nutritional pioneer Dr. Weston A. Price commonly referred to the wonder nutrient Vitamin K2 as “Activator X”. Did you know that emu oil is one of the highest food sources of this elusive and critical nutrient on the entire planet?
K2 holds great promise for healing chronic and degenerative disease. Credible research indicates its power to reverse arterial calcification, improve varicose veins and prevent menopause symptoms. Vitamin K2 can prevent wrinkles too.
The problem is that it is extremely difficult to get sufficient quantities of this fat soluble vitamin in the diet even if whole foods based.
The vast majority of people don’t even come close to getting enough, currently estimated to be a minimum of 45 mcg/day.
In particular, MK-4, the potent form of vitamin K2 found in animal foods is extremely difficult to obtain in the diet. Grassbased foods are one of the best sources, but relying only on grassbased foods for MK-4 is risky due to the worrisome depletion of our soils which will take several decades if not even a century or two to reverse on a widespread basis.
Unfortunately, it is prohibitively expensive to isolate and put natural K2 in the form MK-4 into a supplement. Consequently, the MK-4 supplements that are available on the market are synthetic.
Another downside of synthetically derived MK-4 supplements is that the vitamin K 2 does not remain at therapeutic levels in the blood for very long — only a few hours. As a result, to maintain useful levels of K2 in the blood throughout the day, periodic dosing every few hours with MK-4 supplements is required (1).
Emu Oil Compared with Other K2 Sources
Seeking to obtain vitamin K2 solely from food is also a challenge. Natto is the food highest in Vitamin K2, but it is difficult to source and even more difficult to consume due to its strong taste, off-putting smell, and slimy texture. Natto contains up to 1,103 mcg of K2 per 3.5 ounce (100 gram) portion which is significantly higher than every other food. Unfortunately, there is no MK-4 in natto, only a less potent form of K2 known as MK-7.
The second highest food in vitamin K2 is goose liver pate which has 369 mcg of K2 (100% as MK-4) per 3.5 ounce (100 gram) portion. While delicious and wonderful to eat, goose liver pate is hard to find. It is also a high end, gourmet food which makes the price out of reach for most.
Rounding out the top 3 foods highest in vitamin K2 is none other than the humble Gouda cheese, which boasts 75 mcg per 3.5 ounce (100 gram) serving (only 6% as MK-4). This compares to pastured egg yolks and butter, which each have about 15 mcg of K2 (100% as MK-4) on average per 3.5 ounce (100 gram) portion.
MK-7 Supplements Second best to Food Based MK-4 like Oil from Pastured Emus
Given the difficulty of getting enough K2 via the diet (45 mcg/day minimum based on population studies and data obtained from vitamin K 2 doses given in clinical trials with several hundred mcg/day likely a much better target) and the synthetic nature of MK-4 supplements, I have in the past opted to take a vitamin K2 supplement derived from natto (nonGMO soybeans), which is the form of vitamin K2 known as MK-7. This is the same K2 you would get if you actually ate natto.
The problem with taking just MK-7 supplements, however, is potentially missing out on the extremely potent benefits of natural MK-4 found in animal foods. As mentioned above, the highest food based source for MK-4 is goose liver pate which is hard to find and expensive. Grassfed butter and egg yolks (regular eggs and butter would have little to no vitamin K2) contain some K2 as MK-4 but not enough to easily reach the goal of at least 45 mcg/day (vitamin K2 has no known toxicity level). Besides, consuming 3.5 ounces of grassfed butter per day (nearly a quarter of a pound) to obtain 15 mcg of K2 seems a bit unrealistic even for those of us who eat a lot!
And, what about those who are allergic to dairy or eggs? This makes it nearly impossible to get any natural MK-4 in the diet.
Fortunately, research on an ancestral Australian superfood, emu oil, has now made the task much easier.
Emu Oil is Extremely High in MK-4
The benefits of emu oil have been recently discovered via testing as it contains nearly as much of the elusive form of vitamin K2, MK-4, per 100 grams as goose liver pate.
No wonder the Australian Aboriginals considered oil from the emu to be a sacred food. This ancestral society has prized the emu as food and “bush medicine” for thousands of years. The native bird is even part of their mythology known as “Dreamtime”.
It wasn’t until 1860 that the traditional use of emu oil by the Aboriginals was first recorded by G. Bennett in his Gatherings of a Naturalist in Australasia.
Not just any emu oil, however.
Not All Emu Oil is Beneficial
The most biologically active emu oil loaded with K2, 100% as the potent MK-4, comes from a specific genotype of emu only found in Australia. All emus outside of Australia are interbred and do not contain this special genetics.
In addition, the Australian emus must not be fed GMO feed or be subjected to antibiotics, growth hormones or chemicals of any kind. They must be allowed to live and reproduce in their natural habitat eating their natural diet.
When emus are raised in this fashion, their fat accumulates large amounts of K2. This fat is what enables these birds to survive the extremely harsh environment and climate of the Australian outback. The emu’s fat stores allows it to store food and energy when it is needed most: during droughts, food and water shortage and especially during the reproduction phase each season.
During mating season, the male emu sits on his mate’s cluster of eggs for 54 days straight without food or water intake of any kind. The male emu does not even have a bowel movement during this important time. All hibernating animals such as bears, hedgehogs and snakes also accumulate this type of vitamin K2 rich fat. However, only the emu is able to provide this nutrient rich oil on a commercial basis.
Where to get Emu Oil from Pastured Australian Emus
I was privileged to be able to get to know Liz Schlinsog, one of the pioneers of Australian emu oil, who I met at a Wise Traditions Conference in Atlanta. She got me started with researching this sacred food and since that time, I’ve been using it myself (this is what I buy). I have been so thrilled with this special emu oil that I was relieved when I learned that my friends at Radiant Life were interested in carrying the product as the very first distributor here in North America so that others could also try it for themselves.
Currently, this indigenous Australian emu oil is available in capsules and liquid. Having used both, I would suggest that the liquid form is best used as a lotion because it is extremely thick (and feels absolutely gorgeous on the skin). The capsules are best used as a K2 supplement.
Each 1 gram capsule of unadulterated Australian emu oil with nothing added and nothing taken away has been found by lab tests to contain approximately 3.6 mcg of K2 (100% as MK-4).
This means that taking 2 capsules in the morning and 2 in the evening would give you about the same amount of K2 as consuming 3.5 ounces (nearly 1/4 lb) of pastured butter.
Does Emu Oil Replace MK-7 Supplements?
The answer to this question is really up to you based on how much K2 you are trying to consume each day. According to the book Vitamin K2 and the Calcium Paradox, a few hundred mcg/day of K2 is a good idea for therapeutic reasons. In that case, using a nonGMO natto extract supplement in conjunction with the emu oil would be wise as it would be prohibitive to take just emu oil.
What About High Vitamin Butter Oil?
High vitamin butter oil is a good source of K2, but to my knowledge, there is no published data on the amount of K2 in it. The best I could find was from the book Vitamin K2 and the Calcium Paradox which lists pastured butter as containing 15 mcg per 3.5 ounces/100 grams.
Emu oil contains significantly more vitamin K2 than pastured butter with each 3.5 ounces/100 grams containing 360 mcg (24X more than pastured butter). Capsules of high vitamin butter oil would contain a fraction of the K2 as compared with capsules of the emu oil based on this data.
I think the bottom line is to get vitamin K2 from a wide variety of whole foods. Given that the amount of K2 in a food can tend to vary, this is especially important! The Australian Emu Oil provides an excellent option, particularly for those who are allergic to dairy or do not have access to pastured products. It ensures that this critical nutrient is being consumed in adequate amounts as potent MK-4.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Sources and More Information:
Gatherings of a Naturalist in Australasia
Vitamin K2 and the Calcium Paradox
Researchers Look to Emus for the Good Oil, Sydney Morning Herald (April 16, 2013)
Most people want fancy TVs and cars…. I am like, I WANT SOME EMU OIL!! haha, my idea of luxury….
Thanks for the laugh, Carly! I love your idea of luxury.
I shutter to think just how that oil is obtained.
I just ordered the emu oil to try on my chronic scaling dermatitis/eczema on my face. So far it can only be controlled with strong cortisone ointment. I’ve tried many other natural oils with no success. For $20 it is a low investment for a hopeful remedy. I will also pass some on to my nearly 80 year old mother who is in the first stages of arthritis in her hands. Thanks for sharing this information.
My mother in law has used it with some relief.
I am curious what it means that the emus outside of Australia are all interbred. What if one received a fertile egg from there and hatched it and raised it. I only ask because my DSIL raises emus and eats their meat and makes oil from their fat. Her males do the same thing of sitting on the eggs and would therefore need the same fat stores to make it 54 days, the only difference is they are in Texas which sometimes reminds me of the outback but obviously is not. Has someone actually tested the oil from US emus and found they do NOT have K2? I also have 4 emus but have never butchered one for meat or oil. However her oil that we have used on muscle problems and skin has worked great.
As mentioned in the post, the emu also needs to be eating its natural diet in its native environment.
I can understand the point of eating their natural diet, so presumably they must eat something else that has K2 that is found in Australia or their body needs something unusual to create it within themselves. Do you know of a study that tested US emu oil for K2 though? And do you know what interbred is referring to because I don’t think it means bred with another species?
As to emu oil, I can’t help you with that. However, I just returned from an extensive grazing seminar. The grass from western US soils tends to be more sparse and short than grass grown in the eastern US. However, the soils are more highly mineralized due to less rain being available. So, a cow has less to eat, but what she does eat is more nutrient dense. In the east, cows have larger stomachs (rumens) so that they can eat a great quantity of “washy” grass and get the nutrition she needs. The cow who is adapted to her environment can make her living from what is available. You can’t take Arizona cattle to Missouri or vice versa. Each place needs a unique skill set to survive.
As for depleted soils. We used to think it took 100 years to build an inch of top soil. Now, we have learned that if you support natural processes, top soil can be built much more quickly. If you have 12 worms per square foot, they can build 3 inches of soil Per Year (per Joel Salatin)! It’s a matter of working with natural processes to enrich the soil biology. It’s the soil that feeds the grass and therefore the cow. My point in all of this is, find a farmer you trust who is grass based and patronize them. The environment is resilient and can feed us perfectly well if we let it function. Humans have made a mess out of the soil, but humans are also working very hard to fix the mess. It’s not as hopeless as you may think (:
I ask this question in all sincerity, not at all to be snarky.
If we are supposed to be eating as traditional people ate, how is it possible that we need foods/nutrients that were NEVER IN our ancestors’ diets? I live in America and am of European ancestry. I think it’s safe to say none of my ancestors in Spain and Germany had access to Emu oil OR consumed huge quantities of goose liver, pate, or ounces of butter each day. No matter how far back you go. In fact, the farther back you go the LESS likely it is that these things were in their diets.
So, please help us understand why anyone other than Australian Aborigines are programmed to need/use Emu oil, or why anyone other that Japanese people need natto?
(I have heard that Blue Emu, available in pharmacies, is an excellent topical pain reliever. Have not tried it myself.)
thanks!
Melinda, I think the last paragraph sums it up. It is an option. In fact when I read the article this morining that is really what I got from it. Options. If you eat only traditional and unprocessed food I dont think you can go wrong eating local anywere in the world. at least that is my take away.
Sorry, John, but that really doesn’t answer my question. IF we are supposed to be eating in a traditional way, then surely that system of eating, wherever on the globe our ancestors are from, would be complete for that population. And if that is the case (as seems logical to me) then why would people of European or African ancestry need these products? We are not far enough away from those ancestral eating habits to have our physiology changed (although clearly the nutrient density of our foods has changed.)
I’m not understanding your question as emu oil and natto are both traditional foods our ancestors ate. And K2 was a nutrient they obtained much more easily via diet than we do today when food was more nutrient rich and animals were pastured on grass that was growing on rich (as opposed to depleted) soil.
Sorry, but that’s STILL not logical. Who are “our ancestors”? You are not descended from Australian Aborigines or people from Japan and neither am I! Our ancestors clearly did NOT eat these things, and it seems logical that they did not NEED these things. You have demonstrated that grass fed animals produce limited amounts of these nutrients you say are important for us, and we’d have to eat staggering (and unrealistic) amounts to get the nutrients. So, if we are supposed to follow ancestral/traditional eating systems, and these things were not present in OUR ancestry, why would we need them?
Again, not trying to be snarky but the logic is problematic.
Melinda I think what Sarah is trying to say is that regardless of where your ancestors came from their food was much more nutrient dense than ours today due to depletion of soils therefore even if your ancestors were not eating Natto or Emu oil they were still getting much more K2 in their diets from the richer pastures that their animals fed from. Being that it is harder to get these higher levels of K2 from pastured animals today, Emu oil and Natto are other ways to get it in our diet.
Thank you, Tracey.
Is the transdermal application a reliable dosing method? I’m concerned about my ability to tolerate the capsules due to my being highly sensitive to anything ingested.
Tara, I really don’t know. I have not seen any research on how well K2 absorbs via skin application.
Are you still getting the K2 benefits from using the oil/lotion?
Possibly but I have not seen any research on how much K2 absorbs via the skin. It is a luxuriously rich oil though and for skin benefits, it is lovely.
Oh my Lord!! Those capsules are crazy expensive!! It’s hard enough to keep FCLO in the house, so I doubt I’ll be trying emu oil any time soon.
I have a question: you are talking about goose liver pate, but does it necesserily have to be pate? Can’t we just eat goose liver, which is certainly cheaper? I was thinkig about why the process of making pate would enrich the goose liver in extra vitamins – as far as I know it only requires blending the liver and baking it. It does not involve fermentation or anything like that – please, correct me if I’m wrong.
Yes, just eat the goose liver if you like. Goose liver pate is concentrated which is probably why the K2 is so high per 100 grams … to make pate, the liver is cooked with various seasonings and then blended up so it would be more dense than just goose liver by itself.
Great Post regarding this oil, I have also read on this site that coconut oil is very good depending on the brand. Has anyone tried Barleans Virgin Pressed Coconut Oil? It is 100% USDA organic and Cold-Expeller Pressed Fresh/NonHydrogenated without transfat. Is Cold-Expeller pressed coconut oil good or not. I read an earlier post regarding coconut oil and I am not sure about this process.
Thanks
Coconut oil is great but it has no vitamin K2 in it (or vitamin D or A for that matter). The fat in coconut oil (either expeller pressed or virgin is fine) which is healthful and wonderful is a completely different type than what is in emu oil.
Hey Sarah,
Would it be advisable to take coconut oil/Cod liver oil/Emu oil simultaneously?
Thanks
Definitely, there would be nothing wrong with this. The best type of coconut oil is Tropical Traditions Gold Label if you are wanting the absolute best, it’s more costly of course.
Regarding Butter Oil, according to Dr Weston Price’s Book “Nutrition and Physical Degeneration” he was getting fantastic results using Spring butter oil and cod liver oil (most likely wasn’t fermented cod liver oil). What has changed? Why do we not know the amount of k2 in butter oil? Because there is many variables just like in any given food. I make my own butter oil from 100% grassfed raw Spring butter and I can tell you its bright yellow/orange and pours at 65F. The cows are eating 30-40 or more different kinds of grass and they are moved to fresh grass 3 times/day. Its not hard to make unheated raw butter oil. Some of GP’s products have only 2ml/butter oil/per serving, is this enough? Not very many people know what real butter oil tastes or looks like.
Chuck how do you make unheated raw butter oil?
I’ll give you some hints. If you were to take 1 pound of 100% raw grassfed butter from cows eating many types of fresh grass (end of May early June in the Northeast) (the cows eat the tops of the grass) and remove the moisture, milks solids and all the wax from the 1 pound of butter you will end up with 5-6 oz of pure unheated raw butter oil that is bright yellow/orange. It will pour nicely at 65F and taste fantastic. Dr Weston Price spent years researching butter and used the best of the best and got excellent results. I don’t eat salads anymore….I just take a couple spoons of my butter oil, the cows do all the chewing for me. I also use butter oil for oil pulling 4-5 times a week.
How do you do this?… “remove the moisture, milks solids and all the wax”
What’s the difference between this and Ghee?
The difference between high vitamin butter oil and ghee? Ghee is ultra pasteurized butter (the butter is heated to a boil and then you would continue to heat it for X amount of time)
Most of the milk solids will settle at the bottom of the pan, a small amount will foam at the top. You remove the foam, pour off the melted butter without the milk solids on the bottom.
End result, you have an ultra pasteurized product that is mostly melted wax with some butter oil that was heated above 200F. I’m not here to say this product is good or bad. We know all the enzymes were destroyed. Who knows what happens to the vitamins and amino acids when this product is heated above 200F. This would be a question for Chris Masterjohn PHD
Ghee is not ultra pasteurized nor is it even pasteurized. It is simply heated gently and slowly on a stovetop to remove the milk solids. Pasteurization is a violent, and very denaturing process that requires specialty equipment to bring the milk to a very hot temperature within seconds. Ultrapasteurization is even worse and basically sterilizes the milk so that it can be shelf stable in UHT cartons for months.
More thoughts on Ghee. Your correct, I shouldn’t have called it ultra pasteurized butter. I should have called it “slow very high temperature pasteurized butter. Ghee is heated twice, when you make it and when you cook with it. When you low temperature fry with ghee it reaches ultra pasteurized temperature (275F) on the surface of the frying pan where the ghee is located. Sarah, your Ghee Video says bring the butter to a boil and brown the milk solids on the bottom. A thermocouple near the bottom would most likely show 250F to 300F. Is heating a healthy oil to these temperatures (slow or very fast) healthy for humans? Not very likely. Pottenger proved heated, processed, and denatured foods didn’t work very well with cats.
Ghee production requires heating to the boiling temperature of water (212F), which far exceeds the temperatures used for ordinary pasteurization (about 145-150F). Ultrapasteurization is done at about 285F.
It is wrong to describe ghee production as “gentle heating” compared to pasteurization. Ghee is done at temperatures HIGHER than pasteurization, and for longer duration.
Ghee does not contain much protein, so the denaturing effect of the heat is minimal.
Sarah-you seem to write a LOT of things that are plain wrong. Please check your facts!
http://www.webexhibits.org/butter/clarified.html