After an initial review of Kaayla Daniel Ph.D.’s report on Green Pasture Products, I felt it necessary to state my current position as a consumer and as a Board member of the Weston A. Price Foundation.
I know it is important to many of you that I weigh in on this issue since it is potentially so upsetting to those who have been using Green Pasture Products and giving them to your children as I have for years.
In this report, Dr. Daniel contends that the Green Pasture’s fermented cod liver oil and butter oil products are rancid and harmful to health. Furthermore, she claims that lab tests show that the fermented cod liver oil isn’t even from cod and is low in the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, and K2.
These are serious accusations indeed and ones that cause alarm coming from a professional as highly qualified as Dr. Daniel.
To give you some background, my relationship with Dr. Daniel began in 2007 when I met her at the annual Wise Traditions conference. I found her to be intelligent and good-humored … with a blog named The Naughty Nutritionist how could you be too serious, right? Over the years she has been a great supporter of the Weston A. Price Foundation’s work, serving on the Board most recently as its Vice President. She has written many articles for the Weston A. Price website and Wise Traditions Journal. Some of her articles appear here on The Healthy Home Economist website.
So, for Dr. Daniel to deliver a lengthy report that calls into question the integrity of one of the most highly regarded producers of nutrient-dense food supplements is a matter to be taken seriously. And I have. And, I can assure you, so has the Foundation.
First of all, let’s look at what we know by way of general background:
- Cod liver oil and butter oil were both used by Dr. Weston A. Price DDS in his research early in the last century and considered nutrient-dense foods high in the fat-soluble activators.
- Green Pastures has been producing and selling cod liver oil and butter oil since at least since 2003 when I was first introduced to the company. The fermented cod liver oil debuted in 2007, and I immediately switched my family to this product which we have been using ever since with stellar results. I know many of you have experienced the same because you have written to me about it.
- Green Pasture Product’s fermented cod liver oil has been tested by two independent labs – one in the USA and in the UK – and found to be free of rancidity while containing valuable nutrients. These tests served as the basis for the WAPF Board deciding in 2014 that claims of rancidity were unfounded.
- Many leaders in the Real Food community, including Foundation President Sally Fallon Morell, have studied these products in detail and toured the facilities (yes, I’m one of those bloggers Dr. Daniel says were given VIP tours – but what Dr. Daniel fails to mention is that I wasn’t even blogging yet at the time of my tour) and have been convinced of their authenticity and quality – to the point we have been using them ourselves and giving them to our children for nearly 9 years with excellent results – always in the proper dosage and never to excess.
- Two different laboratories have found mostly vitamin D2 in Green Pasture Products cod liver oil, and Dave was honest enough to share this surprising information with the public. Also, the extra virgin cod liver oil (Rosita) was found to contain mostly D2 by one of these labs as well. This is something that intrigues the Weston A. Price Foundation Board very much and there are plans in motion already to look into this further.
Secondly, let’s look at what Dr. Daniel claims in her report:
- The report makes damaging claims that the Green Pasture Products are rancid and therefore harmful and these tests were conducted by several unnamed labs using a supposedly superior testing methodology and equipment.
- The fermented cod liver oil contains average to low amounts of fat-soluble vitamins A, D, and K2.
- DNA testing shows that the fermented cod liver oil doesn’t come from cod but from the Alaskan Pollock (considered a member of the cod family).
- The fermented cod liver oil tests for transfats and the most likely way this could happen is via dilution with rancid vegetable oil of some kind.
- The High Vitamin Butter oil may come from Argentina and also tests rancid.
- Vitamin K2 is not what Dr. Price referred to as “Activator X”.
Lastly, here are the initial concerns I have about this report:
- The labs used to run these tests are unnamed with the letterhead blacked out on the actual lab reports. This is highly unorthodox and is a major red flag. There should be complete transparency here. If the lab work is credible and authentic, the lab should be more than willing to put its name behind the data like is done for other scientific research. Dr. Daniel questioned the reputation and methods of the labs that were fully transparent and reported the fermented cod liver oil to be free of rancidity and high in the fat-soluble vitamins, so shouldn’t the labs which claimed they were rancid be closely examined as well? How do we know the tests weren’t run by a rival manufacturer actively seeking to do damage to Mr. Wetzel?
- Dr. Daniel cites Dr. Ron Schmid ND as one of the funding sources for the report who claims fermented cod liver oil caused him to contract heart disease (which in itself is a questionable claim since he is a sample size of one which is meaningless in scientific terms). In addition, by his own omission, he took excessive amounts of regular cod liver oil for many years (from 1979-2006) and then switched to fermented cod liver oil for another six years, again taking it in megadoses (1-3 Tablespoons per day … up to 9X the recommended daily dosage). This dosage equates to up to 20 teaspoons of salt or 75 glasses of water per day. Such extreme behavior that few, if any medical doctors would recommend, is not the fault of a product, but rather the fault and poor judgment of the individual taking it. It also indicates a potential lack of objectivity in the report that is concerning.
- The remainder of the report’s funding is not fully disclosed which raises another serious red flag. Were these other funding sources third parties who stand to financially gain from damaging results?
- According to a very reliable source, Dr. Daniel notified Dave Wetzel of her concerns regarding the fermented cod liver oil being rancid a year ago, and he responded with an invitation to fly her out to his facility immediately at his expense and spend as much time as she’d like to thoroughly investigate his methods. He took her concerns very seriously and had a number of tests done right away that he forwarded to her. Why Dr. Daniel didn’t respond to his efforts to address her concerns remains unanswered.
Being the professional I know her to be, Dr. Daniel would certainly understand my concerns and would welcome healthy, rigorous scrutiny of the lab work and methods used for testing. I look forward to more clarification on these issues in the coming weeks and months as well as as a point by point rebuttal by Mr. Wetzel. There are always two sides to every story.
In the meantime, given the excellent results I have observed in my own family consuming fermented cod liver oil and high vitamin butter oil for the past 9 years, I see no concrete reason to make any changes until the claims in this report have been thoroughly substantiated with complete and utter transparency. I do very much agree with Dr. Daniel that more study is warranted.
The jury is still out on this and I, for one, am not going to knee jerk and abruptly change what has been working extremely well for my family for many years along with many other families I know.
I hope this summary of my thoughts helps in some way as you decide what is best for your own family.
UPDATES
The Weston A. Price Foundation has now published a lengthy response to Dr. Daniel’s report. Click here to review it.
Also, Dr. Chris Masterjohn has published an excellent rebuttal to Dr. Daniel’s report. Click here to review it. I, for one, have now decided to stick with the fermented cod liver oil as I have for the past 9 years based on this thorough analysis!
Trans fats in FCLO? Not so fast! Here are the latest test results.
More Information
Doctor’s Orders: Why Your Family Needs Fermented Cod Liver Oil
Fermented Cod Liver Oil: Myths and Truths of an Ancient Superfood
The fact that Dr Daniel is the Vice-President of WAPF says something to me. Quotes from another story:
“The fact that the accusation comes from Kaayla Daniel is revealing of just how deep the fissure over cod liver oil goes at WAPF. Daniel is the WAPF vice president, while Sally Fallon Morrell is its president. (Daniel is also on the board of the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund.) The two are even co-authors of a book published earlier this year, Nourishing Broth.
In her report, Daniel says she first became concerned about the integrity of the Green Pasture cod liver oil last summer, when she heard and read some of the same reports I referred to in my blog post of last October. But she says her efforts to get WAPF to investigate ran into a brick wall.
“As I reeled in the evidence, I came to believe there was something seriously wrong with FCLO. I thought the Weston A. Price Foundation should get to the bottom of it, and advised Sally Fallon Morell that we needed to test the Green Pasture Fermented Cod Liver Oil product properly and not just rely on David Wetzel’s assurances and his testing. I expressed concerns to her and later to WAPF’s Board of Directors about probable rancidity and possible putrefaction, and said I was skeptical of data showing improbably high levels of Vitamin D2 in the product. I furthermore shared reports from clinicians who were finding severe Vitamin D deficiencies among some members who were regularly taking FCLO. As Vice President of WAPF, I felt the safety of our members and the credibility of the foundation were at stake.
“In December 2014, WAPF’s Board of Directors voted against testing based on Sally Fallon Morell’s beliefs, David Wetzel’s assurances, and scientific data of limited and questionable value. I was strongly advised to relax, leave the science to people who could be ‘fair to Dave’ and to toe the FCLO line.
“Instead I went underground and set out on my own to test FCLO at some of the world’s top laboratories.”
She says her tests, at five independent labs in the U.S., Norway, and the Netherlands, confirmed her worst fears. “Lab tests indicate the Green Pasture Fermented Cod Liver Oil is rancid; putrid; low in the fat-soluble vitamins A, D and K; apparently diluted with a trans-fat containing vegetable oil — and not even from cod. We have reliable reports that the X-Factor Gold Butter Oil comes from Argentina, not the Great Plains, and it tests rancid as well. And contrary to Green Pasture’s advertising, Dr. Weston A. Price’s own words make it clear that these are not products he would ever have endorsed.”
Actually, the “fissure” isn’t deep at all. Dr. Daniel has stepped out on her own with this … no one else on the board agreed with her or her position on this and never did. The WAPF already tested the FCLO independently last year and it came back non-rancid. Why Dr. Daniel has chosen this path is head scratching.
Sarah,
Can you give some more information about the testing that was done and posted on the WAPF website? I’m wondering why that lab was chosen, and who paid for the test, since unlike the reports in Dr. Daniel’s reports where the “client” was blacked out, there was no client information at all, which seemed strange. Do you know how the sample was obtained? In his rebuttal post of a few days ago, David quotes that same doctor, but the quote wasn’t in the report that WAPF posted, so I started getting curious. Is this a lab that he has used in the past?
The WAPF response will be coming out very soon, and it contains all of this info in great detail. The UK lab selected and paid for independently by the WAPF to test the FCLO for rancidity was NOT the same lab Dave uses to test each batch of his product. And, this UK lab was carefully chosen which is why the Board felt very comfortable voting 7-1 against further testing because we strongly felt the rancidity claims were groundless .. this info will all be contained in the response from the Foundation. The Board was not at all divided on this issue, I can assure you.
I was part of the small group that toured the GPP facility with Sarah and will continue to support GPP whose products have been a life saver for my family.
There is A LOT more going on here than people know and I must make the following comments.
Kaayla told me 5 years ago, when she stayed at my house, that she was unhappy with the decision that Sally Fallon made to publish her book, “The Whole Soy Story” in hardback, and felt that the decision to print in hardback vs paperback impacted the sales of this book. Similarly, Dr. Ron Schmidt share with several people at the last conference that he was displeased with editing choices that Sally made in his recent re-print of “The Untold Story of Milk.”
Rosita has been directly attacking GPP since they launched their product by directly attacking fermented cod liver oil (GPP is still the only company producing it). I have lost a lot of respect for the people involved in this activity and many of them I have know for more than 10 years.
Just as some people cannot eat night shades, or raw milk, kefir or kombucha, GPP FCLO may not be right for you, but that does not give anyone the right to viciously launch an attack of this magnitude. I literally had to stop reading Kaayla’s report because I was so disgusted by her vitriol. Thank you Sarah for pointing out the inaccuracies in her report because I could not read another word. I think the truth will come to light.
Great points again Carrie. The behavior of Rosita in the market place is very telling to me, and is one reason that I cannot trust the EVCLO product. How does a company make such a polished effort to be so ‘pure and pristine’ with their website, and then spit venom at a company like Green Pasture? It makes no sense. Unless you are a predator. A wolf in sheep’s clothing. If Rosita really cared about customers and health, they would be singing the praises of Green Pasture. The world is certainly big enough for both of them.
Dave Wetzel may not have the most beautiful website, but he certainly has the better products, and he certainly has contributed far more knowledge to the community.
I have long been a member of the Weston Price Foundation, and have closely followed Dr. Price’s diet recommendations. For many years my family consumed a daily dose of fermented fish oil, but about four years ago, I found that I could no longer stomach this oil. It made me sick! When I switched to regular fish oil, from a very dependable source, I was fine. I’m not sure why this is so, but I tested it several times over. Maybe there is some truth to Dr. Daniel’s report.
I am reading the comments about person’s levels of vitamin d. If one relies on FCLO only for vitamin d then of course the levels will be low. No matter how good the quality of the FCLO is. The best vitamin d you can take is with the sun. It’s natural. Get outside and get some sun. Now in the winter months by all mean FCLO but in summer there is sun everywhere
Sarah, thank you for this very clear and measured response to Dr. Daniel’s report. Your voice of sanity is greatly appreciated. Let’s move forward and resolve the controversy in a respectful and productive way!
I’ve been regularly checking my son’s D levels for a few years now. His D was 24 while taking D3 drops then plunged to 13 while taking FCLO.
There doesn’t seem to be any middle ground with FCLO. People either find it beneficial or in our case, worthless (but quite expensive). Personally felt better taking Carlson’s brand.
I’ve gone through the “report” and I have not been thwarted from taking and giving my 5 year old son the FCLO we still have left, which will be a while as we don’t take it daily. I will hold off on recommending the products and will not continue to purchase if the accusations are true because I can’t support a business deliberately selling an inferior product, however the health benefits we’ve received from FCLO outweigh the purported “rancidity.”
This is very poor form of Dr. Daniels. How WAPF handles their response will be very telling.
I have been mildly curious about the new “extra virgin CLO” on the market. At first, they marketed themselves as something fresh and new (which it sounds to be) but not very long after their launch, they started pointing fingers at the fermented CLO crowd. Very poor form. If a product is really all that great, then it will build a following, because word will get around about it. It will have integrity, because it is a good product. But comparing your product to another one (by saying bad things about the other, even if they are true) is very poor business practices. If the EVCLO company is truly behind this, using Dr. Daniels as their front person, then I shall never consume their product because I would not want to be consuming their dirty mud-slinging methods.
I have read *some* of Dr. Daniels reports. She brings up a few points I think are valid and worth further review. But her overall tone is one of criticism…leading the reader to particular conclusion. If one isn’t thinking for themselves, they may be swayed by her tone.
The fact she blacks out the names of the labs basically removes any credibility to her report. Should she decide to re-publish with the names of the labs, she might gain some credibility back, but she has already damaged her reputation. She makes no explanation for why she does not choose to disclose the lab names.
I also find it strange that the ENTIRE report is about the Green Pasture products. Why does she focus on GP products? Why does she care? Why not include other cod liver products?
The whole hoo-haw she makes about “fermentation” is a distraction. She criticizes the FCLO as being fermented when it is not produced by lacto-fermentation. Anyone who has read any of Sandor Katz’s books (or any other book on fermented foods) knows that the word fermentation covers a lot of different methods, only some of which involve the use of lactic acid bacteria.
While I will continue to use GP’s products, I would love to see other choices in the marketplace as for FCLO. I’m sure there is more than enough room for other companies to produce their own quality FCLO.
I agree … without the labs being named, the report is worth little as nothing can be verified as true and accurate. If the labs had her sign nondisclosures to ensure withholding of their names in her “report”, this means the labs are either not confident in the accuracy of the results and/or the conclusions that Dr. Daniel comes to and thus are concerned about litigation.
The UK lab that the WAPF used to independently test the FCLO is named in this document along with the results … complete transparency and it was written in Feb 2015: http://www.westonaprice.org/uncategorized/concerns-about-fermented-cod-liver-oil/
This is very very sad. I hope it is cleared up soon. I feel terrible that I could have recommended such a product for so long and it not be what it claims to be. I pray this is false and the product proves to be what it has claimed to be.
This controversy almost makes me happy because I hate taking FCLO. Some small voice in brain whispered, whoo hoo! But seriously I adore the foundation and hate to see infighting. As a small fringe group we have to stick together. It’s unsettling to watch the VP go off message.
Polyunsaturated oils are VERY unstable, oxidizing quickly when exposed to oxygen, light and heat—even just sitting in a bottle, but also when they go into our bodies—and turning rancid. (including
omegas) Also Fermented foods require a glucose source to create (metabolize) a by-product e.g. lactic acid that prevents the food from decomposing. The result is a pleasant sour taste that one would find with sauerkraut, pickles, yogurt, etc. Cod liver oil has no glucose and cod livers have very little glucose (mostly protein, fat, water and some minerals). The livers and the oil simply go from fresh to rancid in a short period of time. If left to continue decomposing the oil will become putrid leaving a foul smell and taste.
Sadly, atlantic Cod is an over-fished and threatened species.
Why not just eat more fish and liver and gain actual benefits since it’s a food source? People got to sell you something! Even the beloved WPF…My advice to ya’ll skip your expensive rancid oil!
Javier, I do not agree with you. I live in Norway, and I make my own cod liver oil by fermenting fresh cod liver. I have never, ever seen or smelled any signs of rancidity in my oil. Even after a year of storage. I’d like to add that my nose is extremly sensitive to fishy smells.
I am very curious about your process for fermenting cod liver. Do you add anything to the livers? Is it aerobic or anaerobic? How do you store it once it is fermented?
Totally agree! Real food.