High five!
You’ve made some big changes in your family’s diet recently and are really focusing on eating organic. You’ve stopped buying boxed cereal and other processed snacks at the grocery store and are making homemade snacks and treats with wholesome ingredients instead. You’re even sprouting or soaking nuts and seeds and even your legumes and grains!
You’ve joined an organic fruit and veggie co-op and made the switch to grassfed locally produced meats. You’ve even taken the wise step of incorporating raw grassfed milk into your family’s diet.
While all these changes are wonderful and beneficial compared with how you’ve been eating, I’ve got some tough news for you.
These changes alone are not going to get you healthy.
Eating organic is not the way to health shocking as it may sound!
Gulp.
How can this be, you ask? Your diet is now light years ahead of where it was. How can this organic, whole foods diet not result in vibrant health?
Let me tell you a little story ….
The Telling Tale of the South Sea Islanders
The first Europeans to visit the South Sea Islands in the 1700’s were Captain Cook and his crew. Tahiti was truly a paradise with beautiful people whose frequent smiles revealed perfectly straight, pearly white teeth.
Dr. Weston A. Price found the same blissful environment nearly 200 years later when he arrived with his wife to study these happy, healthy people. Dr. Price noted that the bone structure of the South Sea Islanders was the most perfect of any of the 14 isolated traditional cultures he studied during his travels around the world in the 1920’s and 1930’s which he documented in the amazing book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration.
The traditional diet of the South Sea Islanders was high fat, consisting of seafood and pork with coconut the most important plant based staple.  Tropical fruits and other plants were also consumed as there were plenty available in such a temperate and ideal growing climate.
The environment and water were, of course, pristine and food was abundant.
Wouldn’t such an organic, whole foods diet be enough for health?
No, it was not.
The South Sea Islanders knew from observation and perhaps instinct that their clean, whole mixed diet was not enough to maintain their own health or to produce healthy babies and children.
The Sacred Food the South Sea Islanders Could Not Do Without
Despite having plenty of whole, nutrient dense foods available during all times of the year, the South Sea Islanders risked their lives over and over again to hunt sharks.
Once a shark was caught and brought to shore, the liver was removed and put inside the shark’s stomach which was then hung on a tree to ferment.
The oil that came out of the shark liver as it fermented provided a plethora of fat soluble vitamins A, D, and K2 to the South Sea Islander diet that was the critical missing link for vibrant health. This oil was given to growing children and young adults who were about to get married and also to pregnant women.  Such oil would have been critical to maintaining health into advanced age as well.
Dr. Price knew from research that the level of fat soluble activators in the South Sea Islander diet was about 10 times higher than the Americans of his day … and processed, devitalized foods had not even arrived in full force yet!
Fat Soluble Vitamins More Important Than Eating Organic
The story of the South Sea Islanders illustrates the critical nature of the fat soluble vitamins in the diet. Without them, no matter how pure, whole and organic a diet may be, health will not be maintained nor healthy children easily produced.
The fat soluble activators A, D, and K2 supercharge mineral absorption into the body tissues and enhance the health and function of every organ system.
Fortunately, fermented cod liver oil and fermented skate liver oil are available today that are very similar to the fermented shark liver oil consumed by the South Sea Islanders.
Please note that the typical brand name fish or krill oil and even cod liver oils on the market are highly processed, industrialized, rancid, deodorized oils that should be avoided. Â Only fermented cod and skate liver oil is processed with no heat as practiced by traditional cultures.
I have been taking these types of oils for many years and would never consider my whole foods diet complete without them. Why reinvent the wheel and experiment with the latest and greatest silver bullet supplements that seem to change every few months when traditional cultures such as the South Sea Islanders already knew what it took to have healthy babies and stay vibrantly healthy well into old age?
Where to Source Fermented Fish Liver Oils
Please refer to my Resources page for a list of companies that offer clean, purified fermented fish liver oils to provide your whole foods diet with the critical fat soluble activators A, D, and K2.
What to Do if You are Allergic to Fish
If fermented cod or skate liver oil aren’t possible for you due to a seafood allergy, note that you can obtain fat soluble vitamins in other foods valued by other Traditional cultures such as raw, grassfed butter (must be deep yellow to orange in color – sources), fish eggs (many can tolerate fish eggs even with a seafood allergy), emu oil from emus eating their native diet (sources), deep orange yolks from pastured hens, and liver from land based animals.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Source:Â Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, Dr. Weston A. Price DDS
So when you eat out, where do you eat? How do you decide where you’ll go?
Hi Sarah, I’m enjoying reading your blog. I wish i had known about it when I was pregnant with my now almost 18 month old though, because I only took one FCLO/BO capsule per day when I was pregnant – I should have been taking so much more than that! I am still breastfeeding her, and I was wondering if it is enough for me to be taking the FCLO/BO (I am taking the choc cream gel blend now, not the capsules) – will she get the benefit of it through my milk? She has not had much solid food up until just this last month, as she got eczema on her face when I intro’d egg yolk to her at 6 months and I then had a strong feeling that I should not worry about solids for her until she was over 1 yr…which I did and she is just fine now and is starting to really love food…she is my strongest baby, much stronger than my older two, who were born before I knew about WAP. I have given her the CLO a few times, but she will no longer take it now – she spits it out. So will getting it through my milk be enough?
Organic alone is not going to do it. There are many facets of eating healthy for optimum nutrition.
To order the shopping guide doI have to become a member or donate? I cant figure out a way to just order it. And I dont have a user name or password.
I don’t know what that username is for .. didn’t used to be there.
Email the WAPF office at [email protected] to get yourself mailed one. No, you do not need to be a member to buy a Shopping Guide, but please consider it – it is tax deductible and you get WONDERFUL quarterly journals jam packed with amazing and helpful info. 🙂
This journal is great- more like a book with different subject. Definitely more than a newsletter! I couldn’t believe how thick and full of info it was- when I got my first one.
The shopping guide is wonderful to slip in your purse for shopping because I can’t remember all the better brands to buy once I am in the store.
I just started reading your blog and thank you for your wealth of information.
I have a question for you regarding cod liver oil and vit D deficiency.
I get an annual physical, and this year, I was exceptionally healthy (in terms of the numbers) except for one area- vitamin D, with a level of 19. I’ve been an overall healthy, thin, active person, until after having my second son in feb 2011, when I needed major surgery because my uterus ruptured and my right ureter was damaged. Since then, I’ve been sooo sick- fighting one infection after another (uti, strep, mastitis) and have been on antibiotics more than not. Do you think the traumatic delivery and surgeries could have affected my vit D levels? I’m a sun lover, so I don’t get it. So that’s my first question. Why do people become deficient when they eat well and spend time in the sun without sunscreen? And why me personally?
I’ve been taking 2000 units of D3. It’s tough though, because I am not a vitamin person and tend to forget. So I’d like to try cod liver oil, but thought I remember reading that it’s not a good option if you are deficient and in my foggy brain, I can’t recall why. Is cod liver oil really the best choice for deficiency or is it best for maintenance?
You may be low in sulfur. If you are low in sulfur you can get sun all day long and it doesn’t convert well to the sulphated form of vitamin D which is water soluble and the type that forms on skin after sun exposure (if I am remembering all this correctly – read it sometime ago). I get sun AND take fermented cod liver oil and that is the only way I can keep my D up where I want it to be. I personally don’t like taking D on its own like you are doing. I like taking it as food with A and K2 present in the proper proportions.
A question regarding fish broth, I have made the broth and the fish bones are soft. I was wondering if the bones had any nutrition value after a 48 hour on the stove cooking? I was planing to dry the bones and make it into a fine powder and add it to the broth? Is this worth
the trouble to get whatever is left in the fish bones.
Thank you,
Frank
Sure you can do that I suppose. I’ve never done it myself though. Sounds interesting. Primitive cultures would grind bones with water to make a paste and then consume it.
When should it be taken? I never know if it’s most beneficial to do it first thing in the morning, before meals, with meals, on an empty stomach…
Any tips on taking the FCLO “gel”? I bought this for my toddler and I can’t seem to find a sneaky way for her to take it. She just spits it out. At least with the liquid she would swallow some of it before denying it completely.
Thanks (and love your blog)!!
I don’t know how old she is, but if she is an older toddler, you can just have consequences like no favorite dessert after dinner or favorite toy to play with … whatever works if she spits it out. If she is quite young still so this type strategy doesn’t yet work, you can rub it on her bottom instead as FCLO absorbs quite well through the skin. I have a blog post on this.
Yea, she is only 20 months. Never thought of rubbing it on her skin, thank you!
I know this is not a parenting blog, but I was appalled at your suggestion to punish a child for not eating what a parent wants them to eat. What about all the research that shows children eat a balanced diet on their own if that’s what we offer them? And the research that indicates children whose parents turn eating into a battle (how much to eat, what to eat, when to eat) are vastly more likely to have eating disorders as adults? What about the studies that show rewards and punishments are both a bad idea? (See Alfie Kohn’s books about this.)
Rubbing it on her skin is a much better suggestion, and one that doesn’t take away the child’s dignity or cause problems later.
Just realized I only gave the negative feedback about a comment and not any of the positive feedback I have about the post itself. I can’t say I’m totally convinced yet but I’m actually considering it now, which is a pretty big change. Thanks for writing so informatively!
Great comment. I didn’t think of it before, but it completely makes sense that meal time should not be a battle. Eating meals under an unfavorable mood not only causes stomach upsets and psychological effects, but is bad for digestion, as well. I agree, we should not make meal time, which is revered as a peaceful and sacred act in many cultures, and create propel argumentative behaviors during that time with children, especially since they are still developing eating behaviors.
But, I’m still grateful for reading this advocation of fermented oil vs. the regular processed unhealthy oil. I am sure this new knowledge will be a step in educating others about the importance of a wholesome diet, and not just an organic one. If, in the future, Kimlyn, you’d like to re-introduce the oil as an oral supplement, you could try incorporating it into heavier flavored foods before serving, such as sweet flavors (coconut cream, jams) or pungent flavors (beef stews, onion, herbs, esp. parsley). Hopefully, that will work for your child. Best of luck!
And, it is never too late to let your child take these supplements. My father used to take a similar fermented oil (which we can’t find on the market anymore) ages ago. His father started to give him the supplement when he was about ten, but it was in a capsule form, so he was at the age where he could take pills. To this day, his skin is perfect and unwrinkled, his (childhood) skin problems cleared out when he took this along with daily homemade soups, and his bones and immune system are healthy.
I’d be curious to know exactly what your son eats, if what you say is true. Even for fruits and vegetables, the harvesting process kills rodents.
My son is 15 and has never eaten anything that caused the death of an animal. He won’t do it now. There must be a vegetarian alternative, but no one else has asked. Furthermore, our seas are in peril from overfishing. I can’t see how this trend is sustainable.
There is no vegetarian alternative which is why vegetarian cultures did not enjoy the health of the omnivore cultures Dr. Price studied.
Why don’t you use the fermented skate liver oil .. this is a highly sustainable oil.