Dr. Mercola's Comments:

Omega three fats are essential to your health and you can conveniently get them from cod liver oil or fish oil. Nearly all fish are contaminated with mercury, whether they are from the ocean, lakes or farm-raised, and should be avoided.

If you already have significant sun exposure, then you should not take cod liver oil as you will run the risk of overdosing on vitamin D. However, for most people who live in the US have very low levels of vitamin D in the fall, winter and early spring months, and would therefore benefit from cod liver oil.

Cod liver oil provides you with vitamin D and A. If you decide to take cod liver oil, the recommended dose is one teaspoon for every 50 pounds of body weight. If you use cod liver oil during your summer you will need to be careful of vitamin D toxicity and I suggest you review the information on vitamin D testing.

If you don't take cod liver oil, you will benefit from taking fish oil. I had previously recommended Costco fish oil capsules based on a terrific value. However, over the past six months I have extensively tested these in my practice and although they are don't appear to be contaminated with mercury or PCBs or seriously oxidized, there is something just not right about Costco fish oil.

I have concluded that from a clinical perspective they are an inferior brand. Many of my patients with rheumatoid arthritis or scleroderma would flare up when they switched from cod liver oil to the Costco fish oil capsules.

Also, as many of you may know, I struggle with a low cholesterol level of around 110. For many years I had been unable to normalize it, but earlier this year I was finally able to increase it to 185 through a combination of raw egg yolks and Carlson's cod liver oil. I was not surprised, as cod liver oil and fish oil have been shown to help normalize cholesterol levels; if your cholesterol levels are too high, it should help lower it, and if your cholesterol levels are too low, it should help raise it.

Mine remained at 185 for 4 months until I switched to Costco fish oil; my cholesterol then dropped to 140. As I hadn't changed anything else in my diet, this strongly suggested that the Costco fish oil was not helping to normalize my cholesterol levels, as the Carlson's had done. Sure enough, when I switched to Carlson’s fish oil that I now offer on the site, my cholesterol increased back up to 180. Furthermore, some of my patients with high cholesterol had found that the Carlson's was lowering their cholesterol levels, but their levels began to rise again when they switched to the Costco, so they switched back to Carlson's.

In short, I no longer recommend Costco's fish oil.

For several months now, I intended to offer Carlson’s on this site because of its high quality and the proof of its effectiveness over time. However, as I also recommend the fish oil in liquid form versus capsules, my efforts to offer it to you were held up: until recently, the availability of the Carlson’s fish oil in liquid form was scarce. Through our efforts over the last several months, however, we have worked out a distribution agreement with a reputable source, and so I am happy to announce that we are finally offering the Carlson’s.

However, if you haven't yet started juicing and increased your vegetable intake yet, please be sure and take an one vitamin E 400 unit supplement per day as this will help serve to protect the fish oil from oxidation after you swallow it.

When you take fish oil supplements or cod liver oil in the doses I recommend it will be important to consume enough antioxidants to protect the fish oil from going rancid. If you are consuming one pound of vegetables for every fifty pounds of body weight as I recommend you will not need to take any supplemental antioxidants as the vegetables appear to be more than sufficient to protect the fish oil from going rancid.

When you purchase the fish oil liquid, I highly recommend that you purchase a Wine Saver, available at Amazon for ten dollars, or at your local wine store. You insert one stopper of this wine saver into the mouth of the fish oil bottle and you use the pump to suck out the air from the bottle and create a partial vacuum. This will really help lower the oxidation to the fish oil after you open the bottle.

The fish oil principle remains important to me, as American diets contain far too much omega 6 fats. Experts looking at the dietary ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids suggest that in early human history the ratio was about 1:1. Currently most Americans eat a dietary ratio that falls between 20:1 and 50:1. The optimal ratio is most likely closer to the original ratio of 1:1. For most of us this means greatly reducing the omega-6 fatty acids we consume and increasing the amount of omega-3 fatty acids.

Please recognize that we get ALL the omega-6 fat we need from food. We do NOT need to take any supplements for these fats. Many of the omega fat supplements you see in health food stores will only serve to worsen your health, not improve it as they contain omega 6 fats. This will worsen your omega-6 to omega-3 ratio.

I strongly recommend avoiding sunflower, corn, soy, safflower, canola, or products that contain these oils. That is no hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated fats, no margarine, no vegetable oil, no shortening. These oils are chock full of omega-6 fats and will only worsen your omega fats ratio.

Acceptable oils will be a high quality extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, avocados and organic butter (An even better butter would be grass-fed organic butter, but this is hard to find. I encourage you to talk to any local farmers to see if you can obtain this product).

Another way to improve your omega 6:3 ratio is to change the type of meat you are eating. You could consume more game meat like venison, or other game animals that are raised exclusively on grass type foods. However, these are hard to find and generally more expensive than beef.

Since nearly all cattle are grain fed before slaughter, if you eat most traditionally raised beef, it will typically worsen your omega 6:omega 3 ratio.

The grassfed beef we offer, from Grassfed Organics, is much higher in Omega 3 than fish, with a 6:3 ratio of 0.16 to 1.

To get the necessary Omega-3 fatty acids, you should consider eating meat that is allowed to "free-range", or in the case of cattle, to be grass-fed. Unfortunately, you cannot buy this grass-fed beef at your local grocery store.

You must also be careful as many stores will advertise grass-fed beef but it really isn't. They do this as ALL cattle are grass fed, but the key is what they are fed the months prior to being processed.

Most all cattle are shipped to giant feed lots and fed corn to fatten them up. You will need to call the person who actually raised the cows, NOT the store manager, to find out the truth.

The least expensive way to obtain authentic grass fed beef would be to find a farmer who is growing the beef who you can trust and buy a half a side of beef from him. This way you save the shipping and also receive a reduced rate on the meat.

An inexpensive, yet effective way to determine if the meat is really from a grass fed animal is to purchase the ground beef. Slowly cook the beef till done and drain and collect all the fat. Grass fed beef is very high in omega-3 fats and will be relatively thin compared to traditionally prepared ground beef.

It will also be a liquid at room temperature as it has very few saturated fats, which are mostly solid at room temperature.

However, most of us live in large urban areas and do not have the time for this process. Just as it would be ideal to have an organic garden and grow your own vegetables, most of us elect not to do that for time or space reasons.

I used to have an organic garden, but my schedule just would not allow me to have that luxury anymore. So, if you are convinced, like I am, that grass-fed beef is better for you and you would like the convenience of being able to order it over the Net, you can read more about grass-fed beef here, and have it shipped overnight to your door from our partner, Grassfed Organics.

Related Articles:

Cardiovascular Benefits of Omega-3 Fats

Importance of Omega Three Fats in Health and Disease