Fish Oils Bad??

Fish protein causes the fish oil to smell like fish. Check out www.westonaprice.com for more info on cod liver oil

I wonder what Berardi has to say about this?

Just to clarify what I meant, Phill. I am close to two fanatical fishermen, and I’ve pulled in a few myself. Once that fish is out of the water, you can smell whatever’s on the scales. If you immediately filet it and smell the filet, even salmon, it has a very fresh, of-the-sea kind of smell. Yes, it’s a fish smell, but it’s nowhere near the “fishy smell” or “fishy taste” that make so many people dislike fish. Those bad characteristics are practically nil if the fish is really fresh.

A fish filet, exposed to air, will begin oxidizing IMMEDIATELY, just like an apple browns. The more it oxidizes and spoils, the stronger it smells. Any filet, caught or store-bought, will taste much less “fishy” if you cut off all surfaces exposed to air before cooking. This leads me to believe that the surfaces have oxidized/spoiled. This is true of pretty much all meats (pork, chicken, beef, etc.) but the difference is much less dramatic than with fish. Fish spoils really rapidly.

Another important factor in spoilage is blood. Blood spoils rapidly. When a fish is bled immediately after it’s caught, its filets taste much fresher. Not bled, the filets will taste much “fishier.”

I guess I am much pickier about my fish oil because of my experiences with eating fish. I can’t even count how many people who ate the fish we caught, bled, and trimmed, and said, “I can’t believe it, this doesn’t even taste like fish.” I know that freshness and processing are extremely important for the fish filets we catch, and I don’t believe all brands of fish oil are equal when it comes to freshness and processing.

I eat raw fish mostly. I never liked fish before, when I was growing up, because of the strong fishy smell. But when I had fresh fish, I made it a staple.