I’ve used it and it’s great, but my husband and son hate the taste of it, even though it’s in capsule form. It is also very expensive (about $45 per bottle), and if we all took it, that wouldn’t last long in our house. Several years ago we used Nordic Naturals, but stopped because it contains refined soybean oil. I returned to using Carlson’s, which used to be recommended on Dr. Mercola’s site, but now I think he has his own brand. Carlson’s doesn’t contain Vitamin A or D, and cod liver supplements should have the proper 10 – 1 ratio of Vitamin A to D. That’s why Green Pasture’s is superior. Anyone else have a good brand?

Raine Saunders

Also, I’m wondering what your position is on cod liver oil. I’ve read that Nordic Naturals is not necessarily safe and also that CLO should really be fermented. It also appears that the capsule form is not as good as the liquid (or is it just not recommended b/c of the cost?). But I can’t imagine getting my husband to take something that tastes as bad as I imagine fermented cod liver oil must smell (and honestly I’d have a hard time, too). And if it’s anything like the vitamin capsules were when I was a kid, I tasted them all morning long – a rather unpleasant experience! Any thoughts?

Yes, my appendix went south while I was in my 7th month of pregnancy with my only child, Tristan. Admittedly, I caused my own problems from eating a poor diet and having sweets and bad foods mostly whenever I pleased. I’ve always been a petite person and for years I thought that since I never gained any weight, I could eat however I pleased. Unfortunately, I was wrong. Seven months later, my gallbladder was removed. I started having gallbladder issues the day I came home from being in the hospital for two weeks after premature birth and my appendix rupturing during pregnancy. Tristan and I could have easily died; it is but only for the grace of God that we are here today. None of the doctors saw it coming or were able to diagnose – they were all “stumped” and finally wheeled me into exploratory surgery 3 days after my son was born 7 weeks premature and discovered my perforated appendix. Part of the book I am working on will have this sordid story in it. I don’t know of anyone else who has had this happen while pregnant.

Thanks Kristen! Keep up the great articles, and thanks for the community you support here.

Raine Saunders

Raine — WOW. You lost BOTH your appendix and your gall bladder! You poor thing. That’s just terrible. I know that with probiotics, it’s not just about numbers. It’s about quality. Since there’s not much regulation on the claims of labels for these “food supplements,” you really have to trust word of mouth on this one. I’ve heard of PB8, mostly good stuff. How about anyone else here?

And, yes, NAIS is scary for me unless they make explicit exceptions for small-scale producers and enthusiasts. Honestly, they wouldn’t need NAIS with small-scale producers anyway b/c most of these guys sell directly to consumers (if they sell at all), so any potential outbreaks would be easy to trace and contain. I don’t mind restrictions on large-scale industry operations because I know their only motive is profit — which means they’re inclined to cut as many corners as they can get away with, for as long as we allow them to do so. Plus, the traceability WOULD allow us to trace and contain potentially devastating outbreaks more quickly. That said, I can only support the law if it clearly protects small-scale operations. Otherwise, it’d be a disaster for the little guys and drive them out of business.

I just put an article up today about the NAIS (national animal identification system) and how it reinforces the government’s behavior about the swine flu, and could potentially destroy our sustainable foods systems and ability to procure healthy food.
Please read! I’m very concerned about this issue, as well as anything to do with overblowing the swine flu .

http://astotd.blogspot.com/2009/05/protect-rights-of-consumers-and-farmers.html

Raine Saunders

Motherhen68

To put it as simply as possible, there appears to be some evidence that these tiny micro-organisms are pleomorphic (meaning they change shape) in response to their environment. It takes the most powerful electron microscopes to even *see* what scientists call viruses, and even then they’re so small that they can’t be identified beyond that as to what kind of virus, etc. Furthermore, by barraging the virus with the electron radiation in order to see it, you kill it. In other words, we can only look at fuzzy snapshots of these little buggers once they’re dead. We can’t see them in action, alive, doing their thing.

There were a handful of different scientists over the past 100 years who used different kinds of optics to witness bacteria changing shape (the most famous of which is Royal Rife) — literally changing from something else INTO the bacteria that causes strep throat then changing again into an altogether different bacteria. So, what we call or identify as various kinds of bacteria and viruses may indeed be something else altogether, something that apparently changes shape in response to its environmental stresses.

If that’s true, than many of our underlying presumptions about germ theory are flawed. It’s not all wrong, just an incomplete picture that could be greatly clarified once we develop easily accessible optical technology that would make it possible to actually look at LIVING viruses. Needless to say, it would radically alter the way we treated infectious diseases.

Anyhow, I don’t really want to talk about that in great detail here. I want to finish reading my books first, dabble with some refutations, etc. In short, I want to make up my mind before I actually share something substantive about this with my readers.

Here’s a very recent scenario and question: my 2 1/2 year old son has been on antibiotics (Z-pak) only 2x in his life, a year apart, for dbl ear infections; he has eaten almost no sugar of any kind; he eats plenty of saturated fat from pasture-raised animals and coconut oil, organic vegetables, soaked oat pancakes/waffles and a kefir/fruit/coconut oil smoothie several times a week, yet last week, after shaking hands with the garbage man, he started throwing up about 30 hours later. Then 25 hours after I ate the rest of his dinner off his plate & fork (before I knew he was sick), I started throwing up. A day later, my husband got it. After 24 hours, we were each pretty much back to normal.

I would have thought that our eating habits would have prevented us from contracting whatever the stomach bug was that we caught. But we all got it – our son worst of all.

I’m very much wanting to adjust whatever I can to keep us all even healthier. Is there something I’m not yet doing that would increase the healthy bacteria in our guts? And I’m especially curious to discover if it wasn’t a virus (as we’ve been told by everyone from my mom to what I can find on the Internet), what caused our vomiting and how do we avoid it in the future?

Thank you for all the research you do. I look forward to all of your posts!