Extra, extra, get you daily supplement! (Cod Liver Oil)

Member Name: Sarah_Louise

Product:	Cod Liver Oil
Date:	07/10/01 (823 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Many, many advantages!

Disadvantages: None!

We all know that our health is important. However most, if not all of us take our health for granted.

We, on the whole, should really take out health more seriously. We never do, that is until something goes wrong with it.

We eat junk food, fast food, plenty of saturated fat and then we complain and act shocked when we hear of someone in thier 30's having a heart attack.

It is for this reason I have decided to take a little more care over what I eat. I now try [lol, well we can't avoid these things *all* the time!] to avoid saturated fats. As well as taking more care over what I eat I have also decided to start taking daily supplements.

Now onto the topic of conversation in this opinion.

Cod liver oil....

you only need to actually take into what them 3 words mean to make you feel sick!
Ewww, I mean *cod liver oil* - how gross is that?!

Having said that, there are many varieties of capsules available now [no more cod liver oil on a teaspoon!]. Great then - no more yucky tasteing stuff!!
I now take one capsule a day.

So, whats the advantages with it?

Well you only need to look whats in it to see why it's a good supplement.

~ What's in it? ~

Water, protein, fat, carbohydrate, minerals, retinol (vitamin A), vitamin D, vitamin E and Beta-carotene (vitamin A).

~ So whats all that about then? ~

Ok, well lets look at them in more detail.

*Water:
We all know we need plenty of H2O in out diets.
How many of you drink your 8 pints a day?
You won't find much water in a capsule of cod liver oil, but hey, it's better than nothing!

*Protein:
We all know we need our daily dose of the 5 food sources, protein being just one of them.
Proteins are groups of complex organic macromolecules that contain carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and are composed of one or more chains of amino acids. Proteins
are fundamental components of all living cells and include many substances, such as enzymes, hormones, and antibodies, that are necessary for the proper functioning of an organism. They are essential in the diet of animals for the growth and repair of tissue. So if they are fundamental components of enzymes, hormones and antibodies you can see that they're pretty important lil' things!

*Fat:
Generally not considered to be anything important. However even though saturated fats are a no-no, we still need fat's in our diets.
Fats consist of an ester of glycerol and one, two, or three fatty acids.

We need fats for, amongst other things, restoring cell membranes. Each cell membrane in our body is consisted of a lipid bilayer. So if we don't have fat, our cells cannot funtion properly.

*Carbohydrate:
Yet another one of the 5 essential food components of our diets.
Any of a group of organic compounds that includes sugars, starches and celluloses -serves as a major energy source in the diet of animals.
These compounds are produced by photosynthetic plants and contain only carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen.

So when you look at the energy content in cod liver oil (3696 kJ /100g) most of that comes from the carbohydrates in it.

*Minerals:
Inorganic elements, such as calcium, iron, potassium, sodium, or zinc, that is essential to the nutrition of humans, animals, and plants.

There are numerous minerals (all in trace quantities) in cod liver oil.


*Retinol and Beta-carotene:
Vitamin A (all varieties of it) are fat-soluble vitamins. They occur mainly in fish-liver oils, milk, and some yellow and dark green vegetables, and functioning in normal cell growth and development. Its deficiency causes hardening and roughening of the skin, night blindness, and degeneration of mucous membranes.

So that looks like cod-liver oil must contain a decent amount of it!


*Vitamin D:
Another fat-soluble vitamin. Essential for normal growth of teeth and bones, (Also produced in general by ultraviolet light)

*Vitamin E:
Yet another fat-soluble vitamin. Act's as an antioxidant.


~ So in general ~

Cod liver oil is:

*High in energy (calorie) content
*High in Vitamin A content
*Contains some Vitamin D and E

Helpful for general supplementary benefics, including arthritis.
Cod liver oil has also been known to help reduce the chances of getting a common cold and also to help your body fight off the infection if you do catch one (hence thats where the antioxidants [vit E] and proteins [helps with antibodies] come in handy!)
So thats one fab reason to take it over Winter!


~ Other uses ~
Vet's prescribe cod-liver oil sometimes to arthritic animals.
Although please don't just give your pet a supplement without asking your vet first.

Cat's are particularly prone to having excess amounts of Vitamin A in thier diets. (E.g. from owners feeding the cat too much liver).

~ One more point ~
If you're not keen on swallowing capsules/tablets but don't relish the thought of the taste of cod-liver oil then how about trying them new cod-liver oil things on the market? Them strawberry flavoured ones?!
I've not tried these yet but I will do, sometime!!

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