I’m worn and out really behind on house stuff because of working with my husband on our water issues for the last two days. This means I don’t have any post planned for today, nor much energy to put one out. (Yet you are wondering, “Why is she writing then?”)
Well, I figured this could be a day when we collaborate together on a post! How does that sound? Let’s brainstorm a bit on how to take fermented cod liver oil. I have been getting emails lately about fermented cod liver oil – especially, people are wondering how to get it down.
How about you? Do you struggle with the flavor or texture? Have you figured out a way to get your family members to take it without a fight or gagging to death?
Please share!
For us, we started out taking the Green Pasture’s licorice flavored fermented cod liver oil, which we took via a needle-less syringe/plunger thingie. Then we switched to taking Green Pasture’s chocolate cream variety of fermented cod liver oil and butter oil combined, which is a paste that we eat off a spoon. We like this second one better. Here’s how we handle both of them.
- Everyone must take it. It is harder for people to rebel if they know (and accept) that it’s got to be done.
- Realize that this is not going to taste like candy, or any other beloved food. It is not ever going to be a favorite.
- Be ready with something acidic to wash it down and/or wash the mouth of residual flavors – yogurt, dairy kefir, Kombucha, or water kefir.
- For the liquid kind, squirt it into the back of the mouth, beyond the taste buds and swallow fast!
- For the paste kind, eat it at the tip of the tongue – it seems those taste buds are less offended by the flavor.
Now it is your turn. How do you eat it? I would especially like to hear from anyone with young or picky children who are less likely to respond to reason. I hear from many who could benefit from your advice!. My kids make faces and laugh about how bad it tastes, but they still take it! Thankfully, we have not had a tough time of it.
The information on why take cod liver oil, what forms are best, and dispelling the controversies surrounding cod liver oil will follow on another day. If you’d like to know more now, read this very good blog post from the “A Little Bit of Spain in Iowa” blog which summarizes the basics and overcomes some controversies. Or review the cod liver oil information from the Weston A. Price Foundation, which includes brand, type and dose recommendations, as well as several articles on why this superfood is so important.
Great post! It’s a struggle around here – especially with one kid – so I really like the idea of everyone taking it at the same time. We take the unflavored, regular liquid. We take it in a couple of tablespoons of raw milk – toss it back and have more milk ready to pour. The milk seems to cut some of the fishy taste and cuts down on the fishy aftertaste. I had read that if you don’t have enough calcium in your system that your system will begin to leach the calcium from your bones and teeth to process the vitamins so it made sense to take it with milk. I can’t wait to see what other ideas people have!
My husband and I had been taking the orange flavored twinlab c.l.o. I started with the mint which is like swallowing toothpaste but he couldn’t handle it and thought I had gone too far with this idea (fermented is not in our budget right now but maybe once we are no longer “poor students”). The next bottle I tried the orange flavor and luckily he was willing to try again. It is a liquid so we just take a big spoonful as fast as possible, between bites at dinner time or with orange juice in the morning…the stronger the followup flavor the better.
I’ve had to stop due to horrible morning sickness which really does not go well with odd flavors but I’m want to start again very soon again because I’ve read such great things about it’s benefits to the fetus.
I was hoping that if we start early enough with the baby that it won’t be a problem and I’m glad it is working out for you with your kids. I like your #1. Craig will definitely be a good back up, if he “has” to take it, he will not be willing to let the little ones off the hook.
MacKenzie´s last blog post…
I’ve been taking cod liver oil for years – but not fermented until this last bottle. BIG difference in taste. No problem at all with Carlson’s lemon flavored. I had heard people rave about the chocolate cream flavored one. So I got that. Chocolate cream does not blot out the fact you are taking something VERY fishy.
So here’s our technique. I use a measuring teaspoon to get the 1/2 teaspoon amount. I scoop that out with my index finger & pop it in my mouth & kind of gently rest it on my tongue – trying to minimize contact with my tongue & then swallow a glass of water. I almost never taste it now. I think the key is finding the right spot in your mouth for the blob of CLO before swallowing. I kind of curl up my tongue to keep it from moving around in my mouth.
Spain in Iowa said that the Mediterranean was better than the chocolate cream. So maybe I’ll try that next time if my husband lets me! LOL!
Wardeh – thanks for a crazy, funny topic. Hard to imagine I wrote this many sentences on it.
I put the CLO (we have the gel right now) and the butter oil on a big spoon, then fill the spoon up with juice. We each eat it in one big slurp. All of us (2 adults and kids aged 3 and 6) have our serving like that. It’s the only time we ever have juice, so the kids think it’s novel!
We also don’t yet have the budget for the fermented version. When I started giving it to my family my eldest was 18 months (now he’s 4+). We just took it as an unflavored liquid. I started with a needless syringe so that I could squirt it into the back of our mouths, however, my children LOVED it so much that they would ask for more. So I switched to giving it to us all on a spoon (less clean up). We are lucky enough to have implemented it when the kids were so young that it didn’t strike them as a bad flavor, just another new flavor.
My husband and I, on the other hand, have to do a lemon juice chaser to clean out our mouths, and then follow with water (so our boys like to do the lemon chaser too, just because we do, I am rather confident they don’t mind the flavor). I try to make sure we take it at the same time as we eat something loaded with butter (in an attempt at the cod liver oil, butter oil blend). I have found, after years of the CLO followed by lemon juice, that my tongue anticipates the lemon so strongly that the CLO pretty much tastes like lemon.
Marianne´s last blog post… December Challenge: It’s Up to You!
We buy Lysi (Icelandic cod liver oil) when we are in Iceland. We take it straight, although the kids haven’t grown up on it and don’t like it. (We grownups prefer the plain fish-tasting one.) We’re going to get the little one used to taking it so he won’t mind it.
Rebecca´s last blog post… Turkey Vegetable Soup
i deal by not taking it very often! i know i should, and it actually doesnt bother me taste wise, but there’s this weird grittyness it leaves onthe back of my toungue that i dislike. my kids dont take it, havent even tried…
emily´s last blog post… Birthday Cake- happiest of year’s to you my love!
I bought 4 different flavors and we’ve almost made it through the first bottle- the “fruit attack” gel. Attack is right. Good gracious, this stuff is horrible. I have a hard time keeping up the discipline of taking it every day. My second son likes to remind me, not because he likes it but because nobody else does and I think he might like to be the bearer of bad news
My 2 year old takes hers in about 1/4 cup of unsweetened applesauce. I will have to start buying the sauce soon because we’re almost out of what I made last year. She thinks it’s awesome to get a bowl of applesauce before supper! My husband just takes it off a spoon, just before he takes the first bite of his supper. He says his father had all of their gag reflexes surgically removed when they were kids so although he doesn’t love the taste, he doesn’t care.
My 6 and 8 year-old boys have figured out how to swallow it suspended in a small glass of apple cider. They don’t get juice otherwise so they think it’s kind of cool. That’s also how I take mine. My 4 year-old girl can’t figure out how to get it all down at once so she puts her CLO in her mouth, swallows, then gets a tiny glass of cider to wash the flavor away.
Like you, we’re not open for negotiation on the matter. Somehow, knowing that my husband and I don’t care for it has helped my 8 year-old’s attitude about it. He used to gag and nearly cry every time I made him take it. Now he just shudders when it’s all over
Lindsey in AL´s last blog post… What a pretty apron!
As you know I have a handicapped son and so I cannot get away with just any method
The method we use is tasteless….
I mix homemade jam into Nancy’s yogurt, I could leave out the jam but my son loves it. I take this fruity yogurt and coat a large tablespoon. {I too have measured the amount and so I can now just scrap a dollop of the approximate size using a butter knife out of the jar}. I place this ball of CLO/butter onto the yogurt spoon and we slurp and swallow in one move.
I cover my son’s dose with a little of the yogurt so it doesn’t show, and I tell him it’s time to take the medicine, so if he tastes any he knows ‘medicine’ swallow whole – no chewing! So far he hasn’t tasted it either, and is all smiles after swallowing.
-Jami
P.S. I haven’t tasted it yet either, but my daughter says it’s bad – she tried it before I came up with the yogurt trick.
Wardeh, thanks so much for mentioning my post
You know, it’s like you said, we just know it’s something we have to do. My kids are still really young so as long as it’s in their juice it seems to do the trick. Sometimes, they don’t drink it all, and I don’t make a big deal of it as long as they’re getting used to the flavor, that’s all I care about. Then there’s days like today where they drank all of their juice. I am really interested in those gummies, however, I’m not at all counting on them to taste like a super yummy gummy bear, lol! I wish!! Have a blessed day!
Diana@Spain in Iowa´s last blog post… Winter Storm ‘09
I’m a wimp. I buy the capsules! And I take them at bedtime to avoid the fish burps. I know it’s better with a meal, but I still feel like I’m recovering from trying to take the liquid when I had morning sickness! Yuck!
I haven’t tried to get any CLO into my 3 year old yet. I know I should, but this kid doesn’t like juice, fruit, or most any yummy thing!
Our favorite way of taking it is in smoothies! The flavor of banana and berries cover it up really well. It’s the only way my kids and I can take it =)
The key for us is to keep it refrigerated or put the spoonful in the freezer for a few minutes so the “gel” is more the consistency of cold butter. The colder it is, the less taste. Then I just swallow it with water without smushing it. Sometimes the gel is thicker and that’s easier to swallow without tasting. This last bottle we got is runnier and much more of a fishy taste, so my spoonful goes in the freezer. I got my mom on it, but she will only take the capsules. I also get the capsules for my nineteen year old because at least this way she agrees to take it — If I had only started when my kids were little!
Sauerkraut juice in a shot glass!
I know.. it sounds strange but something about the acidity and saltiness completely wipes out the fishy taste for me ( I take the unflavored fermented stuff) Plus you get the probiotic benefits even if you don’t feel like sauerkraut with breakfast
Thankfully my son was about a year old when we started fermented CLO, and he takes the unflavored liquid with the syringe/plunger with no problems. My husband doesn’t mind it either. I tried twice, and it was awful! YUCK!!! I broke down and bought the capsules for myself. They are more expensive than the liquid, but only one person taking them helps.
I feel for the moms trying to get their older children to start taking it!
We have always taken the orange flavored CLO: first the high vitamin, now the fermented. It’s only me and my 5 year old son – DH won’t touch it. We have always taken it straight, followed by something like tea or juice or kombucha – Alex has recently developed a taste for kombucha – YAY!!! Neither nor I care for the taste, but the orange seems to be the best. He liked the HV CLO better – I think the FCLO is less fishy and I don’t burp after taking it. I call it “medicine”. We have always taken it straight off a spoon. Alex has taken it since he was maybe 1/1.5 years old. Only recently did he start complaining about the taste….
I’ve been doing mint-flavored, from Garden of Life, and put it in a half-glass of coconut milk tonic — it’s not bad. My kids basically must be bribed: they get Carlson’s lemon-flavored, and take it straight-up. I call it their “lemon vitamin” and it’s always the last thing they must do before getting an after-meal “treat.”
I’m guessing the fermented tastes worse, but is probably a lot better for you?
Katy´s last blog post… Rich hot chocolate (dairy-free, soy-free)
Wow! I love all of these suggestions! Our family has only been taking fermented cod liver oil for about three months. We first tried the Green Pastures Blue Ice Fruit Attack gel. The way we got it down was to pour a “shot-glass” amount of apple juice into a small cup and suspend about 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of the gel into the juice and drink it down in one gulp. (My husband and I both did this, along with three of our four kids, ages 9, 7 and 4. I hadn’t quite figured out how to get my 2-year-old to take it.) After we finished the jar of gel, I decided to switch to the capsules of combined fermented CLO and high-vitamin butter oil. So far, we adults and one child are able to swallow the capsules without any problem, but two kids require the capsule contents to be squeezed out and suspended in their juice still. (And I still haven’t gotten the 2-year-old into the mix!) I absolutely prefer the capsule and will do it that way as long as I can afford to do so! But I just need to bit the bullet and get the little guy to do it, too, as I see from the comments above that the younger you start, the less of an issue it is!
By the way, we have completely avoided major illness this fall! My kids came down with a slight respiratory virus (At first, I thought for sure it was swine flu!) a few weeks ago, but between the CLO and lots of bone broth, they bounced back within 24 hours. Incredible! Thanks, Wardeh, for spurring this conversation, and thanks to everyone who shared ideas!
—Sonya
Sonya Hemmings´s last blog post… 25 Carols of Christmas: No. 10
I was stupid and bought the chocolate flavor.
Thank goodness I also bought it in gel form.
This allows us to scoop the right amount and then swallow it with cold water, just live a pill.
That stuff is the absolute worst!
Next bottle, its back to the orange flavor, and swallowing it down with a bit of OJ.
But, I will say, that the fermented is better in some ways.
I never burp it up, whereas the unfermented caused issues.
The only time I had a real issue, was when I was sick, and I coughed just as the little glob of oil was going down, and it went right into my sinuses.
The lactic acid burned so bad.
The old days of getting a bit of soda up the nose, were actually pretty nice.
I was in pain for some time!
Paula
Hi Wardeh,
!
I just pulled up facebook and saw you had this posting. And I was just in the midst of sending links to a friend to read up about fermented cod liver oil.
Your posting is very timely.
We are taking Green Pastures Fermented Cod Liver Oil and the Butter Oil ordered through Dr. Ron’s Ultra Pure.
When we ordered my husband wanted just the plain old original straight as it is fishy flavored ( my nose is wrinkled up right now just thinking about it )…same evening our daughter ordered the Salty Cod flavor for us. Salty is suppose to take the edge off which it doesn’t do one bit. We don’t use that needleless plunger at all – it’s a joke in my opinion. I found an empty bottle from tea tree oil and cleaned the eyedropper well and we then would use that almost 3 squeezes equaled 1/2 tsp. But then that got tiresome. So we just pour a 1/2 tsp out into the measurer. We started out mixing it into orange juice – talk about ruining a good tasting drink. My husband finally quit that and just takes it straight off the spoon and then drinks some juice afterwards. I am still mixing it in the juice but drink it straight down fast and then follow it with my chaser of Raw Milk I have all ready to grab! Found Raw milk afterwards really works well. Thankfully knowing the fact that it’s good to take and is beneficial keeps us going with it. Otherwise I’d toss it out with the bathwater..not exactly something one craves to have is it!
When we need to buy more…….I’m definitely going for the Oslo Orange or possibly the Mediterranean. I like the fact that the Mediterranean has garlic, pepper and basil oils in it. I think the cover flavor needs to be stronger in order to mask over the cod taste. We used to take a Twin Labs Mint and Mint definitely works well.
Reading through the comments……..all our kids are grown and it’s been years since we dealt with watching them die a thousand deaths gagging their spoonful of cod liver oil down. In hind sight my advice is the earlier you start even if it’s only a dab on the little ones tongue each day from your finger tip…they will acquire the taste over time. Proof is in our grandson who’s mom is Filipino and they started him on all manner of Asian foods as soon as he could chew. That little guy can eat stuff now ( he’s six ) that I can’t even begin to think of eating. My guess giving him a spoon of our fermented cod liver oil would be a lip smacking good treat to him
Pamela @ Seeds of Nutrition´s last blog post… Day of Butchering – Part II:
I think you totally hit the nail on the head with #1 – my kids know that it is not optional, so they just do it (even if they aren’t happy about it). I would definitely say that we all prefer the liquid to the gels. We have the orange liquid now. We use either the syringe or a spoon, take it quick , and chase it with kombucha. The kids usually remind me if I forget to give it to them, so they can’t hate it too much.
We have been taking the Nordic Naturals liquid (lemon flavor). The flavor isn’t too bad, it’s the texture that is tough for me. I have to admit I am not very consistent with taking it, because I think about it first. I should just take it and get it over with. If I put it in a smoothie it tastes good, but it’s been too cold for smoothies, and my husband doesn’t like it in smoothies anyway. My youngest child actually takes it the easiest, probably because we started a lot younger on him. For my older pickier kids I have resorted to the Nordic Naturals gel caps. Boooo.
Okay—I’m going, right now to take mine.
So what’t the reason for not taking capsules? There must be a reason everyone is tourchering themselves!
I have been taking cod liver oil for more than a year for the vitamin D, which has helped a lot with seasonal depression, but have switched to fermented. I never burped up the regular kind, but the fermented visits me several times throughout the morning, not fun.
Kelli – I can’t speak for everyone else. We take the liquid/paste because the caps are more expensive (at least Green Pasture’s brand). Also, my kids don’t know how to do pills and not that we couldn’t overcome that, but I’d rather they just learn to take the liquid.
OHHHHH! I finally took the time to read the article on Weston A. Price Foundations website, and it sounds like I would need to take 10 capsules a day to get a dose. 10 capsules! I was taking 2. So buying capsules makes absolutely no sense! I am glad you did this post, or I would have never questioned what I was doing. How much do you take of the cod liver oil/ butter blend?
Kelli – Which kind are you taking? The fermented CLO is more assimilable. We follow the dose on the bottle (CLO/butter oil blend) for 1/2 teaspoon per day, but I make it a generous 1/2 t.
I have read that you can take much more, if you’re taking it medicinally for an affliction, or if winter blues are severe, etc.
I am taking Green Pastures now. WAPF says 12 an over should take 1 tsp. or 10 capsules. So I’ll be putting the liquid oil in my Azure shopping basket! Thank God my winter blues are not severe, and that I have found a healthy way to treat it!
Kelli – This is making me remember that I was confused after reading that, and here’s why. They claim that the fermented is doubly potent (or you get twice as many nutrients), but then the dosage doesn’t specify which type. In any case, I think I will make sure we grownups are taking 1 teaspoon!
Thanks for this discussion! I just finished a bottle of CLO from Green Pasture’s with the butter oil in it – it’s not the fermented kind. I got it from my doctor and have only in the past couple of months heard about the fermented kind. I had no idea the taste was so different so I look forward to trying some of these tips when I try it.
thanks and I hope you got your water on!?
Sarah
Sarah Schatz – menus for limited diets´s last blog post… Why a weekly menu planner makes a great holiday gift for someone on a limited diet
Sarah – Yes, we got the water on! We’re still working on some frozen lines, but at least water is coming to the house.
Thank you for asking!
I am so glad to see this post and all the comments! My husband and I just started taking FCLO, I bought the chocolate cream Radiant Life butter oil blend thinking I was going to be eating a candy bar. Oh boy was that ever wishful thinking. I gagged and could barely get that spoonful down and the fishy tingle in my throat afterwards was yucky!
My husband is made of sterner stuff and just swallows it down and doesn’t complain (he’s 71 and his mother used to give him CLO when he was a kid). He remembers hardly ever getting sick when he was a kid so he knows CLO works and just takes it like medicine.
I also think about it too much before taking it, I should just take it and get it over with but I think I have an unrealized torture compulsion, so I think about it for hours and torture myself.
I’m going to try the yogurt/jam technique and see if I can make this a more pleasant experience.
Thanks for the post, I felt so much better after reading all the comments to find out I wasn’t the only one struggling (It really does taste as bad as I thought it did!)
AmandaB
We started out years ago with our older two daughters (they’re now 26 and 29) with the Twin Lab clo. They didn’t mind the taste at all and enjoyed the juice chaser. I think we did mint and sometimes the orange. In more recent years we’ve done the gamut — first the Twin Lab, then Garden of Life’s lemon-mint (the problem with it is that it’s just not potent enough and one must take a LOT to get a decent dosage). I supply my parents with GoL’s clo now and they’re very consistent in taking it; my dad calls it “Cod from God”
. He loves it because it reminds him of the clo his mother gave him as a child (and he’s 72).
Within the past year we switched our family to Green Pasture’s clo, both the high-vitamin stuff and the fermented. All of us rather like the high-vitamin clo. We’ve used the Arctic Mint (yum! — my kids actually wanted seconds on it!) and now have a stock of Cinnamon Tingle to use up. We’ve also used the fermented Cinnamon Tingle and Licorice Lips and I have to say it’s disgusting. However, taking clo at our home is NOT NEGOTIABLE. When we do fermented, we chase it with our own raw goat milk or a bit of juice. Juice is a treat which makes taking the fermented clo much more tolerable.
Since September we’ve been adding Biotics “Bio-D-Mulsion Forte” (emulsified vitamin D drops) to our clo. One or more drops on top of the spoonful of clo goes down well and helps to ensure that the D drops are not stuck on a spoon somewhere or at the bottom of the juice glass
.
Beginning early with the clo helps immensely. Elianna, now almost eight, has always had her morning clo and takes it without comment. The boys, 11 and 16, are both on the autism spectrum so it’s particularly important for them, yet they were somewhat resistant at first. Emily, at 20 the oldest at home, will take only capsules since she was a teen by the time we re-introduced the clo for the family. Interestingly, our two oldest now take clo regularly in their own homes; they’ve become much more health-conscious as they get older and are anticipating starting their own families.
We have this great barter going with friends: goat milk for supplements! It helps not to have to put out so much cold hard cash for one’s supplements and also enables us to provide for my parents and others.
Kim Walters
I was just reading this and thought of your post. It’s some ideas for taking FCLO from Dave’s blog at Green Pastures.
https://www.greenpasture.org/community/?q=node/124
Great post and comments! I’m hoping to be able to afford the FCLO soon. We had regular and it was pretty nasty. But I read on his blog that you can add 1 tsp of salt to the bottle and it’s the same as the salty cod and some people find it a more ‘natural’ taste. I have yet to find out!
Sarah
Sarah´s last blog post… Favorite Links Friday
We are just trying the fermented chocolate cream gel for the first time. I find that it goes down easier then the fermented Mediterranean liquid we had before. The kids all liked that better. The 2 year old loved it and always wanted more. The gel is definitely a messier clean up job. I guess we are going to experiment with more flavors, but don’t anticipate finding anything we all love. I’ll have to try offering milk afterwards. Thanks to whoever suggested that. Nothing seems to cut the taste for our oldest and he rinses and spits afterwards and then keeps burping it up. Poor guy.
Thanks, Wardeh, for posing this question. I’m an “old” lady (don’t feel it, though),so I just take my FCLO as is…unflavored. My husband wouldn’t take any of this “junk” if his life depended on it (odd choice of wording, don’t you think?) I love all the ideas, and maybe I can talk my hubby into taking it…..thanks everyone.
We’ve finally gotten used to taking it but the very worst part of the whole FCLO thing is the SMELL in the kitchen afterward. UGH. It sticks to the spoons, it sticks to a glass, it stinks up the dishwasher and then the dishwasher stinks up the house when I run it. Any ideas about how to get that stuff off the dishes before I wash them and stink up the whole kitchen (which is small and totally open to our small living area)? I guess I could use a plastic spoon but I hate to have to throw one in the trash every day.
Lindsey in AL´s last blog post… What a pretty apron!
Lindsey – anytime I have something stinky, I soak it in a vinegary-water or vinegary-soapy-water. Vinegar is a wonderful deodorizer. White vinegar, I mean. Have you tried that?
Has anyone tried making their own gel caps? I’ve done this before with powdered supplements and it would seem pretty easy to seal the cap then inject it with a syringe. A huge package of gel caps is under $10. A bit of extra work, but it sounds like people have to work a lot to take this anyways…
RS, I bought Green Pastures Chocolate Cream thinking this sounds like it might be good. Awful, thats why they are discounting it. Anyway I bought a baby medicine syringe and a 00 capsule filler. 1/2 teaspoon of clo fills 4- 00 capsules. Keep in refrigerator. When you want to refill more take bottle out of frig and let it sit a little bit as the clo will be a little thick from being cold and refill more capsules.The capsule filler made it very easy to do. I bought mine at Wonder labs for $14.99. Hope this helps.
Hi! Unusual to see another Marg! For a minute I thought I had posted something I’d forgotten about.
Marg´s last blog post… Heritage and heirloom seed shopping
Marg and Marg – I thought the two of you were the same Marg at first, too!
We take the fermented CLO on a cracker at the beginning of a meal and then eat our meal to kill the aftertaste. We usually take it twice a day.