“Is fish oil really useful October 30, 20:24 Share: Fish oil in capsules (Photo: Getty Images) Today, the words “fish oil” are associated with black and white pictures from the past. An image of a spoon with a murky liquid, wielded by a school nurse or headmaster from the works of Dickens, pops into my head. Today, “fish oil” is associated with black and white pictures from the past. An image of a spoon full of cloudy liquid, brandished by a school nurse or principal, pops into my head”, — write on: ua.news
Is fish oil really useful? Fish oil in capsules (Photo: Getty Images)
Today, “fish oil” is associated with black and white pictures from the past. An image of a spoon full of murky liquid, wielded by a school nurse or headmaster from the works of Dickens, pops into my head.
Many tools from the 18th and 19th centuries have not stood the test of time. For example, we no longer give crying babies opiates. Syrup of figs and castor oil are also no longer considered panaceas, although they are apparently good for constipation. And you hardly go to the pharmacy for sulfur and molasses.
But one of the rare exceptions among the drugs of that era was fish oil. Made by heating cod liver and extracting the oil, this preparation is extremely rich in vitamins D and A.
Even before the discovery of vitamins—which was still several years away—people noticed that children given fish oil were less likely to develop rickets, a childhood bone disease that can cause seizures and heart attacks.
Getty ImagesThis amazing property was explained by the discovery in 1919 that the cause of rickets is a deficiency of calcium and vitamin D. During the Second World War, the British government gave free cod liver oil to children under the age of five.
“Don’t forget the orange juice and fish oil!” – urged one poster of the time.
However, despite its healing properties, fish oil was surprisingly unpleasant to swallow. Like any oil, when in contact with oxygen, it could acquire an unpleasant rancid taste with fish notes.
Meanwhile, the much more pleasant way to get vitamin D – sitting in the sun and letting enzymes under the skin’s surface take care of its production – was not always available to British children because of the weather – a hundred years ago and now.
That is why a few decades ago, many countries began to turn to food fortification. In 1940, Britain introduced mandatory fortification of margarine with vitamin D. This was joined by producers of bread, milk and breakfast cereals.
In the USA, since 1933, vitamin D fortification of milk was introduced by law, and many manufacturers began to enrich breakfast cereals, bread and flour with it.
Similar initiatives continued in the 21st century – in 2003, Finland introduced a voluntary plan to fortify food with vitamin D, to which most food manufacturers joined.
But fortification has run into trouble in the UK after it was introduced in cases of a condition called hypercalcaemia, in which excess calcium in the blood forms kidney stones and other problems.
This led experts to suspect that children were receiving an overdose of vitamin D. As a result, such fortification was banned in the 1950s, with the exception of margarine and baby formula.
Getty ImagesHowever, there was no mass return to the use of fish oil after that.
In 2013, the UK stopped fortifying margarine and tried to encourage people to take supplements instead. However, few people heeded this call – perhaps not all were even aware of it.
As a result, in recent years, when blood tests for vitamin D levels have become more common, they have shown startling results.
Between January and March, when there is the least amount of sunlight, a huge number of British children – almost 40% in some age groups – are deficient in vitamin D. Almost 30% of adults are in the same situation.
People with dark skin are especially at risk.
“Low levels of vitamin D are almost universal in British people of South Asian descent,” nutritionist Judith Buttriss wrote in an editorial in Nutrition Bulletin.
Moreover, the rickets returned. Hospital admissions for rickets in Great Britain were low in the 1960s and 1970s, and declined further in subsequent decades. In 1991, according to statistics, there were 0.34 cases of rickets per 100,000 children under 15 years of age in England. But in the 2000s, their number began to grow rapidly.
“The rate of hospitalization for rickets in England is now the highest in five decades,” scientists wrote in 2011.
So should we go back to food fortification? The UK’s Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition is looking into the matter: it is now believed that the cases of hypercalcemia that once stopped it were caused by a genetic disorder that prevented absorption of the vitamin. In other words, the problem wasn’t necessarily eating too much fortified food.
And maybe it’s worth mentioning a spoonful of fish oil again?
Follow us on social networks
- Telegram
- Viber
- Is there a connection between the consumption of meat and the development of diabetes
- Kombucha, kefir and sauerkraut. Are fermented foods really useful?
- Why is gut health important and how to improve it?