A Shipload Of Peruvian Fishtales

Posted: March 8th, 2009 | Author: Dr. Bill | No Comments »

I took a break in South Carolina yesterday, stopping at one of those great southern breakfast joints where the biscuits are as addictive as good pain medication. (I managed to stop at two, while my brain kept crying out, “Just one more!”) While I was waiting for my food I cracked open my computer, and lo and behold there was a fish oil salesletter, and it wasn’t mine.

This one was from a doctor who has been in the vitamin business for quite some time. If I didn’t know what I know about this business, this letter would have scared me to death. But since I didn’t just fall off a turnip truck, (I learned that phrase here in South Carolina from a waitress), I started laughing about a third of the way into the letter.

Now I’ll be the first to tell you I don’t mind a little bragging if the facts are true, but this letter was bragging with no facts to speak of, or as they say in the law, “We’re in a highly questionable area here.”

In his letter the good doctor says he sources his fish oil in southern Peru and Chile. He calls this “non-industrial waters.” That’s creative, but ocean water is ocean water.

He makes the claim that fish sourced in European waters contains 8 times more dioxins than fish sourced off Peru and Chile. The information comes from something called the Scientific Committee on Food. I tried looking up this committee, but couldn’t find it.

High quality Peruvian fish oil is what he says he has. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think you get high quality products from places where you can’t drink the water. Just a little common sense here is all it takes when you think about it.

There are a lot of comparisons made in the letter that appear to be scientific, but they’re not. There’s even a classic straw man chart, where Peruvian fish oil is compared to other oils in the market, and “Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!” just like Gomer Pyle used to say, Peruvian Fish Oil wins all the categories.

But nowhere does it say that the fish oil is pharmaceutical grade. He is comparing his commercial grade fish oil to other commercial grade fish oils. He isn’t comparing it to any pharmaceutical grade formula, which has worldwide standards.

So remember, always stick with pharmaceutical grade fish oil – and make sure it isn’t from Peru.

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