Krill oil

[TylerDurden]

I've recently upped my krill-oil dosage to 4 capsules a day and was astonished to find that my irises are lightening up at a far more rapid rate than before(previously , I experienced some amount of iris-lightening in the first 3 years, with the effect happening at a very, very slow rate in the last 5 years of doing this diet).Anyway, has anyone else noticed iris-lightening as a result of taking krill oil or blue ice  cod liver oil?   It does seem possible that, even though I've been on a raw diet for so long, that I needed still more omega-3s than is usually available in raw foods.

[rawlion]

Are there any raw varieties of this remarkable product available on the market?

What brand do you use or recommend?

[Hannibal]

Dr Mercola's krill oil
http://www.red23.co.uk/Krill-Oil-Pure-Antarctic-NKO_p_769.html

[rawlion]

I thought that Fermented CLO would be the best Omega-3 supplement. From this article it seems that Dave Wetzel is not a huge fan of Krill oil and he obviously knows something about fish oils:

What About Fish and Krill Oils?

Fish oil and krill oil, sold as supplements to provide omega-3 fatty acids, are by-products of the fish and krill meal industries. They are produced in large factories humming with the noise of conveyer belts, grinders, separators, extractors and dryers. We provide two descriptions of fish oil manufacture and one of krill oil manufacture, and let our readers decide whether or not they want to consume these products. Remember that omega-3 fatty acids are very fragile and highly subject to damage when exposed to heat and oxygen.

KRILL OIL MANUFACTURE: Frozen Antarctic krill are crushed and the lipids and proteins are extracted using acetone. Following extraction, the krill proteins and lipids are filtered through an organic solvent-resistant filter under reduced pressure to enable physical separation of lipids and proteins. Excess acetone is evaporated and water is separated from the oil. The oil is subjected to additional filtration and purification to remove impurities and is packaged in a modified nitrogen-containing atmosphere and stored. The notifier provides product specifications for krill oil, including specifications for fatty acids, total phospholipids, esterified astaxanthin, saturated fatty acids, and trans-fat (<0.1 percent). Specifications also include limits on residual acetone (<10 milligrams per kilogram (mg/kg), lead (<0.1 mg/kg), mercury (<0.1 mg/kg), arsenic (<0.1 mg/kg), cadmium (<0.1 mg/kg), pesticides, and microbiological contaminants”

[William]

I tried the fermented stuff, hated it.

"because it is a lacto-fermented product, it can leave a slight sting on the back of the throat, which some find bothersome." I eat a little lacto-fermented cabbage every week, it never leaves a sting.

Slight sting my arse. How about a corrosive burning sensation, like a stop only worse, and taste even worse than the foul stuff that was forced on me in childhood.

I find it really hard to believe that tough guys like Vikings and Roman soldiers would insist on this stuff.

[majormark]

Tyler, you seem to be monitoring the shade quite often. Do you check in the mirror every day or make pictures?

If would be interesting to keep a track record with an album of pics taken under similar lightening conditions.

On a side note: I noticed my grandparents changed their eyes to blue in their late years. I know this because I have a early color picture with them and the eyes were much darker.

[Raw Kyle]

Isn't that stuff messing with whales?

[livingthelife]

We use the Blue Ice raw fermented cod liver oil. It tastes disgusting, I won't lie. We chase it with food, so I don't know if it burns.

We use 1 teaspoon of the cod liver oil most days.

I haven't noticed a change in our eye color. Perhaps I wouldn't notice even if it did occur.

What I have noticed is that my family has golden skin color compared to just about everyone else I see. Other peoples' skin seems to be very pinkish red to me. Until I changed our diets I didn't really pay attention to these kinds of indications of health. Now I think that other people's skin looks inflamed and mottled (poor perfusion) compared to my family. We have good skin strength in the sun (tanning, not burning), and our skin tone is of an even color. I think this is due to the vitamin A (beta carotene) of the cod liver oil, as well as having better nutrition in general.

[ys]

was astonished to find that my irises are lightening up at a far more rapid rate than before

lucky guy you are...  iris color would be absolutely the last thing I would worry about.  i'd be very happy to be in optimal health with irises of any color.

[PaleoPhil]

I've recently upped my krill-oil dosage to 4 capsules a day and was astonished to find that my irises are lightening up at a far more rapid rate than before(previously , I experienced some amount of iris-lightening in the first 3 years, with the effect happening at a very, very slow rate in the last 5 years of doing this diet).Anyway, has anyone else noticed iris-lightening as a result of taking krill oil or blue ice  cod liver oil?   It does seem possible that, even though I've been on a raw diet for so long, that I needed still more omega-3s than is usually available in raw foods.

OK, so far we seem to have identified raw eggs, raw adrenals and krill oil as foods that lighten the irises. What are the common denominators? I think eggs and adrenals both have cysteine and eggs and krill oil both have A and D3.

[RawZi]

"because it is a lacto-fermented product, it can leave a slight sting on the back of the throat, which some find bothersome." I eat a little lacto-fermented cabbage every week, it never leaves a sting.

Slight sting my arse. How about a corrosive burning sensation, like a stop only worse, ....

I find it really hard to believe that tough guys like Vikings and Roman soldiers would insist on this stuff.

I haven't tried krill oil, but olive oil does that to me.

[Ioanna]

i'm confused... wasn't there a recent thread on omega-3 intake and nose bleeds?... or is that only above some optimal level?

[goodsamaritan]

I've recently upped my krill-oil dosage to 4 capsules a day and was astonished to find that my irises are lightening up at a far more rapid rate than before(previously , I experienced some amount of iris-lightening in the first 3 years, with the effect happening at a very, very slow rate in the last 5 years of doing this diet).Anyway, has anyone else noticed iris-lightening as a result of taking krill oil or blue ice  cod liver oil?   It does seem possible that, even though I've been on a raw diet for so long, that I needed still more omega-3s than is usually available in raw foods.

My father in law wants to know if iris-lightening is a good thing or a bad thing.

[PaleoPhil]

I suspect that it's good sign, because it appears to come from high levels of nutrients, but I don't know if it produces any real health benefits.

[TylerDurden]

I thought that Fermented CLO would be the best Omega-3 supplement. From this article it seems that Dave Wetzel is not a huge fan of Krill oil and he obviously knows something about fish oils:

What About Fish and Krill Oils?

Fish oil and krill oil, sold as supplements to provide omega-3 fatty acids, are by-products of the fish and krill meal industries. They are produced in large factories humming with the noise of conveyer belts, grinders, separators, extractors and dryers. We provide two descriptions of fish oil manufacture and one of krill oil manufacture, and let our readers decide whether or not they want to consume these products. Remember that omega-3 fatty acids are very fragile and highly subject to damage when exposed to heat and oxygen.

KRILL OIL MANUFACTURE: Frozen Antarctic krill are crushed and the lipids and proteins are extracted using acetone. Following extraction, the krill proteins and lipids are filtered through an organic solvent-resistant filter under reduced pressure to enable physical separation of lipids and proteins. Excess acetone is evaporated and water is separated from the oil. The oil is subjected to additional filtration and purification to remove impurities and is packaged in a modified nitrogen-containing atmosphere and stored. The notifier provides product specifications for krill oil, including specifications for fatty acids, total phospholipids, esterified astaxanthin, saturated fatty acids, and trans-fat (<0.1 percent). Specifications also include limits on residual acetone (<10 milligrams per kilogram (mg/kg), lead (<0.1 mg/kg), mercury (<0.1 mg/kg), arsenic (<0.1 mg/kg), cadmium (<0.1 mg/kg), pesticides, and microbiological contaminants”

My understanding is that the Mercola krill oil product is cold-extracted, and is reasonably high-quality.

[TylerDurden]

Tyler, you seem to be monitoring the shade quite often. Do you check in the mirror every day or make pictures?

If would be interesting to keep a track record with an album of pics taken under similar lightening conditions.

My camera isn't working right now and I'm too lazy to get it fixed(besides, I presume I would need additional special lighting).  I do check in the mirror every day which is why I was astonished to find such a rapid change.
[/quote]

[TylerDurden]

OK, so far we seem to have identified raw eggs, raw adrenals and krill oil as foods that lighten the irises. What are the common denominators? I think eggs and adrenals both have cysteine and eggs and krill oil both have A and D3.

I doubt there are any common denominators. I'm sure that a darkened iris might be due to multiple health-issues with the darkened colour merely a side-effect. That is, my irises darkened further when I consumed any raw/pasteurised dairy but I don't think that raw dairy directly caused a reduction in omega-3 levels, for example.

[TylerDurden]

Isn't that stuff messing with whales?

Well, as I understand it, krill are in huge numbers in the oceans and whales are in such small numbers(due unfortunately to human predation) that it's not an issue.

[TylerDurden]

i'm confused... wasn't there a recent thread on omega-3 intake and nose bleeds?... or is that only above some optimal level?

Well, I noticed something surprising. Even though I'm taking 4 (1g?)capsules of krill oil a day, a recent cut on my forefinger stopped bleeding remarkably quickly. Perhaps it requires 10g or more for nosebleeds to occur.

[TylerDurden]

My father in law wants to know if iris-lightening is a good thing or a bad thing.

 Well, I can only go by my own experience.As I gradually discovered that raw dairy was harmful to me, I'd noticed that my irises had become slightly lighter in shade on the edges in the first couple of months of rawpalaeo, and that they had become much darker when I started consuming raw dairy. Similiarly, my iris-colour lightened as I increased in health in the first 3 years of the diet(though, admittedly, until recently the change was very minimal). So, I think it does have some bearing on health, but not necessarily 100%.

[PaleoPhil]

Well, I noticed something surprising. Even though I'm taking 4 (1g?)capsules of krill oil a day, a recent cut on my forefinger stopped bleeding remarkably quickly. Perhaps it requires 10g or more for nosebleeds to occur.

The level at which excessive bleeding starts seems to vary between individuals.

[PaleoPhil]

Tyler, how long did it take for the 4 capsules a day of krill oil to noticeably lighten your irises?


Tyler wrote: "My understanding is that the Mercola krill oil product is cold-extracted, and is reasonably high-quality."
http://www.rawpaleoforum.com/off-topic/krill-oil/msg19848/#msg19848

Mercola apparently currently uses an Aker Biomarine krill oil product. Aker reportedly cooks the krill and then extracts the oil with ethanol. The only version of krill oil that reportedly is not cooked and doesn't use ethanol, acetone, or hexane solvent is Cyvex's KriaXanthin, which is sold under the NSI and Meridian brands at Vitacost and Amazon.com, respectively. KriaXanthin also happens to be the cheapest version of krill oil I've seen, which may be due to the fact that they don't process their krill oil as much. The limited processing also means it has very low concentrations of EPA and DHA versus other brands, but it's still cheaper per mg of EPA/DHA.

Mercola's brand is the most expensive I've seen, and I've noticed in general when looking at this products that he tends to charge more for them than other sellers, possibly because of a combination of his small volumes and because he can charge more for the Mercola name.

There's lots of info on krill oil at http://www.healthyfellow.com/283/krill-oil-research/.

> NSI (Vitacost) KriaXanthin (source: Cyvex)
http://www.vitacost.com/NSI-KriaXanthin-Antarctic-Krill-Oil-with-Natural-Astaxanthin
$9.99 for 60 softgels
$39.99 for 300 softgels
Per 2 Softgels:
1000 mg krill oil
Phospholipids ?
Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) 50 mg
Docosahexaenoic (DHA) 20 mg
Omega-6 fatty acids 20 mg
Astaxanthin (as astaxanthin esters) 1.5 mg

Ingredients: Antarctic krill oil (Euphasia pacifica), gelatin.

> Mercola Krill Oil (source: Aker Biomarine - their less concentrated form of krill oil)
http://krilloil.mercola.com/krill-oil.html
$24.95 for 60 capliques
$62.97 for 180 capliques
Per 2 capsules:
1000 mg krill oil
Phospholipids 400 mg
Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) 90 mg
Docosahexaenoic (DHA) 50 mg
Omega-6 fatty acids 20 mg
Astaxanthin (as astaxanthin esters) 600 mcg

Ingredients: krill oil, fish gelatin capsule and silica.

> Source Naturals NKO Krill oil (source: Neptune Technologies & Bioresources)
http://www.sourcenaturals.com/products/GP1752/
http://www.sourcenaturals.com/file_center/original/100200.pdf
http://www.amazon.com/Source-Naturals-NKO-Softgels-softgels/dp/B000GFJK0U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=hpc&qid=1282525936&sr=1-1
$11.92 for 60 softgels
$34.33 for 120 softgels
Per 2 softgels (1000 mg)
Phospholipids 400 mg
Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA)   150 mg †
Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)   90 mg   †
Omega-6 fatty acids, total   15 mg   †
Astaxanthin   1.5 mg   

Ingredients: krill oil, gelatin, glycerin, and purified water.

> Cyvex and Enzymotec (Azantis) provide krill oil to Nutraceutical Sciences Institute (NSI). Cyvex makes KriaXanthin. They claim "We use no solvents in extracting the [KriaXanthin] oil…all processing is done on Antarctic fishing vessels." http://www.cyvex.com/individual-ingredients/kriaxanthin-pure-and-natural-antarctic-krill-oil-astaxanthin. Sold at Vitacost.
  NSI also sell SKO oil, which is Enzymotec's Azantis oil

"KriaXanthin Krill Oil appears to have [a little more than] half the Omega 3s of Neptune Krill Oil (and the other brands that use it). BUT, it is also less than half the price of those products, so double the dose and you are still more than ahead of the game price-wise.

SMELL: the stench when you open the bottle of KriaXanthin is awful" http://www.amazon.com/Meridian-Naturals-Krill-Oil-Softgels/dp/B001TDL3OY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=hpc&qid=1282523299&sr=1-1

KriaXanthin is apparently a lower-strength product than the other brands, possibly because it doesn't concentrate the oil with ethanol, acetone, or hexane

"It's produced with a unique, cold-vacuum-pressing process, without the presence of solvents, resulting in a superior-quality, highly stable oil." https://ponsonbyhealth.myhsphere.biz/product_info.php?cPath=13&products_id=454

Some sellers of KriaXanthin
Amazon.com: Meridian Naturals brand http://www.amazon.com/Meridian-Naturals-Krill-Oil-Softgels/dp/B001TDL3OY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=hpc&qid=1282523299&sr=1-1
Vitacost: NSI brand http://www.vitacost.com/NSI-KriaXanthin-Antarctic-Krill-Oil-with-Natural-Astaxanthin-1000-mg-per-serving-300-Softgels/?pd_section=pr#ProductReviews

> Aker Biomarine supplies Mercola with a weak version of their krill oil; they also have a stronger Superba version that Finnish authorities said is as strong as NKO; Aker cooks the krill and uses ethanol to extract the krill oil; May
26 2010
Aker Biomarine’s Krill Fisheries Receives Marine Stewardship Council Certification http://www.aquapreneur.com/2010/05/26/aker-biomarines-krill-fisheries-receives-marine-stewardship-council-certification/

“The Board notes that the production and manufacturing process of Superba oil presented by the applicant is substantially equivalent with that of the NKO oil’s. Mainly, the methods differ from each other only as regards the extraction of the oil, where Aker Biomarine uses extraction with ethanol from krill meal cooked and dried on the vessel, while NKO oil is extracted with acetone from frozen raw krill.
  However the difference in the manufacturing process has no substantial impact on the composition of the end product, i.e. the oil, and both methods are acceptable as regards food safety.” http://www.stockhouse.com/Bullboards/MessageDetail.aspx?s=NTB&t=LIST&m=27746653&l=0&pd=0&r=0

> Neptune Technologies & Bioresources supplies its NKO brand to NOW, Source Naturals and others; Neptune had some shipping problems one summer due to fast growth and some of their retail customers dropped them as a result; Neptune uses acetone to extract the krill oil

[TylerDurden]

Most interesting. Mercola claimed the krill-oil was cold-extracted, so if the above is correct, I am none too pleased. Thanks for taking the trouble of doing the research involved.

As regards the iris-lightening, that took c. 2 months for it to be really noticeable. Maybe it wasn't all that badly heated?

[PaleoPhil]

You're welcome. Your results and those reported by Dr. Eades re: krill oil are sufficiently interesting that I decided to give it a try and researched it to see what to buy. Here's what I found on the temperatures Aker uses, though it's second-hand info:

"In some preferred embodiments, freshly caught krill is first subjected to a protein denaturation step. The present invention is not limited to any particular method of protein denaturation. In some embodiments, the denaturation is accomplished by application of chemicals, heat, or combinations thereof. In some embodiments, freshly caught krill is wet pressed to obtain oil and meal. In some embodiments, the meal is then heated to a temperature of about 50° C. to about 100° C. for about 20 minutes to about an hour, preferably about 40 minutes to denature the proteins." http://www.faqs.org/patents/app/20080274203

[TylerDurden]

Well, it's an important lesson never to buy from Mercola ever again. I've always loathed the guy.