Menhaden Oil For the Masses

By Atom Bergstrom

Atom’s Blog

The Fish Oil cartel’s argument is that non-fish eaters (including vegans and vegetarians) are at risk by not getting the requisite daily dose of DHA and EPA fatty acids, and that’s why menhaden oil MUST be added to U.S. …

cookies, crackers, breads and rolls (light and dark), fruit pies, custard pies, cakes, baked goods and baking mixes, pastas, gelatins and puddings, sweet sauces, toppings, syrups, confections and frostings, jams and jelly, hard candy, soft candy, cereals, fats and oils (but not infant formulas), yogurt, milk products, cheese products, frozen dairy products and desserts, dairy product analogues, meat products, poultry products, egg products, fish products, condiments, plant protein products, soup mixes, snack foods, nut products, gravies, sauces, chewing gum, processed fruit juices, processed vegetable juices, nonalcoholic beverages, white granulated sugar, sugar substitutes, etc.

According to the Food and Drug Administration’s Department of Human Resources (“Substances Affirmed as Generally Recognized as Safe: Menhaden Oil”), Federal Register, Jun. 5, 1997 …

“The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is affirming that menhaden oil is generally recognized as safe (GRAS) as a direct human food ingredient with specific limitations. The agency is also affirming that partially hydrogenated menhaden oil with an iodine number between 86 and 119 is GRAS as a direct human food ingredient with no limitation other than current good manufacturing practice. These actions complete the agency’s response to a petition filed by the National Fish Meal and Oil Association.”

According to the same source …

“Pending further evaluation, the agency deferred its decision on menhaden oil that has not been hydrogenated, because this oil contains high levels of the omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), which are known to have physiologic effects, for example, effects on blood clotting (54 FR 38219).”

In other words, menhaden oil is allowed to be added to all of the foods listed above because human beings and their pets NEED DHA and EPA, but only partially hydrogenated menhaden oil WITHOUT the DHA and EPA is allowed so that we can be protected against the DHA and EPA that we allegedly “need.”

Don’t you just love corporate and bureaucratic reasoning?

Your pockets get picked while your liver gets kicked.

My new Mission Statement is to cost the unscrupulous global fish oil industry millions of dollars a year in the same way Andrew Grey cost the calcium and vitamin D industry millions of dollars ($1.5 million) a year in New Zealand alone.

DHA is an under-acknowledged worldwide cause of aging, Alzheimer’s, cancer, and death, widespread in humans, pets, and farm animals.

Our oceans are being raped and plundered to pimp DHA’s junk science.

Marine products (fish and algae) yield huge profits because corporations don’t have to pay individual property owners, and the states (two-mile limits) and countries (two-to-two hundred mile limits) don’t seem to give a flying fornication.

Yellow Fat Disease was dropped in my lap by a random comment from Ray Peat, and I’m choosing to run with it “the whole hog including the postage.”
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