A Shipload Of Peruvian Fishtales

I stopped in a South Carolina breakfast joint yesterday while driving cross-country. Best biscuits I've had in a while, and somehow I managed to stop at two. While waiting for the main course I decided to check some email, and guess what I saw? An ad for fish oil - but it wasn't MY fish oil

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.

Look, I don't mind bragging if it can be backed up. But this ad was doing the bragging part right, and missing out completely on the second half of the equation.

This supplement guru says the fish oil comes from Chile and Peru. Apparently they have "non-industrial waters" over there. I guess ocean water never moves.

He goes on to make the claim that Peru and Chile fish oil has 8 times less dioxins than fish sourced from European waters. And why shouldn't this be true? It's from the Scientific Committee on Food - whom nobody has heard of.

He claims his Peruvian fish oil is high quality - but I don't think you can get high quality from where you can't even get clean water. Maybe that's a little too much common sense for him.

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.

Nowhere on this chart does he say the fish oil is pharmaceutical grade. Just a comparison of commercial grade fish oil to other commercial grade fish oils.

Bottom line: Stick with pharmaceutical grade fish oil. You won't get it from Chile.