Fish Oil Should Really Be Called Fish Fat

[Westside PUFAs]

"Fish oil" sounds cool. "Fish fat" doesn't. Marketing 101. Fish Fat wouldn't sell. "Fish fats," with the s, would sell but not as much as "fish oil." How about "Fish Lipids from Wild Caught Smelt.." Fat, oil, lipid.

"Honey, can you pick me up some of that new wild caught mudskipper oil from the health food store?"

"Of course sweetie, I have to go there anyway to get that new hydrogenated buffalo butter.."

 

[sprinter]

It'd sell no problem if people were told it was good for them. People started eating lard (as in lard-****) when Paleo said it was healthy.

 

[Steve]

I had a question pop up in my head yesterday.
If fish oil oxidizes easily at room temperature or in the human body, what happens to it when you bake salmon for 20 minutes at 400 degrees?
Is the oil in a baked salmon the same as fresh, raw fish oil?
There must be a difference in eating the baked salmon vs ingesting fresh, raw fish oil.

 

[Westside PUFAs]

I had a question pop up in my head yesterday.
If fish oil oxidizes easily at room temperature or in the human body, what happens to it when you bake salmon for 20 minutes at 400 degrees?
Is the oil in a baked salmon the same as fresh, raw fish oil?
There must be a difference in eating the baked salmon vs ingesting fresh, raw fish oil.

I was thinking something similar recently as well but for cheese. Look at the bubbling cheese through the glass of the oven on the pizza, or in a super hot brick oven which can get as hot as 800f/400c, there must be something created in the cheese during that process. Something toxic that is not in a raw cheese. High temperature cooked cheese is consumed a lot which may be one factor in heart disease and/or cancer. If you leave cheese at room temperature for a few days on a piece of cardboard, you will see the oil (fat) of the cheese start to separate from the protein.

 

[ReSTART]

Funny how a few flipped words can alter your perception so much.

Drizzling oil on your salad is normal, saying you pour fat on your salad would get you funny looks.

 

[schultz]

It'd sell no problem if people were told it was good for them. People started eating lard (as in lard-****) when Paleo said it was healthy.

This is a good point, however I think the general population still avoids lard because of the negative perception, which you pointed out. The paleo crowd are, or at least were, on the fringe of health movements and they enjoy doing and eating things that the general public deem to be unhealthy. In other words, it's cool because it's different or shocking.

According to wikipedia, fats are solid at room temperature and oils are liquid. I think this is the reason for fish oil being called an oil. I do think that it helps with marketing though. Fish fat doesn't sound nearly as nice. Using oil makes it seem medicinal or something (like "oil of oregano"... imagine "oregano fat" lol). They should have called it "oil of fish"