Laura Schoenfeld: The extra virgin cod liver oil does have some omega-3’s in it, but that’s not really the benefit of cod liver oil. The reason you’d be taking that is really for the vitamin A and the vitamin D in the cod liver oil, so eating wild seafood is not necessarily going to make up for that nutritional benefit. If you were just taking fish oil and you were eating seafood multiple times a week, then it probably not really necessary. Chris’ general recommendation—and this is pretty well supported from different people in the field; I know Paul Jaminet recommends this, too; this is typically what I recommend to my patients—is trying to aim for a pound of wild … or I shouldn’t say “wild,” I should say fatty fish a week. So if you’re aiming for a pound, that might be three servings of, like, five and a half ounces, it might be four servings of four ounces, but if you’re eating about a pound of fatty fish a week, for most people, that is a good amount of omega-3 and you should be OK.
Now, that’s not going to get you the vitamin A and vitamin D from the cod liver oil. If you’re trying to do it without supplementation, then eating liver once a week, about a quarter pound a week, would get you enough vitamin A to make up for it. Then with the vitamin D, of course, sunshine is your best option there. It depends on where you live. It depends on what your vitamin D levels are. If you live in a sunny area that you’re getting outside a lot and you can maintain vitamin D levels above 25 year-round without supplementing, then that’s great. If you are struggling with that, then supplementing might be a good idea. If you’re not going to do cod liver oil, then do some type of D and K2 combo. You don’t want to be taking D without K2 as well.