Confessions: in my adventures as a Whole30er and primarily paleo-fueled triathlete and CrossFitter, I have long been avoiding one nasty sounding thing: fish oil.
First of all, I don’t like fish so of course that sounds gross. Second, the few times I have taken it I’ve come away with fish burps. Yuck. When I finally found one in capsule form that didnt give me disgusting burps, it turned out what it did give me was headaches (I’m blaming the glycerin in the gel tablet but that’s hardly for sure).
And since the fish oil answer to no capsules is a liquid — h-e-double-hockey-sticks no. DRINK fish oil? I think not.
Still, as I mentioned, I eat very little fish. And with a nagging knee injury and triathlon season upon me, I know it’s in my best interest to do whatever I can to reduce inflammation. Motrin has been the name of the game recently, but that’s not a good long term solution. It would be much better to get rid of this without risking my stomach lining.
So … fish oil.
This isn’t quack, crunchy-crazy-person science. Omega-3 fatty acids are proven to do all sorts of great things for heart, brain and joint health. You can read a great little FAQ over here for more on that.
After a bunch of research I settled on the SFH brand
You’re thinking “Chocolate flavored fish oil. Um, gross.”
Now, I have a friend who mixes it with almond butter and says she doesn’t really even notice it. But I didn’t get that memo. Instead I read somewhere (can’t find it now) that drinking it by the teaspoon and then chasing it with water wasn’t so bad, so that’s what I decided to do. They also said to either take it with or just after food. So that’s what I did. The result? Watch the video.
Not shown: me gagging over the sink after hitting “stop” on recording.
Also not shown: chocolate burps the rest of the day. I guess that’s better than fish burps, right? But still – gross.
So drinking it straight is definitely out. I don’t drink smoothies or anything like that — and my post-workout protein shake is a whole different food drama (you try finding one that does not taste like feet but also doesn’t contain soy, anything artificial or stevia and get back with me) so I’m not ready to mix it with that.
Today I’m going to try it mixed with almond butter and see how that goes. I’ll let you know.
Update: It did not go so well. Read about that over here.
