Fish liver oil

When we were little, Father bought cod liver oil capsules which he said was really good for us and made up grow strong and healthy. The oil was encased in a rubbery capsule and we were supposed to swallow it whole. Sometimes, out of curiousity, I would pop the capsule and the oil was most foul smelling and impossible to remove from your mouth.

Then we graduated to Scotts emulsion. Initially it was milky white in colour, this was equally awful to take. Father bought the orange flavoured ones, and it was nice to take, but soon removed because someone told Father that it wasn't as good as the plain milky ones.

When I became a mum, I bought the same Scotts emulsion and subjected my kids to the same fate as I did. The kids liked the orange flavoured ones, and left the milky ones hardly touch. The water engineer complained, so I stopped buying them.

My sister Rose came to visited and extolled the goodness of shark liver oil. She gave us some which she said were very expensive. My youngest sister Grace remembered that I punctured the capsule and put the oil in Sam's noodle soup. He screamed and protested. I had to throw the bowl of noodles away. My late Dad said, no wonder sam won't take the noodles. It smelt so fishy.

Back in Auckland, I thought we were getting too much winter flus and colds. I went to my favourite health food store and bought their most expensive and therefore I think the best fish oil, salmon oil. When I finished the salmon oil, they didn't have any more.

So I bought what was next best, shark liver oil. After this lot, I think I will revert to the cheaper cod liver oil.