I am reading "The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living" and when searching for oolichan online I found a nice article on the subject by one of the authors of the book:
_http://www.cbc.ca/thelens/bigfatdiet/grease.html
WHAT IS OOLICHAN GREASE?
Oolichan grease is made from a small smelt-like fish that's rich in monounsaturated fat. Some experts say that it once comprised up to half the energy intake of the Northwest Coastal diet. Dr. Steven Phinney, M.D. Ph. D Professor Emeritus, University of California is a nutritional biochemist. Dr. Jay Wortman consulted with him about issues related to the no carb diet.
Q: Should everyone eat this grease?
Steve Phinney: Well I would worry about advising us all to eat oolichan grease because I don't think there are enough of the fish to go around. But it provides us with a very interesting message from a highly evolved diet. The diet that the people here developed. And as your piece showed, they went to remarkable, to a remarkable extent to extract this oil from a little fish and that implied that they had figured out that this was a better source of oil for them than say oil from sea lions or seals or even from salmon, as the dominant source of oil in their diet. The fact that they picked the oolichan to extract it means that they somehow knew that this was the right mix of fat if you are going to be eating a lot of fat for fuel.
The other unique thing about the mix is because it is very low in polyunsaturates, high in monounsaturates, not only is it well suited for human use but it is also well suited for storage and transport. That is, it is not prone to go rancid in the same way as seal or sea lion oil or grease would. So you could store it in the containers they had. I'm told they had cedar boxes and very tightly woven baskets in which the grease could be stored and they could harvest it over a period of a couple of weeks and then use it for the rest of the year even with some modern things like soybean and corn oils, the staple vegetable oils that we use in our modern diet, aren't storable because, in that way, because the conditions that were available to the people, the indigenous people living here because they would have gone rancid, they would have spoiled and would have tasted terrible.
So oolichan grease was again uniquely suited for use not just by humans but also metabolically, but also was very well suited to be stored and provide a sustained source of fuel for these people throughout the variation in food availability over the course of the year of hunting and fishing.
Q: How does it compare to olive oil?
Steve Phinney: Among the vegetable sources olive oil is the one that is closest in composition to the oolichan grease. In a couple of ways: olive oil is high in monounsaturates and so is oolichan grease.
The other interesting sideline is that I've been told by indigenous healers here that oolichan grease was not only good as a food but also as a material to put on the skin, to treat skin conditions. Things like psoriasis or dandruff and other skin conditions that are caused by inflammation in the skin. This seems a little far fetched that something that is a food would also be a medicinal material but it turns out that oolichan grease is very rich, unusually rich in a not-fat material called squaline.
Q: Squaline.
Steve Phinney: In addition to the fact that it is rich in monounsaturates, which makes it very well suited for human metabolism and also easily, more easily stored, without refrigeration or vacuum sealing, the other very interesting thing about oolichan grease is it is rich in a chemical component called squaline. Squaline is technically not a fat but it is fat soluble. Squaline is highly desirable as a skin conditioner.
Now the local healers here have told us that traditionally they used oolichan grease as a material to be applied to skin conditions like, similar to psoriasis or dandruff and that that would make it go away and it seemed a little far fetched at the start but when we discovered that it contains this squaline that becomes a very reasonable use for this material. Now squaline is, in food, is not a bad thing.
It turns out there is squaline in olive oil, in a more modest quantity than in oolichan grease and also there is squaline in shark liver oil and in other components of shark. So where people use shark in components as a medicinal agent, it is probably due in part to the squaline content in shark products. So it really makes sense that the people here had figured out long ago that this was a unique resource.
READ MORE ABOUT OOLICHAN GREASE
Living Landscapes Museum
Smelt (Eulachon, Oolichan, Candlefish, Hooligan)
_http://www.cbc.ca/thelens/bigfatdiet/grease.html
WHAT IS OOLICHAN GREASE?
Oolichan grease is made from a small smelt-like fish that's rich in monounsaturated fat. Some experts say that it once comprised up to half the energy intake of the Northwest Coastal diet. Dr. Steven Phinney, M.D. Ph. D Professor Emeritus, University of California is a nutritional biochemist. Dr. Jay Wortman consulted with him about issues related to the no carb diet.
Q: Should everyone eat this grease?
Steve Phinney: Well I would worry about advising us all to eat oolichan grease because I don't think there are enough of the fish to go around. But it provides us with a very interesting message from a highly evolved diet. The diet that the people here developed. And as your piece showed, they went to remarkable, to a remarkable extent to extract this oil from a little fish and that implied that they had figured out that this was a better source of oil for them than say oil from sea lions or seals or even from salmon, as the dominant source of oil in their diet. The fact that they picked the oolichan to extract it means that they somehow knew that this was the right mix of fat if you are going to be eating a lot of fat for fuel.
The other unique thing about the mix is because it is very low in polyunsaturates, high in monounsaturates, not only is it well suited for human use but it is also well suited for storage and transport. That is, it is not prone to go rancid in the same way as seal or sea lion oil or grease would. So you could store it in the containers they had. I'm told they had cedar boxes and very tightly woven baskets in which the grease could be stored and they could harvest it over a period of a couple of weeks and then use it for the rest of the year even with some modern things like soybean and corn oils, the staple vegetable oils that we use in our modern diet, aren't storable because, in that way, because the conditions that were available to the people, the indigenous people living here because they would have gone rancid, they would have spoiled and would have tasted terrible.
So oolichan grease was again uniquely suited for use not just by humans but also metabolically, but also was very well suited to be stored and provide a sustained source of fuel for these people throughout the variation in food availability over the course of the year of hunting and fishing.
Q: How does it compare to olive oil?
Steve Phinney: Among the vegetable sources olive oil is the one that is closest in composition to the oolichan grease. In a couple of ways: olive oil is high in monounsaturates and so is oolichan grease.
The other interesting sideline is that I've been told by indigenous healers here that oolichan grease was not only good as a food but also as a material to put on the skin, to treat skin conditions. Things like psoriasis or dandruff and other skin conditions that are caused by inflammation in the skin. This seems a little far fetched that something that is a food would also be a medicinal material but it turns out that oolichan grease is very rich, unusually rich in a not-fat material called squaline.
Q: Squaline.
Steve Phinney: In addition to the fact that it is rich in monounsaturates, which makes it very well suited for human metabolism and also easily, more easily stored, without refrigeration or vacuum sealing, the other very interesting thing about oolichan grease is it is rich in a chemical component called squaline. Squaline is technically not a fat but it is fat soluble. Squaline is highly desirable as a skin conditioner.
Now the local healers here have told us that traditionally they used oolichan grease as a material to be applied to skin conditions like, similar to psoriasis or dandruff and that that would make it go away and it seemed a little far fetched at the start but when we discovered that it contains this squaline that becomes a very reasonable use for this material. Now squaline is, in food, is not a bad thing.
It turns out there is squaline in olive oil, in a more modest quantity than in oolichan grease and also there is squaline in shark liver oil and in other components of shark. So where people use shark in components as a medicinal agent, it is probably due in part to the squaline content in shark products. So it really makes sense that the people here had figured out long ago that this was a unique resource.
READ MORE ABOUT OOLICHAN GREASE
Living Landscapes Museum
Smelt (Eulachon, Oolichan, Candlefish, Hooligan)
