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Green Pasture makes the fermented cod liver oil and concentrated butter oil I use for my family. I use the oils separately and in the blended products, choosing the form according to who is taking it and what they are taking it with. Liquid works in a shake or smoothie for the younger children; older children and adults use capsules.
The taste deserves an honest answer: it is strong. Very strong. A little can make its presence known, so the way you serve it matters. The benefit of having different forms is being able to choose a workable way to take the amount in your plan.
If you are deciding between plain cod liver oil, butter oil and a blend, start with what each contributes. Then choose the form. The cod liver oil and butter oil pairing has a particular place in both Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride’s teaching and Weston A. Price’s work. If you are new to the program, my GAPS basics guide explains the wider approach.
Why Pair Cod Liver Oil With Butter Oil?
Cod liver oil supplies vitamins A and D along with EPA and DHA, two omega-3 fatty acids. Concentrated butter oil is valued in the Price and GAPS approach as a source of fat-soluble nutrients, including vitamin K2. In Gut and Physiology Syndrome, Dr. Campbell-McBride explains that vitamins A and D help the body produce proteins involved in building and maintaining bones and teeth, while vitamin K2 activates those proteins. The point of combining the oils is that their nutrients work together.[1]
The Weston A. Price Foundation describes the same relationship in its explanation of the fat-soluble activators. Price paired cod liver oil with high-vitamin butter oil made from butter from cows eating rapidly growing grass. His work is the historical basis for the pairing, and Green Pasture makes both separate oils and a combined product.[2][3]
This sits alongside the food in the GAPS Diet. Dr. Campbell-McBride’s bones-and-teeth discussion also emphasizes animal protein, collagen-rich foods and nourishing fats. The oils have a place within that wider food approach.[1] If you want to understand the book behind this guidance, my Gut and Physiology Syndrome review explains what it teaches.
The Green Pasture Forms to Compare
There are two choices to keep in mind: which oil or combination you want, and how you want to take it. The current range includes these six forms.[3]
| Form | What It Contains | Practical Difference |
|---|---|---|
| Fermented cod liver oil, liquid | Cod liver oil | A measured liquid amount can be mixed into food or a drink. |
| Fermented cod liver oil, capsules | Cod liver oil in capsules | An alternative to taking the liquid directly. |
| Concentrated butter oil, bottled | Concentrated dairy butter oil | A separate butter-oil product to measure. |
| Concentrated butter oil, capsules | Concentrated dairy butter oil in capsules | A capsule option for the butter oil itself. |
| Cod liver oil and butter oil blend, gel | Both oils in one spoonable product | A combined product with its own serving information. |
| Cod liver oil and butter oil blend, capsules | Both oils in capsules | A combined capsule option. |
Green Pasture describes its blend as roughly two-thirds fermented cod liver oil and one-third concentrated butter oil. That means a measured amount of the blend contains a different amount of cod liver oil from the same volume of plain cod liver oil. Check the serving information when changing products or forms.[3]
The butter oil and blends contain milk. The cod liver oil products contain fish. These ingredient distinctions matter when you choose a product, including when you are following your GAPS dairy-introduction plan.[3]
The Taste and How I Use the Different Forms
For the younger children, I can hide the liquid in a shake or smoothie. That gives me a way to include it in something they are already having. For older children and adults, capsules are another option. I vary the form with the person and what it is being taken with.
Dr. Campbell-McBride also mentions adding cod liver oil to a GAPS shake to disguise its taste. Use the shake or smoothie preparation that fits the foods you have introduced.[1] Measure the amount before adding it, so you know what went into the drink. If part of the drink is left, the whole amount you added has not necessarily been taken.
The strong taste is part of my experience with the liquid. Choosing a different way to serve it can help with that practical issue; the amount still follows the dosage guidance you are using.
Check the Ingredients for Your Flavor
The unflavored products give you a starting point for comparing the oils. Flavored versions have additional ingredients, and those ingredients differ. For example, Green Pasture’s current Chocolate blend gel lists organic stevia leaf. Dr. Campbell-McBride’s GAPS FAQs exclude stevia in any form, so that flavor does not fit that guidance.[3][4]
Choose the actual product and flavor by its full ingredient list. A blended gel and a capsule product also have different supporting ingredients: the current unflavored gel lists silica, while the unflavored capsules list beeswax and plant cellulose.[3] This helps explain why the forms feel different and why their ingredient panels deserve separate attention.
The Amount and Its Place in GAPS
Follow the dosage recommendations carefully. Use the GAPS guidance that applies to you and the serving information for the exact product. Check the bottle when you change between plain oil, a blend and capsules. The blend ratio and the different forms mean that a spoonful and a capsule count are not interchangeable measures.[1][3]
In her supplement FAQs, Dr. Campbell-McBride starts new cod liver oil introductions in Intro Stage 3, after fermented foods have been introduced successfully, beginning with tiny amounts and increasing gradually. For someone starting with Full GAPS, she allows an introduction from the beginning, starting with a tiny amount and increasing gradually. Her separate answer says previously tolerated cod liver oil can continue through the earlier Intro stages.[4]
Her 2020 epilepsy guidance has its own conditions: avoid plant- and fish-oil supplements for at least the first year. A later cod liver oil option is for someone prone to common colds during the cold season, after seizures have stopped for at least six months or longer, beginning with a tiny amount and building gradually. The FAQs separately advise avoiding these oils with tics, Tourette’s and other involuntary movements.[1][4]
Her FAQs also say to stop a supplement that causes a serious reaction and focus on the diet for a few months. Once digestion is considerably better, a supplement that may be helpful can be tried again, beginning with a tiny amount. That individual guidance belongs with the decision to use the oils.[4]
Storage and Keeping Useful Notes
Keep cod liver oil refrigerated and protected from light and air, following the GAPS book’s guidance for these perishable oils. Read the storage directions for the exact product too, and keep the container closed between uses.[1][3]
When you change forms, record the product name, form, amount and introduction date. A note such as “blend capsules” is more useful later than simply writing “cod liver oil.” My food and symptom journal guide shows how to keep those observations manageable.
My Supplement Introduction Tracker gives you a place to keep the product, amount and observations together. Look for it in the WFLI Shop.
Choosing a Form for Your Household
For my family, having liquid and capsule options is useful because the same form does not suit every person or every meal. Liquid gives me a way to include cod liver oil in a younger child’s shake or smoothie. Capsules give older children and adults another way to take it. A blend puts the two oils together; separate products let you measure each oil separately.
Start with the product your GAPS plan calls for, then choose a form you can measure and use consistently. If you want the two oils together, compare the blend with the separate products. If taste is the practical difficulty, the liquid-versus-capsule choice is worth considering.
For the forms discussed here, you can check the current unflavored blend gel, cod liver oil and butter oil blend capsules, or plain fermented cod liver oil capsules on Amazon.
You can compare Green Pasture’s liquid cod liver oil, cod liver oil capsules, bottled butter oil, butter oil capsules, blend gel and blend capsules on the maker’s site.
References
- Natasha Campbell-McBride. Gut and Physiology Syndrome (2020), sections on bones and teeth, essential fatty acids, cod liver oil and the GAPS shake.
- Weston A. Price Foundation. Know Your Fats Introduction, “The Fat-Soluble Activators.”
- Green Pasture. Current product pages linked above and Frequently Asked Questions: product forms, ingredients, serving information and blend proportions. Checked October 21, 2026.
- Natasha Campbell-McBride. GAPS FAQs, Supplements questions 2, 7 and 28; Food questions 69 and 93 on stevia.
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