Fish oil benefits and side effects

A recent email alerting me to a website solely about Fishoil evokes many childhood memories - Scott's Emulsion:

The above photo of a bottle of Scott's Emulsion was uploaded under Creative Commons license to Flickr by Joan Thewlis

I remembered that as a child, I was often sick and my mother frequently sent me to see a doctor who have the same surname as me. That smelly whitish emulsion was what was fed to me by my late mother and I am just wondering if that had any role to play with me getting less frequently sick as I grew up. Surprisingly while so many complained of difficulties in swallowing that so called smelly horrible tasting stuff, I have no problem and even now if I have to take that stuff, I don't think I would have any problem.

Now back to that website about fish oil. I had expected to see a website trying to sell me fish oil, but surprisingly there is none of that commercial stuff other than a unit of AdSense's skyscraper ad. What I found there was a page on cod liver oil and a statement “Just close your eyes, plug your nose, and swallow it!” which is what is often told to generations of children. Well, I am glad no one need to tell me to close my eyes nor nose for I quite enjoy eating that stuff.

There is also a page on fish oil benefits plus another page on fish oil side effects and as expected, mention was made that many of today’s fish can be contaminated with mercury and other toxins.