How to Consume Fish Safely
We all know fish is one of the superfoods, packed with protein for muscle
building and those all-important omega-3's that help with mood, inflammation,
heart disease, the brain and potentially free testosterone. However, it is
rare to find an expert who advocates eating fish on a consistent basis:
the great majority would caution fish consumption more than twice per week. (Read
my link on Fish and Fish Oil for more details.)
The reluctance to recommend even moderate food consumption is with good reason:
methylmercury. For example,
one famous actress ate sushi four time per week and found herself with mercury
poisoning and the ensuing "weak memory, headaches, crying spells, skin rashes
and low grade depression". [3] Furthermore, the New York Times recently
ran a piece that explained how badly contaminated Manhattin sushi was.
Their finding were that "at most of [the restaurants], a regular diet of six
pieces a week would exceed the levels considered acceptable by the Environmental
Protection Agency. Sushi from 5 of the 20 places had mercury levels so high that
the Food and Drug Administration could take legal action to remove the fish from
the market". [5]
CAUTION:
Kids can get dangerous levels of mercury from
eating the wrong kind of mercury. Canned (albacore) tuna is a large fish that
accumulates about three times the level of mercury as the canned light variety.
[4] The brains of children is particularly vulnerable to
mercury and experts believe that even relatively small amounts of mercury can
affect IQ.
Rest assured, it's not just sushi that has high levels of mercury, as many varieties of fish
have been affected. Freshwater water fish in the U.S., for example, have
been found to be loaded with not just mercury, but PCB's and dioxin as well. Ocean going
fish are often no better, especially shark, swordfish and king mackeral. [1]
The problem is unlikely to go away anytime soon as the mercury comes from the
emissions of coal fired plants throughout the globe. Fortunately, most of
us can detoxify mercury in about a month or a little more, but what is
frightening is that a significant block of us carry a gene that retains mercury
for about six months, making its impact much more profound and long lasting.
One Discover reporter had his mercury levels measure at 4 ug/l, a little below
the level, 5.8 ug/l, considered the safe threshhold by most experts.
However, when he ate fish, his blood mercury levels spiked to 12 and 13 ug/l, a
very dangerous level. [6] As expected, he found that he had the negative gene
that affected glutathione activity, glutathione being the body's natural
antioxidant that detoxes mercury and many other dangerous chemicals and
metabolites.
By the way, some would argue that the risk of fish consumption is grossly
overstated. After all, a huge percentage of people in Japan eat lost of
fish and have very high tissue mercury levels and yet have shown no ill effects.
[2] Again, though, I would argue better safe than sorry as there is no
compelling reason to consume fish more than once per week, considering that
there are
excellent brands of fish oil out there.
Another option is to eat the five variety of fish recommended by the EPA as
relatively low in mercury: canned light tuna, salmon, pollock and catfish. [7]
However, caution should be exercised in the case of farm raised catfish as they
have significant levels of inflammatory agents according to Chilton's book
Inflammation Nation.
.
