Don't trust the fish

[doodle]

Don't trust your local fish monger, seafood house, grocery store etc.. When it comes to fish, unless you caught it yourself, who knows what species you are putting in your mouth. The more information that I consume regarding our food system, the less I want to eat.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/11/scien ... ml?hp&_r=0

[Pointedstick]

The study only addressed the Big Apple, so I wonder if similar things happen outside NYC.

[doodle]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say this is a worldwide problem. I also suspect that there is a lot of mislabeling and misleading going on in the organic food space.

[Benko]

"39 percent of nearly 150 samples of fresh seafood collected from 81 establishments in the city this summer were mislabeled. The study did not identify any of the restaurants or stores, although it noted that most were in Manhattan. "


"Thirteen types of fish, including tilapia and tilefish, were falsely identified as red snapper"
Unless you live in Florida, this is often a problem and there is "pacific red snapper" (whatever that is).  Bottom line: caveat emptor if you really want the real stuff. 

Tuna is another biggie.  This is trickier since the damand for e.g. chuck light (since it has less mercury than the solid white stuff) has sored.

Bottom line is that I don't think you need to avoid eating fish, but it can be tricky (especially if you live in NYC).

[Gosso]

The more information that I consume regarding our food system, the less I want to eat.

Just don't go Breatharian, since the results may be less than appealing. 

Breatharianism is a related concept, in which believers claim food and possibly water are not necessary, and that humans can be sustained solely by prana (the vital life force in Hinduism), or, according to some, by the energy in sunlight (according to Ayurveda, sunlight is one of the main sources of prana).

[Tortoise]

Tuna is another biggie.  This is trickier since the damand for e.g. chuck light (since it has less mercury than the solid white stuff) has sored.

Bottom line is that I don't think you need to avoid eating fish, but it can be tricky (especially if you live in NYC).

A couple of months ago, Chris Kresser claimed in one of his podcast discussions that the concerns regarding mercury levels in fish are a bit overblown. He said the health benefits of eating fish far outweigh the negative effects of the mercury levels in most fish:

From a public health perspective, I think this is one of the most important shows I’ve ever recorded. As it is, most people do not eat enough cold-water, fatty fish, and this is especially true of pregnant women. Concern about mercury toxicity is one of the main reasons for this. But as you’ll learn in this episode, such concerns are unfounded and not supported by the science the majority of the time. In fact, we could go as far as saying it’s much safer to eat fish than it is to not eat it. DHA is a crucial nutrient for the development of the brain and nervous system, and has many other important properties. And as I’ve pointed out elsewhere, eating plant sources of omega-3 like flax or walnuts doesn’t cut it, because only a very small percentage (i.e. about one-half percent) of the short-chain omega-3 fats found in plants get converted into the beneficial long-chain omega-3 fat DHA.

I know not everyone will have time to listen to the show or read the transcript, so here’s the 30,000 foot takeaway: mercury causes harm by damaging selenoenzymes in the body that protect against oxidative damage. As long as a fish contains more selenium than mercury (which the vast majority of both ocean fish do), and as long as background selenium intake is sufficient (which it is in most industrialized nations), then there is no reason to limit consumption of ocean fish. Please do listen to the interview with Dr. Ralston, an expert in mercury in fish and the protective effects of selenium, to learn more about this important subject.

Source: http://chriskresser.com/the-truth-about ... ry-in-fish

[Gumby]

A couple of months ago, Chris Kresser claimed in one of his podcast discussions that the concerns regarding mercury levels in fish are a bit overblown. He said the health benefits of eating fish far outweigh the negative effects of the mercury levels in most fish

I listened to that podcast a few weeks ago and was pleasantly surprised by that. It makes sense when you think about the amount of seafood that the Japanese consume and how the entire nation of Japan is not dying from mercury poisoning (as far ask I know).

Kresser elaborates further here...

http://chriskresser.com/is-eating-fish- ... ating-fish

This is based on a fair amount of research, including...

http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/oceanograph ... rcury3.pdf

Of course, there are a few species of fish that are high in mercury and low in selenium, such as swordfish, pilot whale, shark, tilefish, and king mackerel.

Here is more information on the Selenium/Mercury connection from the Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC):

http://www.undeerc.org/fish/pdfs/Selenium-Mercury.pdf

Hooray for selenium!

[MachineGhost]

Hooray for selenium!

Pretty interesting.  I never knew selenium was a mercury chelator or that it was present in seafood.  Once again, Mother Nature in her infinite wisdom shows the way.

[Benko]

I would be careful.  Someone I know ate wild salmon daily (lives in Seattle area) and their blood mercury levels came up high.

[MachineGhost]

I would be careful.  Someone I know ate wild salmon daily (lives in Seattle area) and their blood mercury levels came up high.

Is there an intrinsic difference between methyl mercury and inorganic mercury in toxic element tests?

[Gumby]

I would be careful.  Someone I know ate wild salmon daily (lives in Seattle area) and their blood mercury levels came up high.

Eating salmon daily? I think it's pretty safe to say would skew the results a bit. For all we know, it probably takes a few hours or days for the selenium to remove the mercury from the body and the constant consumption of fish might just expose mercury that had yet to be removed from the body. Hard to say.

I recently saw the mention of a Japanese study that adding selenium to the diets of birds “gave complete protection”? from large amounts of mercury. So, perhaps your friend just needed to supplement with selenium (i.e. 2 or 3 brazil nuts a day) and then provide a few non-fish days in his diet to allow his body to detox itself.

I think eating fish 2 or 3 times a week is probably fine for most people. Not sure why anyone would feel the need to eat more than that.

On the other hand, the Japanese certainly consume more fish than that, so perhaps the seaweed and other seafood is providing them with enough selenium protection.