Eat Fish! Don't Eat Fish! Confusion
Reigns!
It seems the experts reverse themselves every month or so. First, pregnant women were advised to avoid eating fish for fear that mercury would affect fetal brain development. Now, studies show that women who eat more fish during their pregnancies have babies with higher cognitive scores.
When you consider that fish is a rich source of DHA, a fatty acid especially critical to brain growth and development, the latest findings make sense. It's also well-established that eating fish helps reduce your risk of heart disease. Yet fears about mercury along with other heavy metals and other environmental chemical contaminants abound, as do concerns about the environmental impact of overfishing & aquaculture.
Do the benefits of eating fish & seafood outweigh the risks to our health & the planet? Can we really afford to keep eating fish? My contention is that we can do so but with a lot of restraint.
It seems that every week, the story on fish gets more & more confusing!
To begin with we have been encouraged to eat fish at least 2-4 times per week. This will protect us from heart disease along with other inflammation-related diseases.
Next, we have told to restrict &/or avoid consumption of certain fish because of their dangerously high mercury levels. Secondary to that, the very fish we were told were low in mercury are now known to be high in carcinogenic PCB's as well as a number of other toxic chemicals.
Women who are pregnant now are told to avoid eating fish for fear that mercury could cause damage to developing fetal brains & neurological systems. Just days ago, the experts have told us that women who eat the most fish during pregnancy actually have babies with higher cognitive & developmental abilities. What to do? A dilemma at best!
Now the "green" folk are getting into the act , as they show their concern over possible catestrophic environmental impacts of over-fishing along with fish-farming. Many people are now worrying that unless drastic action is taken to curtail over-fishing, much of the world's wild fish population will be depleted within the next several years. many others are warning that poorly regulated aquaculture is endangering the healthiness as well as the quality of the water, wild fish populations & of the farmed fish themselves.
Whjen ordering from amenu or shopping for fresh or frozen fish & seafood It is a confuisng & baffling task trying to remember which fish & seafood are low in mercury, low in lead, low in other ehavy metals, low in PCB's, high in omega-3s & are also also sustainably harvested!
We all seek to receive the undeniable health benefits of eating more fish. What wedo not want is to expose oursleves to toxic chemicals nor do we want to add to environmental problems of the planet.
I cannot speak for you but I will continue to fish, I will continue to eat fish, I will contnue to buy fish & seafood as well as being more careful in my choices of the same. I have friends who are fish-farmers, aquaculturists to the max. I want to help their industry. I am arabid fisherman so i wnat to support the wild-fish side as well. Guess this is a dilemma of baffling proportions...think I will just go fishing!
Copyright © 2008 Donald R Houston, PhD. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without the author's consent.
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Comments: 6
We buy our fish fresh at the local market where it is brought in by local fishermen and sold fresh daily.
However, recently I've heard such horrible things about fish and shrip farming in Viet Nam that I intend to always ask about origin and reject anything from Viet Nam. China, too, since I suspect it's no better.