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By
Dr. Joseph Mercola
with Rachael Droege
As most readers of this newsletter know, I have been advising against
eating fish, whether from the ocean, lakes and streams, or farm-raised,
for some time because of their dangerously high levels of mercury,
PCBs and other toxins.
Sadly, as fish would otherwise be one of the healthiest meats on
the planet, fish (and shellfish) easily accumulate high levels of
chemical residues from the water they live in (fortunately, there
are still some healthy options, which I’ll discuss below).
Residues in fish can be as much as 9 million times the amount found
in the water!
So before you open your next can of tuna or sit down to a plate
of salmon, consider that contaminants found in fish flesh include:
- Mercury
- PCBs
- Radioactive substances like strontium
- Toxic metals such as cadmium, lead, chromium and arsenic
Factory-Farmed Fish
If you eat fish in a restaurant, it most likely came from a fish
farm. Almost half of the salmon, 40 percent of the mollusks, and
65 percent of the freshwater fish consumed today are raised on fish
farms. Not surprisingly, fish farming, a multimillion-dollar industry,
has become one of the fastest-growing sections of the food production
market.
What many people don’t know is that farmed fish face many
of the same health issues as factory-farmed animals. In order to
be profitable, fish farms must raise large quantities of fish in
confined areas, and the overcrowding leads to disease and injuries
to the fish. The fish are given antibiotics and chemicals for the
parasites like sea lice, skin and gill infections and other diseases
that commonly affect them.
The fish are also given drugs and hormones, and sometimes are genetically
modified, to accelerate growth and change reproductive behaviors.
Farmed salmon are also given chemicals, canthaxanthin and astaxanthin,
to turn their flesh pink in order to make them more marketable.
Wild salmon eat a diet of shrimp and krill, which contain natural
chemicals that make the salmon pink. Farm-raised salmon do not eat
a natural diet, so their flesh would be gray if they were not given
the additives.
Ocean Fish
Even fish that are ocean-caught are fraught with problems. Tragically,
our oceans are largely contaminated with industrial pollutants.
Ocean fish pick up these toxic chemical residues, which bioconcentrate
in their flesh.
The larger the fish, the more problematic because big fish eat
smaller fish, thereby getting an even greater dose of accumulated
toxins.
Almost all fish are contaminated with mercury. Mercury is especially
dangerous to children and can cause birth defects during pregnancy.
In adults, mercury damages or destroys nerve tissue and affects
the visual cortex and the cerebellum, the part of the brain that
controls complex movements and balance. Exposure to mercury may
also result in:
- Attention and language deficits
- Impaired memory
- Inability to process and recall information
- Decreased concentration
- Impaired visual and motor function
Pesticides in fish, such as DDT, PCBs, and dioxin, are also dangerous.
They have been linked to cancers, nervous system disorders, fetal
damage and many other health problems.
How Do I Find Healthy Fish?
Unless you can verify that the fish has been lab-tested and found
to be free on contaminants, don’t eat it! When you visit your
supermarket, ask the fish handlers where the fish comes from. They
may contact the manufacturer for you, otherwise contact them on
your own and ask if their fish has been tested for mercury and PCBs.
Early last year we did extensive testing on fish from a company
that takes salmon from the interior of Alaska and were surprised
and delighted to find that the mercury levels were virtually undetectable.
The company has also conducted numerous tests on the salmon and
has never once detected PCBs.
The salmon are sustainably harvested by a native Alaskan tribe
to ensure the success of the species. After hatching, the Alaskan
salmon swim upstream to pure, fresh water lakes where they feed
and grow for one to three years before swimming out to the Bering
Sea. The salmon are sustainably harvested during their migration.
If you enjoy the delicious taste and immense health benefits of
some of the world's finest salmon--Alaskan
wild red--but you are concerned about the mercury and other toxins
now found in dangerous amounts in almost all fish, then please consider
trying the Alaskan wild red salmon from Vital Choice that tested
safe and is now available in our Web site store.
The salmon contain very high levels of omega-3 with DHA and EPA.
Another option for obtaining the nutritional benefits of omega-3
is regularly consuming high-quality fish oil. I have researched
and tried many brands of fish oil, and I recommend Carlson’s
brand above all others as it offers fish oil and cod liver oil with
superior purity and freshness. It is purified to the highest standards
to be free from mercury and other toxins and is made without chemical
modification and processing. If you are unable to find it in your
local health food store, you can purchase Carlson’s
brand fish oil and cod liver oil on this site.
Related Articles:
Fish Farms Become Feedlots
of the Sea
Do You Know the Facts
About Mercury in Fish?
Dangerous PCBs Found in
Salmon
Polluted Fish Reduce
Male Birth Rate
Toxicology: How Mercury
Harms Humans
Not Any Old Fish Food
Will Reduce Heart Attacks
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