Tag Archives: mercury

Detox Diets and Fasts Do Not Work and May Increase Toxins in the Body

bottle

To detox or not to detox? That is the question I had for Gerard Mullin, MD of Johns Hopkins University as he spoke about nutritional detoxification at the 2024 Food & Nutrition Conferences and Expo a few weeks ago.

Dr. Mullin said that toxins are everywhere – in the food we eat, the air we breathe, and the things we touch.

Bisphenol A (BPA), a carcinogen, is in plastics, dental sealants, canned food linings, and cash register receipts.

Phthalates, other carcinogens, are found in fatty milk, butter and meats, along with personal care products, detergents, children’s toys, printing inks, and more.

Heavy metals, like arsenic, mercury and lead, are in food, batteries, paints, plastics, and fertilizers.

For the most part, toxins are “endocrine disruptors” that change the way our hormones regulate bodily functions. In animal studies, endocrine disruptors are linked to cancers, birth defects, diabetes, and other diseases. What is worse is that, when they work together, the sum of their actions is greater than the whole, and they are stored practically forever in body fat. Whether or not an individual develops a problem depends on genetics, level of exposure, and the quality of nutrients in the diet. (more…)

Posted on November 19, 2023 by Natalie K

Your Red Snapper May Actually be a Mercury-Filled Tilefish

The nonprofit ocean protection group called Oceana has been performing a study, the results of which were released last week. The question – whether or not we’re being sold, and therefore eating, the fish we think we are.

Oceana took a sum of around 1,215 fish from 12 different parts of the country and examined them to see if they matched their labels or not. Listed below are the study’s findings.

  • About one-third of the 1,215 fish samples bought from 2024-2024 were mislabeled.
  • In a collection of 120 samples that were marked as red snapper fish, 28 different species of fish were discovered. Of those, 17 were not even within the snapper fish family.
  • Southern California was the region most likely to be misinformed with 52 percent of the samples bought there actually being something different. (more…)
Posted on February 21, 2024 by Danielle

Obama Backs New EPA Mercury Reduction Plan

What do you do when some of the healthiest foods on the planet, fish and shellfish, actually become dangerous to eat? Of course, the dangers of mercury exposure are much more extensive and complex than that, and for that reason the Obama Administration has announced its praise for new protective measures to reduce mercury and other toxic air emissions.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has finished our first national standards to reduce toxins. Power plants are the largest man-made source of toxic air emissions such as mercury, arsenic, acid gas, and cyanide in the United States.

When mercury is not emitted naturally from such sources as volcanoes, it comes from human activities like manufacturing or burning coal for fuel.

When mercury falls from the sky through precipitation (rain or snow) into bodies of water like lakes and streams. From here, it works its way up the food chain. Bacteria in soils and sediments convert mercury to methylmercury, at which point it is consumed by small aquatic plants and animals. (more…)

Posted on December 21, 2023 by Jason

The Truth About Canned Tuna: Is it a Healthy Choice?

Formerly “weight challenged,” Denis Faye dropped 50 pounds following a 5-year jaunt through Australia, a trip that helped him become the extreme sports and fitness enthusiast he is today. His sports include swimming, scuba, rock climbing, spelunking, mountain biking, trekking, and—most importantly—surfing. He’s been a professional journalist for 20 years, writing for Outside, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Magazine, Wired, Men’s Health, Men’s Journal, GQ, Surfer, and Pacific Longboarder. Denis now writes for Beachbody, which provides effective home workout dvds such as the very popular P90x program and the cardio workout dvd, TurboFire.

If ever a food confused health conscious eaters, it’s canned tuna. On one side, there’s the ascetic dieter, who eats the stuff right from the tin along side his single celery stick. On the other side, there’s your mom’s awesome cream-of-mushroom soup-drenched tuna casserole, which is trumped anti-nutritionally only by that greasy diner mainstay, the tuna melt. (True fact: in many restaurants, the tuna melt outdoes the hamburger for both calories and fat.)

And then there are the questions of mercury and overfishing and omega-3 fatty acids. Is this a healthy food or not? What’s a fish eater to do?

Fortunately, once you break it down, it’s not that complicated. As it turns out, a can of tuna can be healthy, ethical, and yummy – as long as your get your hands on the right can.

(more…)

Posted on May 21, 2024 by GuestBlogger

Beware High Mercury Fish

fish and saladFish have been recommended as an important part of a healthy diet because of their high-quality protein, are low in saturated fat, and contain omega-3 fatty acids, particularly eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). Incorporating a variety of fish can contribute to heart health.

However, nearly all fish contain traces of mercury. Some researchers believe consuming fish with high mercury levels will diminish all potential health benefits. Some studies have actually suggested an increased risk of cardiovascular disease associated with mercury levels in fish, whereas other studies could not find any relationship between elevated mercury and risk of heart disease. This controversy has caused much discussion on what amount of fish is safe to eat without having harmful effects in the body. (more…)

Posted on June 22, 2024 by Kinsey

U.S. Government Reconsiders Fish and Mercury Warnings

There’s a squabble brewing in U.S. governmental agencies over the recommendations for fish consumption by children and pregnant women. The Food and Drug Administration wants to reconsider the government recommendation for expecting moms and children to limit their fish intake, due to harmful levels of mercury.

But now there’s a proposal to encourage eating fish for its health benefits, and that has some folks with the Environmental Protection Agency challenging the validity of these new recommendations. (more…)

Posted on December 22, 2023 by Jason

To Eat Fish, or Not to Eat Fish – That is the Question

I was reading an article discussing whether or not it is safe for people to eat fish. There is much controversy and debate over pregnant women not eating fish because the mercury found in fish can have a detrimental effect on fetal brain development. However, a more recent study showed that children of women who ate fish on a frequent basis did better on tests displaying higher cognitive scores compared to the children of women who did not eat fish.

There is no doubt that fish is a healthy food– it’s a good source of high-quality protein, contains essential nutrients, are low in saturated fat, contain omega-3 fatty acids and DHA; all of which are vital to brain growth and development and help reduce your risk of heart disease. However, some caution is needed regarding eating too much fish that contain high amounts of mercury. (more…)

Posted on October 14, 2024 by Kinsey

Do mercury levels scare sushi lovers?

The United States has been reporting for the past couple of years, on the dangerous levels of mercury contained in certain fish, most notably, tuna. In high concentrations, this metal can cause very serious brain damage which is why pregnant and nursing women and children are often recommended to severly limit their intake of fish known to contain mercury.

Last week, The New York Times reported that eight of 44 pieces of tuna sampled from restaurants all over the city contained levels of mercury that meet the Food and Drug Administration’s measure for taking the fish off the market completely. That’s scary stuff, especially when sushi restaurants are almost as ubiquotious as pizza joints. Well, maybe they are not at that level of popularity yet, but we’re getting close.

Having been pregnant myself, I still find myself adhering to most of the restrictions that pregnant women are supposed to follow in regards to diet (no raw fish, no unpasturized food or beverages, no alcohol and no caffeine). Why? Because I feel that these restrictions, which are for the benefit and safety of the woman’s health and her baby’s, say something about the unsafety of our own food supply, or at least the unknowns of the food that stocks are grocery store shelves. And I care too much about my health and my longevity to give in to a passing craving for a piece of tuna sashimi.

If you are pregnant, give these pregnancy diets a look.
BabyFit
Pregnancy Diet

Posted on January 28, 2024 by heather