This is not for the faint of stomach.
OK, we know that fish is good for us. And in the previous post, I wrote about how the Omega-3 in fish helps our brain (as well our bodies).
But some of the fish in your supermarket or fish store is really not good for your health. In fact it can be downright dangerous.
Happy fish
Little did I know that 45 percent of the fish we consume has been farmed. Sounds idyllic – the marine equivalent of green pastures and happy cows. Not really.
Taras Grescoe, the author of “Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood” writes about fish farming in his book.
Do you like shrimp?
For starters, check out the origin of the shrimp in your supermarket. Most of it comes from Thailand and it’s cheap. Grescoe warns “If you are eating cheap shrimp today, it almost certainly comes from a turbid, pesticide-and-antibiotic-filled, virus-ridden pond in the tropical climes of one of the world’s poorest countries.”
The grossly overcrowded ponds make the shrimp highly susceptible to disease so the “farmers” pump heavy duty chemicals, pesticides and antibiotics to keep the shrimp alive.
Some farms use borax (which is a fire retardant and insecticide) to keep the shrimps color. Or they burn tiger shrimp with caustic soda to make them pink which is what we expect shrimp to look like.
Stick with shrimp caught in the Atlantic Ocean.
How about some delicious salmon, rich in Omega-3?
Salmon farms in British Columbia kill fungus on the eggs with a formaldehyde-based preservative that the World Health Organization calls a “known human carcinogen.”
To kill bacteria and viruses, the eggs are soaked in an iodine-based disinfectant.
The fish pens are coated with anti-fouling paint whose containers bear both a skull and crossbones and a label that says “Toxic to aquatic organisms.” This paint flakes off into the water too.
If the salmon are yellow or gray – no problem. Growers artificially color them pink.
If they get sick, growers add antibiotics to their feed.
After analyzing salmon bought in stores from Seattle to Edinburgh, Canada, researchers reported in 2004 that farmed salmon contained as much as ten times more persistent organic pollutants than wild salmon.
Stick with salmon caught in the Pacific Ocean.
Grescoe writes about the chemicals found in fish.
“The chemicals in question, among the most toxic known to man, include the dioxins produced by coal-burning utilities and smelters (the most infamous being Agent Orange) and the polychlorinated biphenyls used in paints, pesticides, and even carbonless copy paper.
“Banned since the 1970s, these contaminants continue to show up in the food we eat. All are suspected carcinogens; most cause behavioral, growth and learning disorders.”
OK, I’m grossed out. So now what?
Here’s some good advice from the author about what fish is safe to eat.
For starters, stop eating the top of the food chain, the predators. Instead eat trout, herring, barramundi, sardine, catfish and mackerel.
Eat locally when you can and know your local fish.
Farmed fish isn’t necessarily bad but stay away from carnivorous farmed fish like salmon and shrimp.
Mislabeling is rampant. For example over 50% of wild salmon is in fact farmed. Grouper is not usually grouper. And some of the whitefish from the Midwest is actually zander from Eastern Europe.
And be suspicious if it’s cheap. Fish is getting rarer so it’s getting more expensive.
But don’t give up on fish. Your brain will appreciate it from time to time.
Another thing your brain might appreciate is some time playing mentally challenging games on your PC. You can check out ours at our web site, Brain Games Software.
