Eating the Right Seafood
Man ... who knew it was so damn complicated:
Do the health benefits of omega-3s outweigh the risks associated with contaminants in seafood?
There is no definitive answer to this question, but the information provided here can help you decide for yourself. For young children and women of childbearing age, consumption of mercury-contaminated fish can severely impact a child's development. However, other sub-populations (older women and men) may find it an acceptable tradeoff to exceed recommended seafood meal limits to increase their omega-3 intake. For our advisories concerning PCBs, dioxins and pesticides, the cancer risk (1 in 100,000 - the level recommended by the EPA) may not outweigh the benefits of omega-3s for people at high risk of cardiovascular disease. However, these chemicals are known to cause serious health problems besides cancer, so the tradeoffs are not simple.
And that doesn't even touch on over-fishing or the pollution caused by runoff from fish farms.
Cool, the fishing industry - something I know a bit about -
Fish farms (at least in the U.S.) are not necessarily the best place to procure your fish -honestly, knowing what I do, I'd pick wild caught over farmed (especially for salmon) every time - Though there are exceptions. U.S. raised Tilapia is very good, and those farms are fairly low polluters.
Know your fish. Don't eat fish on the "eco-bad" list. Find and eat U.S. Shrimp/crab! (most of what you get in the supermarket is imported from Asia)
Instead of eating white (light) fishes like Cod or Halibut (which I admit, are versitile, and tasty - but terribly overfished, and even new gov't regulations may not bring stocks back,)
get into lesser known fishes like Atlantic Mackarel - it's not a farmed fish, and is totally high in Omega-3's, and lower on the mercury scale than say, Swordfish (which is a no-go for an ishload of other reasons than mercury- trust me on this.)
If you must have a flaky, white fish, Tilapia is the way to go.
Also, if you're that concerned about Omega-3's, take a supplement! If you're taking a capsule, make sure it's been purified, and you find ways to add extra ALA (one of the 3 fatty acids) by sprinkling flax seeds onto salads/cereals, or using flax seed oil on top of veggies/salads.
Posted by: j on March 8, 2006 9:25 AM | permalinkI try to eat more oily fish — but there just aren't that many I can purchase (even at a decent fish market) other than salmon and canned sardines. Herring always comes in sugar-loaded sauces and the smoked stuff is always loaded with an obscene amount of salt. Be grateful that you live in a cold-water coastal area, in that respect.
As far as the flax seed goes, I haven't figured out how to incorporate it into my eating. I don't eat cereal or baked goods with any frequency. I wonder if grinding some up and mixing it into a stew or curry would ruin the texture of that dish.
Posted by: Joe Grossberg on March 8, 2006 9:47 AM | permalinkD.C. seems to be a kind of 'black hole' for fresh seafood on the east coast - by that I mean, it's the "mid point" for fish coming from both the north and south.
See if there are some good seafood resturants that may have wholesale operations on the side, or for an adventure, you can get up wicked early and go to the public fish market on Oceano Avenue in Jessup.
As for flax seeds, I bet you could toast them, and grind along with cumin, or just throw them into a curry. A small amount would not affect the texture much at all.
Though, nutritionally, the oil from flax is much better taken in a capsule, as the body has a hard time breaking down the seeds.
Posted by: j on March 8, 2006 10:37 AM | permalinkYeah, and cooking the flax seed oil damages it, from what I've read.
Posted by: Joe Grossberg on March 8, 2006 11:41 AM | permalinkI would leave seafood as an occasional thing rather than a steady source of those fatty acids. As J said, you might try supplements and flax. Chickens with a natural diet are supposed to lay eggs with the fatty acids. They also feed some chickens flax seed to increase the amount in the eggs.
Pollution is neglected in general, but it seems that oceanic pollution is almost completely ignored. People still have the attitude that it is a limitless source and what goes in won't come back out, so they treat it like a big toilet bowl. But now the proverbial toilet is starting to clog and overflow.
Mercury in the environment isn't going away anytime soon, especially since pollution sources are still quite active: industrial processes, gold mining, students breaking Hg thermometers over the sink (saw that happen last week).
Posted by: Od-ll on March 8, 2006 11:48 AM | permalinkI don't like seafood, but the omega-3's are important. I'll usually add flax seed/meal to something I'm eating already.
Posted by: Steven Klassen on March 8, 2006 12:19 PM | permalinkOk, Mr. Anthropologist, did earlier humans always eat fish, or did they do something else for the fatty acids?
Posted by: Od-ll on March 8, 2006 1:05 PM | permalinkIt depends on the climate. Arctic peoples have always had a diet phenomenally high in fatty fish. Other places, I guess they ate nuts.
Then again, the life expectancy didn't crack 30 in Europe until Medieval times. So shit like your risk of heart attack or stroke at age 50 wasn't much of a priority.
Posted by: Joe Grossberg on March 8, 2006 1:17 PM | permalinkNo more comments! Either someone has violated Godwin's Law, I'm tired of the discussion or, most likely, the ten-week window has closed. You can, however, contact me through email.