Mercury poisoning from fish products

[Undergrounder]

remember everyone it's not just where you sit on the food chain, it's how long you occupy it too (about seventy years for humans ;) )

dolphins probably live longer than predatory fish, so with the same diet the dolphin is more likely to reach fatal levels.

that's a good point, one reason i stopped eating dolphin meat a few years ago..

[MrPotato]

Another anecdote (this one second-hand), an Australian hears the benefits of fish oil in terms of long chain omega 3 fatty acids. Beginning a supplement regime of this compound, as recommended by the instructions on the bottle, he ends up with mercury poisoning, requiring urgent medical attention to avert death.

Discuss?

Most of the fish oil used in supplements is processed in a way to remove the contaminants. One of the most common ways is through molecular distillation. It may have been a problem in the past and trace amounts of Mercury or PCB might have been present before people started using the processes, but even then supposedly there was less Mercury and PCBs in fish oil than in the crude fish themselves. Here's some info from www.consumerlab.com , a company that pulls products off of store shelfs and tests them "To help you decide, CL extensively tested fifty products. Many contained as much or more omega-3's than you can get from a serving of fish. However, several products provided only small amounts -- sometimes with misleading labels. And an enteric coated product released ingredient too early. The good news is that every product in this report was found to be free of mercury, PCBs and other contaminants found in fish."

If that's still not reasuring enough, you could always get DHA from algae that is grown in tanks with no real threat of Mercury. The fish actually get their Omega-3s from eating algae. Martek http://www.martek.com/ grows algae in tanks and extracts the DHA for Neuromins Supplements. Neuromins is commonly guven to pregnant women in softgels and is also microencapsulated and added to baby formula. They have algae that just makes DHA and no EPA and use that because it is supposedly better foe babies. There is DHA but no EPA in mothers milk. DHA is what is used in the brain and eye. EPA is good for adults though, for reducing triglycerides both EPA and DHA are thought to work together. Another company is just starting to market DHA and EPA from algae grown in tanks similar to what Martek is doing.

[Chiral]

it's getting to be very very clear to me that you simply cant trust any manufacturer of commercially available food stuffs.

grow your own veges and fruit..!

It takes so little space to have 3-4 styro boxes with a selection of goodies in each.

Also makes pest control sooooo much easier.

as far as protein goes its a flippin gamble ..its a no brainer.

Either you raise the fish or beast yourself or you let the corps and farmers who work for corps to raise them, in which case like I said its a gamble.

perhaps in the future we will raise our children as food and revert back to cannibalism, as we know how they were raised and whats inside them.

sick joke yeah I know but makes you think...would make an excellent Sci fi Movie.

peace

Hunab.