Formidable Foes by Brian Clement, PhD, LN

Formidable Foes How Fish, Dairy and Eggs Can Destroy Your Health

Let’s put the health problems associated with eating aquatic life into perspective by reviewing the major threats, including food poisoning, mercury, PAHs, PCBs and more.

It’s never been a secret that food poisoning caused by seafood consumption occurs widely and frequently, though we usually lose sight of how often because the news stories are rarely very prominent. Some health researchers have attempted to chronicle these outbreaks. For example, a study in the July 1999 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine showed that from 1980 to 1994, a total of 339 seafood-associated outbreaks of disease from bacteria and viruses were reported in the state of New York alone, resulting in many thousands of illnesses and some deaths. Shellfish accounted for 64 percent of these outbreaks, and finfish was responsible for 31 percent of reported incidents. In a July 2002 issue of the International Journal of Food Microbiology, Australian researchers reported significant food poisoning incidents involving viruses and biotoxins. The highest contamination levels were found in prawns and oysters. Risk assessments done by the Centre for Food Safety and Quality at the University of Tasmania determined that these contaminants remained at high levels even after the seafood had been cooked.

Physicians typically advise their patients, especially those who have had a heart attack, to eat fish for its omega-3 fatty acid content. Physician Roshini Raj described the unintended eﬀects of this practice. Dr. Raj recognized the damaging eﬀect that fish and fish oil has on the neurological system due to the enormity of mercury that is contained in aquatic life. This she learned in her medical practice by observing the symptoms of patients. Raj addresses another threat from mercury: she strongly warns pregnant and nursing women to avoid fish: “Mercury exposure can seriously harm the development of a fetus or young child.” The doctor’s warning is reflected on shelves of cans of tuna in the grocery store. Mercury poisoning is a formidable brain altering and nerve destroying heavy metal. The FDA has rarely, if ever, removed any tuna from sale in the marketplace by citing a health concern, irrespective of any mercury levels that were revealed by testing.

What are PAHs, and why should we be concerned? Think colon cancer. Here’s how the peer-reviewed science journal Mutation Research describes this toxin and the way it is formed: “PAHs, of which benzo(a)pyrene is the most commonly studied and measured, are formed by combustion of organic matter. A majority of them are carcinogenic and mutagenic. Cooking enhances the levels of PAHs in food, as does the curing of meats.” In 2006 Spanish researchers discovered that sixteen diﬀerent types of PAHs were present in numerous species, including salmon, swordfish, mackerel, tuna, sardines, and shrimp. Females of all ages are more susceptible to these chemicals, and contract cancer at a higher rate from exposure. Also in 2006, Italian scientists studied the levels of PAHs in Atlantic salmon fillets and detected eleven types of these compounds in raw and smoked samples.

PCBs are among the most environmentally persistent compounds ever created by industrial chemists. Manufacturers began to use PCBs in many products, including transformers. Although PCBs were banned in 1976 in the United States as part of a global phaseout of the “dirty dozen”—the most toxic chemicals. These industrial lubricants and insulators still exist. When absorbed by fish and humans, PCBs are fat-soluble compounds that persist in fat tissues. PCBs cause cancer, and some of these compounds can cause neurotoxicity and endocrine disruption in humans. “Exposure to PCBs suppresses the immune system, thereby increasing the risk of acquiring several human diseases,” noted David O. Carpenter in the journal Reviews on Environmental Health. This not only aﬀects the fetus, but reduces IQ in every age group, altering behavior. This noxious chemistry also alters thyroid and reproductive function.

One hundred fifty or so individual compounds of the dioxin family form during high-temperature waste treatment and industrial processes. The burning of chlorine-rich substances are a disaster to the ecosystem. Dioxins pervade the entire environment and are directly linked to all forms of cancer. Air currents widely disperse dioxin particles, which end up attaching to the soil and water sediments. Dioxin particles accumulate in aquatic life’s fatty tissue and march up the food chain until they contaminate your body. Dioxins are found in beef, pork, chicken, and all animal-based foods. The greatest amounts, however, are found in farmed salmon. A study published in a 2005 edition of Environmental Research oﬀered this finding: “The levels in the farmed and market salmon that we have analyzed are higher than those in almost

A 2003 Spanish study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry found fish and shellfish to be the primary human dietary sources of flame retardants. These substances disrupt the human thyroid gland and the brain, resulting in behavioral changes and hyperactivity. In children, they are associated with developmental problems and lowered IQ. A team of scientists from the National University of Singapore’s Department of Chemistry analyzed the toxins in twenty diﬀerent types of seafood. They detected numerous chemicals, from flame retardants to PCBs. Three in particular stood out and were discussed in the February 2005 issue of the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health: “Daily intake of DDTs, heptachlor [an insecticide], and PCBs in seafood exceeded the conservative cancer benchmark concentrations set by the EPA, suggesting that significant numbers of people are potentially at risk.”

May 2011’s Discover magazine exposed a toxin called BMAA, which humans can absorb by eating fish and shellfish. BMAA is an environmental toxin produced by cyanobacteria, a common component in the diet of lake and ocean creatures. “There’s a trail of clues linking something in seafood to ALS, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s disease.” ALS is more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Blooms of cyanobacteria have been occurring more frequently over the past few decades in both salt water and freshwater because of increasing temperatures (perhaps a by-product of the greenhouse eﬀect) and contamination by sewage and agricultural chemical runoﬀ. Once absorbed by humans, BMAA becomes a neurotoxin that is stored in the brain and becomes a trigger for neurological diseases, in particular, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and ALS, as stated by the University of Miami research team. The U of M team also found this poisonous waste in largemouth bass, pink shrimp, blue crabs, oysters and mussels. The search expanded to Chesapeake Bay, where similarly high levels of the neurotoxin turned up in seafood. The first study of the neurotoxin overseas was done in Sweden in 2010, when high levels were measured in fish from the Baltic Sea.

Formidable-Foes-by-Brian-Clement,-PhD,-LN

Consuming milk from another species is a bizarre, accepted norm for humans. If one was urged to directly suckle milk from the breast of a cow, they may awaken to the abnormality that this practice creates.

“Acne is absent in populations consuming clean diets with low sugar counts and no milk or dairy products,” observed a 2012 dermatological medical study article. “Volumes of scientific evidence confirms that milk consumption has an acne-promoting or acne-aggravating eﬀect.” If you often consume ice cream along with milk you multiply your risk of developing acne or expanding it. A 2012 study of 18 to 30 year olds published in a major journal, clearly highlighted the connection between dairy and acne.

An Italian Allergy Pathway to Immunity 2012 study examining various asthma triggers, concluded: “cow’s milk can cause wheezing in children with asthma.” That same year researchers in Lithuania examined 3,084 school children and found that almost half of them “had an illness or disorder caused by eating food…milk and dairy were found to be among the most common foods to cause adverse reactions.” The prevalence of these adverse reactions increased with age, particularly from ages 6 to 10 years, demonstrating this isn’t just something that most kids outgrow. Still another study in that year from a diﬀerent part of the world, China, surveyed 7,393 children in Hong Kong under 15 years of age. Among the top allergens uncovered for these kids were hen’s eggs along with the consumption of milk and dairy products. When allergy suﬀerers stop drinking cow’s milk, not surprisingly their allergic symptoms are relieved or entirely go away. A study involving 191 children showed that conclusively, finding that “91% demonstrated improved symptoms following dairy elimination.” Similar findings come from studies looking at milk consumption and increased respiratory tract mucus production; asthma symptoms “improve on a dairy elimination diet.”

The Mayo Clinic and most mainstream medical practitioners concede healthy lifestyles prevent heart disease. A 2013 landmark study published in New England Journal of Medicine was conducted by eight medical researchers, stating, “We found a direct link between dairy, meat and egg consumption and the production of colon microbes that release an artery-clogging compound called TMAO. During three years of follow-up with 4,007 patients undergoing elective coronary angiography, these scientists were able to track the numbers of heart attacks and strokes while monitoring these intestinal microbes.

$Dairy industry media marketing campaigns tell us that “no matter what your age, dairy’s nutrients are an essential part of promoting good bone health.” In answer to these industry claims, scientists at the Harvard School of Public Health posted on its website this rebuttal: “Calcium is important. But milk isn’t the only, or even best, source.” These experts note how high intakes of dairy “can increase the risk of prostate cancer and possibly ovarian cancer,” and how “dairy products can be high in saturated fat as well as retinol (vitamin A) which at high levels can paradoxically weaken bones.” Hip fractures may be the most common type of bone injury experienced by the elderly, particularly women at any age. Yet, not only is there little persuasive evidence that milk and dairy protect against fractures, the weight of study evidence shows just the opposite.$

$To illustrate what I mean, a 2003 study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition followed 72,337 postmenopausal women for 18 years to chronicle their dietary habits and incidence of hip fractures. Neither the women’s total calcium intake nor their level of milk consumption “was associated with a lower risk of hip fracture.” Still another study, this one involving 77,761 women ages 34 through 59 years, who were monitored over a 12 year period, “found no evidence that higher intakes of milk or calcium from food sources reduce fracture (hip or forearm) incidence.” Nor does milk consumption, despite what the dairy industry implores us to believe, improve the bone health of children. This was the conclusion of a 2005 review of the evidence published in the authoritative journal, Pediatrics. Physically active adolescent girls who consume the most dairy products actually experience double the risk of stress fractures compared to young women who aren’t big dairy consumers.$

Formidable Foes by Brian Clement, PhD, LN

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