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Killer Fish by Brian Clement, PhD, LN

Brian Clement, Detox, Foods, Hippocrates Healthy Living, Nutrition, Powerpoints

Killer-Fish-by-Brian-Clement,-PhD,-LN

How often have you, or someone you know, fallen for the argument made by many mainstream nutritionists that while red meat and dairy foods pose some health risks, fish offer a good, healthy alternative because of the omega-3 fatty acid content? Is aquatic life really safe to eat? If you think the answer is yes, be prepared for a rude awakening.

People the world over are eating more fish than ever before. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, North Americans fish consumption has increased by at least 50% since 1980. Salmon, for one, has achieved a new-found popularity because of mainstream medicine’s trumpeting of its omega-3 fatty acid content.

“But Westerners have heard less about, and perhaps paid less attention to, various health warnings associated with fish consumption,” warned an article in the December 2004 issue of the medical science journal, Annals of Internal Medicine. “Studies have linked overconsumption of certain fish (particularly popular ones such as swordfish, tuna steaks, Chilean sea bass, and some kinds of salmon) to neurologic deficits, cancer, autoimmune and endocrine disorders, and even some heart disease.”

Human health risks come directly from the increasing contamination of fish species by industrial and consumer pollutants. Mercury and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), are among the many toxic hitchhikers traveling up the food chain into fish, both farmed and wild, and then into humans. While urging consumers to eat more salmon for its omega-3 content, agencies such as the U.S. Agriculture Department and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration fail to sufficiently warn people that these same fish contain high levels of PCBs and other toxins.

When was the last time you saw a store post a prominent sign alerting consumers, especially pregnant women, that the tuna being sold harbors unsafe levels of mercury?

No discussion about the killing and eating of aquatic animals would be complete without mentioning the ethical dimension of human conduct and cruelty toward others forms of life. It’s not just the question of cruel treatment, though that should be justification enough to refuse participation in the business of animal agriculture. There exists a whole other dimension to this consideration: the extent to which an animal’s intelligence should determine whether it’s a food source. The smarter and more socially advanced the life form is relative to human intelligence, the argument goes, the less likely it should be a candidate for placement on a dinner table.

Unless you live in China or part of Southeast Asia, or unless you were starving, you probably haven’t considered eating a dog, because that species is viewed as an intelligent and useful companion for humans. However, some people who refuse to eat land creatures on grounds of their intelligence, social versatility, or the cruelty inflicted while raising them don’t cringe at all from eating or mistreating fish, as if these creatures are too low on the evolutionary totem pole to warrant compassion and respect. Concerning our collective bias against fish, Jonathan Foer pointed out in his thought-provoking book Eating Animals, that more than 500 science papers since the 1990s have been published which together have “quickly and dramatically revised” our knowledge of the surprising sophistication of fish intelligence.

“Fish build complex nests, form monogamous relationships, hunt cooperatively with other species, and use tools,” wrote Foer. “They recognize one another as individuals (and keep track of who is to be trusted and who is not). They make decisions individually, monitor social prestige and vie for better positions. (To quote from the peer review journal Fish and Fisheries: they use ‘Machiavellian strategies of manipulation, punishment and reconciliation.’) They have significant long-term memories, are skilled in passing knowledge to one another through social networks, and can also pass on information generationally. They even have what the scientific literature calls ‘long standing cultural traditions for particular pathways to feeding, schooling, resting or mating sites.”

It’s about time that everyone concerned with their own health and the health of the planet become familiar with these three terms: • Fliers • Swimmers • Hoppers. This terminology may sound like a list of options for a frequent traveler program. In a strange way, that’s exactly what they are, except these travelers aren’t human. The travelers in this case are molecules of toxic substances produced by industry and commerce. While invisible to the naked eye, they take residence inside all life on the planet, including human life, and many of these fliers, swimmers, and hoppers are virtually immortal and practically indestructible.

Being highly mobile and uncontainable, these substances can pop up anywhere on the planet, having traveling thousands of miles for months or even years before finally finding a ‘home’ inside of fish and, eventually, inside of you. These hitchhiking contaminants range from pesticides, fungicides and herbicides, to heavy metals (mercury being the most common one), flame retardants (especially those called PBDEs), water- and stain-repellant chemicals (known collectively as PFCs), and numerous other industrial compounds whose molecules fly, swim, and hop about with the greatest of ease on wind and water currents. In the case of stain- and water-repellant chemicals, you may know them as Teflon or Gore-Tex, or the slick coating used on paper in microwave popcorn bags and pizza boxes.

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are a principal category of world travelers that take refuge inside of human and aquatic life. They include DDT, PCBs, and dioxins. The United Nationals Environment Program has said that: “Exposure to Persistent Organic Pollutants can lead to serious health effects, including certain cancers, birth defects, dysfunctional immune and reproductive systems, greater susceptibility to disease, and even diminished intelligence.”

Some of the contaminants travel primarily by air, attached to dust particles on the wind or in storm systems. These are the “fliers.” Others are “swimmers,” mostly restricted to oceans and other bodies of water where their travel is propelled by currents. Many of them, however, are versatile, and hop like grasshoppers from air to water and sometimes back again.

According to the 2009 book, Chasing Molecules: Poisonous Products, Human Health, and the Promise of Green Chemistry, “hoppers” morph between being a gas, liquid, or particle. This process is influenced by such factors as the chemicals’ structure, temperature changes, and atmospheric conditions. Rain and snow are ideal carriers for these molecules, and enable them to deposit themselves in oceans, lakes, and rivers, where they are absorbed by aquatic life. Thanks to the wind and ocean currents, contaminants produced in North America can end up in Europe, and pollutants generated by economic growth in China can travel to the U.S., the molecules hitchhiking on dust particles to make the journey from China to California in just a few days.

The threat to human and animal health from these toxins is a real and growing one. These chemicals are fat loving, meaning that once they are absorbed down the food chain by fish and other life, they bioaccumulate in fat cells, which is to say they establish a mobile home park and invite all of their ‘friends’ over to hang out together. Bioaccumulation literally means the accumulation of a substance in body tissue at a higher concentration than the surrounding environment. The same thing happens when humans eat the flesh of fish and animals that have ingested these chemicals. These toxic tourists settle in for a long visit within the fat cells of their human hosts and in the process, create a lot of mischief.

How Bad Is It? Follow the Fish! You’ve probably heard a lot about high levels of mercury being found in tuna, a saltwater fish. But did you know the same problem exists in freshwater species of fish? You wouldn’t have known about the widespread freshwater fish contamination from just following reports in the mainstream media, nor would you have learned that the primary source of mercury contamination, as well as other types of contamination in both freshwater and saltwater life, is our own industrial civilization.

Widespread U.S. Fish Horrors U.S. Geological Survey studies show that most bodies of water in the U.S. are now contaminated with pharmaceutical drugs, as wastewater treatment plants cannot remove them before the “purified” water is released backed into the environment. The cost of creating sophisticated enough technology to remove synthetic chemicals would be astronomical, bankrupting most local governments. More than 100 new drugs enter the marketplace each year and the health impacts of these drug residues, combined with the thousands of chemicals already in the environment, remain mostly unknown.

The U.S. Geological Survey tested rivers that provide tap water for several million residents of D.C., Virginia, and Maryland. The study found: • At least 80 percent of all bass caught and then tested from those rivers and river tributaries were found to have intersex organs, with the males growing eggs in their reproductive organs. • Since 2003, when these abnormalities in fish were first discovered in the upper Potomac River and in West Virginia, the incidence of intersex births has spread rapidly and widely. • Hormone disrupting chemicals released by wastewater treatment plants into these rivers were identified as the probable culprits for these abnormalities. • The problem, said scientists, may be “a result of several pollutants acting in combination.” In other words, chemical synergies may be producing these mutant strains of fish.

A Worldwide Overview of Reproductive Harm South Africa: Along three sites of the Luvuvhu River in Limpopo Province, samples of an indigenous fish species (Oreogchromis mossambicus) were collected and analyzed. Not only were DDT, DDE and DDD detected in fat samples from all three testing sites, between 48% and 63% of the fish from those sites “were intersex individuals.”

Ireland: In the Shannon International River Basin District of Ireland, which encompasses 11 rivers, the effect of endocrine chemicals on feral brown trout was investigated in 2010. Among the estrogenic chemicals identified in the water were phthalates and an alkylphenol. (Phthalates are used as solvents in such products as perfumes and cosmetics, while alkylphenols, a family of surfactants, appear in detergents and other products.) This study not only confirmed the presence of estrogens in the rivers, but also found in some sites that 100% of the male brown trout sampled showed either endocrine disruption or intersexuality.

North Sea: Endocrine disruption was detected in North Sea cod and flatfish at levels even higher that what had been previously measured in English Channel and Irish Sea fish. This was considered highly unusual because these North Sea fish didn’t have any “proximity to land or known point sources of endocrine disrupters.” Such a finding strongly suggests “a gradual accumulation” of these chemicals occurs as a result of larger fish feeding on smaller fish that contain the chemicals.10

Europe (continent-wide): Dutch public health researchers reviewed studies done in Europe throughout the 1990s and found a clear pattern of “endocrine-disrupting chemicals adversely affecting a variety of fish species. …The observed abnormalities vary from subtle changes to permanent alterations, including disturbed sex differentiation with feminized or masculinized sex organs, changed sexual behavior, and altered immune function.” China: Beijing University scientists studying the Japanese medaka fish species found in 2008 that DDE, “the major and most persistent metabolite of DDT, was continually detected in wild fishes that showed abnormal gonad development such as intersex.” Another finding was that when DDE “coexists with other endocrine-disrupting chemicals,” synergies occur which accelerate and intensify endocrine disruption.

A lot of people still choose to believe that eating farm-raised fish is much healthier than consuming fish caught in the wild, especially those lifted from our sewer-dump oceans. Their reasoning goes like this: because aquaculture (also known as aqua farming) involves raising fish under controlled conditions, regulating both the fish environment and feed quality, there is less chance that farmed fish will be contaminated with the alarming range of toxins being measured in wild fish. This belief constitutes one of the biggest prevailing myths about aquatic life and human health!

Aqua Farming Takes Over The Fish Supply 1. Fish species now predominantly raised on fish farms include salmon, bigeye tuna, carp, tilapia, catfish and cod. 2. By 2009, more than half of all fish consumed globally were raised on fish farms (aqua farming/aquaculture.) 3. According to a report by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. imports 84% of its seafood from other countries, and half of that volume already comes from aqua farms. 4. China produces more than 70% of all fish raised in world aquacultures. 5. About 90% of all shrimp consumed in the U.S. was farm raised and imported into the U.S. from other countries.

The Big Myth: Farmed Fish Are Safer Than Wild

Salmon is one of the fastest growing of aqua farmed fish and is being genetically modified for even faster growth and higher profits for aqua farms. So do you think more farming of salmon and other fish protects the populations of fish in the wild? Think again! Believe it or not, the opposite is true. Aqua farmed fish are fed a diet of fish meal and fish oil, manufactured from fish waste products and smaller fish (called forage fish) caught in the wild, further depleting those reserves at a time when 75% of the world’s monitored fisheries in the wild are already near or exceeding maximum sustainable yields.

More than half of the world’s entire fish oil production is fed to farmed salmon, points out the World Review of Fisheries and Aquaculture 2008. There is a very good reason for this development, one that few of even the most health-conscious consumers yet realize: Forage fish, such as herring and sardines, are fed to farmed salmon because the large, cold water varieties of fish don’t naturally produce omega-3 fatty acids, which are the reputed source of health benefits to humans from fish consumption. Instead, these beneficial acids are accumulated up the food chain, beginning with smaller fish that consume microalgae, until the acids accumulate in predatory fish like salmon.

Cramped Fish Farm Conditions Breed Viruses Overcrowding typically occurs in fish farm pens, and with that comes the rapid proliferation and spread of viruses. Anyone care to guess why the water in fish farms is dark brown? While farmed fish don’t defecate more than those in the wild, their cramped pens don’t allow the waste to dissipate as it would in a natural environment. This means farmed fish literally swim in their own feces.

Human Health Dangers Emerge With Farmed Fish In the first comprehensive global study ever done on the health risks of eating farm raised salmon, researchers reached this conclusion: “Having analyzed over two metric tons of farmed and wild salmon from around the world for organochlorine contaminants, we show that concentrations of these contaminants are significantly higher in farmed salmon than in wild.” They issued a consumer warning based on their results: “This study suggests that consumption of farmed salmon may result in exposure to a variety of persistent bio accumulative contaminants with the potential for an elevation in attendant health risks.”

Supermarkets in Paris, London, Oslo, Frankfurt and Edinburgh sold fish containing contamination levels so high that no consumer could safely eat more than eight ounces in a month without suffering severe health consequences. The toxicity levels should have triggered a health advisory based on U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards. In North America, salmon purchased in Boston, San Francisco, and Toronto also contained levels of contaminants exceeding safety recommendations.

As the majority of salmon served in the world’s restaurants and on grocery store shelves are from commercial fish farms rather than being caught from the wild, avoiding these contaminants is virtually impossible in today’s market economy. Even if consumers were sufficiently aware of the dangers, their efforts to identify farm versus wild fish would mostly be in vain. When consumers are grocery shopping and see the word “Fresh” on the label of a salmon package, it’s usually farm-raised rather than wild fish. It’s the same situation when they see the word “Atlantic” on a salmon label. Fish labeled Atlantic are almost always farmed rather than from the wild, the lead researcher pointed out, despite the label’s impression that the fish come from that ocean. Most of the salmon served in the U.S. comes from fish farms in Northern Europe, Chile and Canada.

Four Most Common Chemical Contaminants in Farmed Salmon The following chemical contaminants were found at high levels in farmed salmon, as measured in a 2004 global assessment of fish contaminants, and described in a report by the Institute for Health and the Environment at the University at Albany. 1. Dieldrin 2. Dioxins 3. PCBs 4.Toxaphene

. Dieldrin: identified as a probable carcinogen (cancer causing substance,) and disrupter of liver and immune system function. It’s a pesticide that was banned in 1974 in the US as a result of its health dangers, but it persists in the environment and continues to contaminate fish, meat, and dairy products. It also forms when the pesticide Aldrin begins to break down. Even low levels of this substance demonstrate an ability to produce alterations in the immune system and liver functions in animals. Lake and stream contamination from dieldrin is common because it slowly evaporates from the air and then persists in the environment. It was originally used as a pesticide on cotton, corn and citrus crops, which explains why it’s so widely dispersed throughout the environment. People often absorb the contaminant from eating fish or shellfish. It’s stored in body fat.

Dioxins (cont’d): Air currents disperse dioxin particles widely, and they end up attaching to the soil and water sediments where they are absorbed by aquatic life. Dioxin particles accumulate in fatty tissues and march up the food chain until they take up residence inside human body fat, sometimes persisting for a lifetime. Fish are particularly adept at harboring dioxin particles, largely because they circulate hundreds of gallons of water a day through their gills. Though dioxins are found in beef, pork, chicken, and almost all animal food products that contain fat, research determined that “the levels in the farmed and market salmon that we have analyzed are higher than those in almost all other foods.”

PCBs: though banned in 1976 in the US as part of a global phase-out of the “dirty dozen” most toxic chemicals, these industrial lubricants and insulators still persist in the environment, frequently working their way up the food chain into humans. PCBs can also still be found being used in old electrical and industrial equipment. Not only do PCBs cause cancer, they have been shown in studies with animals to provoke reproductive, developmental, and neurological disruptions, along with harm to the immune system, thyroid, and endocrine system. If expectant mothers are exposed to PCBs, their offspring may suffer from hyperactivity, attention deficit disorder, learning disabilities, and lowered intelligence.

PCBs (cont’d): Like many other contaminants, PCBs persist in marine sediments and land soils for decades. PCBs attach to dust particles and travel in air currents to disperse over thousands of miles. According to the Institute for Health and the Environment, they accumulate in fatty tissues of aquatic and animal life and biomagnify up the food chain, eventually “reaching levels thousands of times higher than their original concentration in water.” Once humans consume contaminated fish and other meat, they play host to PCBs for several decades before the human body can eliminate them. Repeated exposure, from frequently consuming animal products, makes the body burden of these contaminants last a lifetime.

Toxaphene: Another banned pesticide and a probable human carcinogen that remains practically immortal in the environment, toxaphene contaminates drinking water and aquatic life. Before being banned in 1982, it was an agricultural replacement for the previously banned DDT pesticide. Toxaphene was also frequently used in lakes to kill unwanted fish species. Exposure to toxaphene can seriously damage the kidneys, immune system, nervous system and lungs of both animals and humans. Because it binds strongly to sediments, it can be found in both saltwater and fresh water. Like PCBs, this chemical is an international tourist. Its particles ride air currents and show up thousands of miles away from where the chemical was first used.

Toxaphene (cont’d): Certain fish, such as salmon, store the chemical in fat much more readily than other animal species, possibly because it was manufactured to be directly used in water. As a result, humans absorb the chemical from eating fish or from breathing air near agricultural areas where the pesticide was heavily applied to crops. Once again, like some other contaminants, this chemical lives on for decades in the body fat of humans.

Sushi consumers in the U.S. and other Western countries typically choose from a variety of fish, laid atop rice or rolled in rice and wrapped in seaweed (nori), accompanied by spicy wasabi. Wasabi is always made available to eat with sushi, but most consumers don’t realize that this sharp tasting paste from a plant root has anti-microbial properties, and its use is intended to help reduce the risk of illness from food poisoning. Learning wasabi’s real function, as a microbe killer in sushi, should be the first red flag about the potential health risks of eating fish in the raw.

Though the Japanese have eaten sushi for many centuries, what we now find served up in the sushi restaurants sprouting up throughout the U.S. and other countries is really a form of fast food that was first created in the 19th century. This relatively new variety isn’t fermented, as traditional sushi had been, even though the word sushi actually means “sour,” reflecting its historic roots as a fermented form of fish packed in rice and vinegar. What sushi connoisseurs now eat can best be characterized as “Frankenfish.” It’s polluted by a toxic chemical cocktail of heavy metals, pesticides, and other industrial pollutants accompanied by vast hardy breeds of parasites and pathogenic bacteria, which thrive inside of your gastrointestinal tract. Wasabi can’t compete with some of the pathogens that are now appearing in fish pulled from our heavily polluted oceans.

A Closer Look Inside Sushi Evidence supporting this toxic sushi reality has been accumulating rapidly over the past several years. Just a few years ago, a newspaper reporter decided to take samples of tuna sushi from 20 restaurants and stores in New York City and have the fish tested for mercury by researchers at a medical laboratory. The results showed that one-fourth of the samples contained mercury levels so high that the U.S. FDA could remove the sushi from sale as a public health hazard. Anyone eating six or more pieces of this sushi a week would be seriously endangering their health. The typical sushi eater consumes more than six pieces in just one meal sitting!

Two More Sushi Facts to Consider Two important facts should be kept in mind, should you ever be tempted to eat sushi again, about how and why you can place your health at risk. 1. No U.S. federal agency regularly tests for mercury in seafood, including sushi. To underscore that point, the EPA research scientist who studies mercury in fish, Dr. Kate Mahaffey, could only express surprise at some of the most recent study findings: “We have seen exposures occurring now in the United States that have produced blood mercury a lot higher than anything we would have expected to see,” she told The New York Times. “And this appears to be related to consumption of larger amounts of fish that are higher in mercury than we had anticipated.”

Two More Sushi Facts to Consider (cont’d) 2. Rarely, if ever, has the U.S. Food and Drug Administration removed any tuna from sale in the marketplace by citing a health concern, regardless of the mercury levels found in the fish. Without information about high mercury levels coming from independent researchers and private laboratories, consumers would truly remain ignorant about the consumption risks, and might continue playing an “ignorance is bliss” game of Russian roulette with their health. For those of you who might respond to revelations of high mercury levels in sushi by recommending that the fish be cooked instead to make it more healthful, know this: the heat from cooking removes almost none of the heavy metal contaminant content in fish.

Besides Mercury, You Ingest PCBs and Dioxins Ocean stocks of tuna and salmon that have been ocean-caught and farm-raised harbor increasingly heavy loads of industrial chemicals like dioxins, PCBs, flame retardants, and pesticides. Some sushi proponents claim that PCB and PBDE levels are lower in wild salmon than in farmed salmon, and the contaminants can be reduced still further in both raw and cooked fish by removing the skin. Research at the Marine Environmental Research Institute in Maine serves to dispel both of these comforting notions. Published in an April 2008 issue of the journal Chemosphere, their study found that “total PBDE concentrations in the farmed salmon were not significantly different from those in the wild Alaskan Chinook samples.” Additionally, “removal of the skin resulted in no overall reduction” in the contamination levels, and, in some cases, “PBDE concentrations were higher in skin-off samples.”

Don’t Overlook Sushi’s Family of Bacteria By taking 250 sushi samples from sushi bars and fish retailers as part of a 2008 testing study, researchers from the Institute of Food Quality and Food Safety in Hanover, Germany were able to identify the presence of these microbial pathogens in some samples: Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, salmonella, and Listeria monocytogenes, any of which are capable of wreaking havoc on the human gastrointestinal tract. Parasites Seek a Mortgage On Your Intestinal Home Tiny but potentially deadly worms find their way into sushi and into the human intestinal tract in one of two ways: as live worms hiding in fresh sushi, or as dead worms in sushi fish that have been frozen. Even when dead, these worms can trigger symptoms in humans that include severe stomach pain lasting days.

We’ve all heard it: Get your daily minimum requirement of essential omega-3 fatty acids by eating more fish! They’re rich in omega-3s! But what are the facts behind all of this rhetoric? Most people would be shocked to learn that the real source of the omega-3 fatty acids they think they’re getting from salmon and other large species of fish actually come from the microalgae that smaller prey fish have absorbed! It’s the microalgae that provide the true original and natural source for omega-3 fatty acids.

We humans cannot produce omega-3s in our bodies, so we must get them from food sources. But over the past half-century, the omega-3s have been crowded out of our diet by less healthy omega-6 fatty acids from the consumption of meat, cooking oils, and processed foods. There are three kinds of omega-3 fatty acids: eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), both of which can be synthesized in the human body from the third kind, alpha-linolenic acid (ALA). ALA can be obtained from plants, and it’s all you need. You don’t need fish or fish oils since ALA will provide the human body with the other two types of omega-3s.

Here are some key health benefits of omega-3 consumption: Omega-3 intake helps to reduce risk of cardiovascular disease, heart attack and other sudden heart conditions. Fatty acid consumption may also help to treat type 2 diabetes and lower elevated serum triglycerides. Omega-3s may be beneficial in treating depression, bipolar disorders, even schizophrenia. Alzheimer’s disease and dementia might be triggered by consuming too little omega-3. Omega-3s also decrease joint tenderness in rheumatoid arthritis patients. They are also considered important for visual and neurological development in infants, who can get them from mother’s milk.

Some Fish Harbor Dangerous Fatty Acid Combinations Tilapia is a cheap fish that has become a staple in the diets of low-income people. Its consumption in the U.S. doubled from 2003 to 2010, one reason being that it’s easy to produce in large quantities on fish farms, and it thrives by consuming inexpensive corn-based feeds. This newly popular farmed fish poses a bigger risk of heart disease than even pork or hamburger. The reason is that tilapia contains very low levels of the beneficial omega-3 fatty acids, but very high levels of omega-6 fatty acids, which contribute to heart disease and other health problems. Farmed catfish has this same correlation with heart disease.

What About Fish Oil Supplementation? By now, you know that consuming fish, whether farm-raised or from the wild, presents a risk to your health because of all the chemical pollutants and unwanted fats they possess that can be passed on to you. Beyond that, moral and environmental factors should motivate abstinence. Some people have fallen for the marketing ploy that fish oil supplementation is the answer for those who want to avoid eating fish but who desire higher levels of omega-3s in their diet.

Fish Oil’s Many Fallacies To begin with, whenever oils extracted from fish are exposed to air for any length of time, the oil becomes rancid. It oxidizes as soon as it’s exposed to oxygen, light or heat. To extract oil from fish, the entire fish is usually minced, and the oil is extracted using heat and chemical solvents. This process can sometimes create carcinogens, which are left as by-products in the oil. Fish oil processors usually disguise the dead fish smell of these oils by adding antioxidants and preservatives, and then sealing the fish oils in gel-like containers so the smell can’t escape. Break open one of these gel capsules some time. Your sense of smell will be assaulted by the rancid odor of the oil.

A Healthy Alternative Flaxseed oil became a fixture in the pantheon of health elixirs as far back as 650 B.C. when Hippocrates lauded its many therapeutic uses. You don’t have to use the flaxseed oil to get benefits from flax. You can also eat it raw, sprouted, or ground up and sprinkled on salads to get the highest possible concentrations of omega-3s. Chia and hemp can also be used in the same way.

Fish Oil Linked To Increased Colon Cancer Risk Fish oil supplementation is often promoted by mainstream doctors as a good source of omega-3 fatty acids, to treat people who are at risk for inflammatory bowel diseases, along with supporting heart and joint health. One problem is that these fish oils carry their own risks, including risk of colon cancer and severe colitis, which much of mainstream medicine, not to mention consumers, still seem unaware of, perhaps because the evidence for this link just emerged late in 2010.

Six Common Fish Oil Myths Exposed 1. Fish oil benefits pregnant women. Producers and purveyors of fish oil products have promoted the idea that their supplements can assist pregnant women in avoiding postpartum depression, while simultaneously promoting the cognitive development of their children before birth. Medical researchers proved this claim to be false in a 2010 study. 2,400 pregnant women were randomly assigned to either take 800 milligrams of DHA from fish oil per day, or placebo capsules containing vegetable oil. Six months after the women gave birth to their children, the rates of postpartum depression were no different between the two groups, indicating that fish oil had no beneficial effect. In addition, the children of women from the two groups did not score any differently at age eighteen months on a battery of tests designed to show whether their mother’s taking fish oil had been beneficial to them while still in the womb. The fish oil industry ignored these findings.

Six Common Fish Oil Myths Exposed 2. Fish oil slows mental decline. Another marketing ploy used by the fish oil industry involves trumpeting the its use to slow the symptoms of mental decline associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Still another 2010 study has demolished this contention: Funded by the National Institute on Aging and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the study randomly assigned 400 men and women in their mid-70s who were likely to have Alzheimer’s to either a placebo group or a group that took two grams of DHA from fish oil per day. After eighteen months, there was no difference in the degree of mental decline between the two groups, as measured by a rating scale and mental testing.

Six Common Fish Oil Myths Exposed (cont’d) Here is the specific language the study authors used to describe their findings about DHA, the so-called active ingredient found in fish oil (including krill oil): “Conclusion: Supplementation with DHA compared with placebo did not slow the rate of cognitive and functional decline in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer disease…the hypothesis that DHA slows the progression of mild to moderate Alzheimer disease was not supported, so there is no basis for recommending DHA supplementation for patients with Alzheimer disease.” That clearly tells us that fish oil has no place being touted as a treatment for cognitive deterioration and age-related decline.

Six Common Fish Oil Myths Exposed 3. Fish oil strengthens your immune system. Many mainstream physicians love to believe this one, though they seem vague on the details of how it is supposed to happen. We all know how important our immune systems are, and the indispensable role they play in preventing illness and disease. Would you knowingly and consciously engage in an activity that weakens your immune system and makes life-threatening health problems more likely? Fish oil supplements may be doing exactly that.

Six Common Fish Oil Myths Exposed (cont’d) A wide range of immune responses are diminished by using omega-3 derivative fish oils, according to research presented by the International Society for the Study of Fatty Acids and Lipids during a 2000 conference in Japan. These initial findings were further elaborated on by a 2003 study in the prestigious journal, Lipids. The study determined that “high fish oil intake may not be beneficial long term, i.e., it may compromise host immunity and may address only the secondary consequences of immune activation in some clinical conditions.”

Six Common Fish Oil Myths Exposed 4. Fish oil can prevent cancer. This myth is founded on a huge reservoir of wishful thinking, stirred up by the fish oil manufacturing industry. Several studies in major peer-reviewed medical science journals have undermined the myth that fish oil helps prevent cancer, but let’s focus on one of them, published during 2006 in the British Medical Journal. Thirteen British researchers reviewed nearly 100 studies from throughout the world that had been conducted on omega-3s and cancer prevention. From this wealth of research an inescapable conclusion emerged: “we found no evidence that omega-3 fats had an effect on the incidence of cancer and there was no inconsistency.”

Six Common Fish Oil Myths Exposed 5. Fish oil prevents artery inflammation. You’ve probably heard this one, too, and wouldn’t it be wonderful if it were the truth? Imagine clearing your arteries of inflammation-causing plaque every time you took a fish oil supplement. In a 2004 study published in Current Atherosclerosis Reports, several researchers reviewed the available evidence and reached this finding: “fish oil did absolutely nothing significant to decrease the inflammation as evidenced by the failure of CRP (C-reactive protein) to decrease…there was no evidence for an anti-inflammatory effect as judged by CRP levels.”

Six Common Fish Oil Myths Exposed 6. Fish oil supplementation can prevent heart disease. The widely held view that taking fish oil can decrease your cardiovascular disease risk persists despite numerous well-designed studies contradicting it. Let’s start with the latest study results. Researchers at the University Of Pittsburgh Graduate School Of Public Health presented findings to the American Diabetes Association in 2010 showing that consuming more omega-3 fatty acids from fish doesn’t lower heart disease risk for women with type 1 diabetes. People with this type of diabetes are generally at much greater risk for developing heart disease, so this population was ideal for determining whether fish oil can stop or reverse the buildup of plaque in the arteries.

Six Common Fish Oil Myths Exposed (cont’d) These findings supported previous research, such as a 2002 study in the journal Cardiovascular Research, which examined the effect of omega-3s from fish on cerebral arteries and the incidence of stroke. According to the authors, both the fish oil groups and the control groups showed close to equal atherosclerotic progression. “In this group of selected patients with documented coronary artery disease, omega-3 PUFA given for 2 years did not demonstrate an effect on slowing progression of atherosclerosis in carotid arteries as measured by ultrasound.”

Natural, Non-Fish Food Sources of Omega 3s (ALA) Food Serving Alpha-Linolenic acid (gram) Flaxseed oil 1 tablespoon 7.3 Chia seeds 1 ounce 5.0 Walnuts, English 1 ounce 2.6 Flaxseeds, ground 1 tablespoon 1.6 Walnut oil 1 tablespoon 1.4 Soybean oil 1 tablespoon 0.9 Mustard oil 1 tablespoon 0.8 Walnuts, black 1 ounce 0.6 Source: Linus Pauling Institute, Oregon State University

According to estimates made by marine biologists associated with the World Wildlife Fund and other environmental groups, over the past 100 years the populations of large oceangoing fish have declined by up to 80% or more as a result of overfishing by the world’s four million fishing vessels. Experts predict a global collapse of fish species by 2048 if fishing continues at its current pace. To help alleviate the growing shortage of fish in the wild, fish processors are relying on two innovations that raise their own set of problems — building more aquaculture fish farms, and genetically modifying fish in these artificial environments so they grow larger and faster.

Health Threat Number One: Mercury Physicians typically advise their patients, especially after a heart attack, to eat high-fish diets for the omega-3 fatty acid content. Health magazine medical editor Dr. Roshini Raj in a 2010 column tells the story of a patient who came to him after surviving a heart attack. The patient had been eating a high-fish diet consisting of grilled tuna, based on another physician’s advice, but “then he started noticing weird neurological symptoms. We tested his mercury level and it was through the roof.” Dr. Raj goes on to issue a strong warning to any woman who is pregnant or nursing to avoid mercury-laden fish. “Mercury exposure can very seriously harm the development of a fetus or young child,” the physician warns. “Don’t serve it to your little ones, who can be affected by much lower levels of the metal than adults would. And if you start to experience symptoms such as tremors, vision problems, and irritability, ask your doctor for a blood-mercury check.”

Health Threat Number One: Mercury (cont’d) Taiwan, 2010—Researchers assessed the hair mercury concentration of women of childbearing age, along with estimating their average fish consumption. More than half of the women tested had levels of mercury in their bodies at twice the safe level set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Japan, 2004—Six epidemiological researchers took umbilical cord blood samples from 63 pairs of mothers and babies at the birth of the children. Methylmercury concentrations were measured. The mercury concentration in red blood cells taken from fetal blood was nearly twice as high as the concentration in blood taken from the mothers. “These results confirm that methylmercury which originated from fish consumption transferred from maternal to fetal circulation,” concluded the study authors.

Health Threat Number One: Mercury (cont’d) Spain, 2009—A team of environmental chemists assessed mercury levels in preschool children and newborns. Total mercury levels ranged up to 5.63 microg/g in preschool children, more than five times the USEPA safety guideline level. Those kids who ate fish four or more times a week had mercury levels three times higher than kids who ate fish less frequently. Nearly half of all children recorded mercury levels higher than safety guidelines deem permissible. Sweden, 2005—Scientists from the Institute of Environmental Medicine in Stockholm studied methylmercury exposure in 127 Swedish women of childbearing age who ate fish. Contamination in both hair and blood was measured. At least 20% of the women had mercury levels exceeding the USEPA safety guidelines. Any omega-3 health protective effects claimed for fish are cancelled our by the mercury content in those fish.

Health Threat Number Two: Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are formed by the incomplete combustion of organic matter. A number of them are carcinogenic and mutagenic and they are widely believed to make a substantial contribution to the overall burden of cancer in humans. Cooking processes can generate PAHs in food. PAHs can also be formed during the curing and processing of raw food prior to cooking. Diet is the major source of human exposure to PAHs.

Health Threat Number Two: Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) (cont’d) Medical studies examining the PAH content in various fish species have reached some disturbing conclusions. Spanish researchers discovered in 2006 that sixteen different types of PAHs were present in numerous species of fish, including salmon, swordfish, mackerel, tuna, sardines and shrimp. Women and girls who ate those fish species had the highest PAH concentrations in their blood of any groups of people tested. In 2006, Italian scientists studied the levels of PAHs in smoked Atlantic salmon fillets, and detected 11 types of these compounds in both raw and smoked fish. Six of the PAH compounds existed at similar levels in raw and smoked fish, but five more of the compounds were sharply elevated in the smoked fish, showing that smoking adds PAHs to already existing PAH levels in fish flesh. “Results confirm that PAHs concentrations in smoked fish are the product of both sea pollution and the smoking process,” concluded the researchers.

Health Threat Number Three: Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) One of the most environmentally persistent chemical compounds ever created by industrial lab chemists are PCBs. Starting in the 1920s, PCBs were used in many products, including in transformers, as lubricating oils, and as coatings for electrical wiring. These are fat-soluble compounds that persist in fat tissues once absorbed by the human body, especially after eating animals. Some of these compounds can cause neurotoxicity and endocrine disruption in humans.

Health Threat Number Three: Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) (cont’d) Medical studies have found fish consumption to be a primary source of PCBs absorbed by human beings. Consider these findings: Memory and Learning Impairment — Blood PCB levels were measured in 101 Michigan residents aged 49 to 86 years old eating fish from Lake Michigan, and were compared to 79 non-fish eaters. Afterward, a battery of cognitive tests was administered to all study participants. Fish eaters had much higher levels of PCBs in their blood and much lower scores on the cognitive tests of memory and learning.

Health Threat Number Three: Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) (cont’d) Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease — A study of diabetes prevalence among Native Americans in the Great Lakes region of the US and Canada found that 20% of the 352 adults tested had a form of diabetes. Blood samples from these persons also showed a significant association with the levels of PCBs they had absorbed from their fish-based diet. Cancer and Salmon Consumption — To assess the levels of dioxins/furans, PCBs, and chlorinated pesticides in salmon, a group of scientists analyzed farmed salmon from eight regions of Europe, North America and South America. They then compared this to the USEPA standards for developing fish consumption advisories. According to these guidelines, anyone who ate farmed salmon from Northern Europe more than once every five months was elevating their risk of cancer. Anyone eating salmon from North or South America more than once a month also appreciably raised their risk of contracting cancer.

A List of Common Sense Steps The scientists attending the 2011 International Programme on the State of the Ocean put together a draft of recommendations for the governments of the world, which contained these “urgent actions” to help restore the structure and function of marine ecosystems: 1. Reduce fishing to levels commensurate with long-term sustainability of fisheries and the marine environment. 2. Close fisheries that are not demonstrably managed following sustainable principles, or which depend wholly on government subsidies. 3. Establish a globally comprehensive and representative system of marine protected areas to conserve biodiversity, to build resilience, and to ensure ecologically sustainable fishers with minimal ecological footprint.

A List of Common Sense Steps (cont’d) 4. Prevent, reduce and strictly control inputs of substances that are harmful or toxic to marine organisms into the marine environment. 5. Prevent, reduce and strictly control nutrient inputs into the marine environment through better land and river catchment management and sewage treatment. 6. Avoid, reduce or at minimum, universally and stringently regulate oil, gas, aggregate and mineral extraction from the oceans. 7. Proper and universal implementation of the precautionary principle by reversing the burden of proof so activities proceed only if they are shown not to harm the ocean singly or in combination with other activities.

My primary addition to this list of recommendations is that humankind should substitute the consumption of fish and related aquatic life with a diet of ocean plants such as seaweed, and blue-green algae such as chlorella and spirulina. It’s not just because fish and related life are contaminated with toxins and unhealthy for human consumption, it’s also because plant life derived from water is a veritable elixir for human health. Spirulina, for example, contains all essential amino acids, making it a source of complete protein. It also has thiamine, riboflavin, nicotinamide, pydridoxine, folic acid, and vitamins C, D, A and E.

45 Health Conditions Either Treated or Prevented by Eating a Diet Rich in Marine Algae and Seaweed: • Aging • Allergic Rhinitis • Alzheimer’s • Antibacterial • Antioxidation • Arthritis • Atherosclerosis • Cancer (breast; colon; leukemia; melanoma; oral) • Cataracts • Cholesterol • Cognition (improves) • Colitis • Congenital Malformations • Corneal Diseases • Dementia • Detoxification (aided) • Diabetes • Fibromyalgia • Hepatic Fibrosis • Hepatitis • Herpes Simplex • Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) • Hypertension • Hypoglycemia • Immune System Health (improves) • Infectious Agents • Inflammation • Influenza • Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) • Ischemia • Jaundice • Liver Damage • Malnutrition • Neurodegenerative Diseases • Obesity • Osteoporosis • Parkinson’s Disease • Pneumonia • Renal Function • Skeletal Muscle Damage • Stroke • Thrombosis (blood clots) • Tuberculosis • Ulcers

Good Reasons Not To Eat Fish (cont’d) 3. Consider the health consequences. You can have optimal health and enjoy a longer life without consuming the flesh of aquatic life. The wide ranging health benefits of being a vegetarian or vegan have been demonstrated in hundreds of medical studies. 4. Personal integrity is at stake. Your self-esteem is raised and overall social awareness is elevated when your food choices are based on integrity. Choosing to preserve nature’s abundance, whether in the planet’s waters or on the land, advances the evolution of the human spirit.

Reasons To Become Vegetarian 1. Slim down while feeling good. Vegetarians frequently weigh up to 20 pounds less than meat-eaters do. Unlike unhealthy fad diets, which leave you feeling tired (and eventually gaining all the weight back), going vegetarian is the healthy way to keep the excess fat off for good, while keeping your energy level high. 2. It's the best way to help animals. Every vegetarian, by refusing to eat an animal, saves more than 100 animals a year from horrible abuse. When you choose vegetarian foods over meat, fish, eggs, and dairy products, you make a statement that all life is important and has value.

Reasons To Become Vegetarian (cont’d) 3. You’ll enjoy a healthier and happier you. According to the American Dietetic Association, vegetarians are less likely to develop heart disease, cancer, diabetes, or high blood pressure than meat-eaters. Vegetarians get all the nutrients they need to be healthy (plant protein, fiber, minerals, etc.) without all of the nasties in meat. 4. Help feed the world. It takes tons of crops and water to raise farmed animals. It takes up to 16 pounds of grain to produce just one pound of animal flesh! All that plant food could be used much more efficiently if it was fed to people directly. The more people who become vegetarian, the more crops can be collected to feed the hungry.

Reasons To Become Vegetarian (cont’d) 5. Help to save the planet. Eating meat is one of the worst things that you can do for the health of our planet because it’s wasteful, causes enormous amounts of pollution, and the meat industry is one of the biggest contributors to global warming. 6. Many food animals are smarter than your dog. Animals used for food are every bit as intelligent and able to suffer as the animals who share our homes. For instance, fish have been observed fashioning tools, pigs can learn to play video games, and the intelligence of chickens has been compared by scientists to the intelligence displayed by monkeys. It’s a crime against nature to eat other intelligent beings.

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Mary Jo, author, speaker and researcher, founder and director of several schools and Career Colleges:Ohio Institute of Energetic Studies, Institute of Holistic Health Careers, Great Lake School of Integrative Medicine which trained and certified students as Energy Practitioners, Board Certified Holistic Health Professionals, Board Certified Polarity Practitioner.

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