Wednesday, September 02, 2009

Mercury Poisoning from Too Much Eating of Certain Fish

Some people are eating so much of the commercial, high-mercury fish that they are over the mark for tolerable allowances set by the Environmental Protection Agency, the FDA, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry and the World Health Organization.

Jane Hightower, M.D.

The link is to a 2007 article that Dr. Hightower wrote that is very well worth reading. She ends the article with the following:

As for fish consumption in adults, both men and women, the current advice is that two three-ounce servings or one six-ounce serving per week is where the benefits outweigh the risk, but up to twelve ounces is acceptable if the fish are low in contaminants (Mozaffarian 2006).

The article, however, also discusses children, both born and unborn, and other vulnerable populations, such as Pacific islanders and Native Americans. As I said, the entire article is worth reading.

The initial quote above is in an email I received from John McDougall, MD. I am on his email mailing list.

4 comments:

Lindsay said...

I had a very unfortunate craving for tuna fish sandwiches when I was pregnant with AJC. I limited to one/week, though. These days, I'd rather have my tuna serving raw!

Paul Stokes said...

Thanks, Lindsay. This world would be transformed if every little one had a mom like you.

One interesting thing about Dr. Hawthorn's position, at least to the extent one can see it from the link, is this: she does not appear to take an unqualified vegan view of eating fish. She simply says to be careful about contamination with regard to eating fish. That's fair. Maybe it's easier to be careful with fish than with, say, beef and pork.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for posting this Paul...I am reading the China Study. I am eating pesco vegetarian and trying to feed the kids more fish as a part of our diet. Anna Scott and Will really like it when we have grilled fish. Especially when the saw a picture of a tuna and how huge it it...they think it is really cool to eat tuna. I really appreciate you Healthy Journey posts.

Paul Stokes said...

Glad you are reading the China Study, Rachelle.