May 30, 2012 – Tina Page, columist at Greener Ideal, writes the following in an opinion piece on fish and fish oil:
Fish is not healthy, and taking fish oil supplements is like injecting alcohol straight to your bloodstream instead of at least being able to enjoy the taste of your Mai Tai. But what about the healthy fats – the EPA and DHA? Won’t I be stupid if I don’t eat fish?
A 2004 analysis by the Environmental Protection Agency revealed that “630,000 children are born each year at risk for lowered intelligence and learning problems caused by exposure to high levels of mercury in the womb.”
That’s one in six children born to women encouraged to eat fish to ensure their baby’s proper brain development at risk for brain problems because their mothers subscribed to the belief that fish is a super food.
Tuna is a major culprit as it is one of the most popular fish consumed in the world. Mercury occurs naturally in the marine environment, but industries like coal-fired power plants push the amount of methyl mercury to unsafe levels, where bacteria in the water convert the toxin into a form easily absorbed by small organisms. The mercury makes its way up the food chain, where the animals that live the longest and grow the largest absorb and retain the highest levels.
Then we come along, fish the oldest and the biggest animals from the sea, and call it a super food. But why? We are taught that our brains will shrivel up without sucking the omega-3 fatty acids – called eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) – from fish or fish oil supplements.
Read the full article at Greener Ideal.
Analysis: Tina Page’s article is based on the idea that the risks of consuming fish are too high and that any supposed health benefits do not exist. The article flatly states that “fish is not healthy.” However, the US Food and Drug Administration, the Mayo Clinic, the American Heart Association, and the Harvard School of Public Health have all released papers stating exactly the opposite: that the health benefits of fish and omega-3 fatty acids far outweigh the potential risks from methyl mercury content.
The article is correct that pregnant women and small children are most at risk from high levels of mercury in fish. High mercury intake during pregnancy is known to harm fetal and early childhood development. Health associations and the FDA recognize this and warn against eating some species of fish during pregnancy. They do encourage small portions of lower mercury content fish, to assist in brain development, but plainly state the risks of eating high content fish such as shark, swordfish, king mackerel, and tilefish.
The article attacks fish oil pills, asserting that taking these pills “is like injecting alcohol straight to your bloodstream instead of at least being able to enjoy the taste of your Mai Tai.” However, the only danger the article points to surrounding eating fish is the mercury content. Omega-3 fish oil pills are derived from small, oily fish, such as the menhaden and anchovy. Due to their low position on the food chain, these types of fish have very low mercury content, among the lowest measured contents on the FDA’s "Mercury Levels in Commercial Fish and Shellfish" information sheet.
Ignored in the article are the health benefits that fish provide. A Harvard study conducted by Drs. Dariush Mozaffarian and Eric B. Rimm and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that fish consumption lowered the risk of death from heart disease by 36 percent and the total mortality risk (death from all causes) by 17 percent. The study also showed possible links between not eating seafood and susceptibility to ailments such as cognitive decline and depression.