Mercury, Messenger of Fish

I’m sure most of you out there have heard of why pregnant women should not be eating fish right? It is because of the high counts of mercury in fishes. It’s ok if you haven’t. I’m telling you this now, but most pregnant women crave such bazaar things that fish isn’t really on the list anyways.

We all know that fish is a good source of protein and other nutrition’s that help balance our diet, but what is this mercury situation that I keep hearing about? Am I really digesting a metallic element that I hated learning about in chemistry class?
Almost all fishes and shellfish contains mercury in them, so obviously when we eat the fish, we ingest the mercury as well. No, you’re not going to die, I eat fish a lot and I’m fine, well.. except for my bad case of ulcers.. but that has nothing to do with the fish! But the reason why pregnant women should not eat fish is because too much mercury in an unborn or even in an infant can cause problems with the development with their nervous system (note: this does not mean they get nervous over everything).

How did this mercury get into our fish? Through coal burning power plants. It is excess and waste product gas that is produced from these power plants that are fueled by coal get into the water that our fish swim through and eventually ingest. So when we eat the fish, not only do we get the nutrition from the fish, we also get a nice helping of metal. The higher up on the food chain the fishes are, the more mercury they will have because of their time in the water and because of how much more metal they have ingested through smaller fishes.

Too much Mercury in the body, especially in infants can affect many things such as their growth, memory and their thinking patterns. You may not see what the big deal about this is now because most kids in the upcoming generations all happen to have ADD anyways, please take this seriously.

Find out more about sustainable seafood and health next week. Fish is good for the body so just eat those that are not high up on the food chain.

Published by Susanaw