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#Post#: 798--------------------------------------------------
Good and not-so-good kinds of fish to eat
By: agate Date: May 24, 2015, 8:22 pm
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Excerpted from Nutrition Action, May 24, 2015:
[quote]The Best Fish for Your Health and the Earth
Seven popular fish and finding a balance between the best fish
for your health and for your dinner table
David Schardt
Which seafood choices are good for you…and the planet? There
are plenty of reasons to be wary of seafood, such as possible
PCBs, mercury, antibiotic residues, dioxins, sea lice in ocean
pens, leveled mangrove forests, and depleted fish stocks.
But there also are plenty of reasons to eat it. People who
consume more seafood have a lower risk of heart disease, stroke,
and Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers aren’t sure if that’s
because of DHA and EPA, the omega-3 fats in fish, or because
seafood eaters do other things to protect their health. Still,
seafood is low in saturated fat and rich in protein…and flavor.
How healthy is the most popular seafood? What’s it doing to the
environment? Below you’ll find simplified versions of
recommendations from the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch
program.
Is Tilapia the Best Fish For Your Health?
It’s the fourth most popular seafood in the United States. Some
is raised here, but most of this mild-tasting fish now comes
from farms in China, followed by Indonesia, Ecuador, and
Honduras.
Good for people? Modest in omega-3s (about 150 mg in 4 oz.
cooked). Very low in mercury. Fed a vegetarian diet (so it’s
less likely to accumulate harmful chemicals).
Bad for people? A 2008 study found large amounts of arachidonic
acid in farmed tilapia. Some charge that omega-6 fats like
arachidonic acid cause inflammation. “But omega-6 fats don’t
cause inflammation or promote heart disease,” says William
Harris, of the University of South Dakota’s Sanford School of
Medicine, who chaired the American Heart Association’s 2009
panel on omega-6s.
Tilapia from China and Taiwan are on an FDA watch list for
illegal drug residues. In part, that’s why neither is a “best
choice.”
Good for the Earth?
Best choice: Tilapia that’s tank-farmed in the United States or
Canada or in carefully managed ponds in Ecuador.
Is Farmed Salmon the Best Fish For Your Health?
Americans are eating more Atlantic salmon, which is always
farmed. Most of it comes from Chile, Canada, and Norway.
Good for people? Very high in omega-3s (about 2,400 mg in 4 oz.
cooked). Very low in mercury.
Bad for people? In 2004, a chemical analysis of 459 samples of
farmed salmon from five countries rattled seafood eaters. Most
was so polluted with PCBs and dioxins that the researchers
advised people to eat farmed salmon no more than once a month.
The fish accumulate the industrial chemicals from the fishmeal
they are fed.
Since then, the industry claims that it has been cleaning up its
act by replacing some fishmeal with soy protein.
Has it worked? There’s no way to tell, since independent
researchers haven’t done any recent testing.
In the 2004 analysis, farmed salmon from the United States,
Canada, and Chile had lower levels of contaminants than farmed
salmon from Northern Europe. For what it’s worth, a Norwegian
study found that PCB and dioxin levels in its farmed salmon fell
by half from 2004 to 2011. But no one has published recent good
data on farmed salmon raised elsewhere.
Good for the Earth?
Best choice: U.S. farmed salmon—or any other farmed salmon—that
are raised in “recirculating aquaculture systems” or “tank
systems.” Good alternative: Verlasso farmed salmon from Chile.
Avoid: Most farmed salmon from Chile, British Columbia,
Scotland, and Norway, which are raised in “net pens.” Why? Fish
that escape from the pens can breed with wild salmon and can
infect them with parasites.
Is Trout the Best Fish For Your Health?
Most farmed trout, unlike most farmed salmon, are raised in
closed, man-made waterways that are essentially artificial
streams. So trout farming doesn’t raise the same environmental
concerns—about feed and feces polluting the ocean, residues of
antibiotics getting into the environment, and fish escaping and
breeding with wild fish.
Good for people? High in omega-3s (about 1,000 mg in 4 oz.
cooked). Low in mercury.
Bad for people? Farmed salmon and farmed trout are both fed
fishmeal and fish oil, which come from small oily fish— like
menhaden—that absorb fat-soluble pollutants like PCBs and
dioxins from their environment. There have been no recent
analyses of farmed trout, but there’s reason to think that
they’re cleaner than farmed salmon. “Trout are fed lesser
amounts of fishmeal and especially fish oil because they’re
smaller and live shorter lives,” says aquaculture expert Gary
Fornshell, of the University of Idaho.
Good for the Earth?
Best choice: Rainbow trout farmed in the United States. Wild
lake trout from Minnesota waters of Lake Superior.
Good alternative: Wild lake trout from Lake Huron, Lake
Michigan, and Canadian and Michigan waters of Lake Superior.
Avoid: Wild lake trout from Wisconsin waters of Lake Superior.
Is Canned Tuna the Best Fish For Your Health?
Is canned tuna safe? Only in moderation.
Good for people? Modest to high in omega-3s (150 to 300 mg in 4
oz. of canned light and about 1,000 mg in 4 oz. of canned
albacore).
Bad for people? Mercury can damage nerves, leading to memory
loss, irritability, and balance problems. According to the FDA,
it’s safe to get, on average, up to 7 micrograms (mcg) of
mercury a week for every 22 pounds you weigh. That works out to
around 50 mcg for a 150-pound person. Four ounces of canned
albacore (white) tuna averages 40 mcg of mercury; that much
canned light averages 13 mcg.
Because the developing nervous system is especially sensitive to
mercury, we recommend that women who are nursing, pregnant, or
could become pregnant, as well as children under 55 pounds, not
eat albacore tuna. Those women should limit light tuna to 2 oz.
a week (1 oz. for children). Other adults can safely eat up to
3 oz. of albacore or 12 oz. of light tuna a week.
Good for the Earth?
Best choice or Good alternative: Tuna caught by trolls, poles,
or FAD-free purse seines. (FADs—fish aggregating devices—
attract, catch, and waste a lot of other fish.) That typically
means smaller brands like Wild Planet and Raincoast Trading.
Avoid: Tuna caught with gill nets, purse seines with FADs, or
most longline methods. That includes Chicken of the Sea,
Bumblebee, and (sorry, Charlie) Star-Kist.
Is Shrimp the Best Fish For Your Health?
Shrimp is the most popular seafood in the United States. Most of
it is imported from shrimp farms in Asia and Ecuador.
Good for people? Modest in omega-3s (about 100 mg in 4 oz.
cooked). Very low in mercury.
Bad for people? In 2014 tests carried out in Louisiana (where
domestic shrimp competes with imports), 20 of 27 samples of
farmed shrimp from Asia and Ecuador showed traces of
fluoroquinolones, a class of antibiotics—Cipro is one—that is
banned from food here. And 25 tested positive for malachite
green, an anti-fungal compound not permitted in imported food.
None of the 14 frozen U.S.-caught wild shrimp samples tested
positive for illegal drug residues or malachite green.
In April 2015, Consumer Reports reported that of 205 raw farmed
imported shrimp samples it purchased in U.S. supermarkets, 11
samples from Vietnam, Thailand, and Bangladesh tested positive
for one or more antibiotics. (No antibiotics are approved by the
U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in shrimp farming. All
are illegal in imported shrimp.)
Farmed shrimp from China, India, Malaysia, Mexico, Vietnam,
Bangladesh, and Indonesia are on an FDA watch list for illegal
drug residues.
Good for the Earth?
Best choice or Good alternative: U.S. farmed shrimp. Wild shrimp
caught anywhere other than Mexico or Louisiana. The Monterey Bay
Seafood Watch prrogram says, “Wild shrimp from Louisiana and
Mexico are on the ‘Avoid’ list for poor management, illegal
fishing or heavy bycatch loads that include sea turtles and many
other species.”
Avoid: Most imported farmed shrimp.
...
Is Wild Salmon the Best Fish For Your Health?
“Alaska’s icy, pure waters and the abundance of natural food
give Alaska Salmon unparalleled flavor,” says the Alaska Seafood
Marketing Institute. The downside: fresh wild salmon costs more
than twice as much as farmed and is available only during the
summer.
Good for people? High in omega-3s (about 1,500 mg in 4 oz. of
cooked wild coho and 900 mg in cooked wild sockeye). Canned
salmon, which is usually wild, has about 1,200 mg in a 4 oz.
serving. Very low in mercury.
Bad for people? The 2004 analysis that found PCBs and dioxins in
farmed salmon also found both in samples of wild Alaska salmon.
But levels of contaminants were typically only about an eighth
of those in the farmed.
Good for the Earth?
Best choice: Any wild salmon from Alaska.
Good alternative: Any wild salmon from California, Oregon, or
Washington state. Wild coho from British Columbia. Any wild
salmon from a Marine Stewardship Council Certified
Fishery.[/quote]
(from the Center for Science in the Public Interest)
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