Slate.com has an interesting article on contaminated seafood that mentions the FDA's seafood mercury calculator. (TH, I'm still trying to find out who paid for the mercury testing-- the salmon industry or the beef packers.)
I've been eating fish for lunch almost every day-- usually opening a can of tuna or heating frozen salmon & swordfish filets. (Ahi is yummy and mahi-mahi is OK too.) I've been chowing down about two pounds a week. According to the "world's best data" in the calculator, keeping swordfish in the rotation puts my weekly mercury exposure at 670% of the EPA limit... and researchers are beginning to think that the limit itself should be lowered.
Substituting mahi-mahi drops the weekly dose to "just" 180%. Eliminating swordfish, mahi-mahi, and ahi gets it down to 150%, and this calculator doesn't discuss PCBs or other contaminants. But having only salmon & tuna as fishy favorites seems pretty boring.
I don't have any symptoms ("The earliest and most frequent symptom is a fine tremor of the hand") but I guess that I'm done with swordfish. Fish-oil pills don't seem very exciting, even if they're contaminant-free. Anyone know where I can find out if Hawaii seafood is somehow cleaner than the FDA's average numbers?
I'm no hypochondriac but I'm relieved to know that chronic fatigue isn't a primary symptom of mercury poisoning. Maybe boomeritis really is caused by excessive surfing, martial arts, & yardwork.
I can see the boomer ad campaign now-- "Beef. It's classic rock's answer to heavy metal!"
I've been eating fish for lunch almost every day-- usually opening a can of tuna or heating frozen salmon & swordfish filets. (Ahi is yummy and mahi-mahi is OK too.) I've been chowing down about two pounds a week. According to the "world's best data" in the calculator, keeping swordfish in the rotation puts my weekly mercury exposure at 670% of the EPA limit... and researchers are beginning to think that the limit itself should be lowered.
Substituting mahi-mahi drops the weekly dose to "just" 180%. Eliminating swordfish, mahi-mahi, and ahi gets it down to 150%, and this calculator doesn't discuss PCBs or other contaminants. But having only salmon & tuna as fishy favorites seems pretty boring.
I don't have any symptoms ("The earliest and most frequent symptom is a fine tremor of the hand") but I guess that I'm done with swordfish. Fish-oil pills don't seem very exciting, even if they're contaminant-free. Anyone know where I can find out if Hawaii seafood is somehow cleaner than the FDA's average numbers?
I'm no hypochondriac but I'm relieved to know that chronic fatigue isn't a primary symptom of mercury poisoning. Maybe boomeritis really is caused by excessive surfing, martial arts, & yardwork.
I can see the boomer ad campaign now-- "Beef. It's classic rock's answer to heavy metal!"