Fit Fare

This is one of those possibly controversial posts.  How do I know?  Well, at the Worlds of Healthy Flavors event hosted by the Culinary Institute of America and the Harvard School of Public Health - Department of Nutrition there was much seat shifting and rustling of papers when Dr. Eric Rimm’s presentation was given on the topic of how the benefits of eating fish greatly outweigh the risks from mercury. 

But let’s start at the beginning. The goal of Worlds of Healthy Flavors was to combine the best of world cooking and the latest in nutrition research.  To accomplish this goal, the CIA and Harvard brought together scientists, media and representatives from chain restaurants, hotels, supermarkets and volume food service.  I’ll be sharing lots of the information I learned at this event here at Fit Fare and at Wine Sediments and Growers and Grocers. 

Now back to the possible controversy.  When Dr. Eric Rimm, Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, began his presentation by stating that fish are getting a bad rap in part because of media misrepresentation, I was intrigued.  How many times have you heard that fish are so full of dangerous amounts of mercury that they should be avoided? 

Dr. Rimm thinks the misrepresentation started with an EPA advisory regarding mercury in fish.  He is convinced that when people saw the advisory, all they thought was: “Blah, blah, blah, fish is bad.”  Since fish consumption went down after the issuance of the advisory, he’s probably right.  Dr. Rimm hopes that getting the word out can help reverse this trend because of the innumerable benefits of fish consumption, including reduced symptoms of asthma, arthritis, depression, diabetes, prostate cancer and gestational diabetes.  Fish consumption also benefits cognitive function and fetal growth.  Notably, farmed salmon has more of the highly beneficial omega-3 acids than wild salmon.

The case for fish began with the premise that, to some extent, everything we eat has contaminants in it and our technology has advanced so far that we can now count contaminants down to the smallest of amounts (and freak out about those small amounts, no matter how insignificant).  While the amount of mercury in farmed fish is a bit higher than that in wild, both amounts are small.  Plus when they measure the amount of mercury, they grind up the whole fish, including parts higher in mercury that we don’t usually eat, like the skin.  The amount of mercury in farmed fish is also decreasing, since the farmers are learning more and more how to limit the mercury.

With these facts in mind, Dr. Rimm argued that the health benefits of eating fish far outweigh any potential risks at the current level of contamination.  In fact, Dr. Rimm says that the benefits of consuming 1-3 servings of fish a week outweigh the risk from consuming that amount by 100 to 300 fold.  He seems to think that there’s no question that all of us should be eating more fish.

As with any nutrition issue, there are exceptions.  Tilefish and swordfish have amounts of mercury that are not recommended for pregnant women or women who plan on becoming pregnant.  However, Dr. Rimm states that the risk of eating tilefish and swordfish is still outweighed by the benefits for the rest of us.

So, will you be adding more fish back to your diet?

Photo from www.roswitha-schacht.de and www.morguefile.com.