Disease Proof : Disease Proof : Health & Nutrition News & Commentary : Dr. Joel Fuhrman

Today, almost all current nutritional advice includes fish as a cornerstone of a healthful diet. But my recommendations are slightly different from those of other respected health authorities. While the differences may seem minor, they are significant, and I contend that they will make it possible for you to achieve extraordinarily good health and an extraordinarily long life span.

Fish: a mixed bag
Fish and shellfish contain high concentrations of protein and other essential nutrients, are low in saturated fat, and contain the valuable omega-3 fatty acids, EPA and DHA. These food factors are thought to contribute to heart health and to children's proper growth and development (there is overwhelming evidence confirming the health benefits of omega-3 fatty acids), which is why fish and shellfish are considered to be an important part of a well-balanced diet. Unfortunately, in addition to EPA and DHA, nearly all fish and shellfish contain mercury and other pollutants. Since these toxins in fish have potential health risks, wouldn't it make sense to look for a cleaner, safer source for our omega-3 fats?

Fish polluted with mercury
Nearly all fish and shellfish contain traces of methylmercury. Mercury accumulates in fish when polluted water is filtered through their gills. The longer a fish lives, the more the mercury accumulates. Large fish eat small fish and accumulate all of the mercury that was in the small fish. Over a lifetime, this mounts up exponentially. Likewise, our tissues accumulate the mercury of all of the fish we eat throughout our lifetimes.

Authorities could warn us not to eat species of fish that contain high amounts of mercury. Instead, they warn us not to eat them too often, based on the misguided notion that the benefits of eating fish outweigh the potential harm from the exposure to mercury.

It has been demonstrated conclusively that fish contain enough mercury to harm an unborn baby or harm a young child's developing nervous system. Since the risks from mercury in fish and shellfish depend on the levels of mercury in the fish and shellfish and the amount of fish and shellfish eaten, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) advise pregnant women, women who may become pregnant, nursing mothers, and young children to avoid some types offish and only eat fish and shellfish that are lower in mercury.

The advice given by governmental authorities includes:

1. Never eat shark, swordfish, king mackerel, or tilefish because they contain high levels of mercury.

2. Check local advisories about the safety of eating local fish caught by family and friends in local rivers and coastal waterways. If unsure, don't eat more than six ounces at a meal, and do not eat any other fish during that week.

EPA makes recommendations for what it considers an acceptable level of mercury in a pregnant woman's body. As the recognition that mercury damages the brains of our children has increased in the last two decades, EPA has had to lower the "acceptable" level more than once.

I have been telling patients for years that if something can damage a fetus and result in childhood learning abnormalities, it can't be a practice that promotes long-term health and wellness in adults. You can't have it both ways. The developing fetus may be seen as a sensitive indicator of the potential of toxins to cause cellular damage.

This potential damage is a risk to adult cells as well. We just may not see the damage in adults in as short a period of time. Subtle cellular damage from mercury can be a contributory factor in combination with other negative influences that lead to the development of diseases seen later in life. So it is not just youngsters who are at risk of brain damage.

Safe levels a myth
No fish is completely free of mercury and other pollutants. If you eat fish regularly, your body is undoubtedly high in mercury. You cannot remove the mercury from the fish by trimming the fat or by cooking because it is deposited throughout the fish's tissues. I've observed that a person's mercury level correlates exceptionally well with the amount of fish consumed, and medical studies back up this observation. Individuals eating fish a few times a week have been found to have blood mercury levels exceeding the maximum level recommended by the National Academy of Sciences, which is a blood level of below 5 micrograms. Women eating seafood more than twice per week have been found to have 7 times the blood mercury levels compared with women who rarely eat fish, and children eating fish regularly were found to have mercury levels 40 times higher than the national mean.1,2

Fish: no brain food
Mercury is poisonous to the brain. Every year, more than 300,000 newborns are thought to develop adverse neurodevelopmental effects because of mercury exposure in utero. Because of their continual exposure to mercury, dentists also are at risk for later life dementia. Female dentists have been shown to have a higher incidence of malformations and aborted pregnancies in their offspring, and male dentists have higher levels of hypospermia (low sperm production) and decreased sperm motility.

Although the FDA wants us to think that eating a variety of fish with different amounts of mercury assures us we will not be harmed by acute mercury poisoning, they do not guarantee we won't suffer from dementia or other diseases of brain aging from the continual accumulation of mercury over the years. High body stores of mercury cause brain damage and memory impairment, leading to dementia in later life.

The risk of brain damage from mercury increases with age and, besides neurological disease, includes hypertension, heart disease, mental disorders, and endocrine diseases.3

Mercury accumulates in one's bloodstream over time. It can be removed from the body naturally (the kidney does continually excrete mercury into our urine), but even after mercury-containing fish are eliminated from the diet,it may take years for the levels to drop significantly.

For women of childbearing age, it is not sufficient to avoid eating fish after becoming pregnant. Fish must be avoided for a few years before conception to guarantee the baby is not harmed by mercury. For the same reason, it is not a good idea to remove amalgam dental fillings during pregnancy because mercury exposure can increase during removal. It is worth noting that fish consumption dwarfs mercury-containing dental fillings as the primary source of mercury in body tissues and breast milk.

Other pollutants in fish
Like mercury, other pollutants, including PCBs, accumulate in fish and in the body tissues of people who eat fish regularly. These pollutants can remain in your body for decades, creating a higher risk of serious diseases such as cancer. These chemicals also can increase the damage to the brain from mercury. People who would be disgusted at the thought of drinking polluted water don't think twice about eating polluted fish with 1,000 times more pollution in it.

Not wild about salmon
Studies published last year showed that dangerous chemicals were ten times higher in farm-raised salmon compared with wild salmon. I commented on this in a prior newsletter, stating that those who eat fish once a week should eat only the wild variety. As concerns have risen about the high levels of pollution and the artificial colors used to turn farm-raised salmon pink, the price and desirability of wild salmon have risen with it.Wild salmon are suddenly appearing in restaurants and food stores everywhere.

Where is all of this wild salmon coming from? A recent article in The New York Times confirmed my suspicions. They reported that most so called "wild Pacific" or "Alaskan" salmon is just farm-raised salmon with a misleading label. In March 2005, the Times tested salmon sold in eight New York City stores, going for as much as $29 a pound, and found that most of the fish was farm raised, not wild (only one sample tested wild).4

They were able to tell the farm raised salmon from the wild salmon because of the presence of the artificial pink food dye, canthaxanthin, manufactured by Hoffman-La Roche. This pharmaceutical company distributes its trademarked SalmoFan (which is a color chart similar to paint store swatches), so fish farmers can choose among various shades used to make the salmon look their pink-orange color. Salmon in the wild have that color naturally from eating pink crustaceans, but those commercially raised have a gray flesh from eating fish meal. Europeans are suspicious of canthaxanthin, which was linked to retinal damage in people when taken as a sunless tanning pill. The British banned its use as a tanning agent, but it currently is still available in the United States.

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According to Healthday News a new study published in the July issue of the Annals of Neurology contends exposure to pesticides heightens Parkinson's risk. Alan Mozes reports:

"This is the first large human study that shows that exposure to pesticide is associated with a higher incidence of Parkinson's," said study lead author Dr. Alberto Ascherio, associate professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston.

"It is, of course, a relative increase," emphasized Ascherio. "So, whereas normally the lifetime risk for developing Parkinson's is three percent, pesticide exposure will bring the risk to five percent."

Readers of DiseaseProof already know the dangers of pesticides on longterm health.

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• According to HealthDay researchers say childhood obesity leaves overweight children more prone to migraine headaches: Migraines More Common in Overweight Kids

  "The numbers tell us that being overweight may contribute to kids having more headaches, most often migraines," Dr. Andrew D. Hershey, director of the Headache Center and a pediatric neurologist at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, said in a prepared statement. "There are likely a number of causes, including poorer general health, body stress, lack of exercise and nutrition. It may not be that being overweight directly causes migraine, but that the reasons for being overweight cause these children to have worsening headaches."

• CNN reports parents and caregivers too content to let kids sit around all day: At home and school, kids are sedentary

  "One of the guidelines is that children should not be sedentary for more than 60 minutes at a time. In other words, after 60 minutes they should be up and moving for 10 minutes blocks of time," he said. "As children move into elementary school, they shouldn't be sedentary for more than 90 minutes at a time."

• The Associated Press introduces amaranth and other alternative fibers: Goodbye wheat, hello amaranth, say consumers

  Amaranth, grown for millennia by the Aztecs, has twice as much iron as wheat and is higher in protein and fiber. Quinoa, an ancient Andean crop, has less fiber but more protein and iron than wheat.

• Organic Authority talks about the dangers of salt: Hold the salt

  Excess sodium greatly increases the chance of developing hypertension, heart disease and stroke. Research shows most Americans consume two to three times the amount of sodium that is healthy, with an estimated 75%-80% of daily intake coming from processed and restaurant foods.

• Healthy Eating would love to see Buffalo New York become the restaurant capital of the world by serving healthy food: Restaurants Can Offer Healthy Choices

  My dream is to find restaurants offering healthy choices and changing preparation to include steaming, poaching, broiling and crock-pot cooking. Like the revolution that eliminated smoking from restaurants, this will not be easy. People will claim that it won't sell. They will claim loss of customers and people's right to eat bad food. People eat Chinese food, Greek food, French, English, Italian and American food, so why can't they eat "Healthy Food?" This was no accident, just the first of many attempts to satisfy the market for healthy foods. These changes are an answer to "leaning toward the dream." The U.S. has just dropped from 25th to 29th in ranking the longevity of Americans as compared to the other industrialized nations of the world.

• Julie's Health Club takes a look at the ever-resilient issue of mercury contamination: Don't touch the tuna

  The government still won't protect consumers against mercury in certain kinds of seafood by requiring warning labels, but select retailers are doing their part. Whole Foods, Safeway and Wild Oats have all volunteered to post signs in stores that alert shoppers about possibly high mercury levels, reports Progressive Grocer.

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From Dr. Fuhrman's book Disease Proof Your Child:

The Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Science released a public report in June 2003, warning the public about the cancer risk from consuming food containing dioxin and other polychlorobiphenyls (PCBs). The Institute of Medicine advises the federal government on medical matters and appoints experts to research and produce reports. The report concluded with the statement:

The most direct way for an individual or a population to reduce dietary intake of dioxins is to reduce their consumption of dietary fat, especially from animal sources that are known to contain higher levels of these compounds.

This report from the National Academy of Science came out only one day after the Environmental Protection Agency reported that the amount of dioxin released into the environment by industry increased to 328 pounds in 2001, up from 220 pounds the year earlier. The EPA added that 6.16 billion pounds of toxic chemicals were released into the environment in 2001.

The EPA explained that these compounds persist in the environment and build up in the bodies of farm animals that eat contaminated feed or grass. While many of these toxic chemical compounds are resistant to degradation in the natural environment, they dissolve readily in oil and thus accumulate in the fatty tissues of fish, birds, and mammals. Humans are exposed predominately by eating contaminated animal products. Every time an animal is exposed to a tiny bit of these toxic chemicals, it remains in the animal's body for life, only released when the animal is eaten by humans, through fatty animal products such as meat, cheese, and full-fat milk.1 Animal products tested to be exceptionally high in these harmful compounds are catfish, lobster, mollusks, cheese, butter, and ice cream.2

Unborn children and breast feeding infants are especially vulnerable to the harmful effects of these chemicals. These chemicals are linked to a broad range of diseases, including behavioral disorders, thyroid dysfunction, endometriosis, and cancer.3 Since these chemicals are stored in the fatty tissues of animals and in our fat stores too (because we are animals as well), a woman has to begin eating more carefully before she gets pregnant to prevent harmful exposure to the developing fetus.

The health of children is not merely the result of what they have been fed as youngsters, but is strongly influenced by a mother's diet and what she consumed and stored in her fat-supply years before her child is conceived. The National Academy of Science gave a clear public warning against eating a diet rich in animal fats, especially fatty fish and shellfish. Again, a plant-based diet containing healthy fat from avocados, raw nuts, and seeds, with much less or no animal fats, is revealed as a powerful weapon to beat the modern cancer epidemic.

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You've probably noticed that a lot of groceries stores are renovating and making room for more and more organic products. Concern for food contaminants has pumped up America's demand for alternative options to conventionally farmed food. Despite higher costs a growing number of people are going organic, but is it worth it? Kathleen Doheny of HealthDay news reports:

The organic food industry in the United States surpassed $10 billion in consumer sales in 2003, according to the Organic Trade Association (OTA), which is based in Greenfield, Mass. The market has grown from between 17 percent to 21 percent each year since 1997, according to OTA estimates.

In a survey done by Ohio State University Extension, researchers interviewed 2,000 Ohio residents in 2004 and found that 40 percent "often" or "occasionally" buy organic foods. Thirty-two percent of the respondents said they would pay 10 percent more for organic foods; six percent said they'd pay 25 percent more for organics, and one percent said they'd be willing to pay 50 percent more.

At face-value the shift in consumer preference appears to be a good thing, but the recent organic movement has its skeptics:

A critic of the organic movement, Alex Avery, director of research for the Hudson Institute's Center for Global Food Issues, a Washington, D.C. think tank, said organic farmers use pesticides, too. Instead of calling them pesticides, however, organic farmers are likely to call them "botanical products." For example: some organic farmers use pyrethrum, which is a derivative of the chrysanthemum plant.

That's a fact organic farmers don't dispute.

As for organic food advocates' claim that non-organic foods contain too many pesticides, Avery said: "You are talking about residues at the part per billion level."

Avery's position is not totally off base. In a previous post Dr. Fuhrman echoed similar sentiments. Here's an excerpt:

Some scientists argue that the extremely low level of pesticide residue remaining on produce is insignificant and that there are naturally occurring toxins in all natural foods that are more significant. The large amount of studies performed on the typical pesticide-treated produce have demonstrated that consumption of produce, whether organic or not, is related to lower rates of cancer and disease protection, not higher rates. Certainly, it is better to eat fruits and vegetables grown and harvested using pesticides than not eating them at all. The health benefits of eating phytochemical-rich produce greatly outweigh any risk pesticide residues might pose.

If you're curious about organic food, there's plenty more worth reading in that post.

Tags: Healthy Food, Hurtful Food, Toxins

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NPR reports a new study by Consumer Reports claims pregnant women should completely avoid all varieties of canned tuna due to mercury contamination. It was previously thought that canned "light" tuna was safe for consumption, but research revealed it can be equally if not more dangerous. Listen to the podcast for the complete report.

This topic is no stranger to DiseaseProof, read the following posts for more information:

• NY Times Looks at Safe Fish
• Something Fishy Here
• Fishing for the Truth
• Toxic Chemicals in Seafood

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If you read Disease Proof Your Child you'll notice Dr. Fuhrman spends a significant amount of time discussing antibiotics, and the American medical community's habitual prescribing of them. Dr. Fuhrman contends, "Too often doctors dispense the drugs without a legitimate clinical rationale for their use." Stern words, but Dr. Fuhrman is making a serious point.

Consider this excerpt from his book:

Antibiotics are designed to kill bacteria; they do not kill viruses. Unfortunately, that is not how they are typically used. Approximately 90 percent of antibiotics are given for viral illnesses, against which they have no value. Antibiotics are routinely and repeatedly administered by physicians for illnesses such as colds and bronchitis, which are viral, not bacterial.1 This use of antibiotics is inappropriate and dangerous. In one study, more than half of the patients who visited a physician in the United States with cold symptoms left with a prescription for an antibiotic.2

Now Dr. Fuhrman isn't anti-antibiotics. According to him antibiotics have their legitimate uses, but these instances only encompass less than 10 percent of all antibiotics utilized in this country today. Here he explains the best way to treat a typical viral syndrome:

When ill with a typical viral syndrome, it is best to rest, drink water, avoid cooked food, and only consume high-water-content fruits and vegetables if hungry. Avoid physicians, medications, and remedies. See a doctor only if the illness is unusual or unusually severe or prolonged.

Antibiotics aren't necessarily the perfect treament for some bacterial illnesses either. According to Dr. Fuhrman proper nutrition (a vegetable-based nutrient-dense diet) can help you fight fire with fire:

Nearly one-third of the dry weight of our stool is bacteria. Hundreds of different species of good bacteria play a very important role in your health by producing certain vitamins, such as B vitamins and vitamin K; they break down various fibers, and they produce other nutritive substances. For instance, these friendly flora make short-chain fatty acids (such as lipoic acid) and other nutrients that have antioxidant and immune-enhancing properties. In addition to these health-enhancing activities that enable your body to function more efficiently, these good bacteria secrete antibacterial substances that prevent the disease-causing bacteria from taking hold in your body.

Therefore, the presence of health-promoting bacteria crowds out and prevents the development of bacterial illnesses. When you eat a healthful, nutrient-rich, plant-based diet, you promote the growth of the right species of bacteria. For example, having a proliferation of the health-promoting species of bacteria is though to offer protection against colon cancer. When you eat an unhealthful diet, it promotes the growth of microbes that can damage your health and body.

Unnecessary antibiotics can compromise and even kill helpful bacteria:

Antibiotics can cause diarrhea, digestive disturbances, yeast overgrowth, bone marrow suppression, seizures, kidney damage, colitis, and life-threatening allergic reactions. The unnecessary over prescription of antibiotics during past decades has been blamed for the recent emergence of antibiotic-resistant strains of deadly bacteria. Besides these potential risks, in every single person who takes an antibiotic, the drug kills a broad assortment of helpful bacteria that live in the digestive tract and aid digestion. It kills the "bad" bacteria, such as those that can complicate and infection, but it also kills these helpful "good" bacteria lining your digestive tract that have properties that protect from future illness.

If you take antibiotics repeatedly when you are young, you further diminish the population of good bacteria that protects you against harmful bacteria. In addition, the harmful bacteria become more resistant (harder to kill with antibiotics the next time). Over 100 different helpful intestinal bacteria are lost with the use of antibiotics, which then give pathogenic (disease-causing) microbes and yeast the chance to proliferate and fill the ecological vacuum created by the repeated administration of antibiotics.

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