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Food

Fish

NEWS:

1 million lbs. of suspect Chinese seafood in U.S. "At least 1 million pounds of suspect Chinese seafood landed on American store shelves and dinner plates despite a Food and Drug Administration order that the shipments first be screened for banned drugs or chemicals, an Associated Press investigation found. The frozen shrimp, catfish and eel arrived at U.S. ports under an “import alert,” which meant the FDA was supposed to hold every shipment until it had passed a laboratory test. But that was not what happened, according to an AP check of shipments since last fall. "

Consumption Of Raw Fish Raises Potential Health Concerns For Consumers

Debate rages over what level of mercury in tuna is considered harmful "Women may also have to worry for their own health: A 2003 study by San Francisco internist Jane Hightower, M.D., published in the journal "Environmental Health Perspectives," found that 89 percent of her female patients had mercury levels above what most scientists consider safe, and that high mercury levels in adults correlated with memory loss, fatigue and muscle aches. Another preliminary study this year found that mothers who delivered prematurely were more likely to have high mercury levels."

Extracts Of Catfish Caught In Polluted Waters Cause Breast Cancer Cells To Multiply

Farmed fish swim to the fore "Call it fish farming or call it aquaculture, it's where our fish is coming from. Forty-two percent of the seafood Americans eat is farmed, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Worldwide it's 43%. Already 60% of the salmon we eat in this country is farmed, almost all of the catfish and 100% of the tilapia."

FDA detains Chinese seafood due to drug fears "Farmed seafood joined tires, toothpaste and toy trains on the list of tainted and defective products from China that could be hazardous to a person's health. Federal health officials said Thursday that they were detaining three types of Chinese fish - catfish, basa and dace - as well as shrimp and eel after repeated testing has turned up contamination with drugs unapproved in the United States for use in farmed seafood. "

Fish During Pregnancy Helps Child's Development "Children whose mothers ate at least three servings of fish a week during pregnancy had higher scores in tests of mental function in their early years."

Fish Oil Prevents Alzheimer's Plaques “Why does fish oil help prevent Alzheimer's disease? Your brain needs a fish oil fatty acid to make a plaque-fighting protein, UCLA researchers find. It's known that people who get plenty of DHA, a fish oil fatty acid, have a reduced risk of Alzheimer's disease, note Greg M. Cole, PhD, associate director of the UCLA Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, and colleagues. … It may be too late for people with late-stage Alzheimer's disease to get much benefit from fish oil. But Cole suggests that it may be a great help if taken at the first signs of Alzheimer's.”

Fish Really May Be Brain Food "A Norwegian study of more than 2,000 elderly people found that those who ate more than 10 grams per day of fish had markedly better test scores and a lower prevalence of poor cognitive performance than those who ate less than 10 grams of fish a day. The more fish a person ate, the greater the effect. People who ate about 75 grams a day of fish had the best test scores. "

Get hooked on to seafood "AUSTRALIAN children need five times more fish in their diet, an international team of nutrition and health experts says. They say a major dietary shortfall of omega-3 fatty acids is contributing to serious health problems in children."

High DDT Levels Found Off Calif. Coast

Higher Levels Of Pollutants Found In Fish Caught Near A Coal-fired Power Plant "Results showed that the risk of developing neurological disorders from ingesting catfish with such high levels of mercury as those caught near Kittanning were eight times higher than the EPA's acceptable risk for children under six years of age; seven times higher for children between seven and 16 years of age; and six times higher for women of child-bearing age. For the general population, this risk was five times higher than the EPA's acceptable risk. The results also indicated to the researchers that fish can be used as bio-sensors to locate and find sources of area pollution."

More freshwater fish found with high toxin levels "Scientists said they found unacceptable levels of toxins in 93 samples of freshwater fish collected from 45 sites around the state. The toxins included a witches' brew of PCBs, dioxins, chlorinated pesticides, mercury and flame retardants. Levels of PCBs are so high in mountain whitefish in the Wenatchee River that the state Department of Health is advising people not to eat them. Lake Washington scored second highest in the state for toxin levels found in some fish: cutthroat trout, common carp and northern pike minnow. People are already advised to restrict their consumption of fish from Lake Washington because of pollutants, but the latest study is spurring health officials to add carp to the list of Lake Washington fish to eat with caution. "

Nutrition from the Deep "Most seafood is low in saturated fat and high in protein, although some types are relatively high in cholesterol. Cold-water fish, such as salmon, mackerel, herring and anchovies, are considered healthiest, because they have higher concentrations of omega-3 fatty acids believed to protect against heart disease. .[table]"

Risking kids to sell fish: An ad campaign encouraging pregnant women to eat seafood is a case study in industry-driven 'research.' "… timely and accurate information is crucial for those who want to make healthy and affordable choices. … For years, the Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency have advised women who are pregnant, might become pregnant or are breast-feeding to eat no more than 12 ounces weekly of any type of fish or shellfish that could be high in mercury, a potent neurotoxin. … But it's hard to stop a powerful, if troubling, marketing strategy once commercial interests take over. The National Fisheries Institute… paid the travel expenses of the researchers who generated the report for the National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition and gave each of them … The misleading report is a classic example of industry-driven marketing under the cloak of scientific research. Fortunately for consumers, however, the FDA and EPA have just repeated their strong stance on the dangers posed by overconsumption of certain fish, which should help derail the effort to promote sales over children's health. … And the selective repackaging of science, combined with slick marketing to sell more fish to pregnant women and women of childbearing age, show the height of corporate irresponsibility. This is one fishy marketing scheme that consumers should throw back."

Safety Of China's Seafood Questioned

Sushi lovers cautioned over mercury levels in tuna "Fish consumption is the main source of mercury in Americans' bodies. The mineral gets into waterways, mostly through the burning of fossil fuels like coal, where bacteria convert it to toxic methyl mercury. The smallest fish eat or absorb methyl mercury, which becomes more concentrated as it moves up the food chain into large predatory fish. Mercury binds to the meat and cannot be removed from fish by cooking or removing the fat. … Long-living, large predatory fish like tuna are the most likely to have mercury contamination. "A lot of the sushi tuna that we have tested had really high levels of mercury," said Peter Fugazzotto of the Turtle Island Restoration Network, which publishes the Web site "Got Mercury?". "There's a lot of variation in mercury levels in tuna that people are eating, so it's a little bit of a Russian roulette game. … Several smaller species like tilapia and trout have low mercury levels, as do shrimp, crab and scallops. Both farmed and wild salmon are low in mercury and high in essential omega-3 fats. As well, fish oil supplements are a safe way to get omega-3 fatty acids because they are generally made from smaller fish like sardines and anchovies."

ARTICLES:

How Much Fish Is Enough?

Salmon or shrimp? Herring or haddock? Which seafood is healthiest? "Most seafood is low in saturated fat and high in protein, although some types are relatively high in cholesterol. Cold-water fish, such as salmon, mackerel, herring and anchovies, are considered healthiest, because they have higher concentrations of omega-3 fatty acids believed to protect against heart disease. But really, as long as you're not frying your seafood or coating it in oil, just about any seafood is good for you."

Separation of Risks and Benefits of Seafood Intake

JOURNAL ARTICLES:

Benefits of salmon eating on traditional and novel vascular risk factors in young, non-obese healthy subjects (Atherosclerosis 2007) "Compared to no-fish, eating salmon significantly decreased systolic, diastolic and mean arterial blood pressure by 4%, triglycerides by 15%, and LDL-cholesterol by 7%, and significantly increased HDL-cholesterol by 5% (P < 0.05). The changes in blood pressure and lipids alone with salmon intake predict around a 25% reduction in CHD risk based on the PROCAM risk calculator."

Cognitive performance among the elderly and dietary fish intake: the Hordaland Health Study. (Am J Clin Nutr. 2007) "CONCLUSIONS: In the elderly, a diet high in fish and fish products is associated with better cognitive performance in a dose-dependent manner."

Concentrations of Metals in Water, Sediment, Biofilm, Benthic Macroinvertebrates, and Fish in the Boulder River Watershed, Montana, and the Role of Colloids in Metal Uptake. (Arch Environ Contam Toxicol. 2007)

Contaminant concentrations in whole-body fish and shellfish from US estuaries. (Environ Monit Assess. 2007)

Dietary intervention with oil rich fish reduces platelet-monocyte aggregation in man. (Atherosclerosis. 2007) "CONCLUSIONS: We have demonstrated, for the first time, that dietary intervention with oil-rich fish reduces platelet-monocyte aggregation in man. Our results suggest that reduced platelet activation provides a potential mechanism through which fish oils confer their cardiovascular preventative benefits."

Fat and fish intake and asthma in Japanese women: baseline data from the Osaka Maternal and Child Health Study. (Int J Tuberc Lung Dis. 2007) "CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that fish consumption and the high ratio of n-3 to n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acid intake may be associated with a reduced prevalence of asthma in young female Japanese adults."

Fish consumption and early atherosclerosis in middle-aged men. (Metabolism. 2007) "Fish consumption may be protective against early atherosclerosis in middle-aged men, probably through its beneficial effects on inflammation."

Fish consumption, n-3 fatty acids, and subsequent 5-y cognitive decline in elderly men: the Zutphen Elderly Study (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2007) "Conclusions: A moderate intake of EPA+DHA may postpone cognitive decline in elderly men."

Fish from industrially polluted freshwater as the main source of organochlorinated pollutants and increased frequency of thyroid disorders and dysglycemia. (Chemosphere. 2007) "It was concluded that, due to persistent heavy pollution of waters, soil and food chain namely by PCBs, but also by pesticides (e.g. DDE and HCB) resulting from their previous extensive use in agriculture, the fish from local waters still remains the most important source of these toxic pollutants which results in considerable adverse health effects."

Flesh quality of market-size farmed and wild British Columbia salmon. (Environ Sci Technol. 2007)

Frequency of Fish Consumption, Retinal Microvascular Signs and Vascular Mortality. (Microcirculation. 2007) "Conclusions: Recent evidence shows that narrower arterioles and wider venules may predict vascular events. Our new findings suggest that the vascular protective effects of consuming fish could act, in part, by preventing pathological microvasculature change."

Intake of chemical contaminants through fish and seafood consumption by children of Catalonia, Spain: Health risks. (Food Chem Toxicol. 2007)

Long-term fish intake is associated with better lipid profile, arterial blood pressure, and blood glucose levels in elderly people from Mediterranean islands (MEDIS epidemiological study). (Med Sci Monit. 2007) "Conclusions: The results indicate that long-term fish intake is associated with reduced levels of the most common cardiovascular disease risk markers in a cohort of elderly people."

Long-term fish consumption is associated with protection against arrhythmia in healthy persons in a Mediterranean region-the ATTICA study (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2007) "Conclusions:Long-term consumption of fish is associated with lower QTc interval in free-eating people without any evidence of cardiovascular disease. Thus, fish intake seems to provide antiarrhythmic protection at a population level."

Mercury content in Chilean fish and estimated intake levels. (Food Addit Contam. 2007) "Mercury levels in swordfish and one canned tuna sample exceeded levels prescribed by national and international standards. The remaining two export products (Patagonian toothfish, also known as Chilean sea bass, and salmon) complied with international limits, which are more demanding than Chilean regulations. Theoretical estimates of mercury intake varied from 0.08 to 3.8 microg kg(-1) bw day(-1) for high fish consumers, exceeding the provisional tolerable intake for tuna, Chilean seabass, Chilean jack mackerel and swordfish. This group appears to be at the greatest risk from mercury contamination among the Chilean population."

Mercury in fishes of Alaska, with emphasis on subsistence species. (Sci Total Environ. 2007)

Organochlorine pesticides in seafood products from southern China and health risk assessment. (Environ Toxicol Chem. 2007) "Risk assessment against various standards clearly showed that seafood products were highly contaminated by DDTs and may pose health threat to local residents and the consumers all over the world. Furthermore, other OCP components, such as dieldrin and heptachlor, also impose lifetime cancer risk, especially to residents of coastal regions who often consume more seafood than those living inland. Therefore, continual monitoring of OCPs in various environment compartments, including biota and abiota, urgently is needed to mitigate effectively the impact of OCPs, particularly DDTs, on human health and the ecological environment."

Relationship of fish and cod oil intake with adult asthma. (Clin Exp Allergy. 2007) "Conclusion A minimum level of weekly fish intake in adulthood was associated with protection against asthma symptoms in this large North-European multi-centre study. Subjects who never ate fish in childhood were at an increased risk for asthma. Both indicate a possible threshold effect of fish on asthma."

Risk and benefits from consuming salmon and trout: A Canadian perspective. (Food Chem Toxicol. 2007)

Risk to consumers from mercury in Pacific cod (Gadus macrocephalus) from the Aleutians: Fish age and size effects. (Environ Res. 2007) "The mean levels of mercury in muscle (0.17ppm wet weight) are within the range known to cause adverse effects in sensitive birds and mammals. Only 4% of the Pacific cod samples had mercury levels above 0.5ppm, the action level promulgated by many states and countries, and none were above the 1ppm action level of the U.S. FDA."

The importance of fish and docosahexaenoic acid in Alzheimer disease "In each of these studies, the n-3 fatty acids retarded the decline in cognition over time. One mechanism for the positive effect could be the antithrombotic and antiinflammatory properties of EPA (9). Moreover, the entrance of DHA into the brain could correct DHA deficiency in membrane phospholipids in the cerebral cortex in patients with Alzheimer disease (5), and EPA would counter the proinflammatory action of arachidonic acid, which is a precursor of cytokine and proinflammatory eicosanoids that may be associated with greater cognitive decline."

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