While considered one of the most nutrient abundant foods, fish is known to be very high in harful heavy metals, which are thought to cause adverse affects. The American Heart Association has plugged fish as a vital part of a healthy diet to support healthy arteries, veins, and hearts for decades. Even still, fish is only eaten weekly by one third of Americans. Let's examine why that might be. Firstly, its true that fish simply does not appeal to everyone. Some ambiguity in the process of cooking and preparing the fish may be off putting some who find it unmanagable. Then there are those who avoid it for the advertised risks the pollutants may house. Are these worries founded, or do the benefits outweight the risks? Benefits from fish include the maintenance of a healthy heart beat, decreasing blod pressure, reducing inflammation, and keeping healthy blood vessels. It remains true that contaminants make their way into our fish through run-off water and the magnification from smaller organisms accumulating metal and being in turn eaten by the preditorial fish we eat. Pollutants in fish include PCBs, pesticide residues, and mercury. Mercury can destroy nerves in adults and cause brain damage in fetuses and children, when at levels much higher than that found in fish. The best method is to avoid the fish known to have the highest amount of mercury accumulation, and dig in to the others!
“Fish: Friend or Foe?” The Nutrition Source, Harvard School of Public Health, 22 May 2019, www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/fish/.
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