Mercury & PCBs in Fish (ft. Dr. Ken Drouillard)

Mercury & PCBs in Fish (ft. Dr. Ken Drouillard)
The risks and benefits of eating fish

FDA site that lists Mercury Levels in Commercial Fish and Shellfish:

Local Fish Advisories in the US and Canada:

A paper we reference in the video:
Mozaffarian and Rimm. 2006. Fish Intake, Contaminants, and Human Health Evaluating the Risks and the Benefits. JAMA 296:1885-1899

Support my channel (and find out how Ken and I met -- that video is on Patreon)

My cooking classes in the Boston area:

[simonaburs]

Dear Helen, as expected, this was a video with a high educational content, approached in a systematic, scientific manner. I am always looking forward to your next video and I am never disappointed. Keep it up!

[davehugstrees]

Great video. This talk of mercury causing neurological damage can sound scary, but it’s important to keep in mind that some of the substances many people consume every day can result in the same thing, like alcohol. Of course, we know better than consume it in the quantity required to cause serious problems. Same goes for a lot of foods. When it comes to food and health, moderation is always the key.

[thomasneal]

I'm so glad you did this. It is so rare to actually see real science broken down specific to something like fish as a foodstuff.

In fact, I'm an ichthyologist myself, and I think this may be the first time I have ever personally seen this.

well done you!

[ewjorgy]

Outstanding video full of great information. Thank you for taking the time to share this with all of us!

[gordonhamnett]

#realcomment WOW!! Excellent questions and answers on this subject; and I really appreciated the clear summary comments. Thanks Helen and Ken! I will be forwarding this link to many of my friends! And of course I envy Ken for having the opportunity to attend one of Helen's classes and sample the food.

[daniellorca]

Hi helen
You just wrote me. You asked me to help by sharing your videos. I share your videos with other cooks all the time. I believe that your best (most useful for the fish lovers) is the one about grilling fish so they do not stick. That was truly special. Unique. A jewel.

Also, I am a prof. I teach academic composition: i use your videos to show to my students the following principles:
1. To think well, it does not have to be about an obscure subject, all subjects are deserving of critical thought.
2. How to be interesting to your audience.
3. How to state you promises (very clearly, at the beginning), and how the promises relate to the way in which the paper is made to be interesting.
4. How to fulfill your promises (with iron clad organization).
5. How to organize the info so that it makes sense to the listener, or reader.
6. How to clarify
7. When to clarify
8. What to clarify (clarifications are tricky: if done right, awesome, but if wrong, ironically, they produce confusion).
9. When to deal with potential objections, and how.
10. How, why and when use secondary sources (make them relevant, tie them to your point, keep them as short as possible).
You are a great cook, but i believe that you are an even better teacher.
With my gratitude, as a fellow teacher and a fellow cook...
Thank you

[toddflanderz]

I recently went from vegetarian to pescatarian after 25 years of veg and this video was super helpful and informative. Thank you to you both!

[michaelmcgowan]

Thank you so much. This video was very well done and the content was presented in a balanced, easy to understand format that didn't shy away from presenting the underlying scientific research. I thought that I already understood this subject area well enough, but I am so glad that I watched because I learned many new facts. Two very big thumbs up!

[daniellorca]

Why not more views? You are so informative, and easy to hear, and friendly, and so well organized with the composition...
I do not know why, but anyway, I do ...
Thank you

[lovemyhomealot]

#realcomment Thank you, Helen, for this interesting and well-thought out discussion of the risks and benefits of eating fish. Though I had heard vague comments about mercury, PCBs, etc. in fish from one or two other people, I hadn't looked into it myself. Could you please make a video about the environmental impact of consuming farmed fish versus wild caught. Again, I've only heard vague rumblings, but I would like to know more.

[gasmasher]

Thank you Helen, this is a great video and it helped inform me. I don't care for fish or seafood but my wife has started eating a lot more lately. I also smoke or grill it for her every once in awhile. We are past child bearing age so it sounds like she isn't really at any risk of heavy metal poisoning.

[tomchepey]

Amazing! Great video with your guest. Thank you.

[FireWaterCooking]

Great Video as always Helen! Thank you for all of the information!

[reyg.]

I'm an angler, yes, I make angles of different sizes. Acute, obtuse, right angles even 30 degrees, you name it~

[ZacchAttacked]

#realcomment Thank you for the research! High educational value as always.

[jobond]

I would be interested in understanding fish stocks. Are we worldwide depleting fish as commonly reported

[aylinenriquez]

I dont understand.well.. what is Pcb..and maybe show some pictures of the fish so we can avoid or what are all the fish that has no mercury..or the fish in the lake are safe..

[Bkaz]

Awesome video! What causes high mercury levels in fish?

[ebkw]

I am very concerned about pesticides which were not covered in this discussion. Also, what about fish and shellfish, shrimp, in particular which now comes from Thailand and Singapore. I read that they are farm raised underneath other farmed fish. What about fish that are caught in clean parts of the Atlantic and taken to China for processing? China's reputation for substances that should not be in food are processing haddock sold in Canada, which I love! Pesticides, GMO's and all sorts of other non-food things are in everything else. How can they not be in fish?

[christopherstein]

If you don't want to eat mercury and what not but you want the long chain Omega-3 fatty acids you can simply take an algae oil supplement. It's the cleanest form you can get and it's skipping a lot of middle men.

The Omega-3 in fish comes from these very algae. Wild fish eat them and store the Omega-3 in their tissue. Now you can get a wild fish and eat it and get Omega-3. But maybe you want to eat the discussed farmed salmon because of mercury. Well naturally they don't get any Omega-3 because they don't get access to the algae. So what the industry ends up doing is they catch wild fish process it and feed it to farmed fish. Then the farmed fish will get Omega-3. Most fish oil actually is fed to fish again for this reason. Problem is that in this way you also increase dioxin and everything else that has accumulated in the wild algae and wild fish. So by this guy the seem to end up decreasing fish oil wich isn't a win because both dioxin and Omega-3 go down.

If you take a supplement of algae oil you get the oil straight from algae that was grown in a controlled environment so no pollutants. They should be processed cold and in a low oxygen environment so the Omega-3 will be intact and not rancid (Oxidation occurs around °40C with these fatty acids).
So this is cleaner compared also to fish oil.

Added benefit is you don't contribute to fishing. Our Oceans are probably the most exploited ecosystem on the planet. 97% of it is unprotected and the protected land mostly is banned for tourism not fishing.
Maybe taking a supplement will be worth it for you.