Mercury and Seafood: What You Need To Know Isn't What You Know

Avoiding seafood due to mercury concerns? What you think you know is more damaging than what you don't know! In this episode of "Blasphemous Nutrition," Aimee delves into the scary topic of mercury exposure through seafood consumption. She breaks down the concerns around mercury and highlights the importance of understanding the interaction between essential minerals and heavy metals to inform better dietary choices. Aimee seeks to offer clarity amid widespread misconceptions and equip listeners with the knowledge to make informed decisions regarding their health.

The episode offers a comprehensive look at the numerous benefits of including seafood in your diet despite concerns about mercury levels. Aimee emphasizes that seafood is packed with vital nutrients, such as omega-3s, selenium, and essential minerals, which are difficult to obtain from other sources. Through this discussion, listeners are educated on how mercury exposure occurs, the benefits of consuming various seafood, and the body's natural mechanisms for dealing with metals like mercury. Aimee presents practical advice for minimizing mercury intake—such as choosing low-mercury and high-selenium seafood—and backs her points with research, illustrating the resilience of the human body in coping with potential toxicity.

Key Takeaways:

• Seafood provides essential nutrients that are hard to find elsewhere, making it crucial for a balanced diet.
• Mercury and other heavy metals can be buffered by sufficient intake of essential minerals like selenium.
• Different species of fish contain varying levels of mercury, with smaller fish generally presenting lower risk.
• A high intake of selenium with seafood can counteract mercury exposure and aid in its excretion.
• A diet rich in antioxidants can reduce oxidative stress and potential cellular damage from heavy metals.

Notable Quotes:

• "Seafood is chock full of amazing nutrients that are challenging to get elsewhere unless you're a fan of organ meats."
• "Avoiding seafood altogether due to mercury concerns is missing out on a nutrient powerhouse."
• "A diet low in essential minerals leads to increased absorption of toxic metals into the cell."

Resources:

Find Research Citations and Transcript at Blasphemous Nutrition on Substack

Work with Aimee

Photography by: Dai Ross Photography

Podcast Cover Art: Lilly Kate Creative

Find Research Citations and Transcript at Blasphemous Nutrition on Substack

Work with Aimee

Photography by: Dai Ross Photography

Podcast Cover Art: Lilly Kate Creative

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Transcript

0:00

Hey Rebels, welcome to Blasphemous Nutrition. Consider this podcast your pantry full of clarity, perspective, and the nuance needed to counter the superficial health advice so freely given on the internet. I'm Aimee, the unapologetically candid host of Blasphemous Nutrition and a double degreed nutritionist with 20 years experience. I'm here to share a more nuanced take. On living and eating well to sustain and recover your health. If you've found most health advice to be so generic as to be meaningless, We're so extreme that it's unrealistic, and you don't mind the occasional F bomb. You've come to the right place. From dissecting the latest nutrition trends to breaking down published research and sharing my own clinical experiences, I'm on a mission to foster clarity amidst all the confusion and empower you to have the help you need to live a life you love. Now let's get started.

MacBook Air Microphone 0:59

Welcome back to blasphemous nutrition. I'm your host, Aimee and I aim to spill the tea on those little details that make. All the difference. And today I want to talk about fish, mercury and the degree to which we need to be concerned about mercury exposure from seafood. For once the government and environmental agencies have done a great job at alerting us to the risk of mercury exposure that allows us to take action. It's been common knowledge for many years now that mercury accumulation from environmental pollution is accumulating in seafood and increasing our risk of exposure when we eat these species. Now, I don't know whether it's the game of telephone at play or the pervasiveness of this message that has led many to avoid eating seafood all together. But this is also becoming commonplace and I think it's a huge problem. See, seafood is chock full of amazing nutrients that are challenging to get elsewhere. Unless you're a fan of organ meats. And organ meats her pretty hard sell for most people, which leaves seafood as a more palatable source to get trace minerals, such as zinc, selenium, iron, some B vitamins, magnesium, and copper. And unlike organ meats, seafood can also be a great source of omega-3 fatty acids. Iodine vitamin D and even calcium. If you eat canned fish with the bones in such as sardines. Which seafood sources contain, which nutrients varies. So consuming over variety of seafood is always a great idea. And while most of these nutrients can be found elsewhere, it usually takes a higher serving of that food to do so. And other foods don't tend to have so high, a quantity of so many different minerals. Seafood is therefore a super efficient way to ensure you get adequate nutrition. Now fish consumption is repeatedly reported to be the most common source of exposure to mercury. And, you know, this makes sense. Avid seafood consumers will eat fish multiple times a week. And even those who don't consume seafood on a frequent basis are still probably getting multiple servings a year. More people eat seafood with some regularity. Then there are dental practitioners removing silver fillings. So yeah. On a number by number basis. This totally makes sense. However exposure to how much mercury and how often is also part of this equation. We also need to take into consideration what your body does with the mercury it is exposed to, and this is where you have more power than you think you do. There are several things that can be done to minimize mercury exposure from seafood. And it's not as scary as we've been led to believe. But before I dive into what to do, it is important to understand more about mercury and other heavy metals so that you can better understand the risk benefit analysis of seafood consumption for yourself. Mercury cadmium lead. Iron zinc copper. These are among many metallic metals found in the earth. And if you think back to high school, And do you think back to the periodic table of elements on every wall of a science class in high school? You may remember seeing all of these metals in that chart that was on the wall in your science class. Some of these minerals are essential to our health and need to be consumed daily and others, including mercury. We want to avoid daily exposure to because they can be toxic. Minerals and heavy metals are absorbed into the body through similar means and they interact with one another. And this is where the nuance and the magic lies, in being able to empower yourself to reduce toxicity from heavy metals. Our essential minerals bind to the same transporters that heavy metals do. So I think of a transporter as like the ticket that a nutrient takes to get into a nightclub. And in this analogy, the nightclub is the cell because that's where the party happens. So an essential mineral, like selenium uses the same transporter to enter the cell that mercury does. Now once in the cell, that's where the party begins. That's where the mineral can do its job in creating energy and allowing the cell to produce and all of the things, our essential minerals do. And this is also where mercury can wreak havoc on our DNA. And our cellular integrity. Both heavy metals and essential minerals effectively get to enter the nightclub using the same ticket. Now when you have higher doses of essential minerals, like iron zinc, selenium, and copper, trying to get into that nightclub. The heavy metals, such as cadmium and mercury cannot gain access as easily. Conversely a diet that is low in minerals, which most of the population is consuming. Is akin to a slow night at the club. And so mercury and other heavy metals can gain access without much trouble at all. There are several studies that show a diet low in essential minerals, such as zinc, iron calcium, and other trace minerals do lead to increased absorption of toxic metals into the cell. And if these heavy metals get into the cell, they can change the nucleus of that cell, which then alters our DNA and our RNA leading to changes in the genes that impact chronic disease, such as diabetes. Alzheimer's heart disease and more. Our essential minerals effectively compete with these heavy metals to gain access to the cell. So we want to make sure we're consuming a diet high in minerals. If you are nutrient depleted, if you're iron deficient, if you're low in zinc or selenium or other trace minerals, your ability to protect yourself from all heavy metals, such as lead cadmium and mercury is inhibited. But that isn't all that our essential minerals do. Minerals can also bind directly to heavy metals and support the creation of enzymes in the body that detoxify heavy metals, as well as aid in the excretion of heavy metals from the body through urine and feces. Many also play a role in reducing the oxidative stress or cellular damage that is caused by heavy metals. Now, when it comes specifically to mercury in seafood, we find that mercury competes with selenium, for absorption into the cell. But guess what? A lot of seafood is naturally high in selenium. So this will act as a buffer against absorption. Not unlike having a diet high in fiber buffers against a radical spike in glucose from the carbohydrate in that food, it is a deeply imperfect analogy, but it's the first one that I can think of off the top of my head. So forgive me for that. In addition to competing with mercury for absorption into the cell, selenium also plays a significant role in detoxifying mercury. In Marine environments, we see that selenium reacts with mercury. To form a compound called mercury selenide. And this is a very insoluble compound. It's a compound that is not easily absorbed and it reduces the availability of mercury to get into the cell as well as the toxicity of mercury. So the other consideration is that not all seafood is created equal. Larger fish species such as. The kind of tuna that you would get at a high-end sushi restaurant swordfish. These accumulate the most mercury as they are older predatory fish, smaller fish species, younger fish. I have less mercury accumulated in their bodies now, salmon, sardines, these can safely be part of a regular diet, but here's what I will tell you. What I see clinically leads me to emphatically suggest that no one avoid seafood unless they are allergic seafood truly is a miracle food. It is fantastic at protecting. The heart. Helping to balance lipid profiles by reducing triglycerides in the blood. It protects the brain or immune system. And it's excellent at supporting liver function as well through all of those wonderful minerals that it provides. It's chock full of so many minerals that most of us are desperately in need of. And clinically I repeatedly see dramatic positive changes in clients. Who incorporate cold water fish into their diet multiple times a week, be it canned farmed or fresh. Now there's a chart from the environmental protection agency that shows which fish species are the safest and which ones you want to avoid. I include that chart in my sub stack. The link to which is in the show notes below. Now while the EPA suggests that one should eat fish twice a week from the lowest mercury sources. I encourage those who I work with who are specifically investing in their heart health or their brain health to aim more for three to four servings a week. Preferably for. Now, if you want to go a step further, you can choose. Mainly seafood species, which are also the highest in selenium to support the offset of any mercury. Now, many, many seafood species contain significant amount of selenium, but the highest selenium seafood species would be smelt. Oysters mussels pink salmon, king salmon. Atlantic Cod. Halibut herring. And surprise, surprise, canned light tuna. Consuming fish with other selenium rich foods like Brazil, nuts, or organ meats like liver and kidney, a Turkey, breast, or pork chops. This can also help offset the mercury contained in seafood, but it also might make for a really weird meal. So I'm just going to leave that ball in your court to play with. Favoring these fish species and foods that are high in selenium. If you do want to enjoy fish, is that much more important? If you're pregnant and choosing salmon and herring is going to be even more important for pregnant women because they also have high omega-3 fatty acids, which is crucial for fetal brain development. Now I'm looking at the research. I did find a couple of small studies that I felt were worth noting. Dietary selenium given to adolescent mice who were exposed to mercury on two different occasions, did reduce the accumulation of mercury in the brain, muscle, liver and kidneys of those mice. It was also observed that these mice had greater excretion of mercury in their feces when they were given selenium alongside mercury at the same time. And this is selenium and action binding to mercury in the intestines of the mice, preventing absorption into the tissues and allowing it to be eliminated. So in this specific paper, the researchers also looked at the RNA of mice and they noted that mice who were given selenium had fewer changes in their proteins and RNA that can lead to problems down the road with Alzheimer's immune response, um, cell damage from oxidative stress. So adding selenium to their diet effectively reduced the toxic effect of mercury exposure on the cells of the mice. While they were alive, right? So they took a look at the cells and the RNA of the mice after they were killed and noticed this change. Now, when we look at human studies, there aren't many, I did find a couple of small interventional studies that do further support what was observed in the mice. A very small randomized controlled trial of 23 adults showed that those who had low blood levels of selenium and were given supplementation reduced the amount of mercury that was found in their hair by 34%, over four months time compared to the control group who is not given selenium. Additionally researchers in China recruited a hundred volunteers from a mining and smelting town. Um, and gave half of them a selenium supplement. The group that was given selenium, increased excretion of mercury through urine by 50% more to 250% more in just 30 days. And this excretion, of the mercury continued to increase over the three month trial. Aside from fish, common exposure to mercury comes from silver dental fillings, uh Thermacell, which is in flu vaccines and environmental pollution from burning cold. Working with dental amalgams in the dental industry or those who work in GoldMining are also exposed. Anyone who lives or works near a coal fired electrical plant, cement factories, oil and gas, combustion waste, combustion incineration areas. Right. Those individuals have higher than average exposure to mercury from their environment. For most though, it is the slow accumulation that leads to toxicity rather than an acute dose of mercury all at once. So while it's really understandable to be concerned about mercury levels and fish. It is important to always know that our bodies have many mechanisms in place to offset exposure, to compounds, which are dangerous. When it comes to mercury and other heavy metals, making sure that you have sufficient iron, calcium, selenium and zinc in your diet can strongly support the body's ability to compete with these heavy metals, bind to them and eliminate them through urine. And. And feces. Additionally, having a high antioxidant diet rich in a lot of produce will help your cells by reducing the oxidative stress that leads to cellular damage from not just mercury, but all sorts of things. At the end of the day, if you like seafood, I enthusiastically encourage you to consume it regularly. The benefits still outweigh the risks. By choosing high selenium species and consuming other high selenium foods regularly, or even taking a supplement. You can also reduce the likelihood of accumulating damaging levels of mercury. Folks, if you have found today's episode helpful, the best way to help others receive this information is to subscribe, rate and review this podcast. This demonstrates relevance. To the algorithm gods that control everything and effectively allows this show to be put in front of others. Like you looking for more nuance in the conversation around health and nutrition. If you feel that someone, you know, would benefit from this conversation, you can share this episode directly with them or posted on social media. Thank you all so much for listening and a very, very special thank you to everyone who has already shared this podcast with others and written reviews. I can't really fully express how much it means to me from the bottom of my heart, that you're helping me get this information out there. It keeps me inspired and showing up for you every single week. And thank you. Until next week, everyone stay blasphemous, stay critical and continue to challenge the status quo to better improve your health.

18:23

Any and all information shared here is for educational and entertainment purposes only and is not to be misconstrued as offering medical advice. Listening to this podcast does not constitute a provider client relationship. Note, I'm not a doctor nor a nurse, and it is imperative that you utilize your brain and your medical team to make the best decisions for your own health. The use of information on this podcast or materials linked to this podcast are at the user's own risk. No information nor resources provided are intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Be a smart human and do not disregard or postpone obtaining medical advice for any medical condition you may have. Seek the assistance of your healthcare team for any such conditions and always do so before making any changes to your medical, nutrition, or health plan.