Interesting Idea Regarding Mercury in Fish

[Clark]

I was just thinking tonight about the problem of Mercury concentrations in the fish, commmonly Salmon, that we eat. Now I'm not debating the issue of wild v. farm raised or anything like that.

What I am proposing is that invariably we will ingest some amount of mercury with the Salmon that we eat over time, this I think is unavoidable. The actual amounts of mercury ingested are going to be unknown to us and therefore we will never know whether the benefits of eating fish outweigh the costs.

What if there was a way to eliminate the Mercury we ingested with our meal of delicious and healthy Salmon? The common first-aid antidote for swallowing a heavy-metal poison (such as Mercury) is to drink milk. The poison then acts on the protein of milk rather than on the protein tissues of the mouth, esophagus, and stomach.

What do you guys think of drinking a cup of skim milk with every fish meal to eliminate potential Mercury concentrations? Am I crazy or does this make sense?

Clark

[RacerBill]

From what I understand, mercury is not a huge problem for salmon; it's more prevalent in predator fish like swordfish and tuna.

The milk is not really an "antidote" for poisoning. Generally, calcium slows absorption of minerals and the fat in the milk tends to coat the digestive tract to relieve discomfort.

It certainly won't hurt to drink some milk with meals where you eat tuna, but I don't think it will work as a cure-all.

[Canadian_Bacon]

Clark, I dont think the problem is mercury damaging the GI tract. It is the fact that the organic mercury's are absorbed and stored in our fat tissue were they accumulate over time.

Chelating heavy metals out of tissue is difficult and most medicines that do it are not very fun from what I have been told

[Canadian_Bacon]

Also, since the mercury is fat soluble how do you get it out of the fish while keeping the good fats like omega 3's in the fish?

Think of something like that and I am sure you could make a few bucks.

[Clark]

Great points guys, thanks for the info!

Clark