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Sushi addicts need to be aware of mercury toxicity risk（578words）
By Charles Wallace
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Is eating sushi safe?
During a recent meal with a Wall Street financial adviser, he mentioned that he eats sushi several times a week because he believed it to be the most healthful and convenient way to dine while continuing to work at his desk. I was left wondering if that was as healthful as he said, given the recent concern about mercury in fish.
All around the financial centres in London and New York, shops which once featured only simple sandwiches now stock different types of sushi and sashimi, including those made from various types of tuna. This despite the well-publicised concern when Richard Gelfond, CEO of the US cinema group Imax, reported that he had been diagnosed with mercury toxicity after eating sushi on a daily basis.
In addition, the actor Jeremy Piven, star of ITV’s Mr. Selfridge franchise, also was reported to have been hospitalised for mercury toxicity from eating sushi.
While the European Food Safety Authority issued a new advisory notice on fish consumption earlier this year, it said that the types of fish consumed in Europe and fish-eating habits were so different across the continent that it was up to the individual countries to give specific advice.
Britain’s NHS has advice about canned tuna but not about sushi. The US Food and Drug Administration recently set its first minimum fish consumption target , emphasising the benefits of eating more low-mercury fish.
Given this confusion, I asked Michael Gochfeld, who has studied mercury toxicity for 30 years, what his best advice is about fish consumption.
Dr. Gochfeld, an adjunct clinical professor in the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute at New Jersey’s Rutgers University, said most people do eat too little fish, an excellent source of protein and omega-3 fatty acids, which have been shown in some studies to be protective against heart disease and cancer. But he acknowledged that there can be too much of a good thing.
“If you eat fish rarely, such as less than once a month, it’s likely that your health will benefit from eating more fish,” Dr. Gochfeld explains. “If you eat fish frequently, more than twice a week, you have to pay attention to eating low mercury fish if you don’t want to get food poisoning.”
Among the fish that have been found to have the highest mercury content are swordfish, shark, marlin and albacore tuna. “If you go to a high-end sushi bar in New York, the chances are the tuna sushi will be bigeye tuna with high mercury levels,” he says, adding that in Japan, sushi is a prized delicacy but eaten only once a month. Sushi is often made from fish other than tuna, which can be safe to eat in larger quantities.
This mercury warning is especially true for pregnant women. “Having even one meal with high mercury fish, like one swordfish serving, at the wrong time could have an impact on a developing foetus,” Dr. Gochfeld cautions.
While he loves tuna sushi himself, he restricts his consumption to once a month and eats low mercury fish such as salmon a couple of times a week.
That advice is similar to the counsel from the British government, which says that pregnant women and young children should not eat swordfish, shark or marlin, and that other adults should limit their intake to one portion a week. As for me, I love salmon so that is my dietary mainstay, but also eat other low-mercury fish.
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