Amazing show on eating fish!-gctid806134

[CptCrunchie]

Best-selling author and lifelong fisherman Paul Greenberg spends a year eating fish at breakfast, lunch and dinner to help answer the question: "What fish should I eat that's good for me and good for the planet?" Diagnosed with high cholesterol and high blood pressure, he learns the health benefits of eating fish. He also discovers some of the travesties currently going on worldwide in the fishing industry. Well worth watch!

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/fi...h-on-my-plate/

[Solandri]

I watched it yesterday and I'd add one caution. He tells you it's good to eat shellfish because they're filter feeders who clean the water, so the more of them we farm the cleaner the oceans will be. While it's true that they clean the water, they do so by collecting pollutants and toxins within their own bodies. So it's generally only shellfish from waters which are already clean which are safe to eat. The piers and beaches around Southern California are peppered with signs saying not to eat the mussels.

[img size=800]http://mirror-us-ga1.gallery.hd.org/_exhibits/places-and-sights/_more2001/_more09/US-CA-Los-Angeles-Venice-Beach-sign-warning-that-mussels-from-these-waters-are-not-fit-for-human-consumption-MB.jpg[/img]

[CptCrunchie]

"Solandri" post=806140 wrote:
I watched it yesterday and I'd add one caution. He tells you it's good to eat shellfish because they're filter feeders who clean the water, so the more of them we farm the cleaner the oceans will be. While it's true that they clean the water, they do so by collecting pollutants and toxins within their own bodies. So it's generally only shellfish from waters which are already clean which are safe to eat. The piers and beaches around Southern California are peppered with signs saying not to eat the mussels.

I can see that. I was intrigued by the health benefits of fish like anchovy. I take one of those big brown horse pills I get from Costco, and they said that I actually need 6 of them, where I can get all the omega I need from 4 anchovy fillets. While I do eat anchovy in my Caesars, that's about the only time I indulge in them. However, I could easily push the meat aside to eat more fish.

[fritzman]

Very interesting, but on shellfish, many folks are allergic to them so that is of the list, but we consume at least two meals per week of what is in the freezer self caught, so fun and eating at the same time Great. :lol:

[Solandri]

"CptCrunchie" post=806144 wrote:
I can see that. I was intrigued by the health benefits of fish like anchovy. I take one of those big brown horse pills I get from Costco, and they said that I actually need 6 of them, where I can get all the omega I need from 4 anchovy fillets. While I do eat anchovy in my Caesars, that's about the only time I indulge in them.

Well, the conclusion to the show (*spoiler alert*) was that despite eating oily fish for a year, his health was virtually unchanged, if not slightly worse. I think too many people are looking for a quick and easy solution to better health. They want to just pop a pill and be healthy. When the reality is that you need to make lifestyle changes - a combination of eating well, exercising, and living well - to really improve your health.

However, I could easily push the meat aside to eat more fish.

What was interesting to me was that despite avoiding fish high in the food chain like tuna, his mercury levels were still elevated from eating all that fish. That's definitely something to consider for children and women of childbearing age. According to his doctor, his elevated mercury levels basically canceled out any health benefits from his higher omega-3 levels. And he's a middle-aged man. The mercury means the diet is much worse than "land food" for children and young women.

We really need to stop burning coal. That's where most mercury in the oceans comes from nowadays. In the old days it used to come from mining runoff - mercury was used to help extract heavy metals like gold. But that type of mining has been banned in most places. The mercury we get now is trace amounts found in the coal we burn. Per lump of coal it's not very much. But multiply it by the billions of tons the world burns each year and that's a lot of mercury released into the air, which falls down into the oceans, and ends up in the fish we eat. I really wish the show had mentioned that. Those with an environmental tilt push renewables, but the biggest improvement will come from switching us off of coal. Even coal -> natural gas will result in a bigger improvement than natural gas -> renewables.

[CptCrunchie]

"Solandri" post=806207 wrote:

"CptCrunchie" post=806144 wrote:
I can see that. I was intrigued by the health benefits of fish like anchovy. I take one of those big brown horse pills I get from Costco, and they said that I actually need 6 of them, where I can get all the omega I need from 4 anchovy fillets. While I do eat anchovy in my Caesars, that's about the only time I indulge in them.

Well, the conclusion to the show (*spoiler alert*) was that despite eating oily fish for a year, his health was virtually unchanged, if not slightly worse. I think too many people are looking for a quick and easy solution to better health. They want to just pop a pill and be healthy. When the reality is that you need to make lifestyle changes - a combination of eating well, exercising, and living well - to really improve your health.

However, I could easily push the meat aside to eat more fish.

What was interesting to me was that despite avoiding fish high in the food chain like tuna, his mercury levels were still elevated from eating all that fish. That's definitely something to consider for children and women of childbearing age. According to his doctor, his elevated mercury levels basically canceled out any health benefits from his higher omega-3 levels. And he's a middle-aged man. The mercury means the diet is much worse than "land food" for children and young women.

We really need to stop burning coal. That's where most mercury in the oceans comes from nowadays. In the old days it used to come from mining runoff - mercury was used to help extract heavy metals like gold. But that type of mining has been banned in most places. The mercury we get now is trace amounts found in the coal we burn. Per lump of coal it's not very much. But multiply it by the billions of tons the world burns each year and that's a lot of mercury released into the air, which falls down into the oceans, and ends up in the fish we eat. I really wish the show had mentioned that. Those with an environmental tilt push renewables, but the biggest improvement will come from switching us off of coal. Even coal -> natural gas will result in a bigger improvement than natural gas -> renewables.

I agree with everything you say. I also believe society on the whole needs more Omega3 in what they eat.

While his conclusion was personal, he did acknowledge the overall health benefit. But like everything in life, it's about moderation. I was just surprised that where I thought one of the Costco Omega3's every morning was adequate, I'm at 1/6 of what I should be consuming. Moreover, I can get what my body needs in 4 tiny Anchovy fillets? That is a total shocker to me.

Having zero desire to get political, I also agree with your comment about burning coal. Thankfully, even though the powers that be have reopened the market, even the coal companies said that their market is all but dead.

[CptCrunchie]

I watched it again last night. Oh, duh! Upon further contemplation, I believe he (unintentionally) sabotaged his results by the tremendous amount of both simple and complex carbs he was eating, especially all the pasta, breads and starchy rooted vegetables.

The human body needs a fraction of those carbs. In fact, the body doesn't need glucose, only the brain does, and a maximum of 40% of what it needs is glucose. That amount can easily be achieved through the breaking down of proteins. However, since carbs turn into glucose, and excess glucose is stored as fat, feeding the body all those carbs stops the body from being able to utilize those good quality fats. Ergo: He received no health benefits from eating that year of high Omega3's.

Since ingested fats cannot be stored, they are expelled. Had he cut out his carbs, when his body ran out of glucose, his liver would have started turning those healthy fats into keynotes, and his body would burn those instead. At the point where his body runs out of ingested fats, he would begin processing the stored fats, ...and it does that naturally.

By him ingesting the tremendous abundance of starches, his body never switched to burning those fats, so all the health benefits of increasing his Omega3 was lost. I'm surprised I didn't see this the first time. Guess I was shocked about my own lack of Omega3 when I thought I was covered.

Here is an excellent series Wifey and I binge-watched about a year ago. We have since been committed to 'The Wild Diet', though we now refer to it as our 'Ketogenic Lifestyle'. It's easy, tasty and full of all the great foods we love!

Wifey has since lost 38lbs, and I've dropped 42! One of my fav meals now is lettuce wrapped beef burgers with cheddar cheese! You want those chicken wings? Or what about that nice thick grilled pork chop? The saying is, "If you want to lose fat, you need to eat fat, ....lots of it!" It just needs to be healthy, good quality fat, ....like Omega3.

This is NOT Atkins, it's far better. Have a watch; it's well worth your time.