Saturday was fish day for my friends and I, we get some sort of fish - fish-sticks, fish cakes, cod, flounder, scrod, ocean perch, and sea bass. We get whatever source of surplus food made with fish to enjoy that day. Some of the kids then seemed to also enjoy eating fish, perhaps because their moms had told them the same thing as my mom told me - "fish is brain food. Looking back now, I realized how important eating fish was better for our brains than a PB & J sandwich on white bread (sometimes with marshmallow worked in), or a burger and fries, with onion rings and a big coke.
Scientific evidences have shown eating fish can enhance brain health. However, not all fish are healthy. Some fish can retain heavy metals, such as mercury, which are toxic to the brain. In general, the higher up the food chain the fish, the more likely it is to be contaminated by mercury, since the metal accumulates overtime.
Feeding your brain well may involve learning to like fish, with wild caught oily cold water. Fish being superior because of their ability to deliver Omega-3 fatty acids, which the human body needs but cannot produce on its own. Omega-3s are important through out life, helping to maintain brain function and may have a significant role in protecting your brain from aging. Omega-3s can be obtained from a variety of plant sources, but the most common source is fish, including wild salmon, high mountain trout, mackerel, herring, sardines, and anchovies. If you simply don't care for fish, but want some of the benefits, a variety of fish oils can be purchased locally or via the internet - but be sure that whatever you ingest is certified free of all toxins. While fish oils do not provide the protein that actually eating fish provides, the options is still healthier than ignoring your body's needs for Omega-3s and vitamin D.
Some doctors recommend eating a half-pound of fish every week, however, research needs to be done to know how safe whatever fish you are consuming is. A disturbing 2009 report issued by the U.S government which showed that fish in all of the nearly 300 streams sampled over a seven-year period contained mercury to some degree. If you catch your own fish to eat, you should check on your local fish consumption advisory at the EPA website: www.epa.gov/waterscience/fish/states.
In some states, for example, the consumption advisory for sport fish is to not eat more than one meal of fish a week. This does not mean that you should limit how much fish you eat fish that tend to have higher levels of mercury include shark, swordfish, king mackerel, and tilefish. Fish typically low in mercury include shrimp, canned light tuna, salmon and catfish. You can prepare fish to avoid consuming higher levels of contaminants, for example, by removing the skin and fat before you cook the fish. You can bake or boil the fish on a rack so that the fat containing the contaminants drips away from the fish
Studies show that aging people in some countries that consume larger amounts of fish had reduced rates of dementia and reduced losses of mental functioning. And in other countries where people eat more fish, explains the Wellness Letter from UC Berkeley, the rates of depression are lower. So the bottom line is to eat the right kind of fish, one or two meals per week, because the potential health benefits outweigh the potential negatives.
For your information, there is a way to tell if the fish on your plate contains heavy metals. Lean over real close, with one ear about an inch from the fish, and listen. If you hear noise pretending to be music, then don't eat it. It's a heavy metal fish, lol.
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