A 10 year old, 60 pound previously healthy boy, Mathew Davis couldn’t throw a football well or play baseball with his Dad 12 months after he began eating 3 to 6 ounces of albacore tuna daily. His grades fell off, and he couldn’t speak well. His mercury levels were high, and off the fish, his mercury poisoning improved, as did his symptoms.
You would imagine the Tuna Foundation would be relieved. But their Executive Director is quoted in the Wall Street Journal mercury feature on page 1 (8/1/05) as saying “There is no connection between a learning disability and mercury.” Shades of Big Tuna/Tobacco.
EPA and FDA advice about mercury have conflicted, but not for long.
Canned tuna (both albacore and chunk light, in oil and in water) is 34 percent of U.S. dietary consumption of mercury; pollock is 16 percent. Pollock is a bottom feeder used to make crab strips, fish fingers, fish cakes and other fish processed products–kind of the Hamburger Helper of the fish world.
Swordfish, king mackerel, marlin and shark, have very high concentrations of mercury in fish–much higher than pollock. So to be safe, eat fish that is wild-caught; avoid tuna, processed fish of all kinds, swordfish, marlin, shark and other large fish. And be careful out there.