PERSONAL TRAINING: NUTRITION 301: The 4-Day Rotation Diet, Part I: Protein
Shopping for Healthy Seafood: Hold the Heavy Metals
There are several fish that are no longer safe to eat because of their heavy metal contamination, and the list is growing. Heavy metals are a form of environmental toxin that are literally metals. Examples include mercury, cadmium, lead, and arsenic.
The problem with these metals is that their individual molecules are too light to be excreted by the body, so instead, we stockpile them. They are potent endocrine disruptors, which means that they muck up our hormone profile, make us fat, and can even make it impossible to lose weight. There is a great body of emerging research that also links metals toxicity to several autoimmune diseases, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
Given all that nasty information, why would you ever want to chance it? The reason is that heavy metals are ubiquitous in our environment. Avoiding fish altogether is a waste of time; you are eliminating an entire food group. Instead, accept that heavy metals are now part of our environment, and make sure that you eat high quality seafood from the cleaner parts of the world as often as possible. Two places to shop are:
www.buyseafooddirect.com
www.kasilofseafoods.com
Both of these businesses sell fish from Alaska, the least-polluted area in the world today.
For extra protection, engage in a program of preventive maintenance for detoxification of heavy metals.
The great thing about seafood is that no matter where you get it, it is always an excellent source of protein as well as healthy fat, and sometimes to get lean, you have to eat fat, which is covered in the following article, PERSONAL TRAINING NUTRITION 301: THE 4-DAY ROTATION DIET, Part II: HEALTHY FAT.
