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Ishmael
In: Toronto
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So I keep hearing about mercury being concentrated in Fish and how we're not supposed to eat too much fish for fear of going mad as hatters. Over-exposure to this orthodoxy, and the conventional atribution of high aquatic mercury levels to industrial pollutants, finally produced the opposite effect:
I've begun to wonder if Mercury might not be an element that has always been naturally concentrated in fish, whether its present aquatic environmental level might not be consistent with levels throughout earth-history, and whether it might not be good for you to ingest moderate amounts of mercury when that mercury is carried in the flesh of fish?
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Keimpe
In: Leeuwarden, Frisia
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You mean just like the fluoride in green tea?
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EPReiter
In: Pennsylvania
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Ishmael,
Mercury has always been present in fish, as it is an element that is naturally occurring in nature. But it is my understanding that the fear of mercury in fish is completely baseless in a country that has a good regulatory agency. The US FDA has set regulations that commercial fish can not contain more than 1PPM of methyl mercury, but that is much too low to cause illness in humans. In fact, studies/incidents show that you would need to ingest fish daily, over an extended period of time, that had levels ranging from 10-15PPM.
However, you will not find anyone who would say that mercury is actually good for you. Instead, eat fish for the benefit of the essential fatty acids that they contain.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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| However, you will not find anyone who would say that mercury is actually good for you. |
Then it's about time somebody did. As we all 'know' fish is brain food. It seems from what you say that fish is also a uniquely good source of trace mercury. We also know that mercury affects the brain. It would seem then that trace mercury is good for the brain.
err...and welcome.
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Brian Ambrose
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I've always known mercury is good for you, I had it implanted in my teeth when I was young and it hasn't done me any hamr.
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Chad
In: Ramsbottom
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I too heva tish doals of curmery lilfings.
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Ishmael
In: Toronto
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| Mick Harper wrote: | | As we all 'know' fish is brain food. It seems from what you say that fish is also a uniquely good source of trace mercury. We also know that mercury affects the brain. It would seem then that trace mercury is good for the brain. |
Exactly my thinking Mick.
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EPReiter
In: Pennsylvania
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But that is the thing... we don't actually KNOW that fish is brain food. We just assume it because fish has essential fatty acids and the brain is made of fat.
And while we know that mercury affects the brain, it has only ever been shown to do so in an adverse manner. So while there may be no conclusive evidence on trace amounts of mercury one way or the other, I would hold off on cracking open your thermometer and taking a swig.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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| But that is the thing... we don't actually KNOW that fish is brain food. We just assume it because fish has essential fatty acids and the brain is made of fat. |
You entirely misunderstand the position -- as well as the Applied Epistemological one. The presumption is that it is strictly folk wisdom that fish is good for the brain (and to that extent must be 'true' in the sense that nobody is making it up).
Then along came 'experts' and started the various rationales ie fatty acids are essential, the brain is made of fat (huh? never heard that one before) etc etc. All that is doubtless bogus (because if it were the subject of true science we would know all about it by now).
| I would hold off on cracking open your thermometer and taking a swig. |
I never thought about it one way or another until you made your (in these portals) highly incautious claim
| However, you will not find anyone who would say that mercury is actually good for you |
It is enough that I am the first person in the world to point out that mercury might be a useful trace element for brain development. I leave others to force-feed their children into being prodigies.
PS What stopped you getting there? Have I said anything you didn't know?
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Ishmael
In: Toronto
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| Mick Harper wrote: | | It is enough that I am the first person in the world to point out that mercury might be a useful trace element for brain development. |
I feel like I am in that twilight zone episode where the space men return to earth only to find themselves being slowly, one by one, written out of history.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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I wrote that episode!
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DPCrisp
In: Bedfordshire
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| the brain is made of fat (huh? never heard that one before) |
Oh, yes. That's why it's white and grey. (Electronics is more plastic than silicon, and lamb bhuna is mostly carbs...)
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Keimpe
In: Leeuwarden, Frisia
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Ishmael
In: Toronto
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"Lucky"?
Come now. Luck has nothing to do with it.
Now the next part will follow within 20 years: Mercury in small doses is good for you (but, like vitamins, only if consumed and digested as part of your food).
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Hatty
Site Admin
In: Berkshire
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| Mercury in small doses is good for you |
I wonder if the Ancients linked mercury-which-is-good-for-you with fish. Mercury/Hermes is the god of wisdom and consciousness as part of his various attributes. Why was fish supposed to be eaten on Freya's day? Or Friars' Day?
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