Very Spicy Tuna Roll
It's not just a side of wasabi you're getting with your order. Marian Burros writes for The New York Times that recent lab tests found so much mercury in tuna sushi from 20 Manhattan stores and restaurants that a diet of just six pieces a week could exceed the limits of acceptability by the EPA:
Sushi from 5 of the 20 places had mercury levels so high that the Food and Drug Administration could take legal action to remove the fish from the market. The sushi was bought by The New York Times in October.“No one should eat a meal of tuna with mercury levels like those found in the restaurant samples more than about once every three weeks," said Dr. Michael Gochfeld, professor of environmental and occupational medicine at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in Piscataway, N.J.
Dr. Gochfeld analyzed the sushi for The Times with Dr. Joanna Burger, professor of life sciences at Rutgers University. He is a former chairman of the New Jersey Mercury Task Force and also treats patients with mercury poisoning.
The owner of a restaurant whose tuna sushi had particularly high mercury concentrations said he was shocked by the findings. “I’m startled by this,” said the owner, Drew Nieporent, a managing partner of Nobu Next Door. “Anything that might endanger any customer of ours, we’d be inclined to take off the menu immediately and get to the bottom of it.”
...Tuna samples from the Manhattan restaurants Nobu Next Door, Sushi Seki, Sushi of Gari and Blue Ribbon Sushi and the food store Gourmet Garage all had mercury above one part per million, the “action level” at which the F.D.A. can take food off the market. (The F.D.A. has rarely, if ever, taken any tuna off the market.) The highest mercury concentration, 1.4 parts per million, was found in tuna from Blue Ribbon Sushi. The lowest, 0.10, was bought at Fairway.
...Over the past several years, studies have suggested that mercury may also cause health problems for adults, including an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and neurological symptoms.
...In general, tuna sushi from food stores was much lower in mercury. These findings reinforce results in other studies showing that more expensive tuna usually contains more mercury because it is more likely to come from a larger species, which accumulates mercury from the fish it eats. Mercury enters the environment as an industrial pollutant.
I've cut down considerably on my sushi-eating in recent years, although I did eat it at the main Nobu from time to time, and at Gourmet Garage, too, where I still go when I'm in NYC.
Actually, these days, I don't eat much fish at all. Instead, I take fish oil capsules every day -- in my case, Nordic Naturals - Omega 3, 120 softgels -- which, unlike Carlson's, didn't give me fish burps (they're lemon-flavored). It's very important to consider the brand you take, because many of the fish oil caps can have mercury.
Accordingly, I chose Nordic Naturals because their products are certified by IFOS (although I don't think my precise version of Omega 3 is listed there -- they don't test every one of them, I don't think). IFOS is the International Fish Oil Standards organization, which checks for purity, contamination, etc., and, for example, the factual correctness of the label.
Oh yeah...and I guess if you're a tuna sushi lover, as I am, and it makes you feel better, you could take them with a spoonful of sticky rice and a bit of pickled ginger.
Death by sushi is the envy of human history!
I will live and die a Pieces, but have zero opinion about the importance of fish-parts in your diet as regards your physical health. But the timbre of Amy's commentary calls to mind this classic from Uncle Cecil.
And I wouldn't mention it, except that it's the faultline in Amy's fascination with sociobiology, too.
Crid at January 24, 2008 1:30 AM
Ah Mercury, God of flourists... Rather than sushi, it would be better to send she some flowers. Wasabi with all this sushi? And another thing, who would Ghandi sue?
I'll take your answers with a spoonful of sticky rice.
William at January 24, 2008 3:01 AM
I have a friend that got mercury poisoning from eating a tuna fish sandwich for lunch every week for a year. She is now suffering from very severe health problems and the medical establishment has nothing to offer her.
I do not eat tuna anymore.
Michael Davis at January 24, 2008 3:42 AM
I eat sushi fairly regularly, but it's varied greatly as to which fish. Of course it's hard to avoid any seafood that could have mercury - and still eat seafood it seems. Whenever I come to Cali I always stop by Todai and sushi myself silly.
Love wasabi, even use put it in homemade beef jerky.
Jamie at January 24, 2008 5:25 AM
I've never had sushi, never felt the urge to eat raw fish (eeewwwwww!).
However, I am a big fan of shellfish - shrimp scampi (and I do make a mean scampi!), broiled scallops, hot lobster rolls (but hold the roll, please). There's a place here in CT, in Derby, called Roseland. They serve the best lobster ravioli in the world, and their shrimp and broccoli pizza is to die for. They also serve a shrimp and lobster bisque that puts any other restaurant's to shame. Pricey, but more than worth it.
('K, I've just convinced myself that I have to drag the family there tonight for supper. I hope the line isn't too long this time.) o_O
Flynne at January 24, 2008 5:55 AM
Just when I'm thinking of getting a tuna sandwich for lunch...
ignoring what I already knew about mercury content. It's a close call what's gonna kill me first -- that or the damned chocolate or red meat but, frankly, while I will and have considerably cut down, I won't cut out altogether. I used to have a mug (that broke and I badly need to replace) that read give me chocolate or give me death. I still concur. A life without tuna, chocolate or beef ain't worth living.
Though I also concur with Flynne -- raw fish, ewwww! I've never had the guts to try sushi and I see no reason to muster it up. The same thing goes for lobster. I agree with Seinfeld on that one. Giant cockroach of the sea. I cannot comprehend how anyone can eat the thing.
Donna at January 24, 2008 7:07 AM
Donna - lobster is much better when someone else has done the work of extracting it.
So far as tuna goes, how much mercury is there, really, in canned tuna? Because I've been eating it frequently for decades, and I don't think I've been poisoned yet. Are some people more sensitive to it? Are we certain they didn't get their mercury from someplace else?
brian at January 24, 2008 7:31 AM
Michael, I'm not sure what you mean by "the medical establishment has nothing to offer her".
AFAIK, the treatment for mercury, or any other heavy metal poisoning, is isolation from the contaminating agent, chelation therapy (if the poisoning is immediately life-threatening) and then time. Over time the body will eliminate the toxins but it will take a long time. Consider a solution that's 50% salt, consider a filtering system that will decrease the salt concentration by 50% each day, how long will it take to have a solution that's below 1%? The answer is 6 days, it's an exponential decline rate. Now, consider the levels of mercury in your friend's body... they're in the parts per billion range and the body has a fixed filtering capacity. Initially you'll see high reductions in mercury concentrations, later you'll see much lower reductions in the concentration and, at the end, the reduction level will be extremely low. At best, you can hope for an exponential decline rate but it's probably more of a hyperbolic decline as the mercury must desorb from the contaminated tissue and as you get to very low concentrations the filtering systems become quite inefficient.
It's important to remember that actively doing nothing, that is choosing to take no action, isn't the same as passively doing nothing, that is doing nothing because you don't know what to do. I'd suggest that you talk to your friend and make sure that her doctors are letting her body do the work and then try to keep her in a positive frame of mind.
Of course, if you mean she has permanent damage from the mercury then, yeah, "the medical establishment has nothing to offer her".
Curly Smith at January 24, 2008 8:11 AM
A recent report about mecury in fish and other sea critters
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/babies-kids/child-safety/food/mercury-in-tuna/tuna-safety/overview/0607_tuna_ov.htm
Flynne will be glad to know the bottom feeders are generally lowish in heavy metal content.
Jim at January 24, 2008 10:40 AM
Spanks, Jim, very informative! o_O
Flynne at January 24, 2008 11:40 AM
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