Date: Sat, 28 Sep 2002 23:55:13 EDT From: Alex Shvartsman <[log in to unmask]> Subject: fish, fat, mercury >Are all fatty fish (rich in EPA) are also richer in mercury? >Which fish are mercury free, rich in mega 3? > >List them please > >Alex The answer is simple, but it is not one we want to hear, let alone act upon. <The lush natural world in which humans evolved is being rapidly transformed into a largely prosthetic environment.> wrote John Gray in his important essay [reproduced at http://www.evfit.com/population.htm]. Basically, human population has expanded to such massive numbers that we are destroying the biosphere upon which we depend. This is compounded by our hubristic, short-sighted use of technologies chosen and applied according to criteria which ignore their full impact on the environment. We are frogs in the saucepan of water coming up to the boil. So, fish with the highest fat proportions are generally well up the food chain and the mercury, PCBs and other contaminants are concentrated in the fat at each link in the chain. Even fish from the remote Southern Ocean have so much mercury that the Australian fish research body recommends no more than 400g of oily fish a week. This is far too low to have the sort of effects we are looking for from Omega 3s. There are two things we can do. 1. the simple response is to bypass the mercury in OUR food by using highly refined fish oil. Sears labs is one source; follow the links at http://www.searslabs.com/index.jsp?domain=searslabscom to Products>Omega Rx>More info. For background on fish oil contamination, Omega 3s etc, read Barry Sears book <The Omega 3 Rx Connection>. 2. the responsible response is to fight the causes, not the symptoms: join, and actively support, an environmental group which is taking action on ocean polution, bidiversity destruction and the growth of human population [take Dr Sears' capsules, too, by all means, but fight the the thinking that puts the contaminants into our oceans in the first place]. Keith www.evfit.com