Health reasons behind why vegetarians/vegans choose not to eat fish?

Question

I feel like I've heard a lot more about why consuming beef, chicken, eggs, milk, and cheese is not good for you than why fish is not good for you. I firmly believe that killing any animal (fish included) for food is cruel, but I was wondering- are there any health reasons why people shouldn't eat fish?

I am assuming it has some of the same chemicals and preservatives that other meats do, but does it contain any hormones to enhance the quality/ quantity of the fish? Is it true that there are high levels of mercury in fish that could be bad for our health, and if so why?

I appreciate your comments!

Answer 1

The health issues of fish consumption include mercury and PCB/dioxins both of which are persistent and cumulative.

http://toxics.usgs.gov/definitions/bioac...

http://www.edf.org/article.cfm?contentID...

PCBs are very hard on thyroids which regulate our hormones and metabolism:

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EPA rates PCBs as "probable human carcinogens," since they cause cancer in laboratory animals. Other tests on laboratory animals show damage from PCBs to their circulatory, nervous, immune, endocrine and digestive systems. (more at above link)

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There's also toxic issues such as Red Tides:

http://www.cdc.gov/hab/redtide/about.htm

Other dangerous chemicals include poisons, antibiotics (to keep the fish alive in polluted waters) and other medications, dyes (for color), preservatives, even banned fertilizers (many are imported with the majority coming from China):

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/15/world/...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/15/world/...

http://www.foodpoisonblog.com/2008/04/ar...

While what doesn't come directly from China is often sent there for processing since the labor costs are so low (means a lot of travel -- food miles):

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/26/busine...

Environment is very negatively affected:

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/2/...

and it affects migration and immigration:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/14/world/...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/15/world/...

And the farms are environmental disasters causing even more harm to wild stocks:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/09/opinio...

http://www.salon.com/tech/books/2006/01/...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/02/dining...

http://www.pbs.org/emptyoceans/index.htm...

Meanwhile, wild stocks are in almost total collapse:

http://www.worldwatch.org/node/4709

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* The world’s fish farmers and fishing fleets harvested 132.5 million tons of seafood in 2003 (the latest year for which data are available), nearly seven times the harvest of 1950.

* As more vessels work a limited number of fisheries, roughly two-thirds of the world’s major stocks have been fished at or beyond their capacity. Another 10 percent have been harvested so heavily that fish populations will take years to recover.

* In 2004, marine scientists concluded that industrial fleets had emptied the oceans of at least 90 percent of all large predators—tuna, marlin, swordfish, sharks, cod, halibut, skates, and flounder—in just the past 50 years.

* Worldwide, fishers catch an estimated 18–40 million tons of fish and other marine creatures that are discarded—as much as half of all official marine landings.

* In 2000, the world’s fishing fleets burned about 43 million tons of fuel to catch 80 million tons of fish. In other words, they use 12.5 times as much energy to catch fish as the fish provide to those who eat them.

* The UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that illegal fishing robs sub-Saharan Africa of more than $1.2 billion annually in stolen fish, unpaid taxes, and lost work.

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From Taras Grescoe's new book, "Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood" come these additional stats:

http://www.powells.com/biblio?show=hardc...

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* Americans consume 70 percent more seafood than we did a generation ago

* Fish consumption doubled worldwide in the last 30 years

* Scientists predict all major fish stocks will collapse within our lifetimes; in other words, the world will run out of wild seafood by the year 2048.

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All of which affect our health if only from the cascading effects such as the stress from job searches being more difficult due to increased competition (for example).

But there is a lot more to it even... =]

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(apparently wikipedia is a no-no on yahoo)

Answer 2

Mainly the cholesterol content in shell-fish and the pollutants like mercury and other substances found in things like salmon.

Most people choose not to eat it out of environmental and ethical concerns however.

If you feel like reading:

http://research.cals.cornell.edu/entity?...

Answer 3

our fisheries are in serious trouble, due to pollution and over fishing. it would take years if we try to reclaim the habitat  and did not harvest ANY fish for them to make any kind of significant comeback

Answer 4

fish contains mercury

and it may affect prego women badly but not sure of any thing else

Answer 5

I don't eat fish because it's usually stinky and has mercury in it

Answer 6

I don't eat fish because fish are animals and I don't eat animals. In my case, it doesn't have anything to do health or nutrition concerns.

Answer 7

look at the japanese, almost overpopulated and have no space for farming, so they only rely on fishing and now they have the longest life expectancy. fish are healthy.

the only problem is pollution. some chemical that is found in plastic makes women infertile. did you hear about two large "garbage islands" in pacific ocean? garbage floats right below the surface. plastic wont decompose, but cause of the sun, it will fall apart into tiny pieces and all the sea animals will eat it.

Answer 8

because it's an animal... and fish are in alot of chemicals and polluted water.

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