Healthful Fish Is a Myth

Terri MacLeod of Access Hollywood and I recently discussed just how toxic fish can be. Since there are many myths about fish being healthful, I want to share Ms. MacLeod’s column on bad fats and fish:

Healthy Hollywood is still reeling over the idea that fish might not be the best thing for your diet.

After years of eating and loving fish, I was in shock when vegan guru and author of “Power Foods For The Brain,” Dr. Neal Barnard, compared fish to a “low tar cigarette.”

My love of fish just went up in smoke!

Healthy Hollywood met up with Dr. Barnard at the “Nutrition and Brain” summit held recently in Washington, D.C. where I was having breakfast with him and chatting about my favorite subject - “healthy/healing” nutrition. Then, his head-spinning proclamation about fish suddenly capsized my appetite for all things from sea.

“Many people have gotten the idea they should be eating fish and fish you could say maybe a better choice than beef. Fish is somewhat lower in fat, depending on how it’s prepared, and the fats are more of the goods fats, which are the omega-3’s, but and this is a big ‘BUT’…,” exclaimed Dr. Barnard.

Dr. Barnard favors a vegan/plant-based diet in order to achieve optimal health and decrease one’s risk for dementia. But, even Dr. Oz, was shocked when Dr. Barnard declared fish a diet don’t on his show back in March 2013. “As group, people who eat fish have more weight problems and have a higher risk of diabetes, compared with people who skip animal products altogether,” he declared to Healthy Hollywood.

In addition, all that hype about good fats in fish, like salmon, is another bottom-feeder, according to Dr. Barnard, who goes on to explain that 40% of salmon is fat and that 70 to 80% of that fat is not good for us. “Most of the fat in fish is not omega-3’s and it doesn’t do your body any good.”

Or, does it do any good for your waistline. “Every gram of fat is 9 calories. And, you don’t have to do a lot of math before you realize I’m not going to lose any weight if I’m eating salmon. Doctors will say that’s the point, ‘it is fatty fish’ and you want the fish for the good fat, but what they’re not realizing is only a tiny fraction of it is good fish. So, I wouldn’t go there,” explain Dr. Barnard.

Besides, the bad fat, fish can also be toxic, with dangerous levels of mercury and other pollutants, adding, “Keep in mind where fish are from. They live in what has become a kind of human sewer – the oceans and waterways.”

So, whether you take Dr. Barnard’s bait is up to you, but he insists it’s good to keep the dialogue going on our food system and keep in mind we are what we eat.