Julie Caswell, resource economics, served on a research committee dedicated to better communicating the health benefits of fish.
San Francisco Chronicle
Jane Kay
The Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences released a 400-page report Tuesday that recommends ways the government could improve its health messages to the public.Seafood is rich in protein as well as in the omega fatty acids EPA and DHA. Some studies have shown that the acids can cause a dramatic reduction in the incidence of fatal heart attacks, according to a second report released Tuesday by researchers at the Harvard Medical School and the Public School of Health.
Yet big, predatory ocean fish usually contain levels of mercury higher than smaller species such as salmon, sardines, anchovies, herring, sole and shrimp. Mercury is a potent neurotoxin that can cause learning and behavioral problems in children.
"The balance of benefits and risks are different for different groups in the population. There's different advice for each population,'' said Julie A. Caswell, a professor at University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a member of the research committee.
The population groups include women who are or might become pregnant or are breast-feeding; children up to age 12; adolescent boys, adult men, and women who won't become pregnant; and adults at risk of coronary heart disease.
However, such information is useful only if consumers can tell what they're buying.
"We're recognizing that you could have all the guidance in the world, but it must get in supermarkets and restaurants where people make decisions on what to eat,'' Caswell said.
For example, people need to know whether salmon is wild or farmed and whether tuna is the smaller skipjack with lower mercury levels or the large albacore, bigeye or yellowfin tuna with higher mercury levels. The larger tuna, sometimes sold as ahi, is used in sushi.
The committee recommended that federal agencies increase monitoring of mercury, PCBs, dioxins and other pollutants in fish and make the results readily available to the public.
Related Information:
Department of Resource Economics
<< back to archive