Chris Kresser spent quite a bit of time in his Real Food Summit presentation discussing the "inactivation" of mercury by selenium. The good news about this is that for many of the fish where mercury contamination is of concern -- particularly large coldwater ocean fish -- there is a high level of selenium. Selenium binds mercury and in essence converts it to a non-toxic form. Sorta like those amalgam fillings most folks over 35-40 (and younger but less common) have had*. The good news is if a fish has high selenium, it's a low mercury toxicity risk. The bad news is if the fish has a high mercury content, there's less of the beneficial "free" selenium you need.
I went looking for mackerel since it was brought up in comments and found this "pamphlet". Thought I'd share: Selenium and Mercury - Fishing for Answers
I feel much better eating my fatty fishies, farmed or otherwise. Meanwhile Joel Salatin made me feel pretty bad about my real food based diet. Maybe I'll share some thoughts on his intro video (free download with registration ... unfortunately missed his presentation yesterday).
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