Chris Kresser talks Fish @ The Real Food Summit

Hey gang!  Sean Croxton is holding an online Real Food Summit starting today.  I'm sure you've seen the logo on the blogs/websites of others ... and perhaps you're wondering if I plan to "live blog" on this one as I did for the Paleo Summit.   The short answer is no ... at least not in that same manner, and I'll make a short post on the reasons sometime today.

But since we were talking fish here recently, a discussion that included contamination, I recommend listening to Chris Kresser's presentation on Seafood.   If you're going to listen for this reason alone, the selenium "protection" against mercury is discussed around 22 min mark.    Phew ... I don't eat swordfish often enough to worry about it.  He discusses PCB's and dioxins and some studies on cancer risk vs. CVD risk and how these toxins are present in beef, chicken and other protein choices.  So if you're eating animal protein, eating fish vs. beef can alter some exposures like mercury, but there's other trade-offs that can make fish a better choice.  Lastly he addresses fish oil supplements v. eating fish and megadoses of fish oil.

He's going to be on Sean's UW Radio show, so I'm hoping to be able to call in and ask a question.  I don't know that I agree with the ratios of O6:O3 being so definitively problematic, but he presents many reasons to eat fish outside this argument.    Enjoy!

Fish & Food Purity Wars

I really like fish -- all kinds.  And fish is one way to get a lot "supplements" -- in whole form, complete with other components that act in synergism with what has been refined out in supplements.  I've been getting more into fish lately as the new Korean-American owned market opened nearby.  They have an amazing seafood department including crystal clean tanks of live fish. (The other Asian market with large tanks is not quite so pristine).  One day they were having a hard time constraining jumpers!  In addition to seafoods you don't usually see elsewhere --  abalone, barrels & tanks of live crabs, octopus -- they have a really nice selection of fish varieties, both common and eccentric.   Even if I'm not in the market for fish I'll still swing by for the Chilean sea bass samples, to die for!

But as protein sources go, fish is pretty danged expensive nowadays.  Even your run-of-the-mill cod While this market is rather more affordable than where we usually go, we recently purchased a trimmed filet mignon for less per pound than most of the filleted fish, especially my beloved salmon and swordfish.   Then you see the sign:  Sale!  $6.99/lb Farmed in Vietnam (or other Asian country).   To buy, or not to buy?  The wild caught (if even available for may varieties) will be in the $12-16/lb range.

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