The resulting loss of child intelligence linked to maternal fish consumption is estimated to cost billions in lost productivity.
Maternal Mercury Levels
In a study of the links between fish consumption and infertility, levels of mercury were measured in vegans, for the first time ever. They took hair samples from fish-eaters and vegans, and this is what they found: ten times more mercury contamination in the bodies of those who eat fish.
In fact, if you take meat-eaters and put them on a vegetarian diet, within just three months, the level of mercury in their bodies drops significantly—as well as other toxic heavy metal levels, such as cadmium and lead. The one graph going up is magnesium; that’s a good thing, actually.
Whereas the more fish meals we eat per month, the higher our mercury levels climb. Just one or more fish meals a week, and one in four women exceed the EPA mercury safety limits.
What’s the big deal about mercury? Hundreds of thousands of American babies poisoned by their mothers’ fish consumption every single year. So much mercury coming from their mothers—measured straight from the umbilical cord blood—that they’re born with brain damage.
The resulting loss of intelligence that will plague these kids for the rest of their lives—because their moms ate fish—is estimated to cost our nation billions of dollars in lost productivity. We’d be billions of dollars more productive, had these hundreds of thousands of kids been born smarter, if their moms had been smarter, and not ate fish during pregnancy. Of course, you can’t blame the mothers if they simply didn’t know how much they were damaging the brains of their children with every bite.
To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by veganmontreal.
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- Dickman MD, Leung CK, Leong MK. Hong Kong male subfertility links to mercury in human hair and fish. Sci Total Environ. 1998 Jun 18;214:165-74.
- Srikumar TS, Johansson GK, Ockerman PA, Gustafsson JA, Akesson B. Trace element status in healthy subjects switching from a mixed to a lactovegetarian diet for 12 mo. Am J Clin Nutr. 1992 Apr;55(4):885-90.
- Karouna-Renier NK, Ranga Rao K, Lanza JJ, Rivers SD, Wilson PA, Hodges DK, Levine KE, Ross GT. Mercury levels and fish consumption practices in women of child-bearing age in the Florida Panhandle. Environ Res. 2008 Nov;108(3):320-6. Epub 2008 Sep 23.
- Trasande L, Landrigan PJ, Schechter C. Public health and economic consequences of methyl mercury toxicity to the developing brain. Environ Health Perspect. 2005 May;113(5):590-6.
In a study of the links between fish consumption and infertility, levels of mercury were measured in vegans, for the first time ever. They took hair samples from fish-eaters and vegans, and this is what they found: ten times more mercury contamination in the bodies of those who eat fish.
In fact, if you take meat-eaters and put them on a vegetarian diet, within just three months, the level of mercury in their bodies drops significantly—as well as other toxic heavy metal levels, such as cadmium and lead. The one graph going up is magnesium; that’s a good thing, actually.
Whereas the more fish meals we eat per month, the higher our mercury levels climb. Just one or more fish meals a week, and one in four women exceed the EPA mercury safety limits.
What’s the big deal about mercury? Hundreds of thousands of American babies poisoned by their mothers’ fish consumption every single year. So much mercury coming from their mothers—measured straight from the umbilical cord blood—that they’re born with brain damage.
The resulting loss of intelligence that will plague these kids for the rest of their lives—because their moms ate fish—is estimated to cost our nation billions of dollars in lost productivity. We’d be billions of dollars more productive, had these hundreds of thousands of kids been born smarter, if their moms had been smarter, and not ate fish during pregnancy. Of course, you can’t blame the mothers if they simply didn’t know how much they were damaging the brains of their children with every bite.
To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by veganmontreal.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- Dickman MD, Leung CK, Leong MK. Hong Kong male subfertility links to mercury in human hair and fish. Sci Total Environ. 1998 Jun 18;214:165-74.
- Srikumar TS, Johansson GK, Ockerman PA, Gustafsson JA, Akesson B. Trace element status in healthy subjects switching from a mixed to a lactovegetarian diet for 12 mo. Am J Clin Nutr. 1992 Apr;55(4):885-90.
- Karouna-Renier NK, Ranga Rao K, Lanza JJ, Rivers SD, Wilson PA, Hodges DK, Levine KE, Ross GT. Mercury levels and fish consumption practices in women of child-bearing age in the Florida Panhandle. Environ Res. 2008 Nov;108(3):320-6. Epub 2008 Sep 23.
- Trasande L, Landrigan PJ, Schechter C. Public health and economic consequences of methyl mercury toxicity to the developing brain. Environ Health Perspect. 2005 May;113(5):590-6.
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Título
Maternal Mercury Levels
LicenciaCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
URLNota del Doctor
For more videos on the health risks associated with mercury, check out:
Mercury vs. Omega-3s for Brain Development
Hair Testing for Mercury Before Considering Pregnancy
Nerves of Mercury
How Long to Detox From Fish Before Pregnancy?
Fish Intake Associated With Brain Shrinkage
Pollutants in Salmon and Our Own Fat
And check out my other videos on fish and mercury.
For further context, see my associated blog post: Head Shrinking from Grilling Meat.
If you haven’t yet, you can subscribe to my videos for free by clicking here.
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