There are neurotoxins in certain fish that can survive cooking and cause unusual symptoms.
Sexually Transmitted Fish Toxin
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What if we do it ourselves, though? From the meat counter, straight home in a biohazard suit to place the meat directly into boiling water—assuring absolutely no cross-contamination in the kitchen. Even if it’s fish—the one animal more contaminated than chicken—would we finally be out of the woods?
Fact or fiction: You can’t get food poisoning from properly cooked and handled fish. Now it’s easy to get food poisoning eating raw seafood. About 85% of fish is contaminated with fecal bacteria, thanks to “gut waste exposed during [fish] evisceration.” We can get cholera from raw oysters—in fact, there was a newly emerging strain reported last year in the United States. Or, one can get tapeworms from sushi, and other delights and parasites such as brain worms or eye worms—I’ll spare you a photo of that one. Or, necrotizing infections, reported this year, from oysters, shellfish, or other seafood; the so-called flesh-eating bacteria. Immediate limb amputations were performed, but still 37% of the victims died.
But what if you cook out the crap? Fish don’t get mad cow disease—which is caused by a pathogen that can survive even incineration at temperatures hot enough to melt lead. So, are we safe if it’s cooked? And this is only in terms of food poisoning; we’re not talking right now about long-term effects of eating the mercury or PCBs. In terms of acute illness only, as long as you cook it, is it safe? Or not necessarily?
It turns out some of the most common causes of fish-borne food poisoning are not destroyed by cooking. 50,000 people get poisoned every year from a neurotoxin in tropical fish—like red snapper, sea bass, grouper—who eat fish who eat toxic algae. Can cause all sorts of weird reactions, like hot feels like cold, and cold then feels like hot. And, after fish consumption, the toxin itself can be sexually transmitted, and cause weeks of painful genital symptoms. So even if we don’t eat fish, and our non-vegetarian lover assures us they properly handled and cooked their fish, we may not be safe.
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.
- C. Strohbehn, J. Sneed, P. Paez, and J. Meyer. Hand washing frequencies and procedures used in retail food services. J. Food Prot., 71(8):1641-1650, 2008.
- S. Pao, M. R. Ettinger, M. F. Khalid, A. O. Reid, and B. L. Nerrie. Microbial quality of raw aquacultured fish fillets procured from internet and local retail markets. J. Food Prot., 71(8):1544-1549, 2008.
- J. G. Morris Jr. Cholera and other types of vibriosis: A story of human pandemics and oysters on the half shell. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 37(2):272-280, 2003.
- M. Tobin-D'Angelo, A. R. Smith, S. N. Bulens, S. Thomas, M. Hodel, H. Izumiya, E. Arakawa, M. Morita, H. Watanabe, C. Marin, M. B. Parsons, K. Greene, K. Cooper, D. Haydel, C. Bopp, P. Yu, and E. Mintz. Severe diarrhea caused by cholera toxin-producing vibrio cholerae serogroup O75 infections acquired in the southeastern United States. Clin. Infect. Dis., 47(8):1035-1040, 2008.
- Y. Nawa, C. Hatz, J. Blum, and C. D. Ericsson. Sushi delights and parasites: the risk of fishborne and foodborne parasitic zoonoses in Asia. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 41(9):1297- 1303, 2005.
- Y. H. Tsai, T. J. Huang, R. W. W. Hsu, Y. J. Weng, W. H. Hsu, K. C. Huang, and K. T. Peng. Necrotizing soft-tissue infections and primary sepsis caused by Vibrio vulnificus and Vibrio cholerae non-O1. J Trauma, 66(3):899-905, 2009.
- MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2009 Mar 27;58(11):283-5. Cluster of ciguatera fish poisoning--North Carolina, 2007. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Image thanks to andreasnilsson1976 via Flickr.
What if we do it ourselves, though? From the meat counter, straight home in a biohazard suit to place the meat directly into boiling water—assuring absolutely no cross-contamination in the kitchen. Even if it’s fish—the one animal more contaminated than chicken—would we finally be out of the woods?
Fact or fiction: You can’t get food poisoning from properly cooked and handled fish. Now it’s easy to get food poisoning eating raw seafood. About 85% of fish is contaminated with fecal bacteria, thanks to “gut waste exposed during [fish] evisceration.” We can get cholera from raw oysters—in fact, there was a newly emerging strain reported last year in the United States. Or, one can get tapeworms from sushi, and other delights and parasites such as brain worms or eye worms—I’ll spare you a photo of that one. Or, necrotizing infections, reported this year, from oysters, shellfish, or other seafood; the so-called flesh-eating bacteria. Immediate limb amputations were performed, but still 37% of the victims died.
But what if you cook out the crap? Fish don’t get mad cow disease—which is caused by a pathogen that can survive even incineration at temperatures hot enough to melt lead. So, are we safe if it’s cooked? And this is only in terms of food poisoning; we’re not talking right now about long-term effects of eating the mercury or PCBs. In terms of acute illness only, as long as you cook it, is it safe? Or not necessarily?
It turns out some of the most common causes of fish-borne food poisoning are not destroyed by cooking. 50,000 people get poisoned every year from a neurotoxin in tropical fish—like red snapper, sea bass, grouper—who eat fish who eat toxic algae. Can cause all sorts of weird reactions, like hot feels like cold, and cold then feels like hot. And, after fish consumption, the toxin itself can be sexually transmitted, and cause weeks of painful genital symptoms. So even if we don’t eat fish, and our non-vegetarian lover assures us they properly handled and cooked their fish, we may not be safe.
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.
- C. Strohbehn, J. Sneed, P. Paez, and J. Meyer. Hand washing frequencies and procedures used in retail food services. J. Food Prot., 71(8):1641-1650, 2008.
- S. Pao, M. R. Ettinger, M. F. Khalid, A. O. Reid, and B. L. Nerrie. Microbial quality of raw aquacultured fish fillets procured from internet and local retail markets. J. Food Prot., 71(8):1544-1549, 2008.
- J. G. Morris Jr. Cholera and other types of vibriosis: A story of human pandemics and oysters on the half shell. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 37(2):272-280, 2003.
- M. Tobin-D'Angelo, A. R. Smith, S. N. Bulens, S. Thomas, M. Hodel, H. Izumiya, E. Arakawa, M. Morita, H. Watanabe, C. Marin, M. B. Parsons, K. Greene, K. Cooper, D. Haydel, C. Bopp, P. Yu, and E. Mintz. Severe diarrhea caused by cholera toxin-producing vibrio cholerae serogroup O75 infections acquired in the southeastern United States. Clin. Infect. Dis., 47(8):1035-1040, 2008.
- Y. Nawa, C. Hatz, J. Blum, and C. D. Ericsson. Sushi delights and parasites: the risk of fishborne and foodborne parasitic zoonoses in Asia. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 41(9):1297- 1303, 2005.
- Y. H. Tsai, T. J. Huang, R. W. W. Hsu, Y. J. Weng, W. H. Hsu, K. C. Huang, and K. T. Peng. Necrotizing soft-tissue infections and primary sepsis caused by Vibrio vulnificus and Vibrio cholerae non-O1. J Trauma, 66(3):899-905, 2009.
- MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2009 Mar 27;58(11):283-5. Cluster of ciguatera fish poisoning--North Carolina, 2007. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Image thanks to andreasnilsson1976 via Flickr.
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Sexually Transmitted Fish Toxin
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Content URLDoctor's Note
For more on neurotoxins and fish, see Ciguatera Poisoning & Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
And check out my other videos on foodborne illness and fish.
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