CRAYFISH IS BRAIN FOOD - continued
But what about crayfish? Crayfish don't swim around in the ocean munching on krill. Yet, among all the maritime creatures, crayfish has a good amount of this valuable fatty acid. Not as much as salmon and e.g. mackerel and shad, but enough to make a difference when you eat it and try to shake your depression. But there is also a 'caveat'. (Latin: 'To qualify' or 'warn')
Unfortunately most seafood has a certain amount of mercury in it. And here the story becomes a bit murky. The oceans apparently all have a certain amount of mercury from natural sources. And being 'natural' doesn't necessarily make it any better. Much of the ocean mercury comes from coal fired power plants in both this country and maybe mostly, from countries across the seas.
Anyway, there is some mercury in all ocean waters, and the little krills ingest it. Not much but accumulating in the larger fish that eat the krill. And the larger a fish is, the older it usually is, and the longer a fish eats these mercury harboring little fish, the more it adds up in the big fish's body.
The result is that the larger the fish, the more mercury it proportionately contains. And among these larger fish are especially tuna, saw fish and shark. And correspondingly also the larger salmons that we all tend to like so much. Unfortunately, even farmed salmon contains a certain amount of mercury. And how bad is mercury in the fish we eat? Well, this is another kettle of fish. We know that mercury of certain amounts is bad for a developing fetus, a young child or a pregnant woman. While our brains are developing early in life, it is imperative to keep dangerous chemicals away from this development, or it will impede our future ability to reason. In other words, our intelligence suffers from the onslaught of mercury.
Fortunately, crayfish appear to have very low levels of mercury although this may depend on where the crayfish are caught in relation to the nearest coal fired power plant. My investigation as to the amount of mercury in crayfish is promising, as they tend to have much less of this nasty metal than most other fish in oceans, rivers or lakes.
In addition, why should I complain about the possible mercury in crayfish that I catch in Arizona lakes while year after year I walk around 24-7 with a mouth full of mercury amalgam tooth fillings? Yes, the average American walks around with no less than 14 amalgam fillings that slowly seep some mercury into our system. Is this of concern?
Of course it is. But if you ask a dentist about it, he will probably pooh-pooh it. Ask someone else and he might not. So what is my opinion?
I am no longer a 'spring chicken'. My mental capacities while a fetus were developed a long time ago. I have lived a fairly long life and I have been able to manage quite well programming IBM computers as well as starting and running a crayfish trap business on the internet. So apparently, the effect of mercury on me seems to have been negligible. And I have eaten thousands of crayfish in my life.
Take my word for it, eating crayfish is not going to reduce your adult mental capacities. Instead it is more likely going to improve both your nutritional health and your mood thanks to their omega-3's. So, if you are like me, have another helping of crayfish while I toast my mother with a glass of red wine for her good advice.
PS. If you are interested in how nutritious crayfish are, go to Newsletters on Trapperarne.com. Find and read the newsletter for January 2011 called Crayfish and Cholesterol and the May 2009 newsletter called Crayfish and Heavy Metals.
Greetings
Trapper Arne, Sr.
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