Thunnus albacares (yellowfin tuna) doin what they do… flyin

…back on my dinner plate!!! and here’s WHY!!!

Szymanek Hawaii has been hanging loose on the 50^th State for a little over a year; so far so Great!!!  Just about every aspect of seeing a rainbow everyday has exceeded our expectations.  We have made great friends, Eliza likes working at Tripler, and I’m killing it with Mason.  If I had to pick, and it’s being very picky, one area of disappointment has been the seafood.  When we got wind of the island move Eliza and I were stoked to consume a bounty of ocean critter.  However, when we started to shop and eat around, the fish all seems to be large ocean swimmers high in mercury content.  Over exposure to this heavy metal can cause brain, kidney, and lung demand; along with resulting in several not so happy diseases.  However, insight via The Healthy Baby Code and the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (yeah it’s a mouth full, but a bomb resource – WPRFMC) has changed our song and turned our frown upside down.

You sure do want to be concerned with mercury exposure.  I won’t belabor the point, especially for those of you who live in California (Hurray Joey!!! I’m Proud Bud!!!).  You guys out there know what I’m talking about.  There is a sign posted in every restaurant that serves ocean critter saying the stuff is bad.  Not to mention, it is common knowledge that if a pregnant women comes within a square mile of a fish that may contain trace amounts of Mercury her and her pregnancy are bound to have a host of complications.  To keep us safe we had Eliza fitted with an Ancient Alien Uteral Detection System specifically engineered to signal us if she was near the nasty element.  Yeah, I said Ancient Alien.  If you don’t know what I’m talking about they helped us move big stones a long time ago, among other helpful tricks.  Watch the history channel people.  All kidding aside, all we heard during our pregnancy was how bad mercury and large ocean fish could have been for Gator.

The truth is we were only getting half of the story.  As bad as mercury is for us there is also another element found within some of the same big bad predator ocean critters that is not only very beneficial to our immune system but also a mercury neutralizer.  Yup!  According to Chris Kresser, Mercury and Selenium combine to form a new substance that is not absorbed by the human body.  This notion is seconded, maybe firsted, by the fine folks at the WPRFMC.  According to them as long as the fish has more has more selenium than mercury it’s in the safe zone, even if you have fallen victim to the preger virus. 

This is epic news for a bunch of reasons.  I can eat my Tuna, Mahimahi, Wahoo, Monchong, even Marlin worry free. Doing so gives me an excellent source of a bomb protein and omega-3 fatty acids.  Not to mention, I officially have one less thing to bitch about.  Moving my search for pastured chickens, non-farmed pork, and unpasteurized milk to the top of my list (hurray for still havoing drama in my diet).  Click here for an easy to read chart made courtesy of the helper bees at the WPRFMC.  To sum it up, if the blue line is higher than the red line you can eat that fish without worrying about mercury.  For more info on the topic check out their site, listen to Chris Kresser’s Podcast, read his blog or even splurge and pay for The Healthy Baby Code (best money Eliza and I have spent in 2011).  If your super concerned and ultra conservative consult a Doc but don’t be surprised if all they answer with is a black stare.  Remember, some of them just collect checks like other drones.  Best Fishes people!!!

P.S.
Let’s not refer to Shitty Britches as Shitty Britches anymore.  We will all just have to call him Dustin from now on or Delicious per the name on his teams flag football shirt.  Let’s put some pressure on him.  D-Tron (maybe) has been talking about making a guest appearance on the blog for sometime.  If you see the man without a nickname he likes let him know that talk is cheap and you want his insight.