Health

I recently heard a kid ask his mom in the supermarket aisle, “is canned tuna healthy?” I wanted to jump in. Now, it may be in a can, and it may say chicken, but it’s still a fish. And most people don’t know where their fish came from or how it got to them —…

If you eat a lot of rice, or on a typical gluten free diet, you may want to switch up the types of grain you eat. That’s because there is likely arsenic in rice and that should concern everyone who care about their health. Analytical chemist Brian Jackson says there needs to be more federal…

Many first timers wonder, “is sashimi healthy?” when staring at a few cuts of raw fish. There are not many animal products that can be eaten raw, so it’s no surprise that people question how the raw fish might affect their health. When bought from reputable sources, sashimi is a healthy and safe option that…

What is mercury, why is it in my food, and why should I care? Mercury is a heavy metal that occurs naturally in our environment, generally in a sequestered or inert state. Over the last century, however, industrial pollution from power plants, waste incinerators, and mining operations have contributed to a pronounced increase in our…

So you may be wondering what are PCBs? And are they in my seafood dinner tonight? Polychlorinated biphenyls, or simply PCBs, are man-made compounds that were intended to make our lives easier, but are beginning to have the opposite effect. PCBs are generally used in a number of industrial applications, such as for coolants and…

Omega-3s, aka omega-3 fatty acids, are a group of unsaturated fatty acids essential to human development.  They are found in numerous foods, including certain fish.  Oily cold-water fish, like sardines, wild salmon, and mackerel, have high levels of omega-3s. In fact, a great deal of advertising capital has been expended on omega-3 awareness in recent…