Methylmercury 0.0

Out of all things in life, I have never been much into winter sports. However, at my city center there's a free skating ring so me and my mom bought a pair of ice skates on boxing day. Having never skated before, it proved much more challenging then I though :P If only it was as easy as swimming and not as painful when you fall -.- Don't let me get started on my bruise :(

What my new skates look like

So today morning me and my mom went ice skating for a little bit. I wish my dad was there to take pictures but at least it saved me from some serious embarrassment. After that, we decided to stop my Health Foods to buy some wheatberries. On January 7th is our Eastern Orthodox Christmas and we prepare this traditional dish called kutya which is basically wheatberries with group poppy seeds, chopped walnuts and honey (it's actually one of my favorite dishes). Not only did we get the wheatberries but I also picked up some blue cornmeal and organic peanut butter. Let's just say I will never eat Kraft peanut butter again (ok a bit of an overstatement but the two are incomparable)! As for the blue cornmeal, I've never such a thing in my life and can't wait try it out. Also, I tried some Camembert cheese for my first time and fell in love <3 It was like this rich creme taste with some mildly sweet jam topped on a delicate thin cracker. The world froze for a moment...This is exactly why I love the Whole Foods testers, because every time I come there I get to taste something new. I guess some of that 20$ allowance could be possibly spent on some good cheese :P I don't see why not...

What caught my eye was a little brochure at Whole Foods regarding Methylmercury. Back in highschool we learned the whole concept of accumulation. So an organism on the bottom of the food chain eats something that gets stored in its fatty tissue and does not get excreted. Then some other animal eats it and that toxin gets deposited in their bodies. Thus, while going up the food chain this chemical gets built up because that animal would have had to eat multiple animals from the lower part of the food chain. The same idea happens with methylmercury but in fish. This form of mercury causes problems in the nervous system development of young children and fetuses. The scary thing is even if you're an adult, this mercury slowly builds up in your body and just stays there. Luckily, the brochure contained a whole list of fish that are considered low in mercury.

These include: catfish, clams, cod, crab, flounder/sole, haddock, herring, ocean perch, oyster, rainbow trout, salmon, sardines, scallops, shrimp, spiny lobster, tilapia, and farmed trout.

This seems like a reasonably long list with a great variety :) So there should be no excuse to exclude fish from your diet just because there's mercury, remember the omega-3 fasts are all worth it.

Yay! Brain Food!
Nadiya