See All-Creatures.org Health Position and Disclaimer
[Ed. Note: Please read all of our articles in Fish As Food.. As it is with the eating of ANY animal, the consequences to each animal, to the land, air, the water and to human health are always devastating, debilitating and eventually deadly.]
When you eat animal proteins, be they from fish, eggs, chicken, beef, pork, or dairy, they will create an acid condition in your blood. Imagine the essence of stinky rotten eggs infusing into your bloodstream.
Fish feel no pain. How can that be?
In truth, it cannot be, yet, many people consume fish as an alternative to meat consumption, accepting that illogical argument.
I do not eat seafood because of health and ethical reasons. If you seek more information regarding either factor, please visit PETA's website, Fishing Hurts.
The amount of information on that website will pull you in, hook, line, and sinker.
I am primarily concerned with your body and your health.
Farm-raised fish are kept in horrendous conditions. Imagine thousands of fish living in a confined area in which slime and fish feces are continuously consumed from bodies touching bodies in which fish are unable to swim, for lack of room. Farm-raised fish suffer this way throughout their confined lives. Ocean-raised fish swim free, but those creatures living atop their own food chain consume the pesticides and heavy metals (such as mercury) and dioxins and radioactive accidents from tens of thousands of meals from smaller creatures which in turn have consumed millions of tainted and polluted diatoms.
When you eat animal proteins, be they from fish, eggs, chicken, beef, pork, or dairy, they will create an acid condition in your blood. Imagine the essence of stinky rotten eggs infusing into your bloodstream. We cannot afford to lose bone density, but this is how your body compensates, by leeching calcium from your bones in order to neutralize the acid. Dr. William Castelli, lead researcher of the Framingham heart study (America's largest heart study) identifies homocysteine as the key to all heart disease.
Animal protein contains a large amount of cysteine and methionine, the two amino acids which your body uses to manufacture homocysteine. Methionine and cysteine contain sulfur as their center atom.
So, that is the primary reason I avoid seafood, even though I once enjoyed eating mollusks and fish. Combined with the way they are harvested, and the concentrated chemicals within their flesh, I've eliminated seafood from my diet.
If you were eliminating one food group at a time, with the goal of eating a plant-based diet as I do, here is the order that I would advise seeing you give up food groups:
FIRST: Eliminate all milk and dairy
SECOND: Eliminate all poultry and
eggs
THIRD: Eliminate all seafood
FOURTH: Eliminate all pork
FIFTH:
Eliminate all beef
As a rule, the higher up one goes on the food chain, the more concentrated are the toxins, heavy metals, pesticides, dioxins, and PCBs in their flesh and body fluids. Most seafood is unlike farm-raised meats in that regard.
Large fish are predatory in nature, eating thousands of smaller living creatures before you ultimately ingest their body fat and proteins. The same cannot be said for farm-raised animals eating a plant-based diet.
Return to Food Hazards in Animal Flesh and By-products
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We began this archive as a means of assisting our visitors in answering many of their health and diet questions, and in encouraging them to take a pro-active part in their own health. We believe the articles and information contained herein are true, but are not presenting them as advice. We, personally, have found that a whole food vegan diet has helped our own health, and simply wish to share with others the things we have found. Each of us must make our own decisions, for it's our own body. If you have a health problem, see your own physician.