EarthTalk is a weekly installment from E/The Environmental Magazine.

Dear EarthTalk: How can I find out which seafood to avoid if I am concerned about lessening my impact on the environment and avoiding consuming unhealthy pollutants?

Several decades ago a fish-centric diet was considered to be not only healthy but also environmentally friendly. But today those of us who eat a lot of fish may not be doing ourselves or the environment any favor. The two major concerns are overfishing and pollution.

Demand for low-calorie, protein-rich fish has grown tremendously alongside increases in world population. At the same time, the technologies employed for catching seafood have improved to the point that the commercial fishing industry has essentially stripped the ocean of its once teeming fish populations. One recent analysis concluded that only 10 percent of the large predatory fish that once roamed the world’s oceans are left, due to overzealous sport and commercial fishing. Another study concluded that three-quarters of the world’s fisheries are either fully fished or overfished.

Pollution from industrial, agricultural and other everyday activities like electricity generation and automobile driving has also taken a serious toll on the health of the remaining fish species. Scientists routinely find unsafe levels of mercury, PCBs, dioxins, pesticides and other harsh toxins in the fat, internal organs and even muscle tissue of many different kinds of fish. These contaminants are then passed on up the food chain to our dinner plates.

According to Seafood Watch, a project of the Monterey Bay Aquarium that works to educate the public about the seafood crisis, consumers can make a difference by getting educated so as to make smart choices about what seafood to avoid. Consumers can download and print out free Seafood Watch pocket guides to the “best choices” across six different regions of the U.S.—after all, what’s abundant and sustainably harvested in your area may not be the same for someone across the country.

Another convenient way to get the low-down on the fish you may be contemplating buying at the grocer or a restaurant is to text “30644” with the message “FISH,” followed by the name of the specific fish in question. In a few seconds, an automated response will come back from the non-profit Blue Ocean Network’s FishPhone service with information on the status of the fish in question—and alternatives, should Blue Ocean consider the fish an undesirable choice.

The basic skinny on fish consumption is that if you like it, you should eat it, but responsibly—that means in moderation and armed with the proper knowledge of which types of fish to buy and which to avoid.

For those looking to cut down on or eliminate seafood from their diets but still gain the health benefits of eating fish, plenty of alternatives exist. As most vegetarians know, beans, tofu and many nuts can be significant alternative sources of protein. And walnuts, flaxseed and hemp oil/seeds are all rich in the Omega-3 fatty acids common in many fish and thought to help ward off heart disease, cancer, macular degeneration (age-related blindness), arthritis and inflammatory disorders.

CONTACTS: Seafood Watch, www.mbayaq.org/cr/seafoodwatch.asp; FishPhone, www.fishphone.org.

GOT AN ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTION? Send it to: EarthTalk, c/o E/The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881 USA; submit it at EarthTalk; or e-mail us. Read past columns at our archives.

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I was going to start research on this, but GOOD Magazine beat me to it. By the way, if you are not reading GOOD, you should check it out. Here’s a chart of what major gigantic companies own your little tiny favorite organic food companies, and you can click it for a bigger version:

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If you ever wanted a guide as to what food to avoid, the NY Times has a great review up of “Eat This, Not That!” by Men’s Health editor-in-chief David Zinczenko, and they include a nice little list of some food no-no’s included in his book:

• Worst Fast Food Meal: McDonald’s Chicken Selects Premium Breast Strips with creamy ranch sauce. Chicken sounds healthy, but not at 870 calories.
• Worst Drink: Jamba Juice Chocolate Moo’d Power Smoothie. With 166 grams of sugar, you could have had eight servings of Ben & Jerry’s.
• Worst Supermarket Meal: Pepperidge Farm Roasted Chicken Pot Pie. One pie packs 64 grams of fat.
• Worst “Healthy” Burger: Ruby Tuesday Bella Turkey Burger. With 1,145 calories, not a very healthy choice.
• Worst Airport Snack: Cinnabon Classic Cinnamon Roll. Packed with 813 hot gooey calories and 5 grams of trans fats.
• Worst Kids’ Meal: Macaroni Grill Double Macaroni ‘n Cheese. With 62 fat grams, it’s the equivalent of 1.5 full boxes of Kraft Mac ‘n Cheese.
• Worst Salad: On the Border Grande Taco Salad with Taco Beef. A salad with 102 grams of fat and 2,410 mg of sodium.
• Worst Dessert: Chili’s Chocolate Chip Paradise Pie with Vanilla Ice Cream. At 1,600 calories, it’s like eating the caloric equivalent of three Big Macs.

Now there is some food for thought. HA! I crack myself up.

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Last night my wife made “chicken” sandwiches…that weren’t really chicken. They were breaded soy patties from MorningStar Farms called “Chik Patties Original”. Absolutely amazing. If she had not told me what they were I never, in a million years, would have known that it was not actually chicken meat. We have been trying to watch our meat intake (of every kind) and her finding these patties was fantastic. They taste exactly like a breaded chicken breast…I don’t know how they do it, but they are quite good. You could serve these to guests and they would never know it wasn’t chicken.

I was apprehensive when she told me what they were, but now I know I could eat these in place of chicken anytime. I used to be scared of this stuff, but…yum. Next up, their “chicken” tenders!

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The United States Department of Agriculture has rejected a call for an outright ban on all “downer” cows in our food supply. Why is this important? Because studies have shown that “downer” cows have a much higher risk of getting and transmitting Mad Cow Disease:

Government regulations prohibit slaughtering cattle for food if the animals cannot stand or walk on their own… Cows that cannot stand up are supposed to be kept out of the food supply in part because they may be infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease. The disease is extremely rare in the United States, but of the 15 cases documented in North America, most in Canada, the majority have been traced to downer cattle. Washington Post.

Federal regulations call for keeping downed cattle out of the food supply because they may pose a higher risk of contamination from E. coli, salmonella or mad cow disease because they typically wallow in feces and their immune systems are often weak. Yahoo News

So why was this ban even brought up by a Senate Appropriations subcommittee? Because of that huge beef recall that started on February 18, which was apparently set off by sick cows in the Chino, CA based Westland/Hallmark Meat Co., where undercover video “showed workers kicking, shocking and otherwise abusing “downer” animals that were apparently too sick or injured to walk into the slaughterhouse. Some animals had water forced down their throats, San Bernardino County prosecutor Michael Ramos said.” Sounds fun. And then we get to eat them…yum!

But even after the video tape of the abuse of the “downer” cows came out, Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer “told Congress yesterday that he would not endorse an outright ban on “downer” cows entering the food supply or back stiffer penalties for regulatory violations by meat-processing plants in the wake of the largest beef recall in the nation’s history.”

He must have a very big back pocket for all that lobby money to fit in, no? I mean, I am just assuming that would be why someone would actually choose to allow meat from very sick cows into our food supply.

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Why proclaim that a cereal is good for you when it contains a potentially harmful ingredient like high fructose corn syrup? I wrote about the debate between HFCS and regular sugar before, and mentioned this:

“In soda, it has been found that by using HFCS instead of pure sugar it can make the soda 10 times richer in harmful carbonyl compounds. According to one study, carbonyl compounds are elevated in people with diabetes and are blamed for causing diabetic complications such as foot ulcers and eye and nerve damage. Another study concluded that foods with increased fructose “produced significantly higher fasting plasma triacylglycerol values than did the glucose diet in men” and “if plasma triacylglycerols are a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, then diets high in fructose may be undesirable”.”

HFCS is used in place of plain sugar because it is much cheaper than plain sugar - it’s all about cutting costs and making more money. It is definitely not about health at all. While off the top of my head I can name some products that contain HFCS (sodas, candy, etc), did you also know that it is probably also in that “healthy” breakfast cereal you eat every morning? Unless you read the ingredients of every box of cereal that you buy, you might not know that a product such as Special K contains HFCS - and Special K is supposed to be good for you! Some other cereals that contain HFCS and should be avoided if possible include:

Kellogg’s® All-Bran® Original cereal
Kellogg’s Corn Flakes® cereal
Kellogg’s Raisin Bran® cereal
Kellogg’s® Low Fat Granola With Raisins
Kellogg’s® Mueslix® cereal
Kellogg’s® Smart Start® Strong Heart Toasted Oat cereal
Kellogg’s® Rice Krispies® cereal

There are plenty of breakfast cereals that do not contain HFCS, but they might be a little harder to find. But if you check out Whole Foods, Wild Oats, Trader Joe’s or another natural food store, you are apt to find suitable replacements for the name brand cereals that you have been eating that are much better for you. Personally, I like the Raisin Bran and the Corn Flakes from Trader Joe’s - all natural and HFCS free. So why put a genetically modified corn product in your body if you don’t have to? Beware though - once you start looking for it, you are going to find it in cookies, bread, granola, cereal bars, you name it…so don’t say I didn’t warn you!

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