MEITUS: Mercury issue won't go away

By Marty Meitus, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published January 30, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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Last week The New York Times published an article on the dangers of eating tuna sushi because of the high mercury content.

"Recent laboratory tests found so much mercury in tuna sushi from 20 Manhattan stores and restaurants that at most of them, a regular diet of six pieces a week would exceed the levels considered acceptable by the Environmental Protection Agency," began the story by Marian Burros.

The seafood industry went on the defensive. The National Fisheries Institute cited errors in the story and said in a press release, "Well-researched, science-based articles that deal with the mercury issue deserve to include a discussion of the benefits of omega-3 fatty acids . . ."

Regardless of what comes from the article and its detractors, one thing is clear: Those who have always been on the bubble about fish are bound to eat less. Between the mercury issue, farm-raised salmon with PCBs and sustainability, it's easier to make other choices. Despite the health benefits,consumers aren't likely to wade through all the confusion just to cook a piece of tilapia.

(By the way, cooking fish doesn't reduce its mercury levels. Mercury occurs naturally in the environment, but it's also a result of industrial pollution and can't be cooked away.)

Since tuna is well-loved, sushi aficionados will continue to order it. Some will say they don't eat that much, so it doesn't matter. Others will say the health benefits outweigh any risks.

Before you put down your chopsticks, there are seafoods lower in mercury: Among them are salmon, pollock and shrimp. But before we leave the topic, consider this: How did we get to the point where we're discussing how much mercury is an acceptable level, rather than how we got in this jam in the first place? Clearly there are no easy answers, but recognizing the problem is a start.

On another front, you've probably heard about the food fight between Jessica Seinfeld and Missy Chase Lapine over their cookbooks on pureeing vegetables and "sneaking" them into kids' food.

Lapine's book, The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Kids' Favorite Meals, came out six months before Seinfeld's book, Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food. Lapine is suing the Seinfelds for copyright and trademark infringement and defamation .

The whole thing might have resolved itself in the marketplace, given time. Even though Seinfeld's book vaulted to best-sellerdom, Lapine's book also has been successful - and it's likely the best book would have eventually ruled.

Sneaking veggies into food is hardly a new idea, but I heard another point of view worth noting: Yes, the nutritional boost is good, but you really want to introduce kids to vegetables so they'll develop a taste for them or at least be familiar enough with them to try them in the future. Sneaking veggies into food doesn't help that goal.

Plus, there's a certain amount of trust you want to develop around the dinner table. Just ask a certain college kid whose mother once told him he was eating beef when it was really lamb.

On the other hand, don't bring it up. It's one of those parenting moments I'd rather forget.

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