"Eating sushi has become the new Russian roulette."

*

So recently I got wind of the illness that Jeremy Piven, the actor who plays Ari Gold in Entourage, acquired. He got mercury poisoning from eating sushi twice a day for two years. He had six times the allowable amount of mercury as advised by the FDA!

Now I had known about the carcinogens and pollutants that accumulated in the flesh and fat of deep-sea fish and bottom-feeders for many years, but I had pushed it to the back of my mind for the sake of my palate and out of negligence. However, the news of one of my favorite characters on one of my favorite television shows being stricken by such an unusual and serious injury abruptly pushed that knowledge back to the fore.

I just did a quick Google search and numerous studies and articles highlight the dangers of eating seafood nowadays, particularly sushi/sashimi.

While I don't plan on giving up on eating sushi or all seafood, it does make me much more wary. For instance instead of getting that tuna sub for lunch, I'll probably get a smoked chicken or beef instead. It's just a crying shame that seafood is so damn tasty!

(Does eating raw seafood as opposed to cooked seafood somehow make mercury, PCBs, etc. more toxic? Can someone post an answer to this because I don't see how cooking it would get rid of the mercury, PCBs, or other toxic chemicals present, but most articles only point out the dangers of eating raw seafood.)

Here's a handy, compact list for the cautious eaters out there.

I had been eating red snapper, farmed U.S. salmon, and orange roughy for years! Who would have known?

It's official. Man-made pollution is encroaching on my state of well-being and happiness!

*(Photo belongs to 'joonelovesfood.blogspot')