With so many new studies and research being released at an hourly rate each day recommending what foods to consume and what to avoid it can be difficult to know where to get your foods and what should be included in your healthy diet. You can eat healthy, exercise and still be at risk for consuming foods lacking in nutrients, or worse, containing dangerous and toxic components.
One such food that has been suggested as a strong, lean protein to include in your diet is that of tilapia. Physicians and celebrity health experts have touted tilapia as a great and healthy source of lean protein and omega-3s. Today, most wouldn’t even blink an eye at seeing tilapia on a menu or in a healthy news recipe article.
Yet, approximately 15 years ago, tilapia was an obscure fish living in African lake waters. Now, thanks to the ability to easily farm tilapia fish thanks to its easy breeding abilities and low cost of feeding it as well as it’s rather bland or “chicken” like taste, it has become a popular source of protein and other heart-healthy fish benefits.
Unfortunately, due to its low costs of production and high profit with short turnaround times, not only is it becoming more dangerous to consume the farmed fish, but it’s also causing intense environmental damage especially in countries that don’t regulate their fish farming industry.
For example, the overbreeding of tilapia in large quantities, which is happening in less wealthy countries and third world areas, is causing polluted waters. The pollution in the water then cycles back into the fish, which we then consume. These fish farms have literally no standards of how these fish are being farmed before landing on our kitchen plates.
Not only that, but because of the lack of regulated standards from Latin America and China, where the nearly 52 million pounds of tilapia come from annually, the fish have been found to often contain dangerous levels of bacteria.
Beyond the dangers posed by lackadaisical regulations of the environmental standards, studies are finding that tilapia may actual contain high deficiencies of omega-3s and healthy benefits from consuming the fishy food.
In the wild, tilapia normally consumes naturally occurring aquatic plants and insects as well as naturally growing algae – all of this leads to a healthy, nutritious diet for the fish and, in turn, those who eat it. However, when tilapia are farmed, they are fed pellets made of corn and soy; therefore, their diet leads to a lesser quality of fish.
Not only that, but in some fish farms the tilapia are being genetically modified to produce meatier fillets while causing smaller heads and tails to get the most bang for the buck.
Some farm raise Tilapia have also been found to contain pesticides, DDT (a chemical commonly found in insect spray) and other dangerous contaminants that aren’t normally consumed and are known toxins for the body.
According to research from the University of Montana College of Health Professions and Biomedical Sciences, at least 85 percent of seafood consumed in the United States is actually imported from other countries. And due to the fact that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is not fully funded nor fully staffed, it has been noted that the FDA only reviews 2 percent of these seafood imports for hazardous contaminates. Meaning, the tilapia you are consuming could contain heavy metals, drug residues and so forth – all unregulated.
Consuming genetically modified organisms (GMO) that have been altered for reasons other than nourishment often include items such as steroids. While the debate wages on as to whether GMO-fed animals pass along dangerous health effects to humans, it is still undetermined.
In 2011, guidelines for aquaculture began to be established in foreign countries when it came to exports to the United States. However, this still allows for lesser standards than if the United States were actually in control of the tilapia fish farms.
Be careful when eating tilapia that you know exactly where it came from and make sure that you never eat farm raised fish.
~ Health Scams Exposed
