Cup of tea inhibits uptake of mercury from fish
https://www.ergo-log...teamercury.html
"Fish is healthy, but then again it's not. Fish is a source of omega-3 fatty acids, selenium and taurine. All healthy. But because of the cavalier way we treat the planet, fish is also source of mercury and other heavy metals. Not so healthy. So should you eat fish or not? Researchers at Purdue University have come up with a good solution: eat fish and drink a cup of tea with it. This way your body won't absorb the mercury from the fish.
Mercury
Even small quantities of mercury are bad for the heart and blood vessels. Fish itself is good for the heart because it contains taurine-rich protein and omega-3 fatty acids. But some studies have shown that because of mercury contamination fish does not always have positive effects on the cardiovascular system. [N Engl J Med. 2002 Nov 28;347(22):1747-54.]
Study
The researchers wanted to know if this situation could be remedied by eating fish in combination with plant fibres or polyphenols. It is known that these inhibit the body's absorption of heavy metals such as cadmium. In Food Chemistry the researchers describe experiments they did in which they digested polluted mackerel – 1ppm mercury – in an artificial digestive system, complete with all the enzymes and juices that are found in the human digestive system. Then they measured how much of the mercury was converted into a form that the gut cells could absorb.
Results
The results produced the figure below, which tells us that soya protein inhibits the conversion of mercury into an absorbable form. The line shows the amount of mercury, the bars show the amount of absorbable mercury."
