Four Foods to Promote Heavy Metal Detoxing

On a day-to-day basis, our bodies are exposed to thousands of man-made chemicals, from the air we breathe to the food we eat to the pharmaceuticals we ingest. No matter what we do, we are exposed to potential toxins, such as heavy metals, on a daily basis. Heavy metals are found naturally everywhere, but extensive human disruption has resulted in the accumulation of these metals within our bodies. These toxins can build up in our blood, causing oxygen and nutrients to be inadequately delivered, disruption of binding sites for hormones and nutrients, damage to organs and nervous system, and promote disease (1).

Heavy metal toxicity and fish

Seafood, predominantly fish, is not only an important source of protein, but also rich in essential minerals, vitamins, and unsaturated/essential fatty acids. Fish which contain the highest amounts of fat and essential fatty acids — salmon, trout, albacore — are potentially the most healthy, but their nutrient-dense lipid content can also pose the greatest harm (2). These nutrient-dense layers of fat can also contain high heavy metal concentrations, and fatty fish such as swordfish, marlin, and ahi tuna have some of the highest levels of methylated mercury (3). Primarily due to pollution, mercury, along with other fat-soluble toxins, will naturally build up in the fatty tissues of fish via the ingestion of sediment, seawater, and oceanic food-chain organisms high in methylmercury (4,5).

Although the American Heart Association recommends eating fish at least twice a week to achieve recommended daily omega-3 fatty acid status, this can backfire if we aren’t careful about where we source our seafood and which types we consume (6).This doesn’t mean we have to give up some of our favorite, nutrition-rich foods, but it means that it’s critical to eat sustainably harvested and certified fish and seafood.

Though we can choose sustainably sourced seafood to combat ingestion of heavy metals, we can’t always cut our overall exposure in our daily lives. Thankfully, our bodies have a natural healing ability, or vital force, that is constantly working to restore normal structure and function. We have specific detoxification organs — liver, kidneys, skin — that are dedicated 24/7 to cleaning our blood and efficiently removing toxins from our bodies. We even have a natural process specific to removing heavy metals, otherwise known as chelation. And there are a number of foods that can actually help naturally increase chelation.

Three Detoxifying Foods

1. Cilantro: Cilantro/coriander, perhaps the most famous herb for chelating heavy metals from the body, has been specifically shown to help remove mercury, lead, and aluminum from the tissues (7).

2. Garlic and onions: Garlic, onion and shallot are sulfur rich foods which help remove lead from the body. (8)

3. Brazil nuts: Brazil nuts contain high amounts of selenium, which has been shown to reduce metal toxicity. Selenium is critical for making the body’s most important antioxidant, and can actually actively bind methylmercury in the body, thereby rendering it less bioavailable and therefore less harmful. (9,10)

By adding naturally chelating ingredients to our daily diets, we can aid our bodies in its natural healing abilities. So, in an effort to feed two birds with one seed, let’s combine sustainably sourced salmon, and get our all-important omega-3s, with some foods and naturally aid in the chelation of heavy metals.

Brazil Nut and Cilantro-Crusted Coho Salmon

¾ lb filet of wild-caught Alaskan Coho salmon
7 Brazil nuts, finely chopped
Cilantro, minced
1 shallot, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 Tbl coconut oil, divided
Juice and zest from half of a lemon
Freshly cracked pepper
Pinch of Maldon sea salt

Instructions
Preheat oven and cast-iron skillet at 375 degrees. Combine chopped nuts, garlic, shallot, cilantro, ½ Tbl coconut oil, lemon juice and zest, salt, and pepper in a small bowl and spread topping over salmon fillet. Remove preheated cast-iron skillet and add the rest of the coconut oil. Place crusted salmon on the hot skillet, return to the oven for about 20 minutes, until the fish is fully cooked and flakes easily with a fork.

Resources:

1. Pizzorno, J. E. The Toxin Solution: How Hidden Poisons in the Air, Water, Food, and Products We Use Are Destroying Our Health and What We Can Do to Fix It. New York: HarperOne, 2018.
2. Fish and Omega-3 Fatty Acids. How Cigarettes Damage Your Body. http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/HealthyLiving/HealthyEating/HealthyDietGoals/Fish-and-Omega-3-Fatty-Acids_UCM_303248_Article.jsp#.W1c9fthKg_U. Accessed July 24, 2018.
3. Menon S. Mercury Guide. NRDC. https://www.nrdc.org/stories/mercury-guide. Published January 9, 2018. Accessed July 24, 2018.
4. Kohlstadt I. Fish, mercury, and personalized medicine. Townsend Letter: The Examiner of Alternative Medicine. June 2007.
5. How Does Mercury Get Into Fish? Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-does-mercury-get-into/. Accessed July 24, 2018.
6. Fish and Omega-3 Fatty Acids. How Cigarettes Damage Your Body. http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/HealthyLiving/HealthyEating/HealthyDietGoals/Fish-and-Omega-3-Fatty-Acids_UCM_303248_Article.jsp#.W1c9fthKg_U. Accessed July 24, 2018.
7. The Health Benefits of Cilantro. Dr. Group’s Healthy Living Articles. https://www.globalhealingcenter.com/natural-health/health-benefits-of-cilantro/. Published February 16, 2017. Accessed July 24, 2018.
8. Negi, R., Satpathy, G., Tyagi, Y. K., & Gupta, R. K. (2012). Biosorption of heavy metals by utilising onion and garlic wastes. International Journal of Environment and Pollution, 49(3/4), 179. doi:10.1504/ijep.2012.050898.
9. Stockler-Pinto, M., Mafra, D., Farage, N., Boaventura, G., & Cozzolino, S. (2010). Effect of Brazil nut supplementation on the blood levels of selenium and glutathione peroxidase in hemodialysis patients. Nutrition, 26(11–12), 1065–1069. doi:10.1016/j.nut.2009.08.006
10. Ralston, N. V., & Raymond, L. J. (2010). Dietary selenium’s protective effects against methylmercury toxicity. Toxicology, 278(1), 112–123. doi:10.1016/j.tox.2010.06.004.