Utahns fishing for the most nutritious, least harmful food may nonetheless want to avoid certain sea creatures as vehemently as they shun red meat.
"One of the benefits of fish is that when you eat it, you eat less meat," quipped Dr. Malcome M. Berenson, professor of medicine and gastroenterology at the University of Utah Medical Center."We do know that meat has a high fat content, and we think that fat is one of the factors that may play a role in the genesis of cancer of the colon and breast. It also contributes to heart disease."
However, Berenson cautions that all fish isn't hazard-free.
For example, during certain times of the year, shellfish - particularly oysters, mussels and clams - carry certain micro-organisms that can make people sick.
"There are problems with contaminated waters during certain seasons of the year, especially where sewage has been introduced into natural breeding beds of those types of shellfish," said state epidemiologist Craig Nichols. "Because of sewage contamination, people have always been warned against eating raw oysters or similar shellfish because hepatitis type-A is commonly associated with them."
Currently, Nichols said, the Gulf Coast has pollution problems, as do the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts.
That's why there are restrictions on the times of the year the shellfish can be harvested.
Health officials fear that hazards from contaminated waters will increase as more raw sewage is dumped into America's coastal waters.
Raw clams and oysters, Nichols said, are also associated with vibrios, the most deadly of which is the cholera organism.
"While we don't see many cholera outbreaks anymore, we do see non-cholera vibrio outbreaks from eating shellfish," he said.
Parasitic diseases are common among people who eat Sushi, a regular or saltwater fish eaten raw.
Nichols said while the risk of illness is reduced when the fish is properly prepared by trained Sushi chefs, "even when prepared by those individuals, there have been cases of parasitic diseases associated with the fish."
The health official said a good rule to follow is: Don't eat raw fish.
That's what he tells dismayed housewives who call complaining that little white worms are crawling in their store-bought white fish.
"It doesn't mean there is anything wrong with the fish," he said. "It just means you have to cook the fish more thoroughly."
But smoking fish may not be the answer.
"There is a higher incidence of gastric cancer in Japan and some of the Far Eastern countries and among some major fish eaters," Berenson said. "One of the things that is suspected is not the fish, but the way the fish are prepared - by smoking."
Nevertheless, both specialists agree that fish overall is better for the body than is red meat.
While Nichols believes that nutrition-conscious folk should include a mix of meat products in their diet, fish or white meat should be eaten more frequently than red meat.
"But be aware there's also the possibility of illness associated with inadequately cooked fish," he said.