Ask a public-health/nutrition student

[Catholic_Lady]

Thank you for your answer, sir.

[Natachan]

Question:
Since I was a kid I was unable to eat bony fish. My parents tried to give me tuna and I'd throw it up. As a teenager we tried smoked salmon but all that gave me was pink vomit. Recently I tried catfish and other freshwater fish. I would eat a small amount and then something would make me stop. My stomach would just say, "nope, no more." When I did eat too much I threw it up again. Too much being one whole filet.

Never before have I had a problem with shellfish. I can eat tons of shrimp, or whole lobsters no problem. But recently mussels and some crab cooked at Chinese food places have made me feel off. Kind of how I feel before I reach the point of naseau for bony fish.

I've always assumed I had an allergy to bony fish (since it's usually an either or for bony or shellfish in terms of allergy) but now I'm wondering if something else isn't going on.

[Aractus]

It sounds like an intolerance rather than an allergy. You can have a skin-prick test done to determine whether you have a true allergy. Your intolerance could be psychological rather than physiological, but I have no way of knowing. For example, if your parents gave you tuna that was off, you could have subconsciously learned that all tuna was bad, that kind of thing is quite common with food poisoning (and it may not even have been the tuna - perhaps some off mayonnaise was added to it or some other food consumed at the same time was off).

[Dystopia]

Aractus, what do you think dissuades people from smoking? How do you explain that sometimes higher pricing doesn't equal lower consumption? Why do some governments raise taxes but refuse to pay for quitting smoking produts?

[Aractus]

[Athene]

Do you have a theory as to why anemics eat so much ice? No one really seems to have an answer for that. What are the best dietary sources of iron, for those who can't tolerate iron supplements?

[Aractus]

Iron is an interesting mineral. The body breaks down RBCs and recycles much of the iron so that 90% of a person's daily iron needs are met by the recycling of existing iron. The body really doesn't want to excrete it, thus some people end up absorbing too much iron even with a healthy diet, and the only way to thin it out is to have blood removed from the vein.

In answer to your question, your first course of action could be to look at the grains in your diet and replace them with iron-rich ones if you haven't already. So iron-fortified bread, iron-fortified breakfast cereal, and brown rice instead of white rice. Coffee can block iron absorption, so you'd want to make sure you don't have a coffee with breakfast or other meals - space it out. Red meat and oysters are excellent sources of iron, and of course plant foods don't contain any heme-iron (which is the more absorbable kind). However green leafy vegetables do contain significant amounts of nonheme-iron and are also a good source of iron. It should be noted that we don't know a lot about iron absorption, while I believe the current estimates are that heme-iron 15% of dietary iron, there are those arguing that it could contribute much more than that, and do note that meat contributes both kinds of iron (so that 15% of heme-iron probably represents meat contributing 30% or so total dietary iron in the average healthy diet).

[Dystopia]

I reminded myself of another question - Regarding cannabis and marijuana, some people use as an argument for its legalization and consumption that it doesn't have any ill effects on one's health or if it has the effects are minimal and little likely to happen, when compared to tobacco smoking. Is this true and to what degree? If not, what health issues will frequent weed smokers have?

[downbeatplumb]

[Aractus]

I reminded myself of another question - Regarding cannabis and marijuana, some people use as an argument for its legalization and consumption that it doesn't have any ill effects on one's health or if it has the effects are minimal and little likely to happen, when compared to tobacco smoking. Is this true and to what degree? If not, what health issues will frequent weed smokers have?

Because in most places it's an illegal drug, it can't be studied using RCT's (randomised controlled trials). It does however have health effects, both positive and negative (and even tobacco has both positive and negative health effects too, so does alcohol, so does most other illegal or controlled drugs).

I worry about the fact that, at least here, the government wants people to be allowed to self-medicate the drug if prescribed it. That is they'll grow their own and take an indiscriminate amount, instead of a measured therapeutic dosage which is the general way that medicine is administered.

The risk of lung cancer , and the development of emphysema should be lower than for smoking - but it's a dose response, and I would believe that smoking the same quantity of joints and cigarettes would be more-or-less equal on that.

THC has long-term negative effects on memory and mental health, however research also shows that it could slow the development of Alzheimer's. But take note that the research shows the dose required for the protective effect against Alzheimer's is very small, and taking a higher dose could have the opposite effect - it's one of those things, wait and see where the research goes.