Antibiotic Reared Fish Bad for Skin

You’ve probably heard more than once that fish is a great source of the Vitamin A and essential fatty acids your skin needs to retain its shape and hydration. Fish oil, in fact, is added to many skin care products, and some of the more popular skin-friendly nutritional regimens involve eating fish almost every day to manage various skin problems.

While fish has always been good for you, the rising levels of mercury in fish were not. Consumers were warned to check mercury concentrations in fish to keep from ingesting too much mercury and facing potential toxicity.

But now, mercury is not the only thing consumers need to be concerned about. The newest threat to fish is antibiotics, which are used in the rearing of fish. A large amount of antibiotics are used to keep the fish healthy, but these antibiotics tend to remain in the water and surroundings for a long time. This means that animals and humans ingest antibiotics when they eat fish, which can result in development of antibiotic resistant bacteria in our own bodies.

Antibiotic resistance is becoming more of a threat, as more forms of antibiotic resistant bacteria are being discovered.

This is a serious issue for those who consume fish on a regular basis. Hopefully solutions will be found to keep the fish we eat healthy and good for us, too.

In the meantime, read labels and source information for your fresh fish edibles, taking care to avoid excessive ingestion of fish reared in high antibiotic environments.