Ocean wild-caught fish occupies a singular and irreplaceable role in the Primal Diet. Aajonus positioned it as the primary white meat, the food most responsible for reconstituting nerves, including the brain itself. He distinguished it categorically from red meat, assigning it a completely different physiological function: where red meat rebuilds muscle, skin, and tissue in general, white meat such as nonfarmed ocean wild-caught fish and seafood helps reconstitute nerves, including the brain. He saw these two categories as complementary and often necessary together, not interchangeable.

Aajonus recommended that people eat 1 to 3 pounds of raw meat daily to help regenerate and heal the body and to reverse the common toxic deterioration associated with aging and disease. Fish was central to this, particularly for people dealing with neurological conditions, mineral toxicity, nerve damage, or nervous system depletion.

He also described ocean wild-caught fish as the only fish he recommended for the general population, explicitly excluding freshwater fish in almost all circumstances. The ocean itself, he argued, is a self-correcting mineral ecosystem, and the creatures that live in it have evolved biochemical properties specifically related to the mineral environment they inhabit, including the capacity to render otherwise dangerous minerals into bioactive, beneficial forms within the body. This distinction between the ocean environment and the freshwater or land environment was foundational to his entire position on fish.

He repeatedly returned to fish as something he personally consumed in large quantities and with great pleasure. While living on Jekyll Island, he consumed up to 7 pounds of raw seafood per week, including shrimp, in waters that were known to have been contaminated to some degree. He described sitting down on remote islands to eat three pounds of fresh-caught raw swordfish or tuna in a single sitting, comparing it to the experience of eating candy as a child. His enthusiasm for raw ocean fish, especially swordfish, was consistent throughout all of his teaching materials.

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The most technically detailed aspect of Aajonus's teaching on ocean fish concerns mercury, specifically, why raw ocean fish containing mercury is not only safe but actively beneficial, and why cooked ocean fish containing the same mercury becomes dangerous.

His central argument was that mercury in ocean fish is not the same as mercury in land animals or fresh water fish, and that it is not the same after cooking as it is in its raw state. He conducted a laboratory experiment in 1989 to investigate this directly.

The 1989 Swordfish Experiment:

Aajonus used 16 dogs and 8 cats of various breeds, all aged 11 to 14 years, specifically selecting elderly animals because they are considered most susceptible to contamination and illness from toxic sources. He himself was the 13th subject. He obtained a 53-pound swordfish caught in the Pacific Ocean. The mercury level in the swordfish registered approximately 9 on the scale used, where 13 was considered decontaminatingly bad and 3 to 5 was considered still toxic but not dangerously so. The swordfish's mercury level of 9 was therefore relatively high.

He divided the subjects into two groups, one group received raw swordfish, one group received the same swordfish cooked. They ate nothing but this for approximately 7 days. Feces and urine were checked.

Results from the cooked group: 98% of the mercury was found in the urine and released in the feces, meaning 98% had been absorbed into and then excreted by the body, but not before passing through the system and being available for cellular interaction. In the cooked group, only 5% to 8% passed out of the system entirely without absorption, meaning the remainder stored and circulated through the body.

Results from the raw group: In the animals that ate the swordfish raw (including Aajonus himself), a much higher percentage passed out of the system without being absorbed as a toxic agent. The fat molecules remained bound to the mercury, and the body was intelligent enough to allow this chelated complex to pass through the intestines largely undigested, preventing uptake of the mercury as a free radical.

The mechanism, as Aajonus explained it: cooking causes the fat that fish bodies use to protect themselves from poisons to detach, resulting in the poisons including mercury being released as free radicals. When the fish is eaten raw, the fat molecules remain intact and bound to the mercury, and this chelated complex passes through the system without the mercury being released to cause cellular damage. The body and intestines are intelligent enough to recognize this and to not fully digest the fat-toxin compound, allowing it to pass out with the feces.

He stated: "The mercury in swordfish is a very healthy mercury and helps that creature be very buoyant and can dive and jump very high. Without that mercury, it wouldn't be as buoyant. It wouldn't move as fast. It's non-toxic until you cook it, and then you've made it a free radical, and it is a poison."

He elaborated further: "Eating raw swordfish will educate a body on how to utilize mercury efficiently." The mercury in swordfish, when digested and made bioactive by plankton and eaten by fish, functions as a great detoxifier of toxic mercury already in the body. Bioactive and non-cauterized mercury in raw fish helps buoy the body's own detoxification of stored heavy metals.

He also noted: "Foods that are high in raw minerals and fats help the body detoxify toxic minerals in bones. If someone eats foods that are high in minerals and fats, like seafood, s/he is promoting this detoxification."

He explicitly stated: "I suggest that no one avoid wild-caught ocean creatures that are considered high in mercury. My point was that eating ocean wild-caught raw fish was a factor with low mercury absorption. Land and fresh-water animals do not have the same mineral-altering ability that ocean animals have."

He also noted from a newsletter: "As I have stated for years, ocean-caught fish are not exposed to the type and concentrations of mercury that land and fresh-water animals are."

For raccoons foraging in Florida, or freshwater fish, mercury comes from pesticides, fungicides, and garbage dumps, not from ocean mineral ecology. The mercury in those animals is a fundamentally different type of exposure than the bioactive mercury integrated into ocean fish through plankton.

The white meat in ocean fish and seafood helps reconstitute nerves, including the brain. This is distinct from and complementary to red meat's role in rebuilding muscle and connective tissue. He gave the example of a patient named Louis who ate raw fish or fowl twice a month, even at this minimal frequency, within a year, Louis managed a fifteen-minute conversation in the time it previously took him thirty minutes. Aajonus interpreted this as direct evidence of nerve reconstitution.

For a patient named Jeff with neurological impairment, Aajonus argued that feeding him raw meats including fish while his body focused on healing the brain should allow repair in less time.

He stated explicitly in response to a question about whether white fish combined with red meat could substitute for true white meat functions: "Fish is mainly to reconstruct", meaning that fish serves this neurological rebuilding function that even white chicken does not fully provide.

Aajonus noted that fish contains a high concentration of minerals that cannot be obtained from other foods. Even when fish is frozen (which he generally advised against), the mineral content is not completely destroyed because it is not polluted and it is not cauterized, it therefore still supplies some good nutrition, particularly these minerals, even if the full benefits are diminished.

He noted that eating fish helps neutralize mineral toxins already stored in the body, particularly for people who have accumulated heavy metals or industrial toxins.

He described a man with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue who had been on the Primal Diet and was now spending six to eight hours spearfishing in open water, two to three times a week. He used this as a direct illustration of what raw ocean fish and the Primal Diet can do for energy and physical endurance.

He described his personal experience eating fresh-caught swordfish and tuna raw: "I'd sit down and eat three pounds in the sitting. Like candy was to me as a kid."

He also observed an isolated island tribe living primarily on raw fish and coconut, two foods, and noted that the men and women were "huge, thick muscle people." He had expected fish-eating people to be skinny due to his own experience of being quickly hungry after fish, but observed that for them, 1 to 2 pounds of raw fish daily plus coconut produced exceptional muscular development. He acknowledged this may relate to individual biochemistry and how different people process fish.

Aajonus made a sharp distinction between fish fat (naturally occurring within the flesh of whole raw fish) and commercially sold fish oil products. He insisted: "There's no such thing as really fish oils. It's fish fat. Oils only come from vegetation and fruit and things like that." He considered commercial fish oil an inappropriate misnomer and warned that all commercial fish oil products are processed with kerosene-based solvents and/or heat to remove all protein so that bacteria cannot grow in the product.

He stated: "The fish fats digest very easily but depending upon what fish it is, it can be very heavy and difficult to digest." The fats in fish can sedate and replenish the nervous system, though he clarified they do not do so as completely or as quickly as raw cream.

Some fish fats are highly complex, salmon fat was noted as complex, and there is one fish (referred to as "butterfish," "oilfish," or "escalar") whose fats are so difficult to digest that eating more than approximately a quarter of a pound almost always causes diarrhea. He called this the "diarrhea fish" or "poop fish" colloquially.

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The transformation between raw and cooked ocean fish is, according to Aajonus, one of the most consequential distinctions in the entire Primal Diet. He stated directly: "Cooking of any kind causes the fat that fish bodies use to protect themselves (from poisons) to detach, resulting in the poisons (mercury) being released (free-radical)."

This means that a fish that is entirely safe, even beneficial, when eaten raw becomes a source of free-radical heavy metal contamination when cooked. The same swordfish with a mercury level of 9 that passed harmlessly through the bodies of raw-eating subjects caused 98% of its mercury to circulate through and be processed by the cooked-eating subjects' systems.

He contrasted the Japanese experience: "In 1959, in Japan, you could take a roll of film that you'd shot and you could dump it into the river, I mean the ocean, right off the pier, and develop it, Kodak, their chemical waste, right into the ocean, you could develop your film just by dipping it in. And these people have been eating raw fish, and cooked fish... they don't have any of that kind of mercury poisoning." The implication is that those eating raw fish remained protected even in one of the most polluted marine environments in the world at that time.

Aajonus consistently preferred fresh, never-frozen fish. He described catching fresh swordfish and tuna that had been on the boat for only four to five hours maximum as "never frozen, never on a boat except for maybe four or five hours, six hours maximum" and describing the experience of eating it as incomparable in taste and quality.

However, he acknowledged that frozen wild Alaskan salmon from non-polluted waters, while not ideal, still provides benefit. He stated: "It doesn't completely cause it to become a free radical because it isn't polluted, it isn't cauterized, so it does supply some good nutrition", particularly the mineral concentration that fish provides which cannot be gotten from other foods. So while freezing is not preferred, it does not eliminate all value in a non-polluted, wild-caught fish. In contrast, farmed fish that is also frozen provides essentially no benefit.

Aajonus discussed making high meat with ocean wild-caught fish as one of two recommended varieties alongside red meat. The protocol for making high meat with fish is: place the fish in a mason jar with a lid, keep it refrigerated, and every 3 to 4 days take the jars outdoors, completely remove the lids, and wave the jars in the air to exchange the air inside each jar. Return the lids, tighten them, and return to refrigeration. After 4 weeks, you may begin to eat one marble-sized piece once or twice per week.

He specified that there are approximately 17 stages of bacterial development in the fermentation process, and that airing the meat is required to progress the bacteria through these stages. If you do not replace the air in the jar every 3 to 4 days, the bacterial stages will not progress. If you go on a trip, when you return, recommence airing the meat so that it will resume progress through all of the bacterial stages.

He noted that the stinky fish was described as preferable over fresh fish among traditional Arctic peoples because it provided more strength and energy, particularly for endurance through cold. The bacteria had broken the flesh down in ways that delivered nutrients more rapidly.

He noted that the trick with raw fish to get rid of odor is to use cool water, not warm water. Cool water breaks down the fat molecules and dissipates the smell. He described this as part of knowing "how to do things the way they used to do them 200 years ago."

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Aajonus was explicit and detailed about where ocean fish should come from:

Recommended: - East Coast of the United States, preferably above the Carolinas - Pacific Coast, preferably above San Francisco - Deep-sea ocean fish from the Atlantic coast including Florida (he would eat these even though not preferred) - Canada, New England, Maine, Alaska for shellfish

Acceptable with caveats: - Waters around the Gulf of Mexico: he stated the Gulf is approximately 10% polluted and he does not eat anything from there, though it is less polluted than freshwater bodies - Atlantic coast of Florida: he would eat deep-sea fish from here, even though less preferred - Anywhere outside the China Sea corridor

Not recommended: - China Sea corridor, from the Philippines to Northern China (as of September 2011): "Ocean wild-caught fish is still okay unless it is from the China sea from the Philippines to Northern China" - Gulf of Mexico: he specifically recommended against oysters from Florida and the Gulf of Mexico due to U.S. military regular dumping of vast amounts of radioactive waste and freight ships passing through the Panama Canal discharging and dumping petroleum chemicals and waste hourly

He framed the comparative pollution levels as follows in different passages: - Freshwater: 33–35% contaminated (in one passage), 35–40% contaminated (in another passage) - Ocean overall: 2% contaminated (in one passage), 4–8% contaminated depending on where you look (in another passage) - Gulf of Mexico: approximately 10% contaminated

These figures were presented as his basis for recommending ocean over freshwater by a very wide margin.

He recommended all varieties of ocean wild-caught fish, explicitly including: - Swordfish: His personal favorite. Highest mercury content of any fish, but he specifically recommended it and ate it regularly. He called it his "favorite-tasting fish" and bought it multiple times for personal consumption as well as for laboratory experiments. - Tuna: He recommended it directly and said "Tuna's fine." He noted that albacore is very strong in flavor while other tuna is less intense. He noted tuna as probably the least fishy-tasting of the strong fish, making it the most accessible for people new to raw fish. - Salmon: He recommended wild salmon. He had personal experience eating raw salmon directly from garbage cans after a 42-to-45-day fast, pulling out salmon that was "undulating with pinworm," removing the large ones, and eating it anyway, noting that he never got sick from it despite having a vagotomy and no hydrochloric acid in his stomach. - Seabass: "Seabass is good. It's a little salty." - Shark: He expressed love for shark personally but acknowledged it is becoming endangered. - Yellowtail: Listed among his favorites alongside swordfish. - Shrimp: He consumed shrimp at Jekyll Island as part of up to 7 pounds of seafood weekly. - Oysters, clams, mussels, scallops: Recommended in their farmed versions specifically because their farming involves only fencing off ocean areas, not feeding them processed food. "The thing that makes them farmed is that people fence off an area of the ocean where they grown and break off clusters and move them to other rocks where they can grow larger." He noted that unlike fish, these creatures cannot survive eating processed food, so farmed versions are still essentially wild-fed. - Stingray: He described personally eating a 2-pound stingray purchased from a Filipino fishing dock that was so high in ammonia it burned his mouth and throat.

He specifically stated his personal preference returns always to swordfish.

He noted concern about swordfish being overfished and becoming endangered, their catches are getting smaller and smaller, they are being caught before reaching reproductive age. He expressed genuine ecological concern about this without resolving whether to stop eating it.

He described the difficulty of finding non-farmed fish at retail: "I go and I ask them what's not farm-raised... Not much. That's right. There isn't much. Unless you have a big fish market."

He described going to a large fish market in Los Angeles where there are many selections. He advised asking specifically and directly whether fish is farm-raised.

He described the visual markers of farmed salmon: the flesh looks diseased and pale compared to wild, leading fish farmers to commission food coloring from the University of Washington to make the flesh look rich and alive. The report on this food coloring found that it passes through the human body as a plastic with BPA and other toxic substances that cannot be absorbed normally and cause damage.

He responded to a subscriber who reported that filleted fish at supermarkets is run through a chlorine bath to kill bacteria, with the buyer confirming that as far as he knows all filleted fish is run through this chlorine bath. Whole Foods was also reported to be spraying fresh fish in the case with ionized water to keep it fresh-looking. Oysters were being reported as irradiated.

His response: "Adulterations to our food increase daily. That is why I stress that people have to invest in and own farms, period. There is no escaping the onslaught of chemicals in food purchased at any market, including Whole Foods."

He advised scraping meats rather than rinsing them with water, because rinsing would wash the chemicals deeper into the flesh. He stated: "As soon as I arrive home from market", implying he scrapes fish immediately upon returning.

For shellfish specifically, he stated they should come from Canada, New England, Maine, or Alaska. He cautioned that since shellfish are scavengers from shallow waters, they tend to come from more polluted areas, and you need to know where they are coming from.

He stated that oysters in jars are not ideal, it is better to get oysters in the shell and pry them open, though he acknowledged some people eat them already out of the shell in containers.

He described a specific experience of trying to obtain a fresh swordfish directly from a fisherman in the Santa Barbara area for his mercury experiment. He called several fishing boat businesses in Los Angeles and Ventura, found fishermen who promised to call when they or a client caught a large enough swordfish, and waited approximately eight to nine weeks before receiving a call about a 130-pound swordfish. He paid the fisherman two times what the fisherman usually got (noting that supermarkets typically pay the fisherman one-third of retail price).

In the Philippines, he described getting a 230-pound swordfish. He described sitting on remote islands getting fresh-caught swordfish and tuna from fishermen the same day, never frozen, never on a boat more than four to six hours.

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For any concern about free-radical mercury in fish, particularly if someone is uncertain about the source or if the fish might have some contamination, Aajonus recommended eating a little no-salt raw cheese with fish to ensure that any free-radical mercury is absorbed and contained in the cheese. He stated: "You can always eat a little no-salt raw cheese with fish to insure that any free-radical mercury is absorbed and contained in the cheese."

This pairing does not indicate that raw fish on its own is dangerous, but it provides an additional safety mechanism for the small percentage of mercury that might be in a freer state.

In essentially every recipe involving raw ocean fish, Aajonus included substantial fat, raw unsalted butter, stone-pressed olive oil, flax oil, coconut cream, or combinations thereof. This is consistent with his biochemical explanation that fat molecules bind with any toxins in the fish and prevent them from being absorbed as free radicals. The fat pairings in his recipes are therefore both culinary and functional.

Specifically in the Thai Ceviche recipe: fish is paired with flax oil or stone-pressed olive oil plus unsalted raw butter. In the Spiced Sashimi recipe: fish is paired with flax oil plus very soft unsalted raw butter. In the Tahitian Fish recipe: fish is paired with coconut cream. In the Hot Buttered Salmon recipe: fish is paired with raw unsalted butter and raw cheese.

He noted that fish and red meat serve complementary functions and recommended combining white meat with red meat for people with certain metabolic conditions, specifically stating to "always combine white meat with your red meat" for someone with an acid condition, and to make each meal a balance of red and white. He suggested that white fish with red meat does not serve the same function as chicken as a white meat companion to red meat for skin repair, but that fish is "mainly to reconstruct" the nervous system.

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Aajonus described a personal experience of using live fish to clean an infected wound on his body while in the ocean. Small fish were "nibbling all the white blood cells, eating everything", cleaning the wound by consuming the dead cells and white blood cells removing toxicity. He noted: "Let me tell you, if it were bad, those poor fish would be dead quickly. Because they certainly [would have been]", suggesting the infection was a beneficial detoxification process and the fish acted as external agents completing it. He described not needing to go home, soak it in water, put on coconut cream, or deal with the stinging and burning, the fish took care of the whole process in the ocean.

This is described as an observed natural phenomenon rather than a formal protocol, but it illustrates his view of the relationship between raw fish, bacteria, and the body's detoxification processes.

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• General daily meat intake: 1 to 3 pounds of raw meat daily helps regenerate, heal the body, and reverse toxic deterioration
• Aajonus's personal consumption on Jekyll Island: Up to 7 pounds of raw seafood per week including shrimp
• Single sitting consumption: He personally ate 3 pounds of fresh raw swordfish or tuna in a single sitting on multiple occasions
• Typical recipe serving: 5 to 8 ounces per serving in virtually all of his fish recipes

He recommended incorporating fish regularly throughout the week alongside other meats. He suggested approximately two chickens per week for someone relying primarily on that, but noted: "You definitely need some seafood too." He did not specify an exact minimum weekly frequency for fish but his personal pattern appeared to include it multiple times weekly.

For the woman who experienced extraordinary heavy metal detoxification, the regime was "seafood with whatever other meats you want" daily for one year.

Eating more than approximately a quarter pound of escalar/oilfish/butterfish will almost always cause diarrhea. He acknowledged this as a predictable physiological response to a particularly complex fish fat that is difficult to digest.

Shark and stingray are very high in natural ammonia once killed, as the urea changes into ammonia by bacteria when not kept refrigerated. He described eating a stingray so high in ammonia it burned his mouth and throat but washed it down and described the experience as manageable. He approached this as a functional food with therapeutic properties rather than as something dangerous, but the intensity of the ammonia response indicates these fish should be approached with awareness of their potency.

He addressed whether fish can be preserved in oil similar to sardines. His recommendations: - Never use metal containers, always glass - Cure the fish for 1 to 24 hours in lemon juice first - Pour off the lemon juice - Add raw vinegar - The preserved fish will likely last no more than 2 weeks without going off - He noted that raw lemon juice and raw vinegar promote fermentation, they do not stop it - Preserving raw fish in vinegar for longer than 2 weeks using the same recipe as pickles will completely disintegrate the fish - Some gas that forms may smell slightly rank, this is normal

He ate approximately one pound of raw salmon directly from a garbage can that was visibly "undulating with pinworm," removing only the largest ones. He reported no illness from this experience, noting that he has a vagotomy and no hydrochloric acid in his stomach and still never got a parasite from eating raw meat even under these extreme circumstances.

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Any fish, seafood, or fowl may be substituted for the specified meat in any of his seafood recipes. The basic approach is to serve the raw fish with acidic marinades (lemon or lime juice) and fat preparations (butter, olive oil, flax oil, coconut cream).

He described eating sashimi at sushi bars, just the raw fish, no rice, no seaweed. He got just sashimi. He did recommend that other people eat the rice when at sushi bars.

He described cultures in Polynesia and on isolated islands eating raw fish marinated in lime juice as a traditional practice, citing this as validation of raw fish preparation traditions.

Stir coconut cream and lime juice together and let stand for 10 minutes. Dice fish. Place fish and tomato in a bowl. Pour coconut/lime sauce over fish and tomato and fold gently together. Eat immediately or let marinate for up to 8 hours.

Alternative: Substitute 1/3 cup pineapple for tomato.

Dice fish and marinate in lemon or lime juice for 20 minutes or up to 24 hours. Pour off juice. Stir oil and butter and ginger and mint together and combine with fish.

Grate and finely chop pepper. Stir juice, olive oil, and pepper together for 1 minute. Slice swordfish into strips. Arrange fish in a pattern on plate. Pour oil/juice/pepper mixture over fish.

Vigorously stir all ingredients together, or blenderize in a 4-ounce jar on low speed for 5 seconds. Spoon over fish.

Marinate fish in juice for at least 20 minutes at room temperature. Place fish on plate and sprinkle with parsley.

Warm lemon and lime juices, hot pepper, and soft butter together in a 4-ounce jar, capped with blender washer/blades/base, immersed in a bowl of mildly hot water for 5 minutes. Blenderize on medium speed for 10 seconds. Pour mixture over salmon and top with grated cheese.

He described eating fresh-caught raw swordfish and tuna directly, in three-pound portions, on islands in the Philippines and elsewhere, without any preparation other than cutting. He described fish marinated in lime juice as he observed and participated in on the island of Moorea in French Polynesia. He described eating raw chicken marinated in lime juice alongside raw fish preparations at a typical open-air Moorean restaurant.

He described his favorite ongoing personal preparation returning always to swordfish, eaten raw.

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The primary documented derivative of raw ocean wild-caught fish in Aajonus's system is fermented fish, "high meat" made from fish. The full protocol is described above in the Therapeutic Protocols section and in the Form & State section.

He described traditional Arctic cultures fermenting seal and fish by beating raw caribou and blubber together and rolling it in the ground so that bacteria and molds in the ground would pre-digest it, allowing people to get all the nutrients in a rush. He described the preference of people living through Arctic winters for the fermented stinky fish over fresh fish because it provided more strength and the ability to deal with cold and illness better.

He drew a sharp line between eating raw whole fish (which delivers all of the fish's nutritional matrix including fat, protein, minerals, and bacteria in their natural proportions) and any commercial fish oil product (which is categorically not recommended under any circumstances).

He described personally attempting to get a company to produce fish oil the way it was made before 1981, when it was cloudy, stinky, had all the proteins still in it, and was "like juicing fish." The FDA outlawed this formulation and required all protein to be removed so bacteria could not grow in it. The pre-1981 version he called "good substance." Everything since, he called "garbage."

He described finally convincing one company to make it the old way. Six months later they asked if there was another way to process it because the naturally made version only lasts six months and they needed a year-round product. He said: "Sell it high, sell it rotten." They refused. He concluded: "So again, it's all about money."

He stated: "The only way to get pure raw fish oil is to eat raw fish."

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Before 1981, fish oil was cloudy, stinky, contained all the proteins of the fish, was essentially juiced fish, and was "good substance." After 1981, the FDA required fish oil to be purified to the point where all proteins are removed and no bacteria can survive in it. This requires a heat process and/or a kerosene-based solvent. After this regulation, all commercial fish oil became, in Aajonus's view, garbage, containing petrochemical residue and having lost all live nutritional value.

He noted: "I don't care who promotes it. The FDA has said that it has to be purified to the point where all the proteins are out of it, so there's no bacteria can survive in it. To do that, it's a heat process."

He characterized the widespread fear of mercury in fish as a misunderstanding that causes people to avoid one of the most beneficial foods available, particularly in raw form. He spent significant time in both workshops and newsletters directly counteracting this fear.

He stated: "So many people I have gotten on the diet are afraid to eat fish like tuna and swordfish because of the mercury that's being talked and written about." His response was to provide the 1989 experiment data and his own personal experience of eating primarily swordfish, the highest-mercury fish, without any ill symptoms of mercury toxicity.

He directly addressed a newsletter subscriber's concern: "I suggest that we do NOT avoid wild-caught ocean creatures that are considered high in mercury."

The University of Washington was paid a fortune by the fish farming industry to develop a food coloring to inject into farmed salmon to make the flesh look "rich and alive", because the flesh of farmed salmon fed processed food looks diseased and pale. A report released approximately three years before the workshop found that when this food coloring passes through the human body, it cannot be absorbed as a food substance and causes toxicity, it is a form of plastic containing BPA and other toxic substances.

He stated: "They just want you to buy whatever they can make money with. They want to farm salmon. Hey, who cares what happens to you. It's the way it goes."

A subscriber reported that a supermarket buyer confirmed that all filleted fish is run through a chlorine bath to kill bacteria, and that Whole Foods was spraying fish with ionized water. Oysters were being irradiated. Aajonus's response was that this is part of an escalating pattern of food adulteration that makes owning and investing in farms the only real solution. No retail market, including Whole Foods, can be trusted to provide unadulterated raw fish.

He cited the extraordinary level of chemical pollution in Japanese coastal waters in the 1950s and 1960s, so extreme that Kodak film could be developed by dipping it in ocean water off the pier, and noted that Japanese people eating raw fish throughout this period did not develop the kind of mercury poisoning that would have been predicted. He used this as historical evidence that raw ocean fish consumption, even in severely polluted marine environments, does not produce mercury poisoning in the way that cooked ocean fish consumption or freshwater/land animal consumption does.

He described an isolated island tribe he visited at great personal risk (the government refused a permit, and he could have faced 10 years in jail if caught, so he could not take photographs or documentation) who lived on raw fish and coconut, two foods. They ate 1 to 2 pounds of fresh raw fish daily and coconut, with perhaps a green banana or green mango once every week or two weeks. They were "incredibly healthy." He stated he never saw them cook anything. This was presented as one of the most pristine living examples of the viability and health outcomes of a raw fish-based diet.

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