The American Heart Association recommends eating fish at least twice a week. Making fish a regular part of your diet may lower your risk for heart disease and help you to lower your blood pressure. However, most types of fish contain at least some mercury, and some are particularly high in mercury, which can be dangerous to your health. Women who are pregnant and small children need to be particularly careful to avoid fish high in mercury.
Seafood Highest in Mercury
Larger fish that are higher in the food chain are more likely to have higher levels of mercury. The fish most likely to be high in mercury include king mackerel, marlin, orange roughy, shark, swordfish, tilefish and ahi and bigeye tuna, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council. Canned albacore tuna, bluefish, Chilean sea bass, grouper, Spanish and gulf mackerel and yellowfin tuna are also relatively high in mercury.
Risks of Mercury
Mercury is most risky for unborn babies and small children. It can affect their nervous systems, which are still developing. Extremely high doses can affect the neurological functioning of adults as well as those of children. Your body can remove the mercury in your bloodstream over time, but keeping to the recommended levels of fish consumption is still advisable.
Considerations
The amount of fish that you consume makes a difference as well as the type of fish you consume. The Food and Drug Administration recommends different consumption levels depending on the amount of mercury typically found in the type of fish you consume.
Some seafood is also overfished and in danger of becoming extinct, so you should also limit your consumption of these, even if they are not high in mercury. These include shrimp, flounder, Atlantic haddock and scallops, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Recommendations
If you mainly consume the types of fish that are lowest in mercury, you can consume 12 oz. per week, according to the FDA, but if you consume fish higher in mercury, you should do so only three to six times per month, depending on the fish, and you shouldn't consume the fish that are highest in mercury at all. The American Heart Association recommends eating a variety of fish and removing the skin and surface fat to minimize your exposure to contaminants like mercury.
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