What kind of fish can we eat again?

738 Views 18 Replies 14 Participants Last post by provocativa, Apr 2, 2006

grace's voice

Discussion Starter · Mar 29, 2006

I haven't been eating much fish cuz I can't remember which kinds are high in mercury (I do take fish oil for the EFAs). Can anyone help remind me? I'm really craving fish and need to go shopping today anyway.
Thanks!

1 - 19 of 19 Posts

NaomiLorelie

· #2 · Mar 29, 2006

Smaller fish like salmon, sardines, trout, herring, haddock, tilapia, and most shellfish. If you are going to eat tuna, avoid albacore. It's the largest and contains the most mercury. Avoid shark, tilefish, King Mackeral, Marlin, and larger predatory fish. HTH

Tori Gollihugh

· #3 · Mar 29, 2006

4

The PPer is correct based on our FDA's standards. However, in my research on this topic I've found that our country's standards are pretty dang lax!

Here's some good reading (and lots of other informative articles and things by Dr. Mercola can be found through this link):
http://www.mercola.com/2002/jun/19/mercury_fish.htm
This describes, by page 6 how the list of fish should be expanded (and before that how the FDA standards are too slack), by page 8 there's a nice list of fishes we should avoid and some we could eat while preggie:
http://www.mercola.com/2002/jun/19/mercury_fish.htm
This site has more info on specific fish and levels of mercury in them when they were tested. It's also generally very informative:
http://www.perinatology.com/exposure...al/seafood.htm

Dr. Mercola actually did testing on some Salmon from Alaskan waters (because the people who sell them claimed that there was no or undetectable amounts of mercury in the salmon there) and he found their claim to be true. I'm going to order some from that when I feel a fish eatin' craving comin on!

good luck makin your choice!

Oh... if you wonder what could happen if you or your baby get too much Mercury (cause I did... WHAT'S the big deal??), then check this out:
http://www.members.tripod.com/~Sandr.../Minamata.html

Again... good luck!

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NaomiLorelie

· #4 · Mar 29, 2006

I don't know about the Mercola site. Everything I read by him always seems to be fear driven and he picks very extreme problems and words them in a way to scare people. He just based his reccomendation to not eat fish on the amounts of mercury in whale liver. First of all whales aren't even fish. They are gigantic predatory mammals who will leave for many years eating fish and storing mercury. Secondly, his study was based on liver meat, not the muscle meat most people consume of fish. The liver filters out toxins to prevent them from going throught the body so it makes sense that they found large amounts of mercury in the liver. The liver of any animal is going to have concentrations of whatever toxins the animal has eaten. It's probably not a good idea to eat the liver of any animal.

nichole

· #5 · Mar 29, 2006

Tori

We are leaving in 3 days and i have some wild alaskan salmon in my freezer that i'm not going to eat. let me know if you want it. it is less than a pound but it is the good stuff. last time i cooked fish, the smell just drove me insane for weeks.

alison_in_oh

· #6 · Mar 29, 2006

We get our wild Alaskan salmon from Trader Joe's.

magpiedee

· #7 · Mar 29, 2006

I think they need to stamp that list of NONO fish on every pregnant woman's forehead, or at least put a public service announcement on the menu.

:

About 5 days after I found out I was pregnant, DH took me to a very fancy-schmancy restaurant where the only fish they were serving was mackerel, and I ate about 2-3 ounces. And then I read an article about mercury and worried for 3 months or so. Since we've seen such positive ultrasounds and screening tests, and since she seems to be a pretty singlemindedly wiggly thing, i'm not worrying too much these days... I just wish I had known.

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akrab

· #8 · Mar 29, 2006

I dont eat fish much, sometimes a tuna fish sandwich but it would be nice to have easy access to a no no list. I do like fish but am just too paraniod

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nichole

· #9 · Mar 29, 2006

with my son, i didn't know and ate a few cans of albacore tuna. he is fine. he actually had all his vaccines ( i know better than to vax on schedule now) AND i have dental amalgrams. he has no signs of autism or any health problems really.

this time i am being more careful b/c i know more now. no tuna, no vaccines at least until the baby is six months old. i occasionally eat some of the "safe" fish.

i wouldn't beat myself up though if you accidentally ate some mackeral. wouldn't you *most likely* have to eat it on a regular basis over time to have a problem?

Mrs_Hos

· #10 · Mar 29, 2006

Ok...well, I ate tuna yesterday...I know about mercury, but I was craving it and I figured 'everything in moderation'...Hope I'm not doing any damage...
So let me get this straight...
Trader Joes AK salmon is ok...smoked ok?
I'm definitely wanting fish...
I did get fish oil capsules...but I read somewhere about burping a fishy taste and so I haven't taken any of them because I think I would puke if I burped fish ya know?

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Tori Gollihugh

· #11 · Mar 29, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by NaomiLorelie
I don't know about the Mercola site. Everything I read by him always seems to be fear driven and he picks very extreme problems and words them in a way to scare people. He just based his reccomendation to not eat fish on the amounts of mercury in whale liver. First of all whales aren't even fish. They are gigantic predatory mammals who will leave for many years eating fish and storing mercury. Secondly, his study was based on liver meat, not the muscle meat most people consume of fish. The liver filters out toxins to prevent them from going throught the body so it makes sense that they found large amounts of mercury in the liver. The liver of any animal is going to have concentrations of whatever toxins the animal has eaten. It's probably not a good idea to eat the liver of any animal.

Points are true enough. However, the particular link you refer to was only a starting off point and I could have chosen a better article (I wasn't paying terribly close attention to which one it was). Mercola does have additional articles that present valuable information for review when considering the subject of eating fish while preggie. However, Mercola was not the only info provided. There are some really great tables and charts that show the actual levels in other fish to consider and keep in mind when making choices to eat (or not). I'm sorry you chose to focus on the worst example of all the links provided, but your arguements do not refute (at least not in my protective mama mind) the necessity to be extremely careful and/or completely avoid fish while preggie (and then not to feed it to my children until they are teens or older with large bodies to spread the mercury through). Perhaps I'm more protective than most. This is one of the factors playing into not vaxing my children: better safe than sorry!

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NaomiLorelie

· #12 · Mar 29, 2006

Tori, I really wasn't refuting what YOU said. more just the Mercola stuff. Everytime I read something on that site it gets a bug up my bum. I would have responded to other stuff but the second link is actually the same as the first, and the third had a lot of stuff about FDA recommendations. The fourth I just get a lycos error page. I would like to read those pages if you will relink them..

nighten

· #13 · Mar 29, 2006

The only fish I eat is:

Wild Pacific Salmon (not Atlantic)
Farm-raised Tilapia
Farm-raised Trout

That's it. I take fish oil that is mercury-free and flax seed for my omegas. I've never had a burping issue with my fish oil supplement. (Iron supplements make me burp but the fish oil ones never have.)

Smoked salmon is not okay because it is still categorized as a RAW fish, and therefore could contain listeria which triggers miscarriage. Plus the smoking process leaves carginogens on it -- like any smoked or burnt food -- the smoke isn't healthy for you nor baby. So no smoked salmon. Sorry.

PancakeGoddess

· #14 · Mar 30, 2006

I love fish when I'm pregnant, for some reason. I like this printable wallet card when I go to TJoe's.
http://seafood.audubon.org/seafood_wallet.pdf

grace's voice

Discussion Starter · #15 · Mar 30, 2006

I have never burped fishiness from my fish oil. I take an oil by Pharmax, its called Fruitol. Its mixed with fruit puree so it tastes better, and it also has probiotics added to it. Good stuff!

I, too, eat canned albacore tuna. I read somewhere when I started with this pg that its only really harmful if you eat more than 1 can a week. I eat 1 can every 1-2 months. My first pg I ate it pretty often though, but I didn't know any better. DD doesn't seem to be lacking in any areas, she's actually still more advanced than most of her age group.

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Gendenwitha

· #16 · Mar 31, 2006

I swore I wasn't going to eat any tuna this pregancy, but decided when I'm craving it, to follow my cravings. (not albacore, and not more than 1x wk). My last pregancies I didn't know better and it was my standard, "I don't feel like cooking, I'll just have a tuna sandwich" meal.

I'm also CRAVING shrimp this preg, like CRAZY, and noticed it was listed as one of the lower ranking seafoods for mercury.

Nightsky

· #17 · Apr 1, 2006

I think this link had been posted here before, I found it pretty helpful guide for fish and mercury levels.

Got Mercury?

AugustineM

· #18 · Apr 2, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by nighten
Smoked salmon is not okay because it is still categorized as a RAW fish, and therefore could contain listeria which triggers miscarriage. Plus the smoking process leaves carginogens on it -- like any smoked or burnt food -- the smoke isn't healthy for you nor baby. So no smoked salmon. Sorry.

Not all smoked salmon is considered raw. Hot smoked salmon is generally always cooked. It should say on the packaging. Cold smoked is raw. I used to work at a seafood market and also I smoke my own. (Hot smoked.) And it's always fully cooked by the end. You are right, though -- the smoking process does leave carcinogens on it.

As a side note, ALWAYS eat wild salmon, never farmed. There are no wild Atlantic salmon -- they are a farmed fish.

During this pregnancy I've been eating wild Alaska salmon (sockeye), Alaskan halibut (my favorite), shrimp and clams. A tiny bit of tuna, but hardly any.

provocativa

· #19 · Apr 2, 2006

There was an interesting article in The Economist about EFA's being necessary for brain growth, and to ward off your PPD, and depression later in life. Search the I'm Pregnant board, there was a posting about it- Eat your fish, ladies, I think it was called. Fish is brain food. Your baby needs it, in all likelyhood. I take cod liver oil and still eat fish when I can afford it. If the baby sucks all of your efa's during gestation and breastfeeding, you will be one spaced-out depressed mama. If it's your 2nd or more kiddo, you likely don't have reserves left. The article made the assertion that living without fish was more dangerous than the mercury. To me, that would depend on your own nutritional status, and whether your body was good at chelating metals (and we don't know that about ourselves). I don't eat high mercury fish, even when not pregnant/lactating. But I eat as much fish as I can afford (hard to get the good stuff where I live).

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