Fish Everyday/Mercury? What's the real deal?

Amandabelanger614

HI There,

Does anyone know the real risk of Mercury when eating fish?
I LOVE FISH!

It has fit nicely into my dinners for the past week and i've seen great results. I would like to continue this, but i've heard about the problems with Mercury.

Does anyone know the REAL risk?

Thanks!

1princesswarrior

www.epa.gov

They have an advisory section

navyrigger46

Depends on the fish, some species carry higher levels of mercury than others, but unless you're eating fish for three meals a day I wouldn't worry about it. Even then, it's a stretch.

Rigger

cwsreddy

Fast moving fish like Salmon = low mercury

Slow moving deep sea fish like Tuna/Swordfish = high mercury


Fish are really a catch 22 right now. If they're wild there's the mercury issue (and now the radiation issue if they're pacific caught), and if they're farmed the omega 6-s are off the charts. Screwed either way, so I stick to Atlantic caught Salmon/Trout as much as possible.

_John_

some fish are just very low in fat, so the natural fat balance doesn't really matter as those fish just don't have much fat (tilapia).

Overall, salmon is probably the best compromise of protein/omega 3's/low mercury.

I, as a toxicologist, wouldn't say that Tuna is "unhealthy" or avoid it all costs, but it's not something I'd eat every day either.

I like salmon, but a wild caught brown trout that was never frozen may be one of the best tasting salmonids I've ever had. I don't care at all for hatchery raised trout, even the ones I've caught and eaten mere hours after catching.

Of_Monsters_and_Meat

I thought this was why people were juiced to detox after eating all those mercury fish.

Galatea_Stone

some fish are just very low in fat, so the natural fat balance doesn't really matter as those fish just don't have much fat (tilapia).

Overall, salmon is probably the best compromise of protein/omega 3's/low mercury.

I, as a toxicologist, wouldn't say that Tuna is "unhealthy" or avoid it all costs, but it's not something I'd eat every day either.

I like salmon, but a wild caught brown trout that was never frozen may be one of the best tasting salmonids I've ever had. I don't care at all for hatchery raised trout, even the ones I've caught and eaten mere hours after catching.

What about the new techniques with farmed blue fin? Does anyone know whether the attempts at sustainability are adding to the mercury problem?

_John_

what litle I know about it, and our lab was consulted for potentially working on a mercury adsorbant to be added, was that the fish were being fed essentially freeze dried and pelleted fish and fish meal. Well, the "pellets" were shaped to look like real fish (as told to us).

So basically they were eating the same small fish they would be eating anyway as far as Hg is concerned

.Most "fish feeds" sold commercially have a lot of grains and soybeans as filler calories, which leads to the omega 6 overabundance problems.

We feed the fish in our pond (catfish, largemouth, sunfish) a higher quality feed that uses fish meal as its protein source, though most commercial catfish/tilapia I'm sure are fed the cheapest food they can to get them to grow (and those 2 fish don't require overly nutrient dense/high protein diets to grow to adequate sizes). Sorry for jumping species there...