Fish is Healthy, But...

There's been a lot of talk recently about mercury in fish. A lot of it has centered on tuna, especially canned tuna. In the United States, most tuna is either categorized as solid white or chunk light. The solid white is albacore, which is a high mercury fish. The chunk light contains about 1/3 the mercury of solid white, so it's the healthier choice to make.

In general, the higher on the food chain a fish is (that means eating smaller fish and also relates to long life), the more they tend to concentrate mercury in their body. One of my favorite fish is swordfish, but I haven't had it in about 2 years because it is a high mercury fish. Some excellent background information can be found on FDA's site here. You can find a good list of mercury levels by fish species on the FDA's website here. The American Heart Association has some good background info, though with a less complete listing here. Salmon is one popular fish that is very low in mercury and sardines are another.

While most of us think of the silver-colored liquid metal when we think of mercury, the version that is usually found in the environment that is dangerous is a compound called methyl mercury. Mercury is of particular concern to pregnant women and those with young children as mercury and most heavy metals tend to impact neural development.

Eat your fish regularly, but choose it wisely.