Fish to Avoid

You are at the grocery store and decide to supplement your diet with some tasty fish, loaded with those healthy Omega-3 fatty acids. There are so many fish options to choose from: salmon, swordfish, tilapia, tuna (albacore canned). Do you know which to avoid based on high mercury levels?<?XML:NAMESPACE PREFIX = O />

Answer: swordfish and tuna. As reported on PBS, a 45 lb child ingesting 6 ounces of swordfish per week is exceeding the EPA's recommended mercury limit by 11 times! For tuna, the child is ingesting 4 times the allowed amount.

An estimated one in six pregnant women has enough mercury in her blood to pose neurological risks to her developing baby. Infants and children exposed to toxic doses of mercury have problems with attention span, language, memory and coordination, and delayed onset of walking and talking. Very high levels can cause brain damage, mental retardation, blindness, seizures, and speech problems.

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