Pregnant Women, Eat Fish! Don’t Eat Fish!

The Daily Green writes:

[quote]

Pregnant Women and Nursing Mothers Should Eat Fish

Coalition Advice Counters FDA Concerns Over Mercury

Eating 12 ounces of fish per week does more to promote than inhibit healthy brain development, despite government warnings that pregnant women and nursing mothers should avoid fish because of mercury contamination.
[Read more…]

Mothers who are still concerned about mercury would be wise to choose fish carefully. Many species that are lower on the aquatic food chain contain no or very little mercury (or other contaminants, like PCBs) and yet still contain high levels of Omeg-3 fatty acids. Some of those fish, according to Oceans Alive, include:

• Abalone (U.S. farmed)
• Anchovies
• Arctic char (farmed)
• Catfish (U.S. farmed)
• Caviar (U.S. farmed)
• Clams (farmed)
• Crab – Dungeness, snow (Canada), stone
• Crawfish (U.S.)
• Halibut – Pacific (Alaska)
• Herring – Atlantic (U.S., Canada)
• Mackerel – Atlantic
• Mahimahi (U.S. Atlantic)
• Mussels (farmed)
• Oysters (farmed)
• Sablefish/black cod (Alaska)
• Salmon – wild (Alaska), canned pink/sockeye
• Sardines
• Scallops – bay (farmed)
• Shrimp – northern (Canada), Oregon pink, U.S. farmed
• Spot prawns
• Striped bass (farmed)
• Sturgeon (U.S. farmed)
• Tilapia (U.S.)

For more information on choosing the best fish to eat, visit this Oceans Alive Web site. For more information about the study, click here.” [Original Story…]
[end quote]

FEWW asks…

Assuming a few of the items on the Oceans Alive’s “safe fish list” are less deadly than the others, how would the average pregnant woman or nursing mother ensure the fish she eats is, say, the Atlantic mackerel (!) and not the king [mercury, PCB, dioxin] mackerel, or farmed striped bass, instead of the wild [PCB, mercury, dioxin] striped bass?

See also:
Sustainable Lifestyles & Healthy Food,
UPDATE & New Links
Fish Farming: The Hazards & Environmental Impacts
TITO: Toxin In, Toxin Out