Fish That Contain Less Mercury

Some fish however contain high amounts of mercury enough to damage a fetus or newborn.

Fish that contain less mercury.

Overall larger and longer lived fish tend to contain the most mercury. The table is sorted by mercury concentration mean ppm from fish with lowest levels of mercury to highest levels of mercury. You may also sort the table by species in alphabetical order. Remember the younger and smaller the fish the safer since the amount of mercury increases every time a larger fish eats a small fish.

But nearly all fish contain at least a trace amount of mercury. That is why pregnant and nursing mothers must be very careful about the amounts and types of fish they eat. Selenium is something that breaks down mercury making it not harmful to you and the majority of fish have more selenium in their meat than they do mercury the. But all that fish comes with a risk.

As small fish are eaten by larger fish up the food chain concentrations of mercury and pops increase so that large predatory deep ocean fish tend to contain the highest levels. That makes it best to avoid eating large fish such as shark swordfish tilefish and king mackerel. The concern over this issue hovers over the otherwise positive benefits of eating seafood. Seafood prepared from white fish is rich in proteins fats sodium potassium vitamins selenium magnesium and calcium.

Most of these fish low in mercury species live on the sea floor and their flesh is white. While symptoms like fatigue irritability and tremor can show up with higher levels of mercury lower levels may go completely unnoticed. In fact the majority of people in america need to eat more fish not less fish. Here are some low mercury fish choices and fish to avoid.

Before shopping for seafood familiarize yourself with the levels of mercury in fish. The scariest part is that you may have no idea. These include shark swordfish fresh tuna marlin king mackerel tilefish from the gulf of mexico and northern pike. The risk of mercury poisoning is real if you eat a lot of fish especially fish that have a high concentration of mercury.

These figures are measured in micrograms of mercury per 4 ounces of. One thing that most of the articles failed to mention was the role that selenium plays in fish. Depending on the type you eat you could be getting a dose of mercury with every bite. Opt for organic farm raised seafood that contains lesser amounts of mercury such as wild alaskan salmon eel crab shrimp and catfish.