Something fishy is going on...

"Eat more fish. They are high in omega3's."

"Eat less fish. It's high in mercury."

The more I delve into nutritional information, the more it contradicts itself. One area where this is especially true is with seafood. Do we or don't we eat it???

Recently, I read yet another great book - The Dinner Diaries: Raising Whole Wheat Kids in a White Bread World, by Betsy Block. Besides being a fantastically funny writer, she's a mom on a similar quest to mine who wrote a clever book about her journey through the gray areas of nutrition.

Here's the research she found on fish...

Green Light, or go ahead and eat away:
wild-caught salmon from Alaska
US farmed barramundi (NOT Nile perch, which is often mislabeled as barramundi)
sardines
anchovies, hold the pepperoni
atlantic herring
atlantic mackerel (NOT king or Spanish)
farmed oysters
arctic char
farmed bay scallops
US farmed tilapia
farmed mussels
tiny salad shrimp
US farmed crayfish
US farmed catfish
farmed clams
crab (NOT king crab from Russia)
Pacific cod (NOT Atlantic cod)
calamari/squid
wild-caught pollock from Alaska


Red light, or don't even think about eating this:
Tilapia from China and Taiwan (I've seen the water in China. I have to agree.)
Chilean seabass/toothfish
Atlantic cod
Atlantic flounder, sole, haddock, hake, halibut
Monkfish
Orange roughy
Farmed salmon (aka Atlantic salmon)
Shark
Skate
Red snapper
Grouper
Imported caviar
Swordfish
American tuna
Tilefish

Listed as the top 7 clean, omega-3-rich fish are wild-caught salmon from Alaska, barramundi, sardines, anchovies, Atlantic herring, Atlantic mackerel, and farmed oysters.

After reading this book, I stopped into a vitamin store and on my way out, the clerk handed me none other than a little credit card listing mercury levels in fish! It pretty much agreed with Ms. Block's conclusions, highlighting the ever popular canned tuna. High in mercury: tuna (ahi, yellowfin, bigeye, canned albacore). Medium level of mercury: canned chunk light tuna and skipjack tuna. No tuna of any sort is listed as low in mercury levels on either listing, sadly enough. Also, one of my favorites that didn't make Betsy's list made the "medium level" list from the vitamin shop - mahi mahi.

So what does this all mean? Well, for me, it means less canned tuna around here and more Alaskan salmon. It does not yet mean pizza with anchovies. Yuck. Also, if you take fish oil supplements, make sure they are from a reputable company and are labeled as mercury free. Again, I like Nordic Naturals.