Though increasing fish in your diet is good, it’s important to avoid mercury in seafood.

Increased intake of mercury has been linked to various health concerns, including:

  • Cardiovascular damage, high cholesterol and high blood pressure.
  • Damage to the nervous system, memory and brain “fog.”
  • Increased incidence of auto-immune disease including psoriasis, eczema, rheumatoid arthritis.
  • Increased allergic potential to seasonal triggers as well well as increased food sensitivities.

A major source of mercury intake is seafood. But we’ve know that eating fish is good source healthy fats and protein, so the question is: How do we avoid mercury in seafood?

I don’t suggest you avoid fish all together, but I do suggest you choose your fish wisely!

Here are some great recommendations by Dr. Mark Hyman:

    1. When possible, eat fish either farmed or caught with sustainable, restorative, regenerative practices.  Check out www.cleanfish.com to find out which brands and companies to choose from.
    2. Stay away from toxic or endangered fish.  Use the Natural Resources Defense Council’s wallet card when choosing fish.
    3. Eat from the lowest mercury fish group and avoid the rest, except for a treat a few times a year if you must.  Also, their warning about farmed salmon is only relevant to “feedlot fish” — not sustainably raised salmon such as Loch Duart Scottish Salmon.
    4. Omega-3 fats are essential for the functioning of every cell in your body and 90 percent of us do not consume enough of them.  Read more about the health benefits of omega-3s.
    5. If you are omega-3 fat deficient, take purified fish oil, at least 1,000-2,000 mg of EPA/DHA a day.
    6. Watch me on “The Doctor Oz Show” to learn more about omega-3 fats, home testing and what fish oil supplements to take.

You can read the rest of that highly informative blog HERE. You’ll find out more about the challenges we face in fish ecology as well as what some organizations are doing to help.

For those who are more visual, below I’ve included a handy graphic from Fix that summarizes best practices for safe fish consumption very clearly.

Source: Fix.com