FDA Suggests Pregnant Women to Eat Fish, But Avoid Mercury

For the first time, the Food and Drug Administration is recommending that pregnant and breastfeeding women and young children should consume two to three servings of fish per week to provide important health benefits. However, the fish should be low in mercury.

The National Resources Defense Council has a complete list of guidelines for pregnant women and fish consumption. Pregnant women and young children are those at highest risk for mercury exposure, so it's important to keep in mind which fish contain the least, moderate, and highest amount of mercury.

Fish with the least amount of mercury include anchovies, butterfish, catfish, clam, crab, crawfish, croaker, flounder, haddock, hake, herring, mackerel, mullet, oyster, perch, plaice, pollock, salmon, sardine, scallop, shad, shrimp, sole, squid, talapid, trout, whitefish, and whiting. Those with moderate amounts of mercury are safe as well, including bass, cod, halibut, lobster, mahi mahi, snapper, and tuna. For fish with the least amount of mercury, they contain less than .09 parts per million and those with moderate mercury contain between .09 and .29 parts per million.

It's important to consume portions of fish in moderation because they contain excellent sources of omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin D and B2, calcium, phosphate, iron, zinc, iodine, magnesium, and potassium. And interestingly enough, nine out of the ten most frequently sold fish in the United States are lower in mercury (shrimp, pollock, salmon, canned light tuna, tilapia, clams, crab, catfish, and cod).

"For years many women have limited or avoided eating fish during pregnancy or feeding fish to their young children," said Stephen Ostroff, the FDA's acting chief scientist, in this Washington Post article. "But emerging science now tells us that limiting or avoiding fish during pregnancy and early childhood can mean missing out on important nutrients that can have a positive impact on growth and development as well as on general health."

Yes, mercury does have adverse health effects if too much is consumed, such as the potential damaging of neurological development in infants and young children, and poisoning in adults, which occurs over time if one's consumption of fish is excessive. Despite the potential harmful effects, the FDA asserts that the positives outweigh the negatives if the proper amount if one adheres the new guidelines: between eight and 12 ounces of fish low in mercury per week to promote fetal growth and development.