Deciding what to eat, for many of us, feels like navigating a minefield.
The foods that are the most nutritious (or the ones we like the best) aren't necessarily the best options when it comes to the environment or the future of aquatic species.
Take fish, for example. You probably know fish is good for you. Fish, whether freshwater or seafood, is chock full of nutrients, high in protein and relatively low in fat and calories.
But some species of fish are also high in mercury.
Mercury is a naturally occurring element found in various plants and animals, and it is also a common industrial pollutant (coal-fired electricity plants, waste incineration). The mercury -- whether naturally occurring or from pollution -- gets into the water. Fish consume the mercury, then larger fish consume those fish, and it builds up. The larger (or older) the fish, the more likely it is to have higher levels of mercury in it.
Mercury builds up in our bodies and can cause damage to the brain and nervous system. Children, pregnant women and women of child-bearing age are particularly vulnerable.
According to an article in the October issue of ShopSmart magazine (published by Consumer Reports), grouper, Chilean sea bass, bluefish, halibut, sablefish, gulf Spanish mackerel, swordfish, shark, king mackerel, gulf tilefish, marlin and orange roughy are high in mercury.
On the other hand, "low mercury" fish are frequently raised and harvested on fish farms, which can be harmful to the environment, particularly where fish are raised in cages in rivers or the sea.
So what's a fish lover to do?
The Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch tracks fish populations and farming practices and recommends selections based on environmental impact.
The following fish and seafood made ShopSmart's guidelines and The Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch's "OK to eat" list.
According to Consumer Reports, a 132-pound person can safely eat up to 36 ounces of these fish and seafood a week. To calculate your specific consumption limits based on weight, visit tinyurl.com/consumerreportsmercury
• Oysters
• Salmon: U.S. farm-raised coho salmon, Alaska wild chinook, coho, chum, keta, king, pink, red, sliver, sockeye, sake, Fraser River (Canada) and Washington state early summer-run wild salmon
• Sardines: U.S. and Canada
• Scallops
• Shrimp: wild caught and farmed in the U.S. (except Gulf of Mexico) and Canada
• Squid: California, U.S. Atlantic
• Tilapia: farmed from Ecuador, Canada, U.S., China, Taiwan (*)
According to Consumer Reports, a 132-pound person can safely eat up to 18 ounces of the following fish and seafood a week.
• Atlantic croaker: U.S. Atlantic
• Atlantic mackerel: U.S. and Canada
• Catfish: U.S. farm-raised channel catfish, farmed Pangasius catfish
• Crab: U.S. blue crab, U.S. and Canada Dungeness crab, U.S. king crab, Argentina king crab, Hawaii and Australia Kona crab, Canada snow crab, Bering Sea snow crab, U.S. stone crab, California and Oregon Pacific rock crab
• Crawfish: U.S. wild and farmed
• Flounder: U.S. sand dab, Pacific, summer, wild, windowpane (except Georges Bank and Gulf of Maine), winter (U.S. mid-Atlantic), yellowtail (except Georges Bank and Gulf of Maine)
• Haddock: wild (except Gulf of Maine)
• Mullet: wild U.S. Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico
• Pollock: Alaskan, Atlantic (except Iceland), wild
• Sole
• Trout: rainbow and lake U.S. farmed and wild (except Lake Michigan)
A note about tilapia: While this fish gets the OK from ShopSmart and Seafood Watch, I've read contradictory reports in recent years in The New York Times, and so in my book, tilapia's reputation is up for debate.
You may have noticed the perennial favorite tuna is absent from the list.
While The Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch considers yellowfin, skipjack and albacore tunas good choices (depending on where they are caught) from a sustainability standpoint, ShopSmart cautions against consuming more than a few ounces of tuna a week because of the high mercury levels in most tuna, particularly albacore and yellowfin.
Also not on the list is mahi mahi (also known as dolphinfish). According to The Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch, wild caught mahi mahi from the U.S. Atlantic, Hawaii and Ecuador are sustainable options. But mahi mahi from Costa Rica, Guatemala and Peru should be avoided.
ShopSmart did not include mahi mahi in its story, but using the mercury calculator at the link included above, it appears mahi mahi (my favorite) is a high mercury fish.
If you're catching and preparing fish from local waters, the Arkansas Department of Health page, tinyurl.com/arkfish is a valuable source of information about mercury levels in selected bodies of water around the state and which fish may be affected. You can also download a brochure that explains how mercury ends up in our food supply and which Arkansas fish are less likely to contain mercury.
Food on 10/01/2014