Fish You Shouldn't Eat | Yahoo! Health (http://health.yahoo.net/experts/eatthis/5-fish-you-should-throw-back)


At least I will die happy.:jump1:

I hate reading tripe like this. Problem is, most of the masses will take it as gospel.

Most of the article is correct. I don't see the issue.
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Swordfish didn't make the list. I mostly eat cod, haddock, and pollack. I love tuna though. The shrimp thing is gross and I could eat those everyday.

#1: Canned solid white albacore has significantly higher levels of mercury than the chunk light tuna cans- because it's harvested from adult fish, not young fish.

Mercury in tuna: Consumer Reports (http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine-archive/2011/january/food/mercury-in-tuna/overview/index.htm)

(Not a scientific article, but I don't feel up to a journal search :smash:)

#2: I can't argue with this one. I don't think wild Atlantic salmon is sold anywhere, and I would recommend against the farmed just because I think it tastes like garbage!

#3: Currently the only Atlantic flatfish in the northeast that's overfished is the Atlantic halibut. All other stocks have no overfishing occuring. This segment is pure misinformation, and it's a travesty to recommend people eat tilapia, which eat poop. You are what you eat!

#4: Yeah, gotta say I agree with this one too, buy domestic.

#5: Tough call. Pieces of insects? Rinse your shrimp before you cook them, like most people. And it's often quite difficult (and expensive) to get wild domestic shrimp (excluding pandalus). Personally I only eat the domestic Gulf of Mexico shrimp... But I had never seen them for sale before I moved to Gloucester, so I'm not sure what the average consumer is to do.


If you look at the full list, they recommend squid as an alternative for those who like to eat eel. Go figure. They speak out against Atlantic cod, which is rebuilt in the GoM (not so on Georges, but different stocks). Also, the shortened list in that article neglects to mention shark, Patagonian toothfish, and orange roughy, species that are actually in bad shape.

I'd say the misinformation in that article far outweighs the benefits- Hence my reaction!

That'll make the prices drop. Bad for the fishermen, good for my plate.

news was saying that only 2% of the seafood is even inspected :doh:

problem with stuff like mercury is that other countries that don't have
as strict a standard pollute the air and it becomes part of the "world weather"
and it merely travels in the jet streams over to here then it rains on down.

the older the fish ...the longer it's been been exposed and the longer it has accumulated toxins and pollutants.

we human beings are exposed to 85,000 different chemicals-> all the time.

I never really thought about contaminants in flat fish. And still wont when i eat them. I never buy farmed shrimp. My sister spent some time in china and told me about the shrimp farm she visited. It was situated underneath the chicken coop. I don't concern myself about mercury in fish, im not pregnant or planning on becoming so even though i know i get screwed by the seafood department at the local supermarket. I have not tried tilapia yet and still wont. Even though it is probably the most popular fish in america now. There is a pretty wild selection at the Price Chopper market near me, a lot of fish that i have not heard of. At least the names they are using. Looks good but if it doesn't swim in our waters, the salty ones im staying away from it.

Not sure what is wrong with the article. Monterrey Aquarium has put out similar lists for years. I can see if someone doesn't care, but if one does, those lists can be helpful. If you have kids and don't care, well...

One of the major issues with seafood to the consumer is use of "consumer friendly" name, there's a lot of fish out there that is sold as something else especially in the restaurant side of things.

After I went to jwu I worked for a wholesale seafood company, we specialized in wild caught domestic shrimp. It was and still is to this day the best shrimp I've ever eaten. We use to get them from Different states depending on the season.

While I was there I got to visit and check out the seafood processing plants of some of the bigger and local companies. A lot of what I saw would make you think twice about where your seafood comes from. For the most part your bigger guys and higher end chains have very good strict Federal and haccp guidelines set up.

One of the grossest things I ever saw was a full swordfish being broken down and watching the small clear worm like parasites come crawling out of the flesh after it was cut, most sharks like makos have the same ones.

Tilipia is a joke and do some research on how it's raised and harvested.

Just because we might have strict standards here doesn't mean that the product was probably cared and handles for before it got here.

I usually only eat what I catch for the most part, love ground fish, fluke, tautog and black sea bass, Striper in my opinion is nothing special
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Not sure what is wrong with the article. Monterrey Aquarium has put out similar lists for years. I can see if someone doesn't care, but if one does, those lists can be helpful. If you have kids and don't care, well...

Exactly my point- especially if you have kids, or are pregnant/a family member is.

Advising people to eat albacore because it has less mercury is just wrong. Sure, it might have less than a BFT steak... But I'd estimate at least 90% of American consumers are eating the majority of their tuna in canned form, not fresh. Canned albacore is much worse than chunk light tuna from that viewpoint. Even the Monterey list notes it as a consumption advisory.

And saying that Atlantic flatfish are overharvested and full of contaminants is equally wrong. Numerous studies have been done that show mercury levels are below advisory levels and don't provide a risk when consumed (of course, this could vary if excessive amounts are eaten... like anything). And they're not overfished. It's a healthy, sustainable food source that promotes the economy... and they're telling people to eat farmed tilapia, most of which comes from overseas.

My issue isn't with the intent of the article- it's the misinformation present in it.

The Monterey lists are a little better, but they're still antiquated, which leads to misinformation. There's some good info in there, but like I said many people take all of the information as gospel, when it's clearly not.

Frankly, I would worry more about feeding chicken to my kids than fish.

Frankly, I would worry more about feeding chicken to my kids than fish.

You want to be careful here, particularly if you eat fish caught offshore (tuna/sword). I know of two fishermen in Falmouth (one a physician) who developed mercury poisoning from eating fish caught on canyon runs.

An issue also exists for those who eat plenty of inshore fish.

The problem is that federal guidelines are based on AVERAGE toxin levels in fish. The limited data I have seen for individual fish (striped bass) shows that some fish have nearly none, and some fish have 10-12X the average.

A normal consumer would buy small servings of different fish on multiple occasions and hence be exposed to the average toxin level in that species'.

A fisherman, however, might come home with one bass or more likely a tuna that is loaded with toxin, then eat (and feed his family) multiple meals from the same fish. His toxin exposure ends up much higher since all his fish meals are coming from the same high toxin level fish. The odds of this happening are probably not very small. In the striped bass study I saw, 2 or 3 fish in a small sample of about a dozen had toxin levels several times higher than the average.

Catching a big fish, freezing it, and eating multiple meals from it (particularly if you have children or a pregnant wife) is a gamble each time you do it, plain and simple. Do it multiple times a season and your chance of losing is real.