
2. Know Which Types of Seafood Are Safest
If you are going to eat fish more than once per week, then you need to eat fish from safer, less polluted sources and with a lower mercury content. For pregnant women and children who eat fish, it’s best to only choose from the “safe” list provided by the FDA. These safer fish to eat include options like anchovy, catfish, flounder, oyster, black sea bass, Atlantic mackerel, Atlantic croaker, shrimp, salmon, tilapia, scallop, crab, cod, freshwater trout, canned light tuna, and sardines. Some other safe options include whiting, whitefish, squid, clam, haddock, sole, pollock, plaice, smelt, skate, shad, pickerel, American lobster, freshwater and ocean perch, mullet, herring, hake, and butterfish. These can be eaten as often as you’d like.
Generally, your lymphatic system and organs like your liver and kidneys work to flush toxins from your body, so trace amounts is okay (and normal) in seafood. For women who are pregnant or nursing, children, and people who are immunocompromised, however, it’s important to stick to the list of “good fish”. Some other okay choices include seatrout, snapper, monkfish, bluefish, grouper, mahi mahi, halibut, sheepshead, striped bass, Spanish mackerel, yellowfin tuna and white tuna, white croaker, Chilean sea bass, sablefish, rockfish, carp, and Tilefish from the Atlantic ocean, but these shouldn’t be eaten more than once or twice a week. The highest mercury content in seafood is found in bigeye tuna, shark, orange roughy, tilefish from the Gulf of Mexico, swordfish, marlin, and king mackerel.