I am entirely avoiding seafood that has medium to high levels of mercury (tuna, swordfish, etc.) but I love seafood and prefer it to other types of meat. Some seafood like clams, shrimp, scallops, have very low levels of mercury and great health benefits so I'd like to incorporate them more frequently into my diet. I've seen a few articles questioning the 12 oz per week limit (e.g. https://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/news/20070215/study-questions-pregnancy-fish-limit). Does anyone have more knowledge or experience on whether the limit should be disregarded or adhered to?
Are you pregnant? I don't eat meat, fish and seafood only, so needless to say, I eat it several times per week. During pregnancy you should limit fish with high mercury levels such as tuna, tile fish/king fish. I avoid these altogether. Other tan that I do not know of any other seafood limitations
Yes, I am pregnant with my first baby and almost every article/book I've read recommends staying away from high level mercury fish and limiting other seafood to 12 oz per week.
Julie1408, thank you so much for that link. It was really enlightening because I didn't know about the mercury selenium link. I will still steer clear of mid-high mercury level fish regardless of selenium to be safe, but I feel more comfortable eating low mercury seafood to my heart's content.
I also love seafood, and I ate it very frequently when I was pregnant, as well as now. Obviously not the specific food with high levels of mercury, but I ate salmon quite a bit, shrimp and crab. I really love fish so any that was okay to eat, I ate it. I probably had it 3 times a week at least...and I did a lot of research on it as well b/c I was overly concerned.
Re: Anyone not limiting seafood to 12 oz per week?
Here is a script of podcast about mercury and fish
https://chriskresser.com/the-truth-about-toxic-mercury-in-fish
The discussion about the relationship between mercury and selenium is really interesting.
Yes, I am pregnant with my first baby and almost every article/book I've read recommends staying away from high level mercury fish and limiting other seafood to 12 oz per week.
Julie1408, thank you so much for that link. It was really enlightening because I didn't know about the mercury selenium link. I will still steer clear of mid-high mercury level fish regardless of selenium to be safe, but I feel more comfortable eating low mercury seafood to my heart's content.
BFP # 1 - 12/19/09 EDD 08/27/10 - D&C 1/26/10 @ 9w5d
BFP # 2 - 06/05/10 EDD 02/17/11, DS1 born on 2/14/11
BFP # 3 - 04/10/13 EDD 12/21/13 - D&C 05/15/13 @ 8w4d
BFP # 4 - 07/27/13 EDD 04/08/14 - CP 07/29/13
BFP # 5 - 09/14/13 EDD 05/28/14, DS2 born on 5/22/14