Eating fish while pregnant: how safe is it?
Godforbid we are just told to eat something good for us. No, it's never that easy. Can you scream omega fatty acid and mercury at the same time?
Here's what I gathered: fish is good for you because it contains omega fatty acids that can reduce the risk of heart failure and stroke, plus it can help brain development in the baby. Yay! But wait! Fish can also be high in mercury which can cause problems with cognitive development in unborn children. Boo! Although, theoretically, if both were true, wouldn't we all have average kids because the omega acid would cancel out the mercury? Guess not.
Anyway, it looks like large fish are the mercury culprits and small fish are good to eat. In short:
Bad: albacore (white) tuna, swordfish, shark, tilefish (golden bass or golden snapper), king mackerel
Good: pretty much everything else including skipjack (light) tuna
search: fish and pregnancy, consuming fish while pregnant, safe fish for eating
4 Comments
Reader Comments (4)
I've read that 6 oz. of light tuna is allowed a week. Does amount of tuna really matter?
What about shellfish? I've read that raw shellfish is the main problem, but if it's cooked, it should be okay?
I looked it up and anything raw is considered sketchy to begin with so just know they are going to dial it up for pregnancy.
Oysters were the big one and they can carry some freaky bacteria that can make you sick and one that can even kill you (great) but they aren't sure if these bacterias can cross the placenta. Why they don't know this is beyond fucking me but they don't.
Even with that in mind, it doesn't look like eating raw shellfish carries any more of a danger when you're pregnant than when you're not.
If you cook the shellfish, the risk of it carrying anything funky is significantly reduced.
I hope that helps.
In Sweden, they say that the best fish to eat is Herring. I know this may not sound like the yummiest, but the pickle it with onions and you eat it with boiled potatoes! It is sweet and salty, full of omegas and healthy! One thing that I keep stocked in my pantry is chickpeas. I throw them in a salad or cut up a red delicious apple and that is my lunch some days. They don't have as much omegas as the fish, obviously, but what they do have is tons of protein and Folate, which occurs naturally in the food, where as folic acid is the synthetic form of vitamin B.
Cheers~