Mercury: Pregnant women should only eat up to 12 ounces of seafood per week

What is mercury?
It’s a very toxic metal that should avoid eating/drinking/licking/making love to, etc.

Mercury is released into the air as a byproduct of certain industrial processes. (so I hope you’re enjoying your iPods/cars/computers/etc… you’re adding mercury to the fishes!) The mercury then settles into oceans and lakes where it changes into methylmercury. The methylmercury can travel all over the world so this is a worldwide problem with fish from everywhere in the world being exposed to methylmercury. Once in the water it is absorbed by small fish which are then eaten by bigger fish. Therefore, the oldest and biggest fishes will have the largest accumulation of methylmercury in their bodies (i.e. sharks).

Look at a thermometer. The silver liquid is Mercury. DO NOT break the glass and then eat the mercury. However, if you do, make sure you videotape it and put it on YouTube for us to watch.

What happens if I eat it?
Eating too much mercury/methylmercury can cause adults to experience brain and nervous system problems such as headaches, fatigue, lack of concentration, and numbness in your hands and feet.

For children it can slow development of walking and talking as well as decrease your memory and attention span. Look around you at work and school… yea, that cross-eyed guy eating his boogers might be a mercury baby.

For pregnant women, if Mommy eats any mercury it will be absorbed by the fetus and will damage the baby’s development of his brain and nervous system.

What foods have mercury?
Practically all seafood (fish and shellfish… both freshwater and ocean) has methylmercury.

But seafood is good for you, right?
Yes, seafood is very healthy and nutritious. It’s a low-fat source of protein. The fatty fishes are especially rich in omega-3 fatty acids.

So what do I do?
If you’re an adult male or a non-pregnant adult female (and not planning on being pregnant in the next 6 months) the FDA suggests you can eat up to 14 ounces of low mercury fish (levels of less than 0.5 ppm). The American Heart Association has info on mercury levels for commonly eaten seafood here. You might be able to get away with eating more but that’s a risk that you should evaluate for yourself. Actor Jeremy Piven eats sushi pretty much every day and ended up with mercury poisoning. If you’re really paranoid you can use this mercury calculator to see how much you should eat in a week.

If you’re a woman, observe the same as above. HOWEVER, if you’re planning on getting pregnant within the next 6 months then you should lower your mercury intake (see below) because the mercury will accumulate and stay in your body before slowly dissipating.

If you’re pregnant then you should do the following:

• DO NOT EAT: Shark, swordfish, king mackeral or tilefish. These have the highest concentration of methylmercury.

• EAT UP TO 12 OUNCES A WEEK: Seafood is a healthy part of your unborn baby’s diet. But only eat up to 12 ounces a week (2 average meals) with a variety of fish/shellfish. Unless you like taking care of dumb babies I would suggest only eating shrimp, canned LIGHT tuna, salmon, pollock and catfish. These generally are the lowest methylmercury levels.

• CANNED TUNA: There are two types of canned tuna – Albacore (aka white tuna) and light tuna (aka chunk or chunky). “Albacore” is tuna that is a white color. “Light/chunk/chunky” tuna is just what the industry calls the darker colored tuna. Canned albacore/white tuna generally has more mehtylmercury than canned light tuna. Therefore only eat about 6 ounces (1 average meal) of canned albacore per week. The light/chunk/chunky tuna is usually made with smaller fish (therefore less mehtylmercury) and therefore you can eat up to 12 ounces of this per week.

What if I’m a guy and my wife is pregnant?
You’re ok to continue eating fish/shellfish but your wife should stick to the 12 ounces/week rule.

You should also make sure to eat as much yummy sushi as possible while your wife watches and gets mad because she can’t eat it with you. If you’re really courageous (like Daddy) you should grab some sushi in your chopsticks and do a couple of “flybys” near Mommy’s mouth before it lands in your mouth. For added effect make sure to make airplane noises which get louder the closer you get to Mommy’s mouth.

Why do this? Trust me… Daddy does this to Mommy because this is the only “happy time” he gets while Mommy is pregnant. After the sushi dinner Daddy goes back to being Mommy’s slave (rub my feet! massage my back! do the laundry! drive 50 miles to get my favorite food! go to Africa and dig out a giant diamond for me!)

More info
Remember that methylmercury intake is CUMULATIVE (meaning it adds up) so you should only eat a TOTAL of 12 ounces per week. If you eat fish higher in mercury such as the canned albacore tuna as stated above, which has a weekly maximum intake of 6 ounces per week, then the 12 ounce limit for the week will be lowered.

Check the FDA website here for more info on pregnant women and seafood.

Controversies
All the information presented above is based on guidelines and research studies done by the FDA in the United States.

However, other governments and agencies have differing opinions…
The Mercury Policy group prefers all pregnant women not eat any fatty fish at all.
The Healthy Babies, Healthy Mothers coalition suggest eating MORE than 12 ounces of fatty fish per week.
The Austrailian government seems to have less stringent guidelines on the amount of fish consumption for pregnant women per week.

So with all this conflicting information, who’s right? Unfortunately i don’t have this answer. i have tons of answers due to my awesomeness but this is one topic where i don’t have a definite answer. From my standpoint, due to the lack of solid consensus and no other sources of solid information, I am just going to go with the FDA guidelines:

Pregnant women should not eat shark, swordfish, king mackerel, or tilefish AND should only consume UP TO 12 ounces of fish/shellfish per week (or up to 6 ounces of Albacore canned tuna per week).

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