Pre-conception and pregnant patients ask me if they can eat fish. I hesitate to answer because the answer is complicated.
Fish is thought to be a great source of PUFAs or polysaturated fatty acids that developing babies and young children need for brain development. Eating fish exposes you to mercury, noxious illegal chemicals, antibiotics, nano-plastics, radiation and super viruses. Low exposures to methyl mercury cause neuro-developmental abnormalities. The modern medical party line says pregnant women can eat 12 oz. of fish per month. Now they espouse that pregnant women should eat more fish - 8 oz. per week for the sake of creating smarter children. The FDA and EPA promote eating low mercury fish. They call this the "sweet spot." I call this the "HOT SPOT" although I give them some credit for acknowledging that mercury is a neurotoxin.
They want Americans to know of the variety of affordable low-mercury fish to choose from like: shrimp, pollack, salmon, canned light tuna, tilapia, catfish and cod, but they propose that pregnant women avoid tile fish from the Gulf of Mexico - shark, swordfish and king mackerel because the mercury level is high. The Gulf of Mexico is loaded with BP's disaster chemicals like Corexit that has contamined the entire food chain.
Their list of fish was unacceptable 25 years ago. Shrimp, tilapia, catfish pollack and any tuna is highly contaminated. My patients are not allowed to eat them. I hesitantly advise patients to eat anchovies, herring, wild salmon, and some cod and scrod. To be safe you would have to send every piece of fish for analysis before you ate it. Since that costs $200 per analysis it is not feasible.
