Fish can be an excellent part of a healthy diet, providing important nutrients like omega-3 fatty acids which can lower your risk for diseases like cardiovascular disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s and dementia, age-related macular degeneration, and rheumatoid arthritis, among others [1]. However, there are some fish you shouldn’t eat. Unfortunately, due to human industrial activity like coal-fired electricity generation, smelting, and the incineration of waste, large amounts of mercury are ending up in our waterways, and subsequently, the fish that swim in them. Once this mercury gets into the marine food chain, it “bioaccumulates.”
This means that as smaller fish get eaten by gradually larger fish, the concentration of mercury at each level becomes greater [2]. Consuming too much mercury can be dangerous to your health, and lead to mercury poisoning. For this reason, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have issued guidelines regarding how much mercury is safe for humans to ingest, and the non-profit Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), provides suggestions for which fish you shouldn’t eat [2].
Read More: What to Do if a Fishbone Gets Stuck in Your Throat
1. Atlantic Cod
The problem with Atlantic cod has less to do with your health, and everything to do with the environment and the fish population. Atlantic cod has been fished heavily for a thousand years, and in the late 1990s, the fishery collapsed. Fishing for Atlantic cod has been dramatically reduced since then, but the species has struggled to rebound. Scientists agree that the collapse of the fishery has fundamentally changed the North Atlantic food web, and the species is now considered vulnerable to extinction [3].
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