Although it has been suggested that the benefits of eating fish on cardiovascular health and mortality far outweighs the risks due to environmental pollutants, I suppose that is assuming one eats a variety of fish types. If you eat bluefin tuna this week and sardines next week, that’s better than always eating bluefin tuna, a type of fish you are advised to consume only one serving per month.
So how do you know which fish types to avoid, which ones are good for you, and how many servings can you safely eat of a certain type of fish or seafood?

Despite all the health benefits of eating fish, many people are worried about the dangers posed by environmental pollutants found in fish such as mercury, PCBs and dioxins.
In what they claim to be the “single most comprehensive analysis to date of fish and health”, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) reviewed the evidences of major health effects of omega-3 fatty acids, major health risks of mercury, and major health risks of PCBs and dioxins in both adults and infants/young children.

Based on a long-term (1987-2004) study of 90,000 Swedish women, eating at least one portion per week of fatty fish such as salmon, raw herring, sardines and mackerel significantly reduced the risk of renal cancer by 74 per cent compared with those who never ate fatty fish.
“This is the first time that a link between the consumption of fatty fish and renal cancer has been studied,” says Professor Alicja Wolk, one of the scientists working with the study. “The reason previous studies have been unable to demonstrate a link between fish consumption and renal cancer is that they made …read more