14 Fish You Should Never Eat

 

Fish can be an excellent part of a healthy diet, providing important nutrients like omega-3 fatty acids, which can reduce the risk of diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer’s, cardiovascular disease, dementia, age-related macular degeneration, and rheumatoid arthritis, among others. However, there are certain fish that should never be eaten. Unfortunately, due to human industrial activity, such as coal-fired electricity generation, smelting, and waste incineration, large amounts of mercury end up in our waterways and, consequently, in the fish that inhabit them. As this mercury enters the marine food chain, it bioaccumulates.

This means that when smaller fish are consumed by gradually larger fish, the mercury concentration at each level increases. Consuming too much mercury can be harmful to health and cause mercury poisoning. For this reason, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have published guidelines on the amount of mercury that humans can safely ingest, and the nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) offers suggestions on which fish should not be consumed.

1. Tilapia
Did you know that, in some ways, eating tilapia is worse than eating bacon? In fact, the shift toward increased consumption of farmed fish like tilapia is leading to highly inflammatory diets, according to a 2008 study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

Researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine say tilapia is one of the most consumed fish in the United States. The problem? It contains very low levels of beneficial omega-3 fatty acids and, even worse, very high levels of inflammatory omega-6 fatty acids.

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Maintaining high levels of inflammation in the body can worsen the symptoms of autoimmune disorders and may be linked to chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes.

If you must eat this fish, avoid tilapia from China, where farming practices are particularly concerning. Better sources are the United States, Canada, the Netherlands, Ecuador, and Peru.

Of course, wild-caught tilapia is preferable to farmed fish, but it is very difficult to find.

1.1 Atlantic cod

The problem with Atlantic cod has more to do with the environment and fish stocks than with human health. This species has been intensively fished for over a thousand years, and in the late 1990s, the fishery collapsed. While the Atlantic cod fishery has declined significantly since then, the population has struggled to recover. Experts agree that the collapse of the fishery has led to lasting changes in the North Atlantic food web, and the species is now classified as vulnerable to extinction.

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2. Atlantic flatfish (halibut, plaice and sole)

 

This is another example of overfishing and waste. Commercial fishing produces what is known as “wasted bycatch,” which occurs when fish or other marine life are accidentally caught while targeting another species. Each year, U.S. fisheries discard approximately 900 million kilos of bycatch—the equivalent of 500 million meals! The California gillnet fishery, which targets halibut, has been singled out as one of the worst offenders. If you’ve eaten halibut in the United States, it most likely came from this fishery.

3. Caviar

see continues on the next pageThe caviar comes from the huevas of the Beluga esturión, a century-old cheese that can live for years. These days you have a big ask and you can earn thousands of dollars for Libra. As a result, the beluga sturgeon is currently in serious danger of extinction. The misma also affects many other species of nature.

4. Lubina chilena