From the state of WA, as Elisabeth’s mother, I received in the mail the brochure “Fish Facts for Good Health” and a link to a website too. There is a chart of how much canned tuna a person should eat, based on body weight, and lists of “what is the right kind of fish?” with descriptions of mercury levels. According to the chart, I should only eat one can of tuna a week. And to think that in college, I lived off the stuff, eating it right out of the can, to the dismay of my friends 🙂 On a more sober note, it looks like my girls should only 1 T. or so a week – wow, that’s much less than what’s in the tuna sandwiches I sometimes make for everyone on Saturdays.
My most recent pregnancy, with Elisabeth, from 2001 – 2002, was the first time I had been warned about eating fish. I thought maybe it was that my doctor had moved to a new practice; maybe this new practice had a new policy. In my previous two pregnancies, I had never been told to eat fish only twice a week. Fish – isn’t it brain food?! Good for you?! And here in the Pacific Northwest, where salmon is our milk and honey, our manna?
Yet sadly, it seems that fish has now become poisoned. And we now need to be careful about which fish we eat. With sorrow I will now watch our diets better. I’ll have to think of alternatives to tuna, or else make small sandwiches for the girls.
Dr. Seuss’ One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish , a favorite book around here, has the line “I wish for fish….”
Yes, I wish for fish….I wish for yummy healthy fish….
1 response so far ↓
1 Gordon Weakliem // Oct 24, 2003 at 11:14 am
That’s interesting, we were told to be careful for the pregnancy and first year, but after that the pediatrician said our daughter could eat as much as we eat (and she does sometimes). I suppose it’s dependent on how cautious you are. Also, I think that Tuna tends to collect mercury, for whatever reason, I believe other fish tend not to do that.