The FDA also recommends that children ages 11 and under eat 2 servings or less per week of fish or seafood with the lowest mercury levels. However, participants who ate fish two or more times a week had dangerously high levels of fetal mercury exposure.

Though these options contain less mercury, you’ll want to take care in how much you eat.Īccording to the FDA, if you’re pregnant or breastfeeding, you should restrict your consumption to 2 to 3 servings of 4 ounces of fish and seafood with the lowest mercury levels per week, or one 4-ounce serving of fish and seafood with moderate mercury levels per week.Ī 2020 study found that, for study participants, eating fish less than one time a week had little effect. The FDA states that in small amounts, certain types of fish with lower mercury levels may be okay for adults to eat once or twice per week.įish and seafood with the lowest mercury levels can include: It’s also possible to develop mercury poisoning from eating too much seafood, even if the varieties have lower levels of mercury. The concentration of mercury concentrations in fish and seafood may be 1 to 10 million times that of the concentration in the surrounding water.įish with the highest levels of mercury can include: Larger types of fish can have higher amounts of mercury because they prey on other fish that contain mercury too. All types of fish contain some amount of mercury. eating certain types of mercury-containing fishįish get mercury from the water they live in.Methylmercury (organic mercury) poisoning is largely linked to eating seafood, mainly fish.

Causes of mercury poisoning Mercury poisoning from fish and seafood

Mercury poisoning homosexuality