New Fish Consumption Guidelines

Health Canada tightens fish consumption guidelines

Health Canada has updated its advice on fish consumption, urging Canadians to further limit the amount of six types of fish they eat because of the amount of mercury they can contain.

The new guidelines suggest Canadians should limit to 150 grams a week the amount of fresh and frozen tuna, shark, swordfish, escolar, marlin and orange roughly that they eat.

Pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers and women who might become pregnant should limit their consumption of these fish to 150 grams per month.

Health Canada says children aged five to 11 can safely eat 125 grams of fish from this category per month and children aged one through four should not eat more than 75 grams of these fish per month.

Health Canada says this type of predator fish can have higher levels of mercury than other types of fish, because they can live longer, grow to a bigger size and because they prey on smaller fish which may contain mercury.

The department says fish and seafood can be an important part of a healthy balanced diet if eaten in appropriate amounts.

Source: The Globe and Mail