10 Types of Fish You Should Avoid Eating

Fish You Should Avoid Eating: For years you have heard that eating seafood is not only good for you but can also help improve cognitive function and ward off certain diseases. The truth of the matter is while some fish is good for you, there are plenty of other types of fish you should avoid eating.

Fish You Should Avoid Eating

According to studies at the Hippocrates Health Institute, many marine pollutants do pose an increased health risk to humans. Many fish that you are eating is contaminated with industrial chemicals, metals, parasites, and deadly pesticides.

Below is a list of those types of fish you should avoid eating and the reasons why.

Swordfish

Of all the fish swimming in the ocean, swordfish contain some of the highest levels of mercury. According to the EPA, those mercury levels will accumulate over time, and children especially should never eat any types of swordfish.

These fish can live incredibly long lives and build up quite a large amount of the deadly toxin in their body.

Mahi-Mahi

When it comes to enjoying mahi-mahi, seafood lovers are reminded they should proceed with extreme caution. Considered a member of the Scombridae family, this fish has the potential to cause scombroid and histamine poisoning.

When this fish is not refrigerated properly, bacteria will break down the histidine and produce histamine, resulting in illnesses similar to that when you have allergic reactions.

Blue Fin Tuna

Most tuna is already high in mercury levels, but the blue-fin has elevated levels that can be dangerous for human consumption. Albacore, big-eye, and yellow-fin tuna do contain some mercury, but nothing compared to that in the blue-fin tuna.

These fish can grow to an incredible 500 pounds, becoming the popular choice for restaurants around the world to serve as sushi.

The Orange Roughy

High mercury levels have caused the Environmental Defense Fund to issue a health warning concerning consuming the orange roughy. One of the reasons this fish is so high in toxic chemicals is because it can live to well over 100 years old, allowing mercury levels to increase as this food feeds off the ocean floor.

The orange roughly eats fish full of mercury that has eaten smaller fish full of mercury that thrive on plants containing mercury. Over 100 years, that can lead to ridiculous amounts of this toxin in the fish.

The Red Snapper

The red snapper has recently made the list of seafood to avoid because overfishing has decimated the population and many suppliers are labeling the snapper in order to sell inventory. The rockfishes and tilapia are often mislabeled as the red snapper, so you are not even getting the quality fish you thought you were purchasing.

King Mackerel

Of all the fish on this list of types of fish, you should avoid eating, the king mackerel stands alone as the supreme ruler for good reason. The EPA recently released a study that showed the king mackerel has the highest concentration of mercury of all seafood.

Other types like the Atlantic mackerel have extremely low levels of mercury, so if you are careful in selecting the fish you could still benefit from the nutrients.

Tilefish

According to research at the Hippocrates Health Institute, the tilefish has joined the ranks of the king mackerel as one of the fish that need to be avoided entirely. This aquatic creature will certainly have a negative impact on your health, so cross it off your list and look for other seafood with more omega-3 fatty acids to help with your overall health.

Shark

The reason sharks must be taken off your list of possible seafood choices is one of the largest predators in the ocean. The way mercury contaminates the system is very simple if you follow this analogy. The mercury contaminates the water by way of snow and rain. That mercury is absorbed in plant life that is gobbled up by small fish.

The bigger fish eat the smaller fish, and up the chain, we go all the while the concentration of mercury keeps accumulating. This bioaccumulation continues to increase until the largest predator, the shark, eats the largest of those fish. The EPA released testing to show that shark is dangerously high in mercury and should not be consumed.

Escolar

The escolar is usually sold to the consumer as white tuna and is one of the most delicious tasting fish in the ocean. The problem, however, eating too much of the escolar can result in keriorrhea, which is basically similar to explosive diarrhea.

The reason this occurs in humans is that the escolar is packed with indigestible fatty gempylotoxin, and eating too much can lead to severe intestinal issues.

Wild Chilean Sea-Bass

The Chilean sea bass contains very high levels of mercury, and the EPA recommends that if you are going to eat this fish limit your intake to two times a month. This fish is in high demand around the world and over-fishing has destroyed the population.

These are the top ten types of fish you should avoid eating, opting for healthier choices in your diet. With so many fish to choose from, you can easily swap out one of these top ten and find plenty of other healthy alternatives.

When you are eating in a restaurant or shopping at the seafood section in your local supermarket, always read the label or ask the waiter to provide you with as much information as possible about the catch. Where was the fish caught, is it farm-raised or wild-caught, and was contamination issues avoided by keeping the fish from other species? Be very concerned when a fish is being offered out of season or for a ridiculously low price.

You might also like:

Fish fraud is becoming an epidemic around the globe, this is basically the practice of telling you that you’re getting one type of fish and then substituting another. If you’re buying from a store, always ask to see the Marine Stewardship Council eco-label on that package of fish. That will ensure that safe practices were in fact in play when the fish was caught and packaged.

Leave a Comment