Started by Patrick Smith, August 9, 2013 · 5 Replies · 6,471 Views
Hi guys,
I'm thinking about making tilapia a staple of my diet because they are convenient to buy in bulk and prepare, and wondering if anyone has any thoughts on their mercury content. Every list I have found so far has placed them at the bottom or very near the bottom of risk, but perhaps you guys know something I don't about this.
What do you think?
Probably have nothing to worry about.
I've been eating tilapia more for the same reason.
It's easy and quick.
I cook mine using no seasoning and add guacuamole or pico de gallo on top.
Tastes great!
Here's the FDA's most recent statistics on measurement of mercury in fish. http://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodborneIllnessContaminants/Metals/ucm115644.htm
Tilapia has at about 10x less mercury than canned light tuna. Pregnant women are advised to eat no more than 12 ounces of canned light tuna per week to avoid fetal mercury toxicity while still enjoying the health benefits of fish, and that's a very conservative limit. Based on that recommendation alone, you can easily safely eat 120 ounces of Tilapia per week 
If you want the actual calculation, the EPA's reference dose for mercury intake is 0.1 mcg/kg/day, so for a 70 kg male that's 49 mcg per week (0.1 mcg/kg/day x 70kg x 7days/week). The mean mercury level in Tilapia is 0.013 ppm which is equal to 0.013 mcg/g. So the allowable weekly intake would be 49 mcg/week divided by 0.013 mcg/g = 3769 g or ~ 3.8 kilograms of tilapia which is about 133 ounces! Go crazy!
You can therefore use either method to figure out the safe level for any of the other fish. The first one is a little more conservative, but much quicker
If you want a cheap, low mercury fish with high levels of omega 3 fatty acids, I don't think you can do better than sardines (provided you can stomach them).
In case you're interested, here's the link to the EPA's reference dose: http://www.epa.gov/hg/exposure.htm
Seems like I've been getting quite a bit of mercury with my pickled herring, thanks for the link.
Kresser has a good amount to say about it here: http://chriskresser.com/is-eating-fish-safe-a-lot-safer-than-not-eating-fish. He also has a podcast where he talks a lot about it if you search the site. Basically, the higher the selenium content in the fish, the more mercury protection(from said fish) you get. I've read some nasty stuff about the farmed talapia, so I'd steer clear there.
Thanks, guys! Very useful information.