This better be a very cruel, very late April fools joke. I bet a little mercury isn't that bad for you.

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Unfortunately, a little mercury IS bad for you. It accumulates in the body over time, and can cause some horrible neurological symptoms.

Mercury from seafood killed about 1800 people at Minamata in Japan, in the mid 20th Century:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minamata_disease

As I understand it, large, long-lived fish (like tuna & shark) are more likely to contain appreciable amounts of mercury.

The FDA have issued advice on how much fish to eat, and what kinds have the highest amounts of mercury:
http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/admehg3.html

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I am so sick of people saying pregnant women shouldn't eat fish. Scientific studies comparing women who eat fish while pregnant to women who avoid it invariably show that the babies of women do eat fish are stronger and healthier. In fact, the CDC said that fish warnings for pregnant women GO TOO FAR and are scaring women from eating fish and negatively affect their offspring.

More info:

http://www.momstinfoilhat.com/2007/02/19/seafood-is-brainfood/

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I'm so sick of people who don't understand that not all fish is equal--for pregnant women and everyone.

Well-cooked, quick-growing middle-of-the-food-chain fish is different than tuna sashimi for lots of reasons. Raw anything is generally a bad idea--not because most of it's contaminated with nasty living things, 'cause most of it's not, but risks of certain things are higher. And even slightly elevated mercury levels are associated with all sorts of fetal development issues.

When I'm pregnant, I'm gonna eat the heck out of shrimp and salmon and low-mercury stuff. Raw oysters and tuna? No way. I can hold off.

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"We all know that eating sushi is not safe for pregnant women."

OH REALLY!? "We" do!?

Funny, it's been done in Japan (and other Asian countries) for countless decades now.

I guess umpteen generations were wrong, and American wisdom is inherently better???

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