by Rachel Lincoln Sarnoff
www.MommyGreenest.com
Recent stories about radioactive Japanese tuna from last year's Fukushima meltdown showing up 6,000 miles away on California's shores has put my family off sushi for a while.
But if you're pregnant, this is a story you should follow.
The FDA says the radiation is nothing to worry about in the United States, since you'd have to eat pounds of the stuff before being affected. But according to a 2011 Government Accountability Study, the FDA only inspects .1 percent of the fish we import for consumption.
And according to Consumer Reports, 80% of the fish we eat comes from other countries where, "about half of that is farmed fish, which may contain disease-causing bacteria, residues of antibiotics and other drugs and chemicals."
Regardless of where they come from, if you're pregnant you need to know that most big fish -- including yellowfin tuna, which is more common in the United States -- contain mercury, a neurotoxic byproduct of coal production. The scary thing about mercury -- besides the fact that it is damage the brain and central nervous system -- is that bioaccumulates, which means it stays in the body and can be passed on to our kids through pregnancy or breastfeeding.
Resources like the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Guide make finding safer fish choices easier than ever, but you may want to consider additional protein sources while you're pregnant or nursing.