Seafood benefits outweigh risks, government says
"The benefits of cardiovascular health from eating seafood, including farm fish, far outweigh the risk of cancer from environmental contaminants," said Dr. William Hogarth of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the group that commissioned the report.
Women of child-bearing age and children under 12 can eat up to 12 ounces of seafood a week without worrying about getting too much mercury, the report said; six ounces can be albacore tuna, and fish lower in mercury are also good choices.
For other adults, adding fish to the diet could reduce the risk of heart disease. The report says that if they eat more than two servings of fish a week they should choose a variety to reduce the chance consuming excess contaminants that might be found in any single species.
There's additional evidence coming in from a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association this week. In the study researchers from Harvard School of Public Health found that even just eating 1 to 2 servings of fish a week reduced the risk of death from heart disease by 36 percent, and overall death by 17 percent. They say consuming 250 milligrams of omega-3 fatty acids a day -- t he equivilant of 6 ounces a week of wild salmon or other oily fish -- could prevent heart disease.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/10/17...nes/index.html
So how much fish do you eat? Personally, I love fish and eat it twice a week steamed (usually trout) and have about 5 tins of tuna a week.