Many experts believe that the mother elected to eat tuna is encouraging. On the other hand, you should only eat in moderation because this fish contains mercury.
Doctors recommend that pregnant women avoid certain foods or be careful when eating them even though they are all healthy. Fish is such a food. According to the American Pregnancy Association, fish is a good source of lean proteins, omega-3 fatty acids and B vitamins, and is low in bad fats. However, good fish, more specifically tuna, is high in mercury, which can be harmful to your unborn baby.
Mercury can adversely affect brain and nervous system development during pregnancy. Large fish with a long life expectancy is often highest in mercury. Tuna fish includes varieties of bigeye with a portion of meat containing nearly 0.5 ppm (parts per million) of mercury. Mercury has the ability to build up in your bloodstream. Therefore, experts do not encourage pregnant mothers to eat bigeye and yellowfin tuna during pregnancy or even before pregnancy.
With mercury levels from 0.3 to 0.49 ppm, pregnant mothers should only eat 2 types of tuna mentioned above no more than 3 times per month during pregnancy. The United States Council for the Conservation of Natural Resources has developed a weight-based chart to determine the appropriate servings for yellowfin and white tuna. Whereby:
Women from 36-45 kg can eat tuna once every 2 weeks
Women weighing 50kg can eat sardines every 11 days
Women weighing between 59 and 63.5 kg should eat tuna every 10 days
If you weigh more than 68kg, you can eat tuna every 9 days.
Skipjack tuna has an average mercury level: from 0.09 to 0.29ppm. Experts recommend that the number of times pregnant mothers eat skipjack tuna no more than once every 6 months. In addition, you can also refer to the number of meals based on the weight data table:
Women weighing 36kg can eat once a week.
If you weigh between 41-45kg, you can eat once every 5 days.
Women weighing between 50 and 59 kg should eat tuna every 4 days.
If you weigh more than 63.5kg, you can eat once every 3 days.
During pregnancy, you cannot always stop fish if you are afraid of the mercury levels in tuna. There are several species with less than 0.09ppm mercury such as anchovies, catfish, finfish, salmon, herring, tilapia, freshwater salmon and white fish. Shellfish like clams, crabs and shellfish are also low in mercury.
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