Holy cow! I mean fish! Due to the high mercury levels in most fish, the savvy Modern Paleo dieter should pass on mercury-toxic larger fish and eat low mercury sardines! Hands down, sardines are the safest fish on the planet.
With growing concern over the health of the seas, people are turning to sardines for the essential nutrients found in fish. Sardines are at the bottom of the aquatic food chain, feeding solely on plankton. As a result, they do not concentrate as much heavy metals like mercury and other contaminants found in most fish. Why not? They don’t live long enough to accumulate too much mercury. They live as long as 14 years of age, but about 90 percent of the population is under 6 years old.
Labeling laws are not standardized in America and many other regions regarding small canned fish. More than 20 varieties of fish are sold as sardines around the world, including herring (Americas), pilcards (Mediterranean), brisling (Norway), sprat (New Zealand, Australia, Europe) and Iwashi (Japan). Sardines are abundant in the seas of the Atlantic, Pacific and Mediterranean with Spain, Portugal, France, and Norway being the leading producers of canned sardines.
Sardines are also one of the most sustainable fish around. The Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program lists sardines as a “Best Choice” due to their abundance and high production rate. Sardines are all wild. They are not farmed, as the life cycle of the sardine does not lend itself to farming. Maybe in years to come some scientist may crack the sardine code, but not yet. Sardines are also sustainably fished and do not put pressure on the planet’s fisheries.
I recommend people eat 3-4 cans of sardines a week. I much prefer eating fish than supplementing fish oil. I am not the biggest fan of the purified fish oils most people supplement (purified fish oil is less absorbable). Eating small fish like sardines is the way to go to meet one’s omega-3 needs.
Read the full article here: https://myersdetox.com/sardines-are-the-safest-fish-on-the-planet/