Adding fish into your diet is beneficial for your health. Additionally, it gives you important nutrients and protect your heart. People with diabetes need it even more. However, some fishes have high mercury in them, which can be bad for your health, especially for diabetics have to know how to manage diabetes? In this blog, we’ll talk about ways to find and eat low mercury fish and stay healthy without getting too much mercury.
Strategies to eat low mercury fish for diabetics:
Choose Low Mercury Fish
Choose fish with lower mercury levels to reduce your risks of mercury intake. For example, salmon, sardines, tilapia, shrimp, oysters, and scallops are good choices. Further, these types give you important nutrients without having too much mercury.
Limit High Mercury Fish
Fish with mercury levels exceeding 0.3 parts per million (ppm) are typically categorized as high-mercury fish. Kindly, avoid or reduce eating fish that exceed these levels.
Particularly, fish with higher mercury levels include large predatory fish species and those that have longer lifespans, allowing them to collect more mercury over time. These include sharks, swordfish, king mackerel, marlin and tilefish (from the Gulf of Mexico). Also, try not to eat too much tuna, especially albacore and bigeye kinds.
Follow Guidelines
Follow the advice from your local and national authorities about eating fish, especially if you catch fish from nearby waters. The guidelines will tell you which fish to stay away from or eat just a little bit of.
Portion Control
Diabetics, pregnant women, women planning for getting pregnant, breastfeeding mothers, and young kids need to be extra careful about eating fish. Moreover, they should only eat low mercury fish and follow the local fisheries /health guidelines about how much fish they should eat each week.
Diversify Your Diet
Diabetics can add different kinds of protein to your meals, like beans, nuts, and chicken. As, these can help you eat less fish. This way, you won’t depend too much on fish and lower your chance of getting too much mercury.
Educate Yourself about Low Mercury Fish
Always, stay updated on the latest research and advice about mercury in fish and other seafoods. In fact, Government health agencies and environmental organizations are reliable sources for this information.
Check Sources
Whenever you can, pick fish from cleaner waters where there’s less pollution. Additionally, look for certifications or labels that show the fish is safer and harvested in a sustainable way.
Selecting Low Mercury Fish for Diabetics:
If you choose your fish carefully and don’t eat them too often, you can get its health benefits while also keeping away from too much mercury:
- For example, choose fatty and low mercury fishes such as salmon, trout, tilapia, cod, sole, sardines, shrimp, oysters, herring, chub mackerel, and scallops which are rich in omega-3 fatty acids.
- These fishes typically contain mercury levels ranging from 0.09 to 0.20 ppm, varying with environmental factors. However, their moderate mercury levels make them safe for consumption, ensuring your health and well-being.
- Rohu and Katla, both belonging to the Carp family, offer moderate mercury levels. Also, Katla’s Omega 6 to Omega 3 ratio of 0.7 is considered beneficial
To Conclude
In summary, if you have diabetes, you can stay healthy by choosing low mercury fish wisely and being careful about how often you eat them. By doing this, you can still get the good health benefits from fish while keeping yourself safe and healthy.
