Sort through Seafood with Seafood Watch - (iPhone app too!)

Are you as confused as I am about what seafood you're 'supposed' buy? What are the healthy options? What should I avoid for toxicity reasons? What should I avoid for environmental reasons? Sometimes farmed is best. Sometimes farmed is worst! Talk about confusing!!!

Seafood Watch, a program of the Montery Bay Aquarium, has long been the go-to resource for sorting out the seafood craziness. They publish annual 'Seafood Watch' pocket guides that easily fit in your wallet, with Best Choices, Good Alternatives, and Avoid categories. They publish a guide for each region of the US. Get the Central US Seafood pocket guide! And now it's even easier, if you have an internet-capable mobile device.

Their iPhone app lets you access the most up-to-date information about seafood choices on your iPhone, and includes their 'Project FishMap' which gives you information about local markets and restaurants making sustainable seafood choices! No iPhone?? Check out their mobile site at mobile.seafoodwatch.org, with info designed specifically to be viewed on a mobile device.

They have also developed their 'Super Green' list of seafood choices, which must meet all of the following criteria:

• Low levels of contaminants (below 216 parts per billion [ppb] mercury and 11 ppb PCBs)
• The daily minimum of omega-3s (at least 250 milligrams per day [mg/d])*
• Classified as a Seafood Watch "Best Choice" (green)

These are by far the best choices, especially for children & pregnant/breastfeeding women. So, what made the Super Green list in 2010??

Best of the Best:

• Albacore Tuna (troll- or pole-caught, from the U.S. or British Columbia)
• Freshwater Coho Salmon (farmed in tank systems, from the U.S.)
• Oysters (farmed)
• Pacific Sardines (wild-caught)
• Rainbow Trout (farmed)
• Salmon (wild-caught, from Alaska)

Other Healthy Choices ( low in contaminants and provide a smaller amount of omega-3s ):

• Arctic Char (farmed)
• Barramundi (farmed, from the U.S.)
• Dungeness Crab (wild-caught, from California, Oregon or Washington)
• Longfin Squid (wild-caught, from the U.S. Atlantic)
• Mussels (farmed)

More of a sushi person?? They have recommendations for sushi as well, including a pocket guide!

7 Food even Farmers Won't Eat! (from planetgreen.com)

Take a second to check out this planetgreen.com article I saw posted by my kids' pediatrician on Facebook. It's pretty startling.

Cliff notes version...avoid the following foods.

1. Canned Tomatoes - the acid in tomatoes breaks down the BPA in the liner, leaching into the tomatoes in significant amounts.
2. Corn-Fed Beef - much reduced nutritional benefits versus grass-fed beef
3. Microwave Popcorn - the chemicals in the bag liners contain perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) that may be connected with infertility.
4. Conventionally Grown Potatoes - non-organic potatoes are treated with fungicides, herbicides, and other chemicals to prevent sprouting after harvesting.
5. Farmed Salmon - contaminants lowers vitamin D levels and includes some very nasty chemicals.
6. Milk produced with artificial hormones - growth hormones (which are prohibited in most other industrialized countries) increase the likelihood of udder infections, as well as may contribute to certain cancers.
7. Conventional Apples - non-organic apples receive heavy loads of pesticides

For the full article by Laurel House on planetgreen.com, which include alternative choices and additional information, click here.