Worried I’ve been eating too much fish

[zeena83]

Hi all,

I’m 24 weeks pregnant and have been having 2 portions of salmon and one of cod or haddock per week. Occasionally, I have also had an extra 50g of smoked salmon at the weekend and now I am worrying that this is all too much. I hope I haven’t been doing any harm. Can anyone put my mind at rest? I don’t eat the skin of the salmon. Each portion is about 125g I think, the cod is a little bigger.

Zx

It sounds absolutely fine @zeena83 - we are recommended to eat 2 portions of fish per week when pregnant.

I find this link really useful -

www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/fish-and-shellfish-nutrition/

That is totally fine. The NHS guidance is 2 portions of salmon a week. You can have as much cod and haddock as you like as this isn't classed as oily fish

Have you started expanding when you get hot?

joking you’ll be fine with that, the type of fish is important not just that it’s ‘fish’

I wouldn't eat Salmon at all , it's a very toxic fish

Pretty much all salmon is farmed and the dye they use to colour it has no safe levels for children or pregnant women

Definitely stop eating salmon - food good ideally and don't feed it to your children

If you buy wild salmon that's different, it's a very bright red/pink colour and very fishy tasting and expensive , it's not toxic apart from the normal levels of plastic in all fish due to plastics in ocean

The pale pink salmon which you see everywhere is what you need to avoid - very toxic

Info as to why it's so toxic incase you didn't know

Also my best mate works on the Scottish salmon farms off west coast of Scotland and tells me it's all true and it's really disgusting the state of the fish also and the conditions there kept in he wouldn't never eat salmon after working there

www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/E-8-2016-009527_EN.html

Also to be honest the benefits you think you get from eating fish are way outweighs by the toxicity of plastics levels in fish .

Unfortunately due to what we have done to the oceans all fish is full of microscopic levels of plastic which are harmful to us. You can get the same levels of good nutrients from plant sources without the toxicity

I've recently stopped feeding my family fish , although I do allow them to get fish from a fish and chips shop as a treat but I no longer make it a part of our diets , unfortunately as my kids did enjoy it

I haven't told them , I just don't buy it and they haven't really noticed.

Was asking more in terms of pregnancy guidelines rather than in general…just wanted to make sure I wasn’t over my limit for the week

As I understand it, the only fish you need to limit is tuna (2 portions per week because of levels of Mercury).

Your diet sounds good.

@Indoctro you linked to a question asked by a random someone to the European Parliament. It’s hardly evidence that salmon is dangerous!

I think it's a bit too much, and as other posters said, farmed fished is generally speaking not a good choice

BUT

I don't think you need to worry, it will all be fine, i am sure just reduce from now on and stick to better fish alternative like smaller species and wild caught. I normally eat fish 1/week, pregnant or not pregnant

[quote Shakeyourface]@Indoctro you linked to a question asked by a random someone to the European Parliament. It’s hardly evidence that salmon is dangerous![/quote]
I know that but it was to give you the reasons why so you can go and research them, they have mentioned exactly what the issues are.

@zeena83

Was asking more in terms of pregnancy guidelines rather than in general…just wanted to make sure I wasn’t over my limit for the week

Ok well there is no safe level of salmon for pregnant women unless it's wild salmon.

@Indoctro ffs no one asked for a lecture on salmon. Stop scaremongering. We can all make our own decisions

[quote AllSinging]@Indoctro ffs no one asked for a lecture on salmon. Stop scaremongering. We can all make our own decisions[/quote]
How is it scaremongering the OP asked about safe levels during pregnancy of fish and salmon and I've pointed out the risks

Not scaremongering just facts.

@Indoctro you’ve said that there is no safe level of salmon in pregnancy. That’s scaremongering. If that were the case, pregnant women would be told not to eat salmon full stop.
There’s enough to stress about for us all, no one needs added worry and anxiety as that will probs cause more harm than the odd fillet of salmon

@zeena83 sounds like you’ve got a healthy diet but if you do feel concerned, cut back a bit and have a chat with your midwife. I’m sure they’ll be able to advise you x

@Indoctro has raised a very good point about farmed fish (especially salmon). I have friends who have worked in the fishing industry and others who have done research into it, and from what I've heard and read, I honestly wouldn't eat farmed fish at all.

For @zeena83 the amounts of fish you're asking about aren't huge, but I'd maybe cut down a bit. The guidance is no more than 2 portions of oily fish per week, so the weeks with two portions of salmon would fit this but the other weeks would be going slightly over. There are other bits of guidance about fish like tuna, and more unusual things like shark, as they can be high in mercury - if you're a fan of eating fish, it might be worth checking up on those just in case. I don't think you'll have done any harm though!

[quote AllSinging]@Indoctro you’ve said that there is no safe level of salmon in pregnancy. That’s scaremongering. If that were the case, pregnant women would be told not to eat salmon full stop.
There’s enough to stress about for us all, no one needs added worry and anxiety as that will probs cause more harm than the odd fillet of salmon[/quote]
They can eat salmon but wild salmon .. but it's expensive and extremely fishy. Nothing like farmed salmon that's on our supermarket shelves

[quote Scirocco]@Indoctro has raised a very good point about farmed fish (especially salmon). I have friends who have worked in the fishing industry and others who have done research into it, and from what I've heard and read, I honestly wouldn't eat farmed fish at all.

For @zeena83 the amounts of fish you're asking about aren't huge, but I'd maybe cut down a bit. The guidance is no more than 2 portions of oily fish per week, so the weeks with two portions of salmon would fit this but the other weeks would be going slightly over. There are other bits of guidance about fish like tuna, and more unusual things like shark, as they can be high in mercury - if you're a fan of eating fish, it might be worth checking up on those just in case. I don't think you'll have done any harm though![/quote]
Yes my friend works in the farms off west coast of Scotland and shown me videos it's grim. Not to mention the food and dye scales to colour the fish because it's so unhealthy it's a horrid grey and they all covered with like mange or something and eyes missing etc. Basically like battery hens but the fish version . It's gross.

Gee, didn’t think I was going to kick off such a debate about farmed vs wild salmon. More just hoped for some clarity on the guidelines given by nhs (who don’t mention anything about farmed or wild and I also never specified which type I eat or where I buy it from) as the amounts can be a bit confusing. So, assuming that I am not going to stop eating fish, I effectively eat 2x salmon fillets per week and 1x white fish. Very occasionally a very small portion of smoked salmon on top. Am going to assume this is fine, but will maybe stop with the extra smoked fish. I have really bad anxiety which I am being treated for by the maternity unit so scaremongering about what happens inside salmon farms doesn’t really help. I have to draw the line somewhere and decide to trust the nhs, otherwise I will basically stop eating anything at all as it is all too difficult to navigate and I can’t keep going to different whole food shops around my area due to covid, so have to make do with 1 big Waitrose shop per week

It's fine OP, what do you think Japanese women do? They dont stop eating fish...even raw! Key thing is that it's good quality, so if salmon make sure it's not farmed from Scotland etc. Needs to be wild atlantic etc...sockeye is good!

Sainsburys does beautiful sock eye wild salmon. Tenner a pack but worth it. I couldn't go back to eating the farmed one now

I used to eat so much fish when pregnant with my eldest.... I would eat tinned fish straight out of the can 😂

My son loves eating fish.... his father has adhd which runs in his family on the boys side
My son doesn't have adhd we think it was all the fish I ate
As well as endless nuts and muesli

@zeena83, I'm sorry if I made your anxiety worse - I really didn't mean to. I think most of the fish from Waitrose will be good quality anyway! And to defend the honour of my country, wild Scottish salmon (and all wild Scottish fish, really!) is delicious and as safe as any other wild fish!

Yes my friend works in the farms off west coast of Scotland and shown me videos it's grim. Not to mention the food and dye scales to colour the fish because it's so unhealthy it's a horrid grey and they all covered with like mange or something and eyes missing etc. Basically like battery hens but the fish version . It's gross.

I think if more people knew about it, they’d be more concerned. It’s very much kept from the public, just like other types of farming practices. People think they are aware but they’re often not.

I’m sure your baby will be absolutely fine though OP, it sounds like you’ve stuck to the guidelines.