Letters From Readers

The Green Guide may have saved my life! I read your information regarding mercury in fish, and asked my doctor to do a blood test for mercury. It was high! My husband is a fisherman, so we figured it was the almost daily diet of striped bass one summer that did it. I do not eat large predator fish anymore, and now my blood mercury levels are normal.

Lizzy Poole
York, Maine

Tuna, swordfish, halibut and sea bass are so high in brain-damaging mercury that children and women who are pregnant, nursing or of childbearing age should avoid them altogether or eat no more than six-ounces once per month.

Some freshwater fish also have mercury and other pollutants, such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), that can lower children's I.Q. Check local fish advisories. (See www.epa.gov/ost/fish.)

Which fish are safest and not overfished?

Abalone (farmed), Anchovies, Catfish (farmed), Caviar (farmed), Clams (farmed), Crab, Crawfish, Herring, Hoki, Rainbow trout (farmed), Salmon (wild Alaskan), Sanddabs, Sardines, Squid (Pacific), Striped bass (farmed), Sturgeon (farmed), Tilapia (farmed), Trout (farmed)