Fish is healthy for overall health. Men and women, kids and adult alike may need something that an oily fish can offer—omega-3 fatty acids.

But aside from these long chained fatty acids, fish can be a way to help keep your body healthy, keep your system at check minus the cholesterol and the bad fats that most meat can offer. But then choosing the right fish for your diet can be a bit tricky. Since fishes may often not be available in your locale, you mostly rely on canned ones.

Canned fishes can be okay as long as it’s not eaten regularly, fresh and natural is still the best. But then another problem may come in, sea food, in which fishes are the most consumed, can also carry lots of toxic chemicals ingested from their habitat and their food. Industrial pollutants such as mercury and dioxins can be possibly ingested in human body if you consume these foods.

How to Stay Away from Polluted Sea Foods

Choosing fishes that are coming from habitat that are less pressured and free of industrial pollutants can be the first key. Cultured fishes can be a possible solution but some of these farms may not feed fishes with an all natural feeding process which makes farmed fishes not too healthy and environmentally sustainable option as well.

Fishes caught fresh can be your best option. These can be present in your grocery and local supermarket as well as long as you knew how to spot the fresh ones.

The Five Fishes

Of course the choices below can’t be the only fishes that can give you the benefits. The choices below are just an option you can have if you decided on your next meal.

1. Albacore Tuna. Often, these care caught by pole or by troll. This kind of tuna proves that not all tuna specie can be laden with toxicity. These types of tuna are younger and have less time to build on mercury in their body. You can buy it online too and can be present in some Tuna brands. It can be caught in western US and Canadian waters.
2. Alaskan Salmon. These salmon should be wild caught since farmed salmon can be having lots of contaminants. And there are just thousands of recipes one can do with a salmon.
3. Pacific Sardines. Sardines are one of the fishes which are very beneficial to your health. And sardines can be available in different flavors in the market.
4. Rainbow trout. Trouts are affordable seafood options. But you have to choose the species that have lesser contamination levels.
5. Baramundi. Baramundi can be available in US and Asia but it is abundant in Northern Australia. Among the sources of Omega-3, Australis Baramundi has the highest number of the fatty acid content since they can synthesize their own omega-3s.

Other seafood you can look out for includes krill, calamari, mussels, oysters, Arctic Char, and Dungeness crab. And mostly, they are best if caught wild and fresh. Other options you can have include the incorporation of these fishes or small ones like anchovies in your other meal plans. Say sprinkle anchovies in your pizza or use sardines in your Greek salad. Everything in diet is all about possibility and creativity.

Some mercury bombs though that you can try to avoid when buying fishes includes mackerel, marlin, shark, swordfish, ahi tuna and orange roughy.

Image Credit: lar-f via Flickr.