Seafood Guide: Which Are Healthiest? Which Should You Avoid?

The seafood counter of any grocery store is an intimidating and overwhelming space.  Do you want your fish and shellfish fresh or frozen? Full or fileted? Shelled or shucked? Is the wild-caught salmon worth the extra money? Is the halibut on sale because it's old? 

Seafood is a difficult food group to navigate, but The Daily Meal is here to help. When evaluating whether to purchase a fish, crustacean, or mollusk, two important things need to be considered: Is it healthy, and what part of the world did it come from?  

Healthy seafood is that which is low in mercury, is a minimal toxcitiy risk, is raised under reliable regulations, is low in calories, and has a robust nutritional profile full of protein, and beneficial fish oils.  

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Source is important because the United States imports 90 percent of its seafood, much of it coming in unchecked by any regulatory agency. As consumers, we would like to think that the practices of fisherman in Vietnam or Tanzania can be tracked or controlled, but this is not the reality.

Seafood is risky business, which is why this list is so important. Not only does this article outline the most nutritional seafood, but it also takes into account the safest and most sustainable. Sustainability needs to be an essential component in your seafood purchasing decisions because the world's supplies of many of our favorite fish are dangerously low. Chilean seabass, Atlantic bluefin tuna, red snapper, and Atlantic cod are just a few of the species of that have been devastated by overfishing. If we want these fish to be available in the future, we need to avoid them now.