Here's the EPA advisory for women and young children: [link]

1. Do not eat Shark, Swordfish, King Mackerel, or Tilefish because they contain high levels of mercury.

2. Eat up to 12 ounces (2 average meals) a week of a variety of fish and shellfish that are lower in mercury.

Five of the most commonly eaten fish that are low in mercury are shrimp, canned light tuna, salmon, pollock, and catfish.

Another commonly eaten fish, albacore ("white") tuna has more mercury than canned light tuna. So, when choosing your two meals of fish and shellfish, you may eat up to 6 ounces (one average meal) of albacore tuna per week.

3. Check local advisories about the safety of fish caught by family and friends in your local lakes, rivers, and coastal areas. If no advice is available, eat up to 6 ounces (one average meal) per week of fish you catch from local waters, but don't consume any other fish during that week.

Follow these same recommendations when feeding fish and shellfish to your young child, but serve smaller portions.

Of coruse, the trouble with advisories like that is nobody has any idea what 6 oz. of fish actually looks like on a plate. I wouldn't be surprised if the portion of fish at your average restaurant is 12 oz.

There was a great 4-color spread in the Washington Post several years ago, that sat down and measured what a formal "serving" is (USDA) vs. what people actually serve themselves. Their conclusion: people have two servings of fruit in your average glass of OJ. Apples are usually 1.5 servings, because store-bought apples are so huge (except Macs). Nobody ever drinks 6oz. of milk; they drink 8 oz. or 12 oz. and think that is one serving. It was rather the eye-opener.

Nobody ever drinks 6oz. of milk; they drink 8 oz. or 12 oz. and think that is one serving.

I always thought 8oz was a serving of milk.

Of coruse, the trouble with advisories like that is nobody has any idea what 6 oz. of fish actually looks like on a plate.

Huh -- I can eyeball a 6-oz fillet pretty easily. (Since I always order by weight when I go to the fishmonger anyway.)

Five of the most commonly eaten fish that are low in mercury are shrimp, canned light tuna, salmon, pollock, and catfish.

Man, I wish they'd make up their minds about the salmon. I've been craving lox for ages, but I distinctly remember two different MD-vetted websites strongly cautioning against it.

::takes a random pill just for the hell of it::

Man, I wish they'd make up their minds about the salmon. I've been craving lox for ages, but I distinctly remember two different MD-vetted websites strongly cautioning against it.

I always thought that farmed salmon was bad, but wild was okay.

I always thought that farmed salmon was bad, but wild was okay.

Cool! IIRC, the salmon and lox at TJ's are usually labeled farmed or wild.

Turns out you're right about the milk. But the real problem seems to be that portion labels on foods don't necessarily have anything to do with USDA portions. The graph on the 2nd page of this link (PDF) is kind of crazy: [link]

Pancakes are meant to be eaten only in tiny tiny bites!

Personally, my food-pyramid WTF is that 1 slice of bread is a serving. So a sandwich is 2 servings of grain! All those poor people eating bran muffins because they think they have to. Little do they know!

3 oz of meat is a deck of cards.