Training & Nutrition - tuna

do any of you eat a can of tuna a day? i have been for 3 years, but am worried about the recent reports that you should eat tuna no more than 3 times a week.

are you referring to the mercury claims? that's why i don't eat it that often.

My brother probably eats TWO cans a day, but that habits only been in effect for a couple of years. Any adverse affects probably wouldn't show up until much later. But what the hell, the guy smokes too.

Try some kind chicken to mix it up. Or get some yoke free egg noodles (though the pain is you have to take time to cook it).

Something's fishy.

I just couldn't resist.

I eat maybe 2 cans a week. It's good, cheap, lean protein. It's hard to get a good read on the mercury risk. I'm sure some say any is too much. I think the US gov't warns against pregnant and nursing mothers eating too much. The reality is probably somewhere in between.

If you read the original health advisory from the CFIA (cdn food inspection agency), I think it was, it says SPECIFICALLY that only certain species of tuna have been found with elevated levels of mercury.

If I remember correctly, the cheap skipjack tuna (the cheap cans of tuna) are mentioned as safe because they are not as high up in the food chain. The more expensive species were mentioned as having elevated mercury e.g. albacore.. i'm not familiar with tuna species, but sashimi is usually yellowfin or bluefin and high in the food chain.

Another carnivourous fish was also mentioned in the advisory, I think it was shark.

In any case, it said avoid having these things more than once a week if you insisted on having it.

Hi,
I used to eat a lot of tuna as well, for all the same reasons as all of you, however, the claims by the government got to me, so I started looking for tuna that had the least amount of mercury. I found this site: vitalchoiceseafood.com and I now by my tuna from them. It is a little more expensive but I actually use the entire can instead of picking apart 2 cans of the grocery store brands, so the cost equals out. Also, I buy a large quantity at a time so the cost comes down and they offer free shipping. I couldn't believe my eyes when I opened the first can, it is the whitest freshest tuna I had ever seen. The taste was AMAZING. It is packaged in a small amount of olive oil and sea salt. I am now not as worried about the mercury content and I can eat it much more frequently.
Hope that helps.

Pinkshells :o

"a little more expensive" == $5 per 6 oz. can!

i like the "Genova" kind at Trader Joe's. also packed in a olive oil and it's $1.49 i think.
http://i2.peapod.com/c/RA/RAEHD.jpg
i know this doesn't address the mercury issue, but still.

I recall the "chunk" tuna is better as it comes from smaller/younger fish and Mercury builds over time. Of course I don't know where I heard that, so it might as well came from the "Tuna Canners of America".

You would also think if tuna was that bad for you the local food centers and USDA programs would not make it so accessible...even more so than peanut butter and beans these days.

At any rate, you got me nervous about my tuna intake.

"a little more expensive" == $5 per 6 oz. can!


$2.00 6oz can of grocery store brand
$4.37 6oz can of vital choice (24 cans=$104.95)

I was using 2 sometimes 3 cans of grocery store brand, I would pick through it because I am not fond of eating fish scales, pieces of bones etc. I am a tad picky about what I put in my body and I don’t like to eat things I wouldn’t feed to the dog. So the increase in cost is worth my piece of mind and the decrease in mercury content.

From the Vital Choice web site:
Mercury content
Do you have your fish tested for mercury content?
Yes, Vital Choice regularly submits samples of our fish to an independent state-of-the-art laboratory for contaminant analysis. You can learn more about the lab here.

What is the mercury content of your products?
Recent test results on our albacore showed NO DETECT for PCBs and an average total mercury level of .14 parts per million (ppm). This is less than one-sixth of the FDA's recommended "action level" of 1 ppm, and one-third of the .5 ppm average amount recently found in a sampling of supermarket canned tuna:
"Albacore accounts for about one-third of all canned tuna sold in the U.S. and MPP's independent testing found that mercury levels in white canned tuna averaged over 0.5 ppm."



Pinkshells

i've been thinking about using sardines for protein (one of them lil' cans has like 28 grams of it!! but a lot of fat too.. but, i don't mind that).

would the Thailand sardines be better than the Maine sardines for low mercury?

how do sardines compare to tuna for mercury content?

pink buddy - don't act like you're correcting me - it's the other way around.

it's $4.50 a can if you buy a >$100 of tuna at one shot. it's $5.50 per can if you buy 6 cans at a time, so i said $5.00.

i also said i wasn't addressing the mercury question. but it is at least three times the price per can of the brand i mentioned (which tastes great btw). and i don't know what you've been eating that you're picking through for scales and bones - i've never had to do that with any kind of canned tuna. salmon maybe, but tuna no. the kind i mentioned was all edible.

i'm sure that stuff you recommend is good - heck, i'm sure it's the best there is. but my point was this: you really can't say three times the price (given a minimum $104 order) is "a little more expensive". i mean come on - twenty-four cans of Tonno Genova costs $35.76!

http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~frf/sea-mehg.html

SARDINE 0.02 0.01 ND 0.04


that's pretty low for sardines.. right?

also, isnt' mercury in nearly everything we eat? i know it's one of the problems posed with forest fires. i read somewhere that trees have it in them.

also the surveys of salmon are from 12 years ago. wouldn't it be worse now?

Albacore accounts for about one-third of all canned tuna sold in the U.S. and MPP's independent testing found that mercury levels in white canned tuna averaged over 0.5 ppm.

Sounds like clever marketing. Why didn't they say that 2/3 of the canned tuna is NOT albacore and has less mercury than albacore (just look at Merton's link).

I pay less than 1$ for my tuna can. Never had to pick scales and bones out. I prefer shrimps though. mmmmmmmm... shrimps <drooling>

pink buddy - don't act like you're correcting me - it's the other way around.

it's $4.50 a can if you buy a >$100 of tuna at one shot. it's $5.50 per can if you buy 6 cans at a time, so i said $5.00.

i also said i wasn't addressing the mercury question. but it is at least three times the price per can of the brand i mentioned (which tastes great btw). and i don't know what you've been eating that you're picking through for scales and bones - i've never had to do that with any kind of canned tuna. salmon maybe, but tuna no. the kind i mentioned was all edible.

i'm sure that stuff you recommend is good - heck, i'm sure it's the best there is. but my point was this: you really can't say three times the price (given a minimum $104 order) is "a little more expensive". i mean come on - twenty-four cans of Tonno Genova costs $35.76!

Look, I am sorry I ever posted, should have known better, just trying to be helpful.
Eat whatever the hell you want.

Any one like Tuna steaks?? MMmmmmm great with pasta.

Look, I am sorry I ever posted, should have known better, just trying to be helpful.
Eat whatever the hell you want.

Oh, don't be silly. 300 other people read your post and did not respond. I'm sure someone is glad they have an alternative.