Albacore tuna vs. the cheap stuff

I eat a lot of tuna (about 12 oz. a day) and I was wondering if anyone here could tell me how much it would hurt to buy the cheap stuff instead of the albacore. I’m on a budget and even at the discount grocery the albacore is almost triple the regular stuff. Is there a really big difference in terms of Omegas, contaminants, etc.?

Mostly just a taste thing. If you look at the nutritional information it is almost identical.

They both have equal amounts of protein. The issue I beleive(I could be wrong) is the taste. I’ve also read that albacore has the most mercury compared to the cheaper ones. If your on a tight budget than you just have to suck it up and buy the cheaper stuff. I used to buy organic milk/eggs because I wanted to avoid all the hormones etc. but I’ll just have to wait until I’m rich enough to do that. Being on a budget sucks but you can get really creative with cheap food sources.

The cheaper darker kinds of tuna are more moist and taste better so I prefer them.

I also believe it’s more a matter of taste and texture than anything else; nutritionally all the grocery store brands appear to be similar. I’ve actually been stockpiling different varieties for a future article comparing all of them, from a taste and eating perspective. However, check out davedraper.com for Dave’s comments on tuna, as he has strong feelings about quality concerning this product (he consumes a great deal of tuna), and links to a small company selling extremely high grade tuna.

Another issue, if it matters to you, is the Albacore is labelled as dolphin-safe. That means supposedly, the darker tunas swim with dolphins, which are sometimes scooped up with the tuna, and killed. Dolphins reportedly don’t swim with albacore. If you can live with killing Flipper, then eat what you want.

You’re not getting your omega 3’s from Tuna (at least I hope not!). Tuna is too low in fat to provide you with any reasonable amounts of omega 3 fatty acids.