Eating Tuna, High Level of Mercury

I was thinking about eating a few cans of tuna and remembered that Tuna is high in mercury and was wondering how many people are worried about ingesting mercury. Many sources suggest you eat no more than 2-3 servings per month. people in china who eat dolphins for example which have extremely high amounts of mercury have died from it.

Mercury Guide (serving size chart using weight as variable for safe amount to eat )
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,324965,00.html

just a few of thousands of pages about it

Berardi and even a quick google search (forget which government agency, I would assume USDA), says about 1 can a day and you’ll be fine.

Personally, there are much bigger fish (no pun intended) to fry than worrying about mercury unless you’re a kid or pregnant.

I love when I hear clients say, oh what about the mercury in fish, when they’re living off fast foods and bagels.

I eat 2 cans of tuna a day. Am i at risk?

you cant beat the protein!

well during this last year at college I was broke as a joke, so I ended up eating AT LEAST 4 normal sized cans EVERY DAY, and I’m not dead.

[quote]masonator wrote:
well during this last year at college I was broke as a joke, so I ended up eating AT LEAST 4 normal sized cans EVERY DAY, and I’m not dead. [/quote]

lol yea im a freshmen in college.

I accidently bought like 30 cans of tuna SUPENDED IN OIL. It pissed me off soooo bad. This shits soo messy and has a funny texture to the tuna.

Why do you guys eat so much tuna anyways? It’s extremely expensive if you look at how many cals you actually get out of it. There’s really no point in even eating it.

If you want canned fish, salmon or sardines would be MUCH better.

A little can is only about 100cals and packed full of protein.

Can’t beat it in terms of dieting and convenience.

in the US tuna is super cheap.

one can, one US dollar.

75g protien, no carbs…not too shabby.

i too went through the college phase and lived on a can a day…still alive and kicking (ass)!

Mmm Tuna. Not the canned stuff, but fresh and quick seared, raw in the middle…What dreams are made of. I try to eat tuna about 3-4 times a week, it’s the only fish I find very palatable.

I’m not sure why every keeps saying they’re not dead yet…you’re going to suddenly die from mercury unless you’re exposed to a large acute dose. Lower chronic doses of mercury you’d get from eating a lot of tuna would be more destructive/degenerative than lethal.

[quote]B rocK wrote:
in the US tuna is super cheap.

one can, one US dollar.

75g protien, no carbs…not too shabby.

i too went through the college phase and lived on a can a day…still alive and kicking (ass)![/quote]

Obviously US tins are bigger, our 'normal cans have ~33g tuna and ~135kCal

Eat fish that are lower down in the food chain…like sardines and herring. I eat a lot of them. I only have one can of tuna a week, but I just eat other fish instead.

Remember, the lower down in the food chain the cleaner the fish. The big fish, like shark, should be avoided.

[quote]masonator wrote:
well during this last year at college I was broke as a joke, so I ended up eating AT LEAST 4 normal sized cans EVERY DAY, and I’m not dead. [/quote]

Just because you feel fine doesn’t mean anything…people with high cholesterol can feel perfectly normal, but that doesn’t mean something isn’t wrong.

I would say it depends on your current exposure levels. Do you have a mouth full of “silver” fillings? If so, then your mercury levels may already be quite high. You can do urine challange tests to determine your levels.

going with other fish seems like a good idea, salmon is suppose to be very low in mercury if there is any and other small fish taste fine anyway and are pretty cheap.

I imagine ill be eating alot of this stuff in years to come lol if I dont turn into a fat ass college student :frowning:

Before you are eating enough tuna to worry about a health risk, you should be more concerned about diversifying your diet. Relying too much of anything isn’t really good, even if it is cheap and protein dense.

Try tongol tuna, it’s a lot lower in mercury, and tastes a lot better. At Whole foods it’s about $1.09 a can. Can’t beat the flavor if you’re used to the store brands like Starkist or Chicken of the sea. Also, chunk light is much lower in mercury levels than say solid white albacore.

[quote]B rocK wrote:
in the US tuna is super cheap.

one can, one US dollar.

75g protien, no carbs…not too shabby.

i too went through the college phase and lived on a can a day…still alive and kicking (ass)![/quote]

apparently tuna’s the protein of choice for broke college students…I know I used to put away 3+ cans a day back in the day.

Prolly why I can’t even stand to smell the stuff now…man I used to hate draining all the juice out of the cans. That was such a bitch :frowning:

ahh, Low-Carb Metabolic Drive how I love thee :slight_smile:

[quote]Thomas Gabriel wrote:
Why do you guys eat so much tuna anyways? It’s extremely expensive if you look at how many cals you actually get out of it. There’s really no point in even eating it.

If you want canned fish, salmon or sardines would be MUCH better. [/quote]

You serious?

One small can is 70 cents and has 35grams of protein.

Albacore (Sp?) Tuna is a smaller fish, thus less levels of mercury. Case solved-ish.