tuna is killing you

KinghtRT,

I can’t tell if you are smacking me down or someone else. But, it only took me 15 seconds to find supporting documentation.

Health Canada

The FDA

http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/ANSWERS/2001/ANS01065.html

From Tunafacts.com

"Q. Do fish contain methylmercury?
A. Nearly all fish contain some methylmercury. Large predator species such as shark, swordfish, king mackerel and tilefish contain the most methylmercury. In general, the larger and older a fish is, the more it will contain. This is due to the fact that methylmercury accumulates over time. "

Large predator species = high up the food chain.

I apologize in advance if you weren’t smacking me down. If you were though, please give me something to inform me rather than berate me.

Hey ScrubMd2B;
Good post. Well put. What school are you at, and what year are you in? Maybe we can start a new trend for doctors to actually be in shape too.
(Most people don’t like to take advice from their doctor when the guy walks into the office munching a Krispy Kreme, slurping a medium double double, and can’t do up his labcoat over the middle belly excess).

Sorry to hijack. To the other young fellow that posted before me: Try other protein sources too, such as nuts, cottage cheese, etc. Some of those things will be cheaper than tuna and almost as convenient.

I’m a 3rd year med student at OSU. Haven’t been posting much lately because I’m taking step 1 of the boards in a week and a half.

This girl in my class is always trying to tell me how bad my protein shakes are for my kidneys. She knows that it causes pre-renal azotemia because she shadowed a nephrologist and he told her so. In case you were wondering, yes she looks like she is on pear-roids.

LMAO, “Pear-roids”. You funny.

Good luck on your boards. I passed mine but it was the worst 6 months of all nite studying of my life. (and no, I didn’t work out once in there). couldn’t justify taking a half hour to work out when I could be memorizing Kreb’s or the Vitamin D-Cholecalciferol synthetic pathway.

See ya round. Come back after your boards with more of those jokes. :slight_smile:

I hate to break it to yall but canned tuna is the cheapest form of tuna. It’s usually the cheapest form of tuna that the canneries can get their hands on. I wanna say that it is either skipjack or blackfin tuna. Good yellowfin and bluefin is usually used for sushi or grilling at restaurants. If you are wondering how I know this, I work for a tuna wholesaling company in Louisiana and none of our tuna goes to canning tuna. ANd some weeks we handle 60,000-70,000 pounds of tuna.

I also wanted to add that canned albacore is a better choice in fish as in the quality of the fish.

I eat sushi everyday for lunch. Mostly tuna and salmon.
Am I going to get poisoned?

The hysteria about fish and mercury reminds me of the alledged dangers of soy products.

Both are safe unless you overdo them. Eating 3 cans of tuna or a pound of tofu a day was never part of being healthy, anyway. Everything in moderation.

-Zulu

I love how topics like this resurface here every month or so and it’s treated like it’s a brand new, unheard of thing. Look, we’ve talked this subject to death so many times. Every single study you find that supports the “tuna is going to poison you” theory has more flaws in it than tuna in the sea. You need to understand the geographic area where the fish were sampled from, their age, their size, their type, the person eating it, their general health etc etc.

There is nothing cut and dry about this. You can’t tell someone that they are going to be poisoned by eating 3 cans a day because for every person that is supposedly poisoned from eating 1 can per week, there are thousands of people that are perfectly healthy and eating 3 can per day.

If you start noticing symptoms of poisoning- blurred vision, memory loss, amongst a host of other symptoms, stop eating tuna. The symptoms will disappear and you will be as good as new. If you keep eating it, then that’s your problem. Symptoms of mercury poisoning are easily identified and can be reversed in otherwise healthy adults.

For anyone quoting Health Canada or the FDA, think about this for a second- these are the same jackasses that tell us that the maximum amunt of protein we should be consuming is 69 grams per day regardless of age, health, other nutrient intake etc. They also tell you to avoid fats in your diet and make no distinction between mono, poly and sat. You have a study to quote? I’ve got ten more that say the opposite.

Hey, don’t forget those good 'ol sardines. Tasty little bastards with low amounts of mercury. Protein with good fats…

We have a cupboard full of cans of tuna. And it’s probably gonna stay that way; at least for awhile.

I’m all tuna’d out. Especially after eating cans of the stuff for pre-contest.

But this is probably like everything else: find a balance, don’t over go overboard with it.

This is exactly why I switched to Dolphin.

hah… dolphin

CGB, I’m with you on this but I’m curious in seeing 10 studies showing that tuna is not dangerous…

-Zulu

Zulu, you might have heard about the study that was widely profiled in the news about 3 weeks ago. It was determined that it is perfectly fine for pregnant women and nursing mothers to consume small amounts of tuna, swordfish and other previously “toxic” foods. About 1 or 2 servings per week. Previously, it was widely accepted that this group should avoid these altogether. Since this is the highest risk group there is, some of us might now assume there is really no reason to avoid tuna anymore.

I find it amusing that all of these studies are based on different sampling methods, different data etc and tell you something completely different and yet the last one we hear about it is the one we tend to accept as factual. No, I can’t supply you with 10 references. That was a joke, but there are many studies out there that contradict the ones that have created this tuna hysteria.

Studies that don’t support mercury poisoning never seem to make the news. I wonder why that is. And I said that sarcastically.

Read medical studies and check references, don’t just take your local newscaster’s word for it.

Cripes, if there’s a friggin’ Pork lobby and Soy lobby and Beef lobby you can bet your ass there’s a Tuna lobby or fisherman’s lobby or something paying for positive spin.

Cigarettes were thought to be healthy at one point too.

So does anyone know how heavy metals get out of your system? I thought once they were in, they were there permanently. But if the side effects of high levels diminish with time there must be some mechanism at work to diminish levels…

Warhorse this is me doing a WAG…wild ass guess. I’ve always thought that once you got a heavy metal in you such as lead or mercury then it’s in you for life. I’m assuming that the neurological damage is what your body might have repaired instead of the actual levels of the metal being flushed out. I think you body stores them “however” then does it’s best to correct the damage. Yes this is a grade 3 explanation but I’m only in grade 1. :wink:

Also if I remember correctly, the majority of lead absorbed is stored in the brain! Yippy! So if your head is getting alot heavier you know you have lead poisoning. Tee hee hee. :wink:

Arcane:

Yeah, I started reading up on it. Looks like H.M’s will stay in your system for 67 years… Not good. There are some treatments that can supposedly draw the poison out. Still reading…

(Actually it’s Friday night, I’m drinking, not reading. I know, shame on me…)

:wink:

Warhorse,

Look into grapefruit pectin. I’ve heard some people say it can help with heavy metals poisoning.