Tuna and Mercury

ej_xo
ej_xo Posts: 75
edited September 25 in Health and Weight Loss
Americans' Exposure to Mercury From Fish Won't Harm Hearts:

Researchers have been analyzing human toenails to determine the effects of eating fish contaminated with mercury, and they have found that the mercury in fish does not increase your risk of heart attack or stroke.

Yay!

The reason they looked at people’s toenails is because past studies have relied on asking people what they ate — which is unreliable. Studying their toenails gave scientists more accurate results.

"The average person should eat fish as part of a healthy diet [and not worry about ill heart effects],” said Harvard School of Public Health cardiologist Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian.

This is awesome news! Fish is a great source of protein and healthy fat. As long as you don’t overdo it — eat away!



Check it out:

http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/651154.html

Replies

  • KaleighL
    KaleighL Posts: 159
    I wish i liked tuna!....I hate fish so much :(
  • taso42_DELETED
    taso42_DELETED Posts: 3,394 Member
    I love tuna and eat it often despite the warnings. But just to play devil's advocate.... Heart attack & stroke are one thing, but can't high mercury exposure also lead to other health issues? I think I heard it's more of a risk for pregnant women or women planning to have babies?
  • hpsnickers1
    hpsnickers1 Posts: 2,783 Member
    And I recently read to go with chunk light tuna instead of white albacore due to less mercury. If you do a little online searching you find out that certain tuna and salmon have the lowest levels.

    In fact I'm sitting here with a can of Starkist Low Sodium Chunk Light Tuna. I dump the whole can in my salad.

    Entire can:
    120 cal (fat calories: 20)
    1g fat
    0g sat and trans fat
    200mg sodium
    300mg potassium
    0g carbs
    30g protein
  • exacerbe
    exacerbe Posts: 447 Member
    Being a pescatarian, that's always good news. However, mercury poisoning is different from simply going into cardiac arrest. I always stick with canned light tuna due to the low mercury levels.

    Salmon has very, very low levels of mercury and is safe to eat everyday -- unless it is farmed, which is bad for different reasons.
  • mgreen10
    mgreen10 Posts: 229 Member
    yumm...tuna melt with tomatoes and cheese on rye. I think that is what I will be having for lunch.
  • LovelySnugs
    LovelySnugs Posts: 389
    I love tuna and eat it often despite the warnings. But just to play devil's advocate.... Heart attack & stroke are one thing, but can't high mercury exposure also lead to other health issues? I think I heard it's more of a risk for pregnant women or women planning to have babies?

    yeah. so much so that my dr told me to avoid eating more than one tuna sandwich a month while i was pregnant. it's more a paranoia issue than anything else, though. kinda like wine. and my dr told me not to have that more than once a month while i was pregnant, as well.

    in fact. they give tuna to breastfeeding women on WIC here in texas, but not pregnant women. <shrug> i just eat light tuna instead of the albacore or whatever. don't really care much, myself.
  • bizco
    bizco Posts: 1,949 Member
    I wouldn't give up tuna even if all the mercury hype was true. Gotta die of something. Just saying.
  • taso42_DELETED
    taso42_DELETED Posts: 3,394 Member
    I usually get Tongol from Trader Joe's or Whole Foods. Anyone know how that one ranks? Is it just another name for "Chunk Light"?
  • 123456654321
    123456654321 Posts: 1,311 Member
    I get this: http://www.google.com/products/catalog?um=1&hl=en&q=wild+tuna+no+salt&biw=698&bih=393&ie=UTF-8&cid=9739603761917100899&sa=X&ei=nU-NTbTwDMWztwf93bzFDQ&ved=0CFMQ8wIwAA#

    ...They don't add salt and it's supposed to be lower in mercury (I don't know how much lower.) I probably eat it twice a month *shrug*
  • shannonpatton
    shannonpatton Posts: 299 Member
    Cool! I love tuna! I eat it everyday. I was worried I might get mercury poisoning :/
  • TonyaJ83
    TonyaJ83 Posts: 155
    I can't stomach putting any form of a creature in my mouth........So I haven't had to worry about this topic. Although, interesting read!
  • Lyadeia
    Lyadeia Posts: 4,603 Member
    What does this mean for fresh tuna? I never buy the canned stuff, I always go to a fresh market and get a fillet.
  • as1789
    as1789 Posts: 46
    You might not have to worry about heart problems, but if you eat a lot of mercury rich fish you can go crazy, literally. It can cause central nervous system damage, kidney damage and more, and no one should eat it if they're pregnant. It can cause birth defects.
    This tends to be if you eat it more than once a day every day though. Mercury is serious stuff. I've studied it a lot in my Toxicology classes.
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