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The Truth About Tuna

Tuna’s one big health drawback, experts say, is the risk posed by mercury, a neurotoxin. This heavy metal enters the ocean mostly from human activities like burning fossil fuels. It’s absorbed by small organisms and works its way up the food chain and accumulates in bigger, longer-lived species — like sharks, swordfish and, yes, tuna. So what does this mean for tuna eaters? The answer is nuanced because the amount of mercury depends on the species — and there are 15 types of tuna, all of which could end up on a dinner plate. The smallest (and often cheapest), like skipjack, have very little mercury. Albacore and yellowfin can have three times as much; bigeye and bluefin can have far more, Dr.…

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 How Worried Should I Really Be About Mercury in Tuna?

Tuna is awash in helpful nutrients like iron and omega-3 fatty acids—not to mention delicious in sushi, salads, and sandwiches—but it is also known for one ingredient that’s not so beneficial: mercury. That means with every bite of bigeye steak, you might be ingesting a tiny little bit of that naturally occurring heavy metal too. Sounds scary, but what does this really mean for your health? Could eating a spicy tuna roll for lunch once a week actually come with safety hazards? How about every day? Basically, how worried should you really be about mercury in tuna?

Articles of Interest

How ‘dolphin safe’ is canned tuna, really?

StarKist, Bumble Bee, and Chicken of the Sea are facing claims that they're misleading shoppers.

Booming demand could drive tuna to extinction, researchers find

Massive global expansion of tuna fisheries also poses a threat to sharks and other species, says study

Can Eating Too Much Tuna Give You Mercury Poisoning?

I’m poor, and lazy, but also occasionally health conscious, so I eat quite a bit of canned tuna. Not what you’d call an extraordinary amount—maybe two to three cans a week—but enough for it to qualify as a dietary staple. Enough, at the very least, for me to stop and wonder from time to time: is this maybe too much? Can you overdose on tuna? Or, more specifically: what would it take for a person to overdose on tuna?

Health Benefits of Tuna

Tuna is one of the most commonly consumed fish in the world. Canned tuna is particularly popular in the U.S. due to it's affordability, versatility, and ease of storage. There are many types of tuna, but albacore, yellowfin, and skipjack tuna account for most of the tuna consumed worldwide. Tuna is a nutrient-dense food, providing protein and essential vitamins, minerals, and fatty acids. Eating tuna could benefit health in several ways, from supporting satiety to protecting heart health. However, there are significant environmental and health concerns related to tuna consumption.

How much tuna can I eat a week before I need to worry about mercury?

For as little as A$1 a tin, canned tuna is an excellent, affordable source of protein, polyunsaturated fats and other nutrients. A tin of tuna is significantly cheaper than many types of fresh meat or fish. Sounds good, but how much can you eat before you need to worry about mercury? Canned tuna generally has lower levels of mercury than tuna fillets because smaller tuna species are used and the tuna are generally younger when caught.

How to pick the most ‘dolphin-safe’ tuna

Here's what the logos and keywords on that can of tuna mean.

Is Canned Tuna Really Healthy? Here's What Nutritionists Say

Not all cans are created equal.

Is there any tuna that it’s OK to eat?

There are seven varieties of tuna you might buy: albacore, bigeye, skipjack, yellowfin, Atlantic bluefin (farmed and wild), southern bluefin (farmed and wild) and Pacific bluefin. One rule here is simple: avoid all bluefin tuna. Some are critically endangered species, and even farmed bluefin have to be captured from the wild. So no bluefin. Ever. Albacore can be sustainable, bigeye and yellowfin rarely are, so the best tuna variety to choose is generally skipjack, a fast-growing species that is still quite plentiful around the world and makes up most of the tinned tuna you will find. The problem here, however, is how it’s caught.

Love Canned Tuna? More Grocers Want To Make Sure It Was Caught Responsibly

"Dolphin-safe isn't enough anymore," he says. "Look for pole and line caught, labels that say FAD free, and some kind of certification is usually a helpful guide. Those are the big ones."

Only one of Australia’s most popular tuna brands passes sustainability test, first-of-its-kind review finds

Environmentalists have given the green tick to just one brand of canned tuna as industry heavyweights threaten dwindling fishing populations and other marine life. For the first time, the Australian Marine Conservation Society has evaluated the nation’s most popular tuna brands and classed them as green, amber or red based on their sustainability credentials. Safcol’s No Net Tuna is the only fully green-ranked product, with the society ranking it a “better choice” than others.

Should I Eat Canned Tuna?

3/5 experts say yes. It’s not the sexiest fish in the sea. But tuna—even once it’s caught, frozen, thawed, cooked, chopped and canned—still gets a nod of approval from most of our experts. Still, some aren’t pulling out their can openers anytime soon. First, though, some tuna praise. A typical five-ounce can of light tuna has 28 grams of protein, an impressive 56% of your daily requirement.

Some Tuna Can Carry Up To 36 Times The Toxic Chemicals Of Others. Here's Why

In a first-of-its-kind global study, scientists from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego analyzed 117 yellowfin tuna taken from 12 locations worldwide, measuring the contaminant levels of each. They found yellowfin tuna caught closer to more industrialized locations off North America and Europe can carry 36 times more pollutants — including pesticides, flame retardants and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) — than the same species caught in more remote locations, like in the West Pacific Ocean.

The Case for Canned Tuna

Americans like canned tuna, though they didn’t eat much tuna at all before the late 19th century, when immigrants from Southern Italy and Japan came over and brought their tastes for the fish with them. Tuna is now the canned fish of choice in the United States, the most familiar and most popular, but it took me a long time to come around. I never bought canned tuna to make niçoise salad, or to break up into a bowl of warm white beans.

The eco guide to tinned tuna

Sustainable fish is the only option if we’re not going to wipe species out. So it’s a big round of applause for new Princes tuna with the all-important blue tick.

The Latest TikTok Star Is Canned Tuna

“Tuna can do more than the standard tuna sandwich,” said Jeremy Zavoral, Bumble Bee’s brand marketing director. “It’s possible to have a gourmet experience with a can of tuna.” A big driver of interest, industry executives say, has been social media. A search on the social-media app TikTok shows to date more than 25 million views for videos tagged #tinnedfish, with users sharing their experiences with different cans and recommending certain brands.

The Trouble With Tuna: ‘A Lot of Millennials Don’t Even Own Can Openers’

Canned tuna, a lunchbox staple from the 20th century, is fighting to keep its spot in American cupboards. Century-old tuna companies like StarKist Co., Bumble Bee Foods LLC and Chicken of the Sea International are trying to reboot demand for tuna fish—selling it in cans, pouches and kits with trendy flavors or as a healthy snack—as they seek to hold on to their dominance in a shrinking market.

Tuna Lover's Dilemma: To Eat or Not to Eat?

How'd they catch it? Is it high in mercury? A guide to the tuna that surfaces in supermarkets, eateries, and sushi bars.

What’s Really in That Tuna Roll? DNA Testing Can Help You Find Out

As DNA analysis has become easier, it has become an increasingly important tool for keeping the food industry in check, allowing manufacturers and outside agencies alike to police supply chains and ensure food purity. But taking a sample of the potentially offending food and sending it off to a lab, as most major manufacturers do, could take up to seven days.

When You Eat Tuna Every Day, This Is What Happens

There are many different kinds of tuna. The size of the fish when it is typically caught and the environment it lives in both affect how healthy the fish is (via The Healthy). Yellowfin tuna, for example, should be avoided as much as possible. A 2017 study found that yellowfin tuna can carry up to 36 times more pollutants than other kinds of this fish.

Why Is Mercury Stubbornly High in Tuna? Researchers Might Have an Answer.

Old accumulations of the toxic metal in the deep sea are circulating into shallower waters where the fish feed, new research found.

Why you shouldn’t overlook this cheap and versatile tinned fish

Most types of tinned tuna are skipjack, which is the smallest and most abundant type of tuna. This type should contain smaller amounts of mercury in comparison to larger varieties, which tend to be reserved for serving fresh. While fresh is generally higher in omega-3s, tinned tuna in oil can retain similar levels of these healthy fats, though they will be depleted in spring water and even more so in brine, notes Gunter Kuhnle, a professor of nutrition and food science at the University of Reading.