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Canned tuna: 'splain.


AmyS

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It's pretty easy to find lower merc tuna. I like Wild Planets tuna. Troll and pole caught (protects the dolphin and other critters) and low mercury. I like Trader Joes. It says dolphin safe but nothing about low merc. Tuna is a fabulous vehicle for homemade mayo. :)

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The smaller tunas don't have as high a risk of mercury, since they're younger fish and not as big. Albacore is the larger and more likely to have higher levels; unfortunately that's what I buy since the Costco albacore doesn't have soy. I limit consumption to 1-2 cans a week for me. My youngest will eat maybe 1/2 can now and then. She prefers sardines or salmon.

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I'm glad you posted this. I adore tuna and, over here, we don't seem to have the problems you have with having soy or other weird ingredients added to it. However your post got me thinking and so I started looking it up. Apparently, not only is mercury in tuna still a problem but a lot of recent research seems to suggest it's worse than what was thought. There's a good article here

http://ens-newswire.com/2012/09/20/tuna-loving-kids-at-risk-of-mercury-poisoning/

which gives quite a bit of info, geared towards kids but the princoples apply to all. This site

http://www.ewg.org/tunacalculator

uses the FDA's guidlines to calculate how much tuna you can safely eat in a week depending on your weight. Quite sad, really, as i consider tuna and avocado to be one of the major foodgroups. :( I doubt I'll cut it out completely but I may experiment a bit more with tinned salmon, sardines, shrimp etc.

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Thanks everyone. I'm reasonably sure that mercury-free canned tuna is not going to be available where I live, unfortunately. Fresh ahi is always available, but it's pretty prohibiitively expensive.

You know, I grew up on sardines, I loooove them, but I haven't had them in YEARS. Gonna stock up next trip to the store. Yum! Canned salmon is good too. I need to remember these options. Thank you!

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The Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch considers Albacore tuna that's troll/pole-and-line caught and from the Pacific Ocean to be a "best choice". Their website is great for figuring out what the best seafood is (you can see the other types of tuna listed on the side as well): http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/SeafoodWatch/web/sfw_factsheet.aspx?gid=74

This paragraph addresses the mercury issue:

"Environmental Defense Fund has issued a consumption advisory for longline-caught albacore tuna due to elevated levels of mercury. No consumption advisories are listed for troll- or pole-caught albacore as these methods catch younger tuna with lower mercury levels."

There's phone apps available that let you search the Seafood Watch guide, or you can print one out from their website. And they update them every 6 months. Definitely useful when looking at the seafood options in the grocery store!

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I recently listened to a Chris Kresser podcast on mercury "...as long as background selenium intake is sufficient (which it is in most industrialized nations), then there is no reason to limit consumption of ocean fish." Here's a link to the page: http://chriskresser....mercury-in-fish

Thank you so much for posting this. As I said, I love tuna and it was so depressing thinking it had to be limited. Just about to put in my online shopping order so will cheerfully add more tuna to it. Thanks again

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I love sardines but I have yet to find a compliant one that wasn't really expensive. :( I also buy the Costco tuna. :D

Sharon! Check out Costco for sardines. That's where I get mine. I can't remember the brand, but they're the good stuff - packed in olive oil and no franken-substances added!

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