Quote (Decarnate @ May 14 2022 01:17am)

Like many others who seek a convenient means of diversifying their protein/fat intake with fish, I find myself consuming an average of 10-15 cans of tuna per week. This is in addition to a variety of other protein/fat sources in order to reach what I consider adequate amounts for my dietary needs.

For the longest time I've heard about too high of mercury levels being a concern when consuming a lot of certain types of fish - to include tuna. For months I was eating entirely white albacore but after reading a few articles, decided that chunk light might be a safer option. The FDA recommends consuming less than 12 ounces per week of chunk white and less than 4 ounces of albacore.

Seemed like a definitive answer, however, during the course of my looking into this topic, I found some sources saying the FDA recommendation is basically nonsense and those mercury levels are not cause for concern. The reason for this is associated with high levels of selenium naturally occurring within the fish that essentially sequesters the mercury and renders it harmless.

Apparently you would be hard pressed to find any documented cases of mercury poisoning as a direct result of eating too many cans of tuna. The only noteworthy example I was able to find was from 1956, in which copius amounts of chronic methyl mercury had been released into a bay for years and years, subjecting the fish to far more than what naturally occurs in our oceans, lakes, and rivers. The results were not pretty for people who consumed those fish.

Curious to see what our health and fitness enthusiasts believe. Is there an optimal amount of canned tuna that people should/should not be consuming?

Quote (sirthom @ Jun 6 2022 07:12am)

Only buy wild caught.
1-3 week