The other day I came across this horror story on reddit – “2 cans of chunk light tuna a day for 2 months gave me mercury poisoning“.
In the thread a commenter linked to a handy infographic showing Omega 3 Fatty Acids vs. Mercury Levels in Fish.
The thing comes from the Washington Post and was accompanied by this post titled “Eat more fish; risks overstated“.
As with everything in life, add some variety and you can still enjoy your seafood.
Selenium levels need to be taken into consideration when comparing mercury levels in fish and any adverse health effects. http://www.undeerc.org/fish/pdfs/Selenium-Mercury.pdf
Simply put: if the fish has a higher selenium content than mercury than mercury poisoning isn’t going to happen.
Interesting , thanks Stefan.
Canned salmon it is for me then!
Unfortunately, the chart doesn’t say anything about *canned* tuna. Not sure why that makes such a big difference, but it does. Here’s what I said in the comments on that Reddit thread:
> 2 cans far exceeds the FDA and EPA recommended limits:
>
> http://www.nrdc.org/health/effects/mercury/tuna.asp
>
> According to their guidelines, nobody should eat canned tuna more frequently than 1 can every 3 days.
>
> Source: Food and Drug Administration test results for mercury and fish, and the Environmental Protection Agency’s determination of safe levels of mercury.
Dont forget about PCBs – mercury isn’t the only thing thats rather bad for you…. http://www.city-data.com/forum/charlotte/1838036-lake-norman-fish-contaminated-pcbs.html