Eating Tuna:

Tuna is one of the most convenient protein sources that exists, so it can
easily become a guys go-to lunch. But is it safe to eat it every day?
It would likely be safe for many men to eat tuna every day, while some men
could experience symptoms of mercury toxicity from eating the same
amount, says Food and Drug Administration spokeswoman Lauren Sucher.
Fish is good for you. Research has shown that it may lower your risk
of heart disease death, says Dariush Mozaffarian, M.D., Dr.P.H., dean of
the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University.
Emerging but not-yet-established evidence suggests that eating fish may
also help combat stroke, obesity, cognitive decline, depression,
cancer, inflammatory disorders, and asthma.
Fish flesh today is badly contaminated with toxic chemicals that are known to
cause cancer and brain degeneration and is also the most likely of all foods
to make you sick from bacterial contamination.
Fishs bodies absorb toxic chemicals in the water around them, and the
chemicals become more concentrated as they move up the food chain. Big
fish eat little fish, with the bigger fish (such as tuna and salmon) absorbing
chemicals from all the other fish they eat. Fish flesh stores contaminants,
such as PCBs, which cause liver damage, nervous system disorders, and fetal
damage; dioxins, also linked to cancer; radioactive substances like strontium
90; and other dangerous contaminants like cadmium, mercury, lead,
chromium, and arsenic, which can cause health problems ranging from
kidney damage and impaired mental development to cancer. These toxins
are stored in the body fat of humans who eat fish and remain in their bodies
for decades.
Tuna fish accumulate toxic mercury in their flesh, the side effects of mercury
poisoning include finger curling, cognitive impairment, and coordination
problems.
Tuna flesh is loaded with heavy metals that attack the heart muscle, so
the toxicity might outweigh any possible health benefits of omega-3 fatty
acids (depending on your rate of consumption). According to a recent study
published in the American Heart Associations journal, men with the highest

levels of mercury increased their risk for heart disease by 60 percent and
their risk of dying of a heart attack by 70 percent.
There are safer sources of omega-3s, such as walnuts and flaxseeds.
Because fishing trawlers are increasingly emptying the seas of more and
more of their inhabitants, fish are now being raised on farms Small tuna
are captured and dumped into netted pens. They are fattened on pellets of
concentrated fish flesh and killed when they get big enoughif they dont
die first from the parasites and diseases that thrive in extremely crowded
conditions.

Calculate your weekly limit by following the instructions below. And if you do
experience symptoms of mercury poisoning, you can usually reverse them
by eating less fish or eating only low-mercury fish.
1. Pick your tuna.
*An average 5-ounce serving (1 can) of light tuna contains 18.11 micrograms
of mercury.
*An average 5-ounce serving (1 can) of albacore tuna contains 49.53
micrograms of mercury.
*An average 5-ounce serving of tuna steak or tuna sushi could contain up to
97.49 micrograms.
2. Convert your weight to kilograms by dividing your weight in pounds by
2.2.
3. Divide the amount of mercury from Step 1 by your weight in kilograms
from Step 2. The result is your mercury dose (in micrograms) per kilogram
for a 5-ounce serving.
4. Pick a mercury dose limit from the two main federal recommendations.
One is very conservative, the other is less so.
*You could go with the Environmental Protection Agency dose, which is safe
enough for the most vulnerable peopleincluding pregnant women. That
dose is .1 microgram per kilogram per day.

*Or go with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which says
consuming .3 micrograms per kilogram per day of mercury poses minimal
risk.
5. Multiply your chosen daily limit by 7 to find your weekly limit. (For the EPA
it's .7; for the CDC it's 2.1.)
6. Divide your weekly limit from Step 5 by your dose from Step 3 to find how
many 5-ounce servings you can have per week. If youre a 180-pound guy
eating light tuna, you could safely eat 9.5 five-ounce cans according to the
CDC, or 3.2 five-ounce cans according to the EPA.