If you’ve been skipping sushi because of fears over mercury contamination it’s time to break out the wasabi and chopsticks one again. A new study has found that certain types of tuna have significantly lower mercury levels.
The key is to skip the high-priced sushi restaurant and head for your local supermarket instead.
Yes, the grocery store.
Researchers found that the higher-grade leaner tuna used in most restaurant sushi tends to have larger concentrations of the dangerous metal. It turns out that mercury tends to be drawn more to muscle rather than fatty tissue.
Unfortunately, all the samples the researchers collected, regardless of species, approached or exceeded acceptable mercury levels. So just be sure to not exceed the 12 ounces recommended per week.
When given a choice your best bet is to go for the bluefin toro and yellowfin tunas and skip the leaner bluefin akami and bigeye varieties. And whenever possible choose wild over farmed raised fish.
Experts agree that the good far outweighs the bad when it comes to fish. Fresh tuna is an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids, which are known to fight heart disease, arthritis and cancer.
Please pass me the wasabi.
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Almond Milk,
Thank you so much for your insightful comments and for raising my consciousness on the overfishing issue.
I was essentially unaware of the bluefish tuna’s plight. I did quite a bit of reading on the subject now and feel much better informed.
If any other readers want to learn more here are a couple of useful links:
“Pacific Bluefin Tuna Population Shrinking at ‘Alarming Rates’ Due to Continued Overfishing”
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/05/pacific-bluefin-tuna-population-shrinking-at-alarming-rate.php
“Overfishing to wipe out bluefin tuna in 3 years: WWF”
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE53D00320090414
Please do never choose bluefin, it is overfished and commercial blufin fishing should be banned but thanks to vote buying of the biggest consumer nation, CITES meeting wasn’t successful to bring a ban to save the species.
And please keep in mind that fish farms are disaster for the environment and if we go like this the entire commercial fishing worldwide is going to collapse by 2050.
If you like to eat fish get it from only from sustainable fisheries. The most excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids are nuts and seeds NOT fish.