Are you Eating the Tuna that’s highest in Mercury?

I love to buy canned tuna! It’s fast and easy and only minutes away from a meal. BUT which varieties of Tuna are lower in Mercury levels?

“Chunk light” tuna flesh is superior (from a health angle) with 3x less mercury than the “white tuna”.

The theory that “white meat” over “dark meat” doesn’t apply from a health perspective when selecting Tuna. In fact, the “white tuna” and “Chunk light” are not even from the same fish and in it’s the darker tuna (ie. “chunk light” tuna flesh) that has less mercury levels than the “white tuna”.

Mercury is bad! Very bad! It’s especially bad for pregnant women and children. It causes hair loss and brittle nails and mercury poisoning causes far more serious neurological and cognitive problems.

All tuna has some mercury but some varieties of tuna has far less. The smaller the tuna fish, the lower the Mercury levels!

Albacore tuna (labeled “solid white” ), is the biggest of the tuna family and hence the worst offender. WHY? Because Albacore Tuna is a big fish that eats a lot of other big fish (which have mercury in them) which means that by the time it’s killed, enormous amounts of other fish’s mercury have accumulated in its own flesh. – Try to Avoid this type of Tuna!

Skipjack and Tongol (labeled “chunk light”) are the smallest tuna fish, hence the lowest in mercury levels. (This smaller size makes such a difference in mercury levels).

When you go shopping Simply REMEMBER!
Low Mercury in Tuna: Chunk Light – Skipjack & Tongol
High Mercury levels in Tuna: Yellowfin
Highest Mercury level in Tuna: Bigeye, Ahi, Albacore( aka White Tuna)

Bonus tip: choose water-packed tuna rather than oil-packed. When you drain oil-packed tuna, some of its natural omega 3 fatty acids leach into the added oil and go down the drain. But since oil and water don’t mix, water-packed tuna won’t loose any of its precious omega-3’s when you drain the water.

Other Fish in the Sea categorized by their Mercury levels.