FitJerks Blog

Dark Light
Mercury In Tuna – Making It Safer To Eat




Before our beloved fish became so contaminated with mercury, tuna was THE food to eat if you wanted to get some serious protein & healthy omega fatty acids in your eating lifestyle, all for about a $1 a can. How can you argue with that? Bodybuilders, athletes, workout moms… It didn’t matter who, anyone could count on this inexpensive and healthy meat.

But it seems that we’ve been paying a price that’s actually pretty high – poisoning ourselves with Mercury. Unlike other metals such as iron and zinc that play an important role in our bodies, mercury is completely useless… Actually its down right dangerous.

Mercury causes brain and kidney damage, it has a half-life of 3 days in our bloodstream and 90 days in our body tissues such as liver, brain, muscle etc.

Man oh man was I devastated… Everything was so perfect and then this shit happens. We humans, in our endless pursuit of profit just cant get it right can we? How did all this Mercury get into the tuna fish?

Well, first you need to understand that the tuna fish is the top predator in it’s food chain, therefore it has the longest lifespan. So all that crap that the companies just dump into our waters eventually finds its way into the tuna fish, or into OTHER fish that the tuna fish eats. Now the tuna fish has a lifespan of about 20-30 years… And that’s a shit load of time to be exposed to Mercury contamination don’t you think?

That’s the basic jist of things, I’m sure we can go into greater detail, but that’s not what I’m here to talk about. I’m here to show you how you can make this beloved source of protein safe to eat again, or suggest some substitutes. Whichever you prefer.

First let’s tackle the substitutes:

  • Cod
  • Halibut
  • Pollack
  • Mackerel
  • Sardines
  • Redfish
  • Herring

Now I say substitutes, but that doesn’t mean these fish are Mercury free! They are all prone to some level of mercury contamination but it just so happens that their level of poisoning is significantly less than tuna.

Moving on, now let’s see how we can make tuna a bit safer. Inside the tuna fish, mercury is primarily stored in the fatty tissues so that means we can broil it away! Here’s what I do. When I first open a can of tuna, I throw out all the juices, then I wash the tuna in a colander to reduce the sodium levels. Finally, I put the tuna on a broiler pan and toss it in the oven. Then I throw away any of the juices from the broiling process… viola!

Now I don’t have some crazy scientific instrument to measure exactly how much mercury I’ve removed but let me tell you, I can definitely tell the difference. I used to eat a lot of tuna before (2-3 cans/day)… But now I’ve cut down to one can per day while cleaning it properly and my concentration levels are better. I also did a heavy  metal detox, and if you’ve been eating tuna for a while, I highly suggest you do one.

If you really want to eat 2 cans of tuna a day, I suggest you supplement with some NAC. What’s this stuff?

“N-Acetyl-Cysteine is produced in living organisms from the amino acid cysteine. Thus, NAC is a natural sulfur-containing amino acid derivative found naturally in foods and is a powerful antioxidant. These dual properties help repair oxidative damage in the body. Being a powerful anti-oxidant and cell detoxification co-factor, NAC works to eliminate your body of free radicals and heavy metals. This improves your cellular health tremendously.” -bulknutrition.com

So how much should you take? About 1-2g/day should be sufficient. And here’s one last tip, if you really want to drive up your tuna consumption, do all of the above, but also make the change gradual. Like start with 3 cans a week, then 4, then 5, then one a day etc.

Just because you now know some tips on lowering the mercury content, still realize that you will never be able to avoid it completely. Your body will still have to remove some of the mercury from your body so give it time and let it adjust to everything.

So there you have it, I just saved your ass from mercury poisoning and you can finally enjoy this cheap source of high quality protein again! You may thank me later. Post your thoughts below.

- FJ
FlawlessFitnessBook.com

fitness book banner

———–
© 2009 – 2010, By FitJerk. FitJerk.com is a division of Flawless Fitness Media – All Rights Reserved – No part of this post is to be republished without author consent under any forms of media (including print, internet, video or audio transcription). Doing so is a violation against copyright law and should be punishable by a punch to the face. All images are copyright of their respective owners.

Tired Of Looking Ordinary? Click Here And Get FJ To Design A Fitness Plan Just For You! FREE Initial Consultation.

GD Star Rating
loading...
Mercury In Tuna - Making It Safer To Eat, 5.0 out of 5 based on 1 rating
Enter Name:
Enter Email:

.
Post comment as twitter logo facebook logo
Sort: Newest | Oldest

At last, somoene comes up with the "right" answer!

Thanks you very much

Hmm I read that up, and now I'm a little fucked up. I'm trying to hunt around in my web history to the sources where I saw it proven to be stored in FAT.

But since your source is a gov site, I'll take you up on that. Regardless, until i can measure the difference between tuna out of a can and the cooking methods I won't make further decisions.

However, the cooking methods DO reduce sodium levels so I'd suggest people keep at it.

On the contrary:

\"Mercury cannot be removed from fish before they are eaten because methylmercury accumulates in the muscle, not the fat.\"

http://www.epa.gov/grtlakes/bnsdocs/merchealth/mercury.pdf

\"Unfortunately, preparation and cooking techniques do not reduce the mercury content of fish because mercury binds tightly to protein in the muscle tissue.\"

http://map1.epa.gov/html/newsjuly02.htm

\"Because mercury is associated primarily with muscle tissue in the body of a fish, rather than with fatty deposits, trimming and skinning of mercury-contaminated fish does not reduce the mercury content of the fillet portion. Furthermore, cooking does not reduce the mercury content.\"

http://www.chem.unep.ch/mercury/IdentifyingPopnatRiskExposuretoMercuryFinalAugust08.pdf

To Arine:

I'd have to disagree. The tuna fish absorbs high amounts of methylmercury... which concentrates itself in the fatty tissues of fish and humans.

As for PCB's... yes there have been fish exposed to that stuff as well, and if it's also stored in the fat... then we've just hit 2 birds with one stone.

But I'll have to check the validity on that one.

Mercury is NOT stored in the fat of the fish but in the muscle (meat). You can\'t reduce the amount of mercury by draining the fat.

You have probably confused mercury with chlorinated organics, such as PCBs, which ARE stored in the fat and can be reduced by draining or other methods of preparation.

Enter Email: 


FJ’s Archive Of Brilliance
Login

Also Check Out :

Muscles… and why YOU need them!

Building lean and toned muscles is NOT just for men, women should be doing this too. When I recommend weight training to the female species, the most common concern I hear is... “but I don’t wana become huge like those body builder dudes!”. Haha yeah... if ONLY it were that...

Close