can you eat too much tuna?

Question

i have been eating a tunafish sandwich each day for lunch, part of a new diet, but a friend told me the other day that you can eat too much tuna, is this true and why? and what is too much

Answer 1

Tuna isn't the problem. Its the mercury content in the tuna. Mercury is one of those things that can build up to toxic levels in your body. Some suggestions is that you eat no more than a can a week, and no tuna if you're pregnant.
Its not the metal can that causes the mercury but what the fish consume. Its in the meat before packaging. Albacore is higher than the 'light tuna' (tastes like catfood).
Tuna however also has Omega 3 fatty oils which is great for health...if not for the levels of mercury. Salmon is better for you with less mercury.

Answer 2

Tuna, salmon and other large fish with oily flesh are an important source of omega3 fats. This is very beneficial to brain development. It is also a tasty, low calorie protein source.

The problem referred to concerning mercury is that these fish are at the top of the food chain. This has the effect of concentrating residual chemicals and heavy metals (mercury, ddt, some plastics) as these are absorbed from prey fish. For example, if one tuna eats 30 bottom feeding fish it will keep most of the mercury from each of them. The oil in the flesh retains this mercury or other poison for a long time.

For this reason persons with particular vulnerability, such as pregnant women, are supposed to eat tuna / salmon but not too much. I believe once per week is a fairly standard suggestion.

Also, you can have one two many. I used to live on the little flavoured tins of tuna for lunch - then one day opened one up and realised that I was just plain sick of them and have never really felt like it again.

Answer 3

The risk is from the mercury in the tuna. Mercury is released into an ecosystem and absorbed by small organisms and plants, which are eaten by small fish which are eaten by big fish. By eating small fish that already have mercury in them, the large tuna are eating mercury as well, which is called biomagification. The mercury is not broken down like other compounds and accumulates in the fish's tissues. This is called bioaccumulation.

Albacore tuna is a larger, meatier fish which is caught at an older age, so it has had more time to accumulate mercury in its tissues. "Chunk light" tuna is usually a variety of smaller tuna species so it does not have as much mercury.

Mercury can cause various medical problems and is extremely dangerous to pregnant women and children.
Check this out to calculate your mercury intake from fish:
http://www.gotmercury.org/

Answer 4

Yes, so be careful. Remember the example of Mrs Amelia Penknife.

Mrs Amelia Penknife of Radiator, Texas, ate 4 tonnes of tuna fish together with 38 kilogrammes of lettuce and 119 liters of mayonnaise at the All You Can Eat Fish Cafe on Mandelson Road, and on her way home she came to a complete halt on the Cheney Highway. After remaining stationary for eight minutes, she was run over by a lorry.

Answer 5

What's this guy, work for McDonalds? Tuna is one of the only things you can look at and be fairly sure it is what it looks like.The chickens are speed freaks, the cows get bovine growth hormones, even the potatoes aren't right. I don'tknow what's in farm grown fish. Don't want to know, I just don't buy those grown in China. Tuna salad, tuna on toast, tuna casserole; good and good for ya. Salmon and flounder too. Salmon w/ mustard sauce, flounder stuffed w/ chopped shrimp. It's really nice to eat sonething that comes in one piece and is the right color.

Answer 6

I know pregnant women cannot eat a lot of tuna so it would make sense that a man could eat too much

Answer 7

Some people can develop an allergic reaction to fish not just tuna.
No idea why .............there are people that can eat it fine forever and others that eat it one day and get hives, trouble breathing etc.......

Some 7 million Americans are thought to be affected, or 2.3% of the population, according to a nationwide survey.

40% of fish allergies and 60% of shellfish allergies began in adulthood

Answer 8

tuna does not have that much mercury
I think you are fine eating it once a day
fish contains omega 3 fats which are very good for your cardiovascular system and elements that help the brain's gray matter grow
I think you are fine, and if your friend cannot provide you with facts and evidence that it is bad, well maybe she is not all that credible of a source

Answer 9

Well, you can eat 'too much' of anything, but s'all good if your just eating one sandwich a day. It's actually very healthy for you, but yes if you do eat too much of it at one time it would probably make you sick.

Answer 10

YES. I advise you to only eat once or twice a week. That's a strange diet.... Can make you sick because of mercury content and other vitamins. Some vitamins aren't good for you if you eat them over and over.