BuckSpin - A Year Of Change

I like sushi. No, I LOVE sushi. I’m eating more & more of it. Typically I get a simple roll of tuna (or salmon, but usually tuna) & avacado in brown rice. Add a little grated ginger & some wasabi and its a great, lean, healthy meal.

Plus I eat my fair share of canned tuna as well. Its a great, cheap, lo fat source very high in protein. Its been a bodybuilding staple for decades.

However, there seems to be a LOT of misinformation about the mercury levels in tuna, and that people should not only limit consumption of it but actualy AVOID eating it.

Please, let me shed a little light on this.

Aside from being a great source of lean proteins & just screamin’ with Omega-3 fats, tuna (and salmon) are also very high in selenium…REALLY high in selenium. Why is that important? Well, it turns out that selenium acts as a "mercury magnet", if you will. It attaches itself to the mercury compounds & creates a new compound that is far more difficult to be absorbed by those animals (us) that eat tuna & salmon and makes it easier & much more likely that you will, um, "pass" the mercury, if you will.

Ironically, it seems that mercury seeks out selenium instead of the other way around, which can present problems if you have a diet low in selenium. So, you can do one of two things if you are concerned:

1) Start taking selenium as a supplement
2) Eat foods high in selenium, which, ironically, are TUNA & SALMON!!!

Also, when choosing seafood, choose those that are naturally highest in selenium. The greater the selenium to mercury ratio, the safer (and better/healthier) option the fish is. Again, two of the highest are various tunas & salmons.

Here is a great link if you want to learn a little more. Bookmark it & share it with your BB friends who are concerned or just misinformed:

MercuryFacts.org - Selenium

Finally, this graph shows the ratios of selenium to mercury in a number of fish species. The further on the right, the greater the selenium value. Notice which fishes are highest?

So go ahead & enjoy that nigiri or roll or canned tuna. Its OK.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 14th, 2008 at 11:31 am and is filed under Supplements, Nutrition, Other. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.