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Should We Stop Eating Tuna?

Posted by Alaina Browne, January 25, 2008 at 1:30 PM

"No. Overall, the dangers of not eating fish [including tuna] outweigh the small possible dangers from mercury. The recommended amount for adults is to eat one or two servings of fish per week — but probably only 10% to 20% of the population in the U.S. eats sufficient fish. The real danger in this country, the real concern, is that we're not eating enough fish. That is very likely increasing our rates of death from heart disease."

Thanks goes to Time for its straightforward Q&A with Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, assistant professor of medicine and epidemiology at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health, on the potential dangers of eating mercury-rich fish.

The National Fisheries Institute has also issued a rebuttal to the Times story. As an industry trade group its response had to be both swift and slanted, as the Newsweek science blog pointed out. This story just keeps getting bigger and bigger.

3 Comments | Tagged: food safety, mercury, seafood, tuna

Who's Afraid of Bluefin Tuna?

Posted by Alaina Browne, January 23, 2008 at 12:15 PM

Adding to the confusion around what to order at the sushi bar if you are concerned about food safety (and sustainability), the New York Times' investigation of mercury levels in tuna served in Manhattan restaurants raises many more questions than it answers. The Times reports that 5 of 20 samples tested had mercury levels so high "that a diet of six pieces a week would exceed accepted safety levels. This sounds like scary and bad news for restaurateurs and sushi lovers. Statistically speaking, how relevant are these findings? There has not been much research into the impact of high mercury consumption in adults, so how scared should we be? How variable are mercury levels from fish to fish? Do mercury levels in fish show any seasonality? Do suppliers actually monitor the mercury levels of their fish? And last but not least, what's a serious eater to do?

5 Comments | Tagged: bluefin tuna, food safety, mercury, sushi, tuna