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Mercury content in seafood

W

Wag

Diamond Member
I used to eat a lot of canned Tuna until I heard recently that you shouldn't eat more than 1 can a week.

Does anyone know if this applies to Salmon as well?

 
Salmon is bigger and therefore higher up on the food chain of fish and therefore contains higher mercury contents.

But unless you're a pregnant woman or something it's not something I'd worry too much about.
 
depends on where the salmon is from
i think there is a web site that tells which areas are worse than the others
 
The same concern applies, but don't get too concerned - the health benefits of salmon greatly outway the mercury concerns except for pregnant women and young children (they should stick to 6 ozs/week or less). The only reason this is a concern is the large amounts of tuna some parents give little kids.
 
Canned Salmon is cheap and delicious. My local supermarket sells 7oz cans of Pink Salmon for $.50 a pop, that's why I asked. That's cheaper than chunk-light tuna.
 
I've heard that you should limit your small-fish intake to once a week (tuna and salmon) and your large fish intake to once a month (swordfish, etc) to keep down the risk. While eating too much tuna won't kill you, you'll still suffer milder versions of mercury poisoning symptoms... lethargy and such. As was mentioned, there's a number of variables to it, such as where the fish came from, so its not like the once a week rule is written in stone.
 
It also depends on if you are talking about farmed Salmon (which is what you generally get these days) vs. wild. Wild is usually quite a bit more expensive, but if you do a little research on farmed salmon, you will probably never eat it again...
 
Originally posted by: Syringer
Salmon is bigger and therefore higher up on the food chain of fish and therefore contains higher mercury contents.

But unless you're a pregnant woman or something it's not something I'd worry too much about.
Click to expand...

Yes, it's higher on the food chain, but there's also much more meat on a Salmon. I would think the additional mercury content disseminated through the additional meat would average out to be the same a smaller fish. Wouldn't it? 😕
 
It's nothing to worry about- I think it's only harmful if you eat six cans a week or something. There was a thread about this before, and somebody linked to a calculator. It told me that I could eat 8 cans of tuna per week and be fine., I'm a large guy.
 
Originally posted by: Nik
Originally posted by: Syringer
Salmon is bigger and therefore higher up on the food chain of fish and therefore contains higher mercury contents.

But unless you're a pregnant woman or something it's not something I'd worry too much about.
Click to expand...

Yes, it's higher on the food chain, but there's also much more meat on a Salmon. I would think the additional mercury content disseminated through the additional meat would average out to be the same a smaller fish. Wouldn't it? 😕
Click to expand...

No, the extra meat had to come from somewhere, ie eating more little fishies.

Say plankton whatever have a mecury level of 1, and the little fishies eat 2 planktons during their lifespan. So now the little fish have a mecury level of 2. The salmon eats 2 of the little fishes in its lifespan, so it now has a mecury level of 4. Some bigger fish comes along and eat 2 of the slamon, now the bigger fish has a mecury level of 8.
 
What about sushi? I like to eat a lot of raw stuff, like the salmon belly and tuna and spicy tuna rolls. YUM!!!!!

/me salivates
 
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