I know it seems like nowadays nothing is safe. Your Netflix is getting hacked, the earth is melting into a giant puddle, and Chipotle has yet to recover from its e.Coli scare last year. Well, let me add one more stick to the funeral pyre: you might want to rethink that canned tuna you're eating.
It's no secret that large-scale fishing operations are bad for the environment. Dolphin-safe tuna has essentially become the norm now, which is a big step. But it doesn't change the fact that drag-netting is still an unsustainable way to fish.
Between by-catch (all the extra things that get caught that aren't tuna including turtles and other fish) and the sheer scale of these fishing operations, it doesn't take a genius to realize that we're eating tuna a lot faster than we ought to be.
Then, there's the new and very scary research about what rising ocean temperatures are doing to our seafood. While neurotoxins are affecting crabs and other crustaceans, air pollution affects more common fish – fish like tuna.
Mercury gets released into the air thanks to pollution, where it later gathers in the ocean. Fish absorb the mercury as they swim and the chemical builds up in their bodies, according to the FDA. If you eat fish with high levels of mercury, "especially big, fatty fish like tuna," mercury can build up in your bloodstream as well. Not ideal.
Though current research suggests you can safely eat two meals including canned tuna a week, some scientists disagree.
In an interview with TIME Magazine, Philippe Grandjean, MD, a toxin researcher and adjunct professor of environmental health at the Harvard School of Public Health, cautions against eating any canned tuna at all.
“Canned tuna contributes more than one-third of the mercury exposure of the average American,” Grandjean told TIME. “About one in six women in coastal US populations have elevated mercury exposures that could cause harm to the fetus."
Overall, the jury is still out on whether or not you should be eating canned tuna. What's for sure is that the type of tuna you eat (yellowfin, skipjack, etc.) matters, and how the fish is caught matters even more
If you just can't live without your tuna melt, check out this handy shopping guide from Greenpeace about the best tuna you can buy. Or try this mashed chickpea salad that will replace gooey mayo-laden tuna salad sandwiches forever.