To tuna or not to tuna

I know that title is ridiculous, oh well.  I just spent 20 minutes in the tuna aisle at Whole Foods trying to figure out which canned tuna to use for a recipe I’m trying out for next week’s No Plan Meal Plan.  (It’s a tasty tuna and white bean salad, btw, and takes about 5 minutes to make).  Anyways, I almost never buy tuna, so my tuna-selecting skills were a little rusty.  When I got there it occurred to me that I’m still nursing, so I should probably be as careful as possible, not to mention that many NPMP subscribers have small kids.  I ended up googling for help on my Droid, which took me to this very helpful site

It can get a little confusing, with the different types of tuna and the various catch methods, regions, and labeling.  But basically, as far as mercury is concerned Light Tuna is going to be better than Chunk White Tuna, almost always.  That’s because Light is usually Skipjack tuna, which is a much smaller species and thus accumulates fewer toxins (about 1/3 the levels as albacore).  And it’s cheaper.  Regarding environmental and sustainability concerns it’s best to choose tuna that’s labeled as caught by troll/poll, which are methods that have low levels of by-catch (i.e. they’re less likely to snare Flipper).  Now, some Light tuna is actually yellowfin, which is just as bad as Albacore, so I would recommend buying a brand that specifically says Skipjack and troll/poll caught.  There you have it, now you can try out that tasty salad recipe, which will be making its debut next week – sign up by weds night to get your recipes, shopping list, and time-saving preparation tips for the week.


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