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Interesting article....
Everything is relative
Many people are responding with what they believe is the "safe" choice: Passing on the tuna melt, retiring the tuna casserole, opting for turkey on rye.
Just as some health-conscious consumers have culled beef and farm-raised salmon from their grocery lists because of mad-cow and cancer fears, they're dropping tuna because of warnings over mercury levels.
At this rate, dinner tables will soon be reduced to (bottled) water and twice-washed mustard greens.
Americans need to slow down, examine food warnings more carefully, and use some common sense. Responding to incomplete or misleading claims about the dangers of foods, people often deprive themselves of the very nutrients they need.
The dueling ads both contain a few facts. But each ad also skews some information to fit the organization's motivation, whether political or commercial. Buyer beware.
In this case, avoiding tuna does nothing to address the much larger problem of mercury in freshwater fish. What's needed is government, not consumer, action.
In March, it's true, the Food and Drug Administration expanded its mercury warning on fish and shellfish to include tuna.
Mercury is no small matter. It is a toxin, and serves no beneficial purpose in anyone's body. Exposure can cause learning disabilities and neurological damage in children and developing fetuses.
That's why the warning is aimed specifically at pregnant women, women who may become pregnant, nursing mothers, and young children. That group of people should avoid shark, swordfish, king mackerel, tilefish and limit their intake of white albacore tuna to six ounces a week.
Everyone else can continue to eat tuna and other kinds of fish - in moderation.
Everything is relative
Many people are responding with what they believe is the "safe" choice: Passing on the tuna melt, retiring the tuna casserole, opting for turkey on rye.
Just as some health-conscious consumers have culled beef and farm-raised salmon from their grocery lists because of mad-cow and cancer fears, they're dropping tuna because of warnings over mercury levels.
At this rate, dinner tables will soon be reduced to (bottled) water and twice-washed mustard greens.
Americans need to slow down, examine food warnings more carefully, and use some common sense. Responding to incomplete or misleading claims about the dangers of foods, people often deprive themselves of the very nutrients they need.
The dueling ads both contain a few facts. But each ad also skews some information to fit the organization's motivation, whether political or commercial. Buyer beware.
In this case, avoiding tuna does nothing to address the much larger problem of mercury in freshwater fish. What's needed is government, not consumer, action.
In March, it's true, the Food and Drug Administration expanded its mercury warning on fish and shellfish to include tuna.
Mercury is no small matter. It is a toxin, and serves no beneficial purpose in anyone's body. Exposure can cause learning disabilities and neurological damage in children and developing fetuses.
That's why the warning is aimed specifically at pregnant women, women who may become pregnant, nursing mothers, and young children. That group of people should avoid shark, swordfish, king mackerel, tilefish and limit their intake of white albacore tuna to six ounces a week.
Everyone else can continue to eat tuna and other kinds of fish - in moderation.
