Albacore Tuna Contains Too Much Mercury for Baby Sandwiches
A sandwich made with half a can of white tuna contains 130% of the EPA’s safe mercury limit for third graders. But that same canned salmon sandwich? Only 3%. This is also not a daily limit; this is in a week ..
Canned salmon also contains omega-3 fatty acids, and some say it tastes better, although the tradeoff is that it is more expensive. You can also try canned chicken or try egg salad instead of tuna salad. If your child really loves tuna, try light tuna instead: the child in our example can safely eat two sandwiches or one can a week, provided he does not eat mercury from other sources.
The mercury in fish is more harmful to children than adults, and since children are smaller, a sandwich of the same size gives them a proportionately higher dose than an adult. It seems that the mercury content of fish has been increasing over the years, so this is a bigger problem than it used to be. Calculate the dose of mercury in your favorite fish with this calculator , and read more about the tuna sandwich problem at the link below.
Who thinks about the mercury in your kid’s tuna sandwich? | Consumer reports
Photo by David Salafia .
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