Tuna query

IncredibleHulk

Is there any other fish as good as tuna, as a change I looked at several and the protein is not as high or depending oh how it is presented the fats can be higher.

eroo

in general,salmon and haddock are just as good.are looking at dinners or sambos?

tuxy

I have another question on tuna. Some people seamed to be woried about the mercury content of tuna. Is this a load of nonsense and tuna is safe to eat?

IncredibleHulk

eroo wrote:

in general,salmon and haddock are just as good.are looking at dinners or sambos?

Midday meal usually have 2 tins of tuna with sandwich.

Cadrach

tuxy wrote:

I have another question on tuna. Some people seamed to be woried about the mercury content of tuna. Is this a load of nonsense and tuna is safe to eat?

It is a risk for pregnant women.

yomchi

Tuna may be high in protein but has one of the lowest amino acid profiles available in whole foods. Your better off with Salmon imo.

agentgreen

tuxy wrote:

I have another question on tuna. Some people seamed to be woried about the mercury content of tuna. Is this a load of nonsense and tuna is safe to eat?

This was on t-nation a few weeks ago http://www.t-nation.com/readArticle.do?id=753983

tribulus

I've been eating 15-20 tins of tuna a week for the last couple of years and I'm still alive

tuxy

tribulus wrote:

I've been eating 15-20 tins of tuna a week for the last couple of years and I'm still alive

Yes, but have you gone insane?

g'em

Jon wrote:

Tuna may be high in protein but has one of the lowest amino acid profiles available in whole foods. Your better off with Salmon imo.

where'd you see that?? Tuna is a complete protein so it has the full quota of aa's, it's high in BCAAs and it's cheap as chips. Great stuff altogether The one thing that salmon does beat it on though is the high levels of omega-3 in salmon.

tribulus

No I just smell of fish all the time. It's cool though, no one sits beside me on the dart.

OP the fat in fish is usually unsaturated .i.e good fat, you need this in your diet so don't worry about it, eat tuna or salmon or crab etc.

Timans

Tuna gives you mercury poisoning?

Oh god.

That's ridiculous.

flywheel

the topic of mercury in fish pops up here from time to time. the US FDA and Health Canada have both issued advisories on it, Health Canada more recently in reaction to one of the national TV station's news teams expose on the levels of mercury in canned tuna earlier this year

fyi the US and Canadian advisories:
http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/admehg3.html
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ahc-asc/media/advisories-avis/2007/2007_14_e.html

for anyone who consumes a lot of fish it is somethign to read up on, most of the groups the advisories focus on are expectant / nursing mothers and children, but anyone consuming a lot of fish should look at their intake and take into consideration the findings presented

Saruman

Canned?? Why? Just go buy fresh Tuna steaks... Best thing ever! Lovely meaty steaks, just as good if not better than Beef steaks.

yomchi

g'em wrote:

where'd you see that?? Tuna is a complete protein so it has the full quota of aa's, it's high in BCAAs and it's cheap as chips. Great stuff altogether The one thing that salmon does beat it on though is the high levels of omega-3 in salmon.

meh, Eamonn told me. But he's mad - I'd listen to you before that big Oaf

My Lesson for today courtesy of my favourite poster

IncredibleHulk

thanks everyone

g'em

Jon wrote:

My Lesson for today courtesy of my favourite poster

awwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

yomchi

Fierce romantic aren't I

arybvtcw0eolkf

Jon wrote:

Tuna may be high in protein but has one of the lowest amino acid profiles available in whole foods. Your better off with Salmon imo.

I'm glad someone picked up on this one.

Its one of the reasons why you should try to have at least two sources of protein in a meal as hardly any one individual source contains all the essential amino acids needed for muscle building.

g'em

Mairt wrote:

Its one of the reasons why you should try to have at least two sources of protein in a meal as hardly any one individual source contains all the essential amino acids needed for muscle building.

Excuse me what now?

A complete protein (or whole protein) is a protein that contains all of the essential amino acids for the dietary needs of humans or other animals. Examples include ALL animal products including seafood, dairy, meat and eggs.

That is, each and every single one of those foods contains ALL 20 amino acids. Some will have more of certain aa's than others, some will be plentiful in BCAAs, others won't but, once again, they will all have the full complement off aa's. Tuna is seafood, non? Hence, tuna contains all the amino acids.

An incomplete protein is one that contains not all aa's, sources include nuts and plant proteins.

Therefore if you're a vegetarian it's imperative that you get two or more protein sources per meal. If you're a meat eater, it's fine to just get animal protein. Sure, a range of animal protein sources is pereferable, but to say that tuna has an icomplete amino acid profile is wrong, and eating meat/ fish/ eggs at meals guarantees your full intkae of all the aa's you need.

Edit: if you mean specific amino acids relating to muscle building, the most important of those would be the BCAAs, of which tuna is quite plentiful.

dutch boy

mackrel, haddock and salmon are also good sources of protein as well as essential omega oils.

maybe try the fishwith some pumpkin seeds, pine nuts or any other high protien/nutrient nuts etc, spice things up

Zzippy

Anyone know if smoked fish is bad for you? I'm not a fan of tuna at all but love smoked mackerel... not sure if the smoking process makes food less healthy?

cozmik

Galwayguy99 wrote:

Anyone know if smoked fish is bad for you? I'm not a fan of tuna at all but love smoked mackerel... not sure if the smoking process makes food less healthy?

The smoking process involves adding a lot of salt and as you may or may not know too much salt in our diet can increase our risk of developing high blood pressure and heart disease.So I would suggest having smoked fish only as an occasional treat.

eclectichoney

Does the same go for smoked salmon??

cozmik

eclectichoney wrote:

Does the same go for smoked salmon??

A serving of smoked salmon (56g) can have as much as 2.5g of salt while fresh salmon contains about 0.1g of salt per 100g. As a guide, more than 1.25g of salt per 100g is a lot.

But don't let this stop you from enjoying smoked fish, as an occasional treat it's absolutley fine.

rubadub

2 people have mentioned haddock- are other white fish just as good? I usually eat cod, -haddock & whiting are cheaper and I prefer cod -just a little, but if haddock or some other white fish was better for me, and cheaper I would switch. I cant stand other "non-white" fish at all, though I did have a tuna curry that masked the taste and was OK.

Running Bing

Saruman wrote:

Canned?? Why? Just go buy fresh Tuna steaks... Best thing ever! Lovely meaty steaks, just as good if not better than Beef steaks.

And it costs an arm and a leg!

Jesus Wept

Saruman wrote:

Canned?? Why? Just go buy fresh Tuna steaks... Best thing ever! Lovely meaty steaks, just as good if not better than Beef steaks.

They taste totally different.

I don't like tuna steaks.

Like tinned tuna though.

Reyman

rubadub wrote:

2 people have mentioned haddock- are other white fish just as good? I usually eat cod, -haddock & whiting are cheaper and I prefer cod -just a little, but if haddock or some other white fish was better for me, and cheaper I would switch. I cant stand other "non-white" fish at all, though I did have a tuna curry that masked the taste and was OK.

I think the problem with 'white fish' eg cod, haddock etc is that they don't have any Omega 3 fats. Only carniverous fish like mackerel, tuna, salmon etc have Omega 3 fats. The white fish should be ok for protein though

Twin Lance

Hey guys, might sound like a really stupid question but today a I was talking to a friend about the food we're both eating nowadays. Now, I normally eat about 3-4 large tins of chopped tuna a week (in sandwiches and pasta mainly), and he told me that because I dont vary the protein that Im taking in, what Im doing is counter productive to my weight training. Now it didnt make all that much sense to me, I mean, protein is protein right? I know you can get more or less protein depending on what and how much you eat, but Im not limiting myself by sticking mainly to tuna am I? Its mainly convenience that Im going for, usually in college from 10-7/9 every day, and it doesnt seem to be messing me around.
As I said, probably a stupid question but would just like some verification.

Degsy

I used to eat a lot of tinned tuna,i've recently heard that the world stocks of certain species are near collopse due to overfishing.Just something to be aware of.

g'em

Twin Lance wrote:

Hey guys, might sound like a really stupid question but today a I was talking to a friend about the food we're both eating nowadays. Now, I normally eat about 3-4 large tins of chopped tuna a week (in sandwiches and pasta mainly), and he told me that because I dont vary the protein that Im taking in, what Im doing is counter productive to my weight training. Now it didnt make all that much sense to me, I mean, protein is protein right? I know you can get more or less protein depending on what and how much you eat, but Im not limiting myself by sticking mainly to tuna am I? Its mainly convenience that Im going for, usually in college from 10-7/9 every day, and it doesnt seem to be messing me around.
As I said, probably a stupid question but would just like some verification.

Not a stupid question at all. Ideally you'd get your protein from a variety of sources, because different protein rich will have different amino acid profiles (there's 20 amino acids that collectively make protein). So tuna might be high in 5 types of amino acid, whereas turkey will be high in another 4 amino acids, and beef will have lots of 6 other ones.

At the end of the day though, protein is protein so while what you're doing isn't optimal, it's not the worst either!!

Buy chicken breasts and pre-cook them, store them in an air-tight container in the fridge and they'll be good for 3-4 days, just as convenient as tins of tuna.