Top Reasons to Feel Good About Pouched and Canned Tuna Nutrition and Sustainability…

Every year, millions of Americans look to the internet for nutrition advice. While there are thousands of websites devoted to helping folks find healthier, high-quality food, it’s sometimes difficult to separate fact from fiction. Nowhere is this clearer than in the case of canned tuna nutrition. This highly versatile, nutrient-rich source of protein is one of the more misunderstood menu items in America. But don’t let the seemingly endless number of so-called fitness gurus and healthy-living bloggers obscure the science on canned tuna nutrition. Fish, especially tuna, is a highly healthy choice – read on to learn more about what makes it a nutritious option.

Canned Tuna is a Healthy Choice

Years of survey data show that Americans aren’t eating enough seafood, despite the fact that all the scientific evidence, including hundreds of peer-reviewed studies performed by health and nutrition researchers, show its important health benefits. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans, for example, urge consumers to eat more fish and recommend tuna as a healthy option. The USDA too recommends that Americans eat at least 2-3 servings of seafood per week. That’s because seafood is rich in important nutrients, such as a vitamins B12 and D, iron, zinc, magnesium, phosphorous, selenium and beneficial omega-3s called EPA and DHA.

Tuna is a particularly good option for families, as the nutrients in this fish are especially important for children. Protein is needed by quickly growing bodies and omega-3s play an essential part in healthy brain and eye development.

Canned Tuna Nutrition Reigns Supreme 

Not only is canned tuna healthy, it’s one of the mildest tasting types of seafood, making it many Americans’ first fish from childhood.  Canned tuna has a subtle smoky taste and a firm, flaky, and moist texture.   Swap in tuna for beef or chicken in your favorite dishes like  quesadillas, burgers, and pasta.  Click here for a dozen additional easy ways to eat canned tuna.

Keep canned tuna in your pantry to always have a protein boost on hand. To store canned tuna once opened, transfer the unused fish to a reusable plastic or glass container with a lid or plastic bag.  It will stay fresh after opening for 1- 2 days in the refrigerator.

What About Mercury in Canned Tuna?

Unfortunately, the most common myths about tuna are pushed by click-bait seeking alarmists, discredited TV gurus like Doctor Oz, and uninformed celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Jeremy Piven. In other words, “fake news.”  Their claims are unsourced and unsubstantiated, but they create a climate of fear around seafood that contributes to a much bigger risk than mercury – the risk of missing out on the health benefits of eating fish.

The truth is, there has never been a case of mercury poisoning from normal consumption of commercial seafood recorded in any American medical journal. That’s right, zero cases.

Unfortunately, frequent fear-mongering on this matter has turned people away from a food experts recommend people eat more of, not less – seafood and tuna.  According to the FDA’s own extremely conservative analysis of more than 100 scientific studies on seafood, the average person could eat tuna for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day of the week without worry.

But many Americans aren’t getting that message. The FDA warns that most Americans are eating dangerously low amounts of seafood, a deficiency that contributes to nearly 84,000 preventable deaths each year. Another long-term study showed that children whose mothers had reduced their seafood intake during pregnancy had appreciably lower IQs.

Pushing dangerous health advice to the public may help celebrities explain away their bad behavior, but it makes everyone worse off.

Commitment to Sustainability

The tuna you feed your family isn’t just healthy, it’s sustainably sourced. A recent presentation from “renowned tuna fisheries scientist” Alain Fonteneau of the French Research Institute for Development (IRP) confirms ongoing efforts to manage tuna stocks help make tuna a sustainable fish.

As Fonteneau explained, even as “fishing efforts in most tuna fisheries have grown steadily in recent years. . .these stocks remain in a healthy state and are much less overfished than many other coastal resources…” In fact, none of the world’s 21 major tuna stocks have shown signs of critical collapse.

Skipjack and albacore, which comprise the vast majority of canned tuna in the United States, are particularly sustainable. That’s because the nation’s leading seafood providers recognize the tremendous social and environmental responsibility that comes with meeting global tuna demand. As part of their commitment to sustainability, tuna companies work with organizations like the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) to make sure they’re doing all they can to secure the future of our oceans. This commitment to sustainability means that you can feel good knowing that the tuna you feed your family is and will always be responsibly sourced.

“What’s This ‘Pole and Line’ I Keep Hearing About?”

Many activist groups ignore relevant data and often call for tuna companies to adopt a pole-and-line fishing approach, which they falsely claim will help the environment. It turns out, this method is actually much worse for the environment. A University of California study found that pole and line methods are extremely carbon intensive and use three to four times more fuel. That’s because many more boats are needed to catch the same amount of fish with this inefficient method, using much more fuel and creating higher carbon emissions. Talk about hurting the environment…

Pole and line isn’t just environmentally harmful, it’s an impractical method for meeting global demand. Broad adoption of pole and line would ultimately limit the supply of tuna, raising prices for working families that depend on it as a source of protein and other critical nutrients. That doesn’t seem to faze activists, but it should worry health-conscious consumers.

Despite their embrace of pseudo-science, we’ve made efforts to reach out to these groups, asking them to meet with sustainability experts at the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation to engage in a productive dialogue. Instead, they’re busy wasting millions in donor money desecrating sacred places, dressing up in ridiculous animal costumes, and making music videos. Why should donors and consumers trust anything they have to say?

What Really Motivates These Alarmists?

Despite leading seafood providers’ successful efforts to meet global demand in the most environmentally responsible way, and their commitment to ensuring that global tuna stocks remain healthy, radical activists continue to target the tuna industry with false allegations of environmental irresponsibility that are divorced from scientific reality. Why? Because these efforts can be profitable.

Here’s how it works: Alarmist fundraisers aim to reel-in donor funds by strong arming companies into doing their bidding. They start by making unsubstantiated or false claims about individual company’s environmental records. This “rank and spank” targeting strategy is meant to intimidate companies into seeking out some sort of face-saving compromise that allows activists to claim a victory, which these groups immediate fundraise off. Soon after, these companies learn that there’s no compromise to be found.

In what we’ve come to call the cycle of abuse, the targeted organization reaches an agreement that’s publicized in fundraising appeals, and then the activists inevitably come back—after a few months, or a few years—with a new round of attacks, and demands for even more unreasonable standards. Companies that have bent over backwards to meet increasingly taxing, scientifically dubious demands ultimately realize that they’ll never make these activists happy. As long as there are donations to be sought, they’ll always be a target.

The Truth about Canned Tuna

The truth is, seafood is a staple of a healthy diet, and there are few foods as versatile, delicious, and nutrient-rich as tuna. Americans concerned about the quality and sourcing of their food can sleep well at night knowing that America’s top tuna producers are committed to meeting global demand responsibly.